Monday Winds of War Briefing
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. Monday's Winds of War briefings are given by Peace Like a River and Security Watchtower.
Top Topics
* Indonesia has deployed thousands of troops to guard churches and places where foreigners gather amid threats of possible attacks in the coming days. Maj. Gen. Firman Gani, the Jakarta police chief, said the "terrorists have said they will use the momentum of Christmas and the New Year celebrations to carry out attacks." The U.S. embassy has also issued a threat warning for travelers in Indonesia.
* CNN reports that unnamed "government officials" have confirmed that the FBI has been monitoring Muslim mosques, homes and other buildings in U.S. cities for abnormal radiation levels since 2002 without obtaining search warrants or court orders. The FBI is defending the move while some believe the media reports amount to agenda driven journalism.
* Congress on Thursday approved a one-month extension of the Patriot Act and sent it to President Bush in a pre-Christmas scramble to prevent many of its anti-terrorism provisions from expiring Dec. 31. The Senate, with only Sen. John Warner, R-Va., present, approved the Feb. 3 expiration date four hours after the House, with a nearly empty chamber, bowed to Rep. James Sensenbrenner's refusal to agree to a six-month extension.
Other topics today include: Rocket attacks in Gaza; Muslim Brotherhood; Turkish arrests; Israel preparing for collapse of PA; Iran nuclear fuel deal; radiation monitoring in Colorado; Drug arrests up along Mexican-US border; 13 killed in Sri Lanka blast; Clashes in Afghanistan; Agreement on Pakistani madrassas; Rumsfeld in Afghanistan; Fighting in Pakistan; JI leader in Philippines; Crime and terrorism in Indonesia; Travel warning in Bosnia; Taiwan defense budget; Thailand terror watch; Algerians arrested in Italy; Italian warrants for CIA; French approve new anti-terror bill; Terror arrests in Spain; and much more.
Iran & the Middle East
* In response to Palestinian rocket attacks, the Israeli military will enforce a new off-limits zone in Gaza. Israel's deputy defense minister, Zeev Boim said the hope is that Palestinians "will get the message and that this will stop the rocket squads," adding "If we must, we will have to tighten the screw further." The BBC is calling the move an "aerial siege."
* Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt is accusing Syria of terrorizing neighbor countries and "taking the path of terrorism in order to evade international pressure".
* Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohammed Mahdi Akef has come out and declared the holocaust a myth, nearly echoing an earlier claim made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Akef complained that "Western democracies have slammed all those who don't see eye to eye with the Zionists regarding the myth of the Holocaust."
* Turkish authorities have arrested 14 people on suspicion of belonging to a banned Muslim group.
* Efraim Inbar of the Began-Sedat Center for Strategic Studies writes about the imperative to use force against Iranian nuclearization.
* Israel is preparing for the possibility that the Palestinian authority under Mahmoud Abbas, could be on the verge of collapsing.
* Iran is denying that Russia has made any formal offer to move Iranian enrichment facilities into Russia, maintaining the position that enrichment is Iran's right.
America Domestic Security & the America's
* A Canadian wanted by the United States for allegedly plotting to kill Americans abroad was denied bail Friday by a judge who said he posed a flight risk. Abdullah Khadr, 24, who is being held in Canada on an extradition warrant, could flee with the help of the al-Qaida terrorist network, said Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Moll
* Four years after September 11, the Bush administration has claimed some legal victories in its war on terrorism, but critics say there have been few major convictions and not a single trial of anyone caught trying to carry out an attack.
* A nationwide campaign by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents against unlicensed money transmittal businesses and underground "hawalas" has resulted in the arrest of 140 individuals, 138 criminal indictments, and the seizure of millions of dollars in illicit proceeds since the enactment of the USA Patriot Act, which requires such businesses to be licensed and registered.
* Colorado Springs is preparing what appears to be the first citywide radiation monitoring in the U.S.
