Iran & the Middle East

• Israel killed an Islamic Jihad leader and six other Palestinians in an air strike in Gaza Thursday, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed a broad offensive against Palestinian terrorists in response to Wednesday's suicide bombing. At least one of the other Palestinians killed also was an Islamic Jihad member. Ten persons, among them bystanders, were wounded.

• Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at a car in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun on Friday, killing a Palestinian terrorist, in what was the fourth Israeli airstrike in several hours. The Israeli military said its aircraft targeted a white Subaru carrying terrorists on a mission to fire rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot.

• Israel and the Palestinians agreed on Sunday to halt their latest round of violence after Islamic Jihad pledged to end a wave of rocket attacks against southern Israel, Palestinian officials said.

• Lebanese troops have surrounded PFLP-GC bases in the mountains along the Syrian border, intent on cutting off the supply of weapons and reinforcements coming across the border from Syria. Authorities have ruled out storming the Palestinian camps.

• Syria is doing next to nothing to stop foreign jihadists from entering Iraq.

• Israel and Egypt have reached a deal that will reopen the Rafah crossing point along the border of Egypt and the Gaza strip.

America Domestic Security & the America's

• NID John Negroponte unveiled "The National Intelligence Strategy of the United States". Key objectives include defeating terrorists at home and abroad by disarming their operational capabilities, while seizing the initiative by promoting the growth of freedom and democracy, preventing and countering the spread of weapons of mass destruction, feveloping methods to infiltrate and analyze tough intelligence targets, and anticipating threats and identifying opportunities and vulnerabilities for decision makers. (Full Report - PDF)

• An engineer who worked on the development of the U.S. B-2 bomber has been arrested in Hawaii for allegedly passing secret technology related to the radar-evading plane to three foreign governments, the FBI said Friday. Noshir Gowadia was accused of "willfully communicating national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it," the FBI said in a statement.

• The New York Port Authority was found guilty of negligence by a jury in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. According to report, the Port Authority failed to act on the dangers of a terror attack in the basement garage. The jury found the Port Authority 68 percent responsible for the attack and the terrorists 32 percent responsible.

• Intense fighting between a paramilitary group and rebels in western Colombia left some 30 paramilitaries dead on Friday, a regional police chief said. It was the second consecutive day of reported heavy fighting in that area. On Thursday, government sources said similar battles took place and killed 75. Both groups have reportedly become heavily involved in drug trafficking.

• Iran is counting Venezuela as a friend and ally, an Iranian government official said on Friday, amid a diplomatic storm set off by comments from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this week that Israel should be 'wiped off the map.' Venezuela’s open support for Tehran in its clash with the United States and Europe over its nuclear programme has left Washington wondering about the motives behind Chavez’s quest for atomic energy.

• The Pentagon has invited United Nations officials to visit Guantanamo Bay, to observe operations at the detention facility and question military personnel.

• A year after being listed as one of three Muslim organisations in Trinidad and Tobago under "constant surveillance" by the army, the Masjid Al Murabiteen is now a mainstream Islamic group in the country, according to its Imam. Last November the army had said that the Masjid was being scrutinised by the security forces and had called it a "fundamentalist organisation". The Imam dismissed as "conjecture" and "wild allegations" the army's statement.

• The Colombian army sank four motor boats filled with Marxist insurgents, killing at least 11 on a river in the southeastern part of the country. "The guerrillas that died were many more than that," General Rocha said. The FARC insurgents were on their way to attack jungle communities in the region, he said.

• Columbian security forces have captured John Eidelber Cano, a leader of the violent Norte del Valle drug cartel. Cano, wanted by U.S. authorities, had a $ 5 million reward on his head.

Russia & South/Central Asia

• Maoist insurgents in Nepal continue to observe their unilaterally declared ceasefire. The ceasefire began in early September, and was to last three months. However, the Maoists’ kidnapping and extortion spree continues, and the security forces fear that the Maoists are exploiting the so-called ceasefire to make a safe move to Kathmandu.