* Drug seizures are up all along the US-Mexico border. The reasons for the success? Better intelligence-sharing, increased manpower, and improved technology that border officials have received in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks.
* Leader of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen Yasin Abu Bakr will spend Christmas in jail as his lawyer prepares closing submissions for the hearing which resumes Thursday. The State closed its case in the preliminary enquiry against Bakr last week. Bakr is before Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls in the Port of Spain Eighth Magistrates' Court charged with sedition, terrorism and three counts of inciting the demand of property, money and the breach of the peace.
Russia & South/Central Asia
* At least 13 sailors have been killed in a mine attack on a convoy in north-western Sri Lanka, officials say. The army said a mine was detonated as a navy bus and truck passed by in Mannar district and blamed Tamil Tiger rebels. The killings would be the worst breach of the 2002 ceasefire, but on Friday the Tigers said they were not connected with the incident.
* In Sri Lanka, the government said two soldiers were shot, one fatally, in the Jaffna Peninsula on Saturday.
* Two militants and one policeman were killed last week in eastern Afghanistan after militants clashed with Afghan and US forces, officials say. The fighting started after the group attacked Afghan police and US forces in the province of Ghazni, they said.
* Here are the daily updates from the South Asia Terrorism Portal for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
* Two bomb explosions toppled two electricity pylons in southwestern Pakistan Thursday, disrupting power supply but injuring no one, as militant tribesmen launched fresh attacks against government troops, an army official said.
* The Pakistani government and leaders of the five main chains of madrassas or Muslim seminaries have reached an agreement for new legislation for registering madrassas. Madrassas have also been allowed to include the comparative study of religions in their syllabus, while earlier this was banned in the name of checking sectarianism and militancy.
* In Bangladesh, State Minister for Religious Affairs Mosharref Hossain Shajahan asked the militants to return to normal life, expressing the hope that the militancy will come to end in a couple of months as the people and the government are united against the menace.
* U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met U.S. troops at Bagram Air Base, where he said any early withdrawal from Afghanistan or Iraq would lead to new terrorist attacks on Americans at home. Earlier in Kabul, Rumsfeld said any reduction in the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan will not weaken the campaign against Taliban fighters and Al-Qaeda terrorists operating in the country.
* Uzbekistan's hardline authorities consider the eastern Uzbek town of Andijan a hotbed of Islamic extremism, after a jailbreak and mass protest in May was crushed by troops. The events in Andijan have starkly emphasised the tensions which a revival of Islam has brought to Central Asia.
* Experts say a mystery mass illness in Russia's conflict-torn republic of Chechnya was caused by ethyl glycol - a toxic chemical found in anti-freeze. The symptoms prompted speculation that they might have been targeted by chemical weapons. Others rejected that explanation.
* At least seven people have been killed in what officials say was a battle between Islamic students and bandits in Pakistan's north-western tribal region. Reports say five bandits and two students were killed in the village of Shawal in North Waziristan, along the border with Afghanistan.
* Two soldiers have been wounded in a landmine explosion in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area, near the Afghan border, officials say. Around a dozen men have been detained over the incident, the officials say.
* A top commander of Pakistan-based Al-Badr outfit was killed by security forces in Srinagar on Sunday. Wasim, a Pakistani national and self-styled district commander of Al-badr outfit, was killed in a gunbattle with security forces at Bemina locality, Senior Superintendent of Police Muneer Khan said.
Far East & Southeast Asia
* According to reports, Jemaah Islamiah leader Abdul Rahman Ayub is believed to be training terrorists in the southern Philippines, after leaving Australia over a year ago.
* Muslim cleric Mohammad Omran is blaming Australian Prime Minister John Howard for radicalizing Muslim youths, saying "the Government is pushing the people to believe they can do all these major disaster things."
* Indonesian authorities are looking into a string of recent robberies, they believe may be tied to terrorism. According to Sr. Comr. Anton Bahrul, "Imam Samudra and his team members robbed banks and jewelry stores to raise the funds for the terrorist attack in Bali." Indonesian authorities are also looking for six foreign terrorists they believe are in Indonesia.
* The Australian Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade has issued a new terror alert for Australians travelling in Bosnia-Hertzgovinia.
* A Chinese court has upheld the life prison sentence of Peng Ming, a U.S. based pro-democracy advocate who Chinese officials accuse of setting up a terror training camp in Myanmar, in order to carry out attacks in China.
* By a vote of 113-100, opposition Taiwanese parties blocked the special budget aimed at boosting defenses and the military through arms purchases from the United States. This marks the 42nd time the bill has been blocked, even after proponents have scaled it down from the original $ 18 billion dollars to $ 9 billion. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is accusing the opposition parties of placing Taiwan's security at risk.
* The United States has warned Thailand that two suspects of Middle East origin that are on the terror watchlist, may try to enter Thailand during the Christmas and New Years celebrations.
Europe
* Police in southern Italy arrested three Algerians on international terrorism charges, saying the group was planning attacks in Italy and Iraq. The three, Achour Rabah, Tartaq Sami and Yasmine Bouhrama, are suspected of being members of the al Qaeda-linked Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). According to Italian interior minister Giuseppe Pisanu, the group is also suspected of being linked to a plan for attacks in the United States.
* Italian courts have issued arrest warrants for 22 CIA agents allegedly involved in the kidnapping of an Egyptian terror suspect from the streets of Milan in February 2003.
* The British government has signed an agreement with Lebanon that will enable the deportation of suspects from the UK to Lebanon, with the understanding in place that their safety will be ensured.
* The Dutch government continues to face security challenges in fighting terrorism while also trying to protect civil liberties. In Amsterdam, a Dutch merchant was sentenced to 15 years in prison for selling chemicals to Iraq in the 1980s that were used in chemical weapons.
* A British court has convicted Abu Baker Mansha under the terrorism act, after it was revealed the man had a gun and the address of a British soldier who had served in Iraq, and planned to carry out an attack on him for his success. In Iraq, Cpl. Mark Byles won the military cross for leading an attack that killed five insurgents.
* Adel Yahya, a 23 year-old student in Britain, has been charged with conspiracy to cause explosions in connection with the failed July 21st bombing plot in London. Yahya is the 43rd person arrested for involvement in the failed bombings.
* The French parliament, by a vote of 202-120, approved a new anti-terrorism bill that will increase video surveillance in public areas, including airports and places of worship. Police authorities will be granted more time for questioning terror suspects, and in checking internet and telephone records.
* Spanish authorities have arrested six men suspected of recruiting militants to travel to Iraq in order to wage jihad. Three of the men have been charged with belonging to a terrorist organization, while the other three have been charged with collaboration with a terrorist organization.
* Susanne Osthoff, a German archaeologist, was kidnapped in Iraq in late November. She was released this past Sunday. In a troubling parallel development, though, last Thursday, three days before Osthoff was released, Germany had paroled a Hezbollah terrorist wanted by the US for the murder of US Navy diver Robert Stethem. Did Germany release a terrorist to free a hostage?
Africa
* Chad accused neighboring Sudan on Thursday of trying to draw it into the civil war in Sudan’s Darfur region and urged the U.N. Security Council to help prevent the conflict from spreading.
* Chad says it is in "a state of war" with neighbour Sudan over the security crisis in the east of the country. It accuses Sudan of being the "common enemy of the nation" after a Chadian rebel attack on a town last week.
* Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on 22 December ordered that all defence and security personnel in the Niger Delta be placed in a state of "high alert". The President gave the order at a meeting with senior members of the nation's security and intelligence communities. The meeting was called to review the security situation in the Niger Delta following two pipelines explosions in the region in the past few days.
* A report (available here) from the International Crisis Group says the fragile peace maintained by Ethiopia and Eritrea since they signed a comprehensive agreement at Algiers in December 2000 is fraying dangerously. Resumption would destabilize the entire Horn, fuelling flows of weapons to armed groups throughout the region, rekindling a proxy war in Somalia and undermining the fragile peace process in southern and eastern Sudan.
* A report at The Jamestown Foundation looks at Sierra Leone and its history of harboring Islamic militants.
The Global War
* Because terrorists are increasingly using peroxide-based explosives to carry out devastating attacks, the FBI is training some of the best noses in the U.S. to sniff them out. Meet explosive-detection dogs—an extraordinarily talented breed of anti-crime specialists.
* The U.S. Department of the Treasury hosted the inaugural meeting of a new international private sector outreach working group that unites public and private sector entities – both foreign and domestic – in an effort to strengthen defenses against terrorist financing and money laundering in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
* China's trade and oil interests in Sudan have induced the permanent U.N. Security Council member to provide diplomatic cover for the government accused by many of war crimes against its own people, analysts say.
* Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri praised the Taliban, saying the Islamic movement still controlled large parts of Afghanistan, according to an audio tape aired by Al Arabiya television on Saturday. Al Arabiya said the date of the tape, which it said it had just obtained, could not be determined and made no mention of recent events.
* On the SBS TV program yesterday, "Han Soo-jin’s Sunday Click," U.S. ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow claimed that he has evidence that a North Korean official had contacted an Irish Republican Army (IRA) terrorist indicted for the circulation of counterfeit notes, and this evidence could reveal the connection between the counterfeit currency and the North.
From the Briefing 2,005 years ago
* A Jewish couple from Nazareth travelled to the West Bank town of Bethlehem in observance of the tax regulations instituted by Caesar Augustus, head of the Italian government. Housing shortages forced the couple to stay in a stable.
* King Herod ordered a massacre of all boys age 2 and under living in the Bethlehem area. Some families fled to Egypt to escape the slaughter.
* Dignitaries from the Iraq-Iran region had an audience with King Herod, and then visited a young Jewish boy, presenting him with gifts. In a diplomatic slight, the dignitaries returned without meeting with Herod as he had requested.
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.
Top Topics
* Indonesia has deployed thousands of troops to guard churches and places where foreigners gather amid threats of possible attacks in the coming days. Maj. Gen. Firman Gani, the Jakarta police chief, said the "terrorists have said they will use the momentum of Christmas and the New Year celebrations to carry out attacks." The U.S. embassy has also issued a threat warning for travelers in Indonesia.
* CNN reports that unnamed "government officials" have confirmed that the FBI has been monitoring Muslim mosques, homes and other buildings in U.S. cities for abnormal radiation levels since 2002 without obtaining search warrants or court orders. The FBI is defending the move while some believe the media reports amount to agenda driven journalism.
* Congress on Thursday approved a one-month extension of the Patriot Act and sent it to President Bush in a pre-Christmas scramble to prevent many of its anti-terrorism provisions from expiring Dec. 31. The Senate, with only Sen. John Warner, R-Va., present, approved the Feb. 3 expiration date four hours after the House, with a nearly empty chamber, bowed to Rep. James Sensenbrenner's refusal to agree to a six-month extension.
Other topics today include: Rocket attacks in Gaza; Muslim Brotherhood; Turkish arrests; Israel preparing for collapse of PA; Iran nuclear fuel deal; radiation monitoring in Colorado; Drug arrests up along Mexican-US border; 13 killed in Sri Lanka blast; Clashes in Afghanistan; Agreement on Pakistani madrassas; Rumsfeld in Afghanistan; Fighting in Pakistan; JI leader in Philippines; Crime and terrorism in Indonesia; Travel warning in Bosnia; Taiwan defense budget; Thailand terror watch; Algerians arrested in Italy; Italian warrants for CIA; French approve new anti-terror bill; Terror arrests in Spain; and much more.