• Two Maoist terrorists have been killed and 13 others arrested in Nepal in the course of search operations carried out by the joint security forces in various parts of the Eastern Development Region during the last week. The forces also confiscated explosives and logistic materials.

• The International Crisis Group has an extensive report (see links to report in PDF and Doc form) on Nepal's Maoists. The report is entitled Nepal's Maoists: Their Aims, Structure and Strategy. The New York Times Magazine has a long article as well on the Maoists.

• The latest issue of Chechnya Weekly, from The Jamestown Foundation, focuses on the North Caucasus. Kabardino-Balkaria cracks down on Muslims; Observers question why Nalchik happened; Four servicepersons were killed in Ingushetia; Three gunmen were killed in Dagestan; and several other stories from the region.

• A US and a British soldier were killed in Afghanistan on Saturday in a deadly series of attacks that claimed 23 lives, including those of 14 suspected Taliban insurgents, officials said. The terrorists were killed by the US-led coalition and Afghan troops, supported by attack helicopters and aircraft, in battles on Thursday and Friday in which an Afghan soldier also died, the coalition said.

• Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf gave Arab News an exclusive interview and defended Pakistan's dialogue with Israel and called for an end to "terrorism, extremism and militancy."

• RFERL has a five part series titled "Battle for Central Asia" that discusses some of the dynamics at play in the former Soviet republics, including terrorism.

Far East & Southeast Asia

• North Korea is financing illicit activities by printing up bogus U.S. $100 bills and passing them abroad, according to a senior US Treasury official. North Korea denies the claim. On Oct. 7, authorities in Belfast, Northern Ireland, arrested an Irish nationalist, Sean Garland, after a U.S. indictment said that he and six others helped North Korea move more than $1 million in fake American currency through a number of European countries.

• North Korea refuses to unilaterally declare its nuclear programs for verification because it remains "technically" at war with the United States amid deep mutual distrust, a senior North Korean diplomat said Thursday. The remarks precede resumption of six-party talks expected early next month in which South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan will discuss follow-up measures to their Sept. 19 agreement.

• Men in black clothes and masks beheaded three teenage Christian girls on Saturday in eastern Indonesia as they walked to school near the Muslim town of Poso, in Indonesia. Poso, 1,500 km (900 miles) northeast of the capital Jakarta, is in an area where Muslim-Christian clashes killed 2,000 people until a peace deal was agreed in 2001.

• New People’s Army rebels are planning to bomb four power plants in Southern Tagalog, prompting the Philippine National Police to raise its alert level. A police officer assigned to the PNP Intelligence Group said the communist rebels’ plot to bomb the power plants was discovered after three NPA rebels were arrested in a checkpoint in Taytay, Rizal, late Thursday afternoon.

• U.S. and Japanese officials remain engaged in high level talks about the future location of U.S. troops deployed in Japan. According to some reports, half of the 14,000 U.S. Marines in Okinawa may be restationed to Guam.

• A Manila court has sentenced three Islamic terrorists to death for the February 2005 bombing of a bus in the Philippines that killed three.

• Islamic insurgents have torched a Buddist temple in southern Thailand, the second such type attack this month in the Muslim majority province of Pattani.

• Japan has dropped its long standing opposition to the presence of a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, opening the door for one of the Nimitz-class carriers to replace the USS Kitty Hawk in 2008.

• In the village of Asturius on Jolo, a Filipino police officer shot and killed Lalong Parad, notorious criminal and brother of Abu Sayyaf leader Albader Parad, wanted in the killing of two U.S. citizens. Officials described it as a "big blow" to Abu Sayyaf.

• Indonesia's Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin has indicated that Islamic terrorists in prison, including Abu Bakar Bashir, are eligible for reduced sentences to celebrate the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr (3 Nov). There's no word if the 20-year prison sentence of Schapelle Corby will be reduced on Bob Marley's birthday.

Europe

• Four people were arrested in Denmark on terrorism charges. The suspects, who had grown up in Denmark but who are reportedly of Middle Eastern origin, may have been planning a suicide operation. The charges are related to arrests made in Bosnia October 20th.