Iran & the Middle East
* In response to Palestinian rocket attacks, the Israeli military will enforce a new off-limits zone in Gaza. Israel's deputy defense minister, Zeev Boim said the hope is that Palestinians "will get the message and that this will stop the rocket squads," adding "If we must, we will have to tighten the screw further." The BBC is calling the move an "aerial siege."
* Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt is accusing Syria of terrorizing neighbor countries and "taking the path of terrorism in order to evade international pressure".
* Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohammed Mahdi Akef has come out and declared the holocaust a myth, nearly echoing an earlier claim made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Akef complained that "Western democracies have slammed all those who don't see eye to eye with the Zionists regarding the myth of the Holocaust."
* Turkish authorities have arrested 14 people on suspicion of belonging to a banned Muslim group.
* Efraim Inbar of the Began-Sedat Center for Strategic Studies writes about the imperative to use force against Iranian nuclearization.
* Israel is preparing for the possibility that the Palestinian authority under Mahmoud Abbas, could be on the verge of collapsing.
* Iran is denying that Russia has made any formal offer to move Iranian enrichment facilities into Russia, maintaining the position that enrichment is Iran's right.
America Domestic Security & the America's
* A Canadian wanted by the United States for allegedly plotting to kill Americans abroad was denied bail Friday by a judge who said he posed a flight risk. Abdullah Khadr, 24, who is being held in Canada on an extradition warrant, could flee with the help of the al-Qaida terrorist network, said Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Moll
* Four years after September 11, the Bush administration has claimed some legal victories in its war on terrorism, but critics say there have been few major convictions and not a single trial of anyone caught trying to carry out an attack.
* A nationwide campaign by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents against unlicensed money transmittal businesses and underground "hawalas" has resulted in the arrest of 140 individuals, 138 criminal indictments, and the seizure of millions of dollars in illicit proceeds since the enactment of the USA Patriot Act, which requires such businesses to be licensed and registered.
* Colorado Springs is preparing what appears to be the first citywide radiation monitoring in the U.S.
* Drug seizures are up all along the US-Mexico border. The reasons for the success? Better intelligence-sharing, increased manpower, and improved technology that border officials have received in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks.
* Leader of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen Yasin Abu Bakr will spend Christmas in jail as his lawyer prepares closing submissions for the hearing which resumes Thursday. The State closed its case in the preliminary enquiry against Bakr last week. Bakr is before Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls in the Port of Spain Eighth Magistrates' Court charged with sedition, terrorism and three counts of inciting the demand of property, money and the breach of the peace.
Russia & South/Central Asia
* At least 13 sailors have been killed in a mine attack on a convoy in north-western Sri Lanka, officials say. The army said a mine was detonated as a navy bus and truck passed by in Mannar district and blamed Tamil Tiger rebels. The killings would be the worst breach of the 2002 ceasefire, but on Friday the Tigers said they were not connected with the incident.
* In Sri Lanka, the government said two soldiers were shot, one fatally, in the Jaffna Peninsula on Saturday.
* Two militants and one policeman were killed last week in eastern Afghanistan after militants clashed with Afghan and US forces, officials say. The fighting started after the group attacked Afghan police and US forces in the province of Ghazni, they said.
* Here are the daily updates from the South Asia Terrorism Portal for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
* Two bomb explosions toppled two electricity pylons in southwestern Pakistan Thursday, disrupting power supply but injuring no one, as militant tribesmen launched fresh attacks against government troops, an army official said.
* The Pakistani government and leaders of the five main chains of madrassas or Muslim seminaries have reached an agreement for new legislation for registering madrassas. Madrassas have also been allowed to include the comparative study of religions in their syllabus, while earlier this was banned in the name of checking sectarianism and militancy.
* In Bangladesh, State Minister for Religious Affairs Mosharref Hossain Shajahan asked the militants to return to normal life, expressing the hope that the militancy will come to end in a couple of months as the people and the government are united against the menace.
* U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met U.S. troops at Bagram Air Base, where he said any early withdrawal from Afghanistan or Iraq would lead to new terrorist attacks on Americans at home. Earlier in Kabul, Rumsfeld said any reduction in the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan will not weaken the campaign against Taliban fighters and Al-Qaeda terrorists operating in the country.
* Uzbekistan's hardline authorities consider the eastern Uzbek town of Andijan a hotbed of Islamic extremism, after a jailbreak and mass protest in May was crushed by troops. The events in Andijan have starkly emphasised the tensions which a revival of Islam has brought to Central Asia.
* Experts say a mystery mass illness in Russia's conflict-torn republic of Chechnya was caused by ethyl glycol - a toxic chemical found in anti-freeze. The symptoms prompted speculation that they might have been targeted by chemical weapons. Others rejected that explanation.
* At least seven people have been killed in what officials say was a battle between Islamic students and bandits in Pakistan's north-western tribal region. Reports say five bandits and two students were killed in the village of Shawal in North Waziristan, along the border with Afghanistan.
* Two soldiers have been wounded in a landmine explosion in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area, near the Afghan border, officials say. Around a dozen men have been detained over the incident, the officials say.
* A top commander of Pakistan-based Al-Badr outfit was killed by security forces in Srinagar on Sunday. Wasim, a Pakistani national and self-styled district commander of Al-badr outfit, was killed in a gunbattle with security forces at Bemina locality, Senior Superintendent of Police Muneer Khan said.
Far East & Southeast Asia
* According to reports, Jemaah Islamiah leader Abdul Rahman Ayub is believed to be training terrorists in the southern Philippines, after leaving Australia over a year ago.
* Muslim cleric Mohammad Omran is blaming Australian Prime Minister John Howard for radicalizing Muslim youths, saying "the Government is pushing the people to believe they can do all these major disaster things."
* Indonesian authorities are looking into a string of recent robberies, they believe may be tied to terrorism. According to Sr. Comr. Anton Bahrul, "Imam Samudra and his team members robbed banks and jewelry stores to raise the funds for the terrorist attack in Bali." Indonesian authorities are also looking for six foreign terrorists they believe are in Indonesia.
* The Australian Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade has issued a new terror alert for Australians travelling in Bosnia-Hertzgovinia.
* A Chinese court has upheld the life prison sentence of Peng Ming, a U.S. based pro-democracy advocate who Chinese officials accuse of setting up a terror training camp in Myanmar, in order to carry out attacks in China.
* By a vote of 113-100, opposition Taiwanese parties blocked the special budget aimed at boosting defenses and the military through arms purchases from the United States. This marks the 42nd time the bill has been blocked, even after proponents have scaled it down from the original $ 18 billion dollars to $ 9 billion. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is accusing the opposition parties of placing Taiwan's security at risk.
* The United States has warned Thailand that two suspects of Middle East origin that are on the terror watchlist, may try to enter Thailand during the Christmas and New Years celebrations.
Europe
* Police in southern Italy arrested three Algerians on international terrorism charges, saying the group was planning attacks in Italy and Iraq. The three, Achour Rabah, Tartaq Sami and Yasmine Bouhrama, are suspected of being members of the al Qaeda-linked Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). According to Italian interior minister Giuseppe Pisanu, the group is also suspected of being linked to a plan for attacks in the United States.
* Italian courts have issued arrest warrants for 22 CIA agents allegedly involved in the kidnapping of an Egyptian terror suspect from the streets of Milan in February 2003.
* The British government has signed an agreement with Lebanon that will enable the deportation of suspects from the UK to Lebanon, with the understanding in place that their safety will be ensured.
* The Dutch government continues to face security challenges in fighting terrorism while also trying to protect civil liberties. In