• Two more people suspected of belonging to a terrorist network planning a suicide attack in Europe were arrested in Denmark, police said Saturday. The man and woman, who were not identified, are suspected of assisting four young Muslims who were arrested Thursday in Copenhagen on charges of planning an "imminent" terror attack.

• A French official said Friday that a Jordanian associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed French Islamic extremists had planned to attack passenger airliners in France with shoulder-launched missiles. A French newspaper said the associate was Zarqawi's representative in the Caucasus. Captain's Quarters has some additional background information.

• The Prince of Wales leaves tomorrow for Washington DC, where he will attempt to convince President Bush that the United States has been too confrontational and intolerant of the Islamic religion since 9/11.

• The Counterterrorism Blog reports a month-long private cyberterrorism investigation has led to the arrest of two North Africans in connection with the fraudulent use of a University of Geneva computer lab in disseminating jihad propaganda videos and "inciting racial hatred." Evan Kohlmann writes this case should serve as an example of how silently gathering information on cyberterrorists who choose to "camp out" in "Western cyberspace" and using that information to track and detain human operators can often be a more efficient approach than merely shutting down their prolific websites.

• British authorities plan to introduce airport-style security measures at some British railstations, that will include body scanners and x-ray machines. The first trial is set for Paddington station in London.

Africa

• Somalia's government ordered two warlord-owned airports closed on Friday in an effort to boost its tax revenues, prompting an ally of the airstrips' owners to threaten to shoot down any plane diverting to obey the order. "We are closing these airstrips for security reasons, and some other airstrips in southern Somalia will follow as soon as possible," Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayr quoted the statement as saying.

• U.S. soldiers with Joint Task Force Horn of Africa continue to train Djiboutian soldiers in effective combat skills, and also intangibles like leadership, responsibility and teamwork.

• The detained leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujaheed Dokubo-Asari, has dissociated himself from the crash of the Bellview Airline, which claimed 117 lives last weekend, saying he had no hand in the tragedy. A group, which called itself COMA, had claimed responsibility for the Bellview plane crash and attributed its action to the continued incarceration of Dokubo-Asari.

• Algerian Islamic terrorists with suspected links to al Qaeda have killed four people, including one soldier, in the latest attacks during the holy month of Ramadan, newspapers reported on Saturday. Two civilians were killed two hours later when their car drove over a bomb planted by the same group, who apparently targeted a military convoy, newspapers said.

• The Sudanese government in Khartoum has not disarmed the Arab Janjaweed militia's, despite a pledge to eliminate the groups responsible for thousands of attacks in Darfur. In some cases, the Sudanese military has launched coordinated attacks with the militias.

The Global War

• Death threats to the Egyptian-born actor Omar Sharif have appeared in Islamist forums on the Internet, after Sharif's appearance as a Christian, Saint Peter, in an Italian biblical epic for television. At least one of the forums is used by jihadi groups linked to al-Qaeda.

• Russian arms trader Rosoboronexport has collected a portfolio of orders that is estimated to be worth $12 billion though 2007-2008. Russia has recently signed contracts with Venezuela on the supply of helicopters and fourth-generation Kalashnikov assault rifles, and there is demand for patrol boats on the markets of the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America. There are aircraft contracts with Jordan, China and Malaysia.

• The former al Qaeda training camp known as Tarnak Farms, today resembles a ghost town. First moving into the facility outside of Kandahar in 1994, al Qaeda turned the camp into a highly secure base for operations in the coming years.

• The Bush administration has missed dozens of deadlines set by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks for developing ways to protect airplanes, ships and railways from terrorists. Those deadlines, sometimes for minor projects, distract the department from putting in place the most important security measures, experts say.

• A recent poll suggests al Qaeda's popularity in the Muslim world is dropping, a direct result of the backlash over their terrorist campaign in Iraq. Jordan was the lone nation that saw a rise in support.

• The Intelligence Summit blog reports the US and its allies have disrupted 10 Al-Qaeda terrorist plots since the 11 September 2001 attacks, as President George W Bush said on October 6. The White House released a list of the plots and five 'casings and infiltrations' to back up the president's claims, which were made in a speech to the National Endowment for Democracy.

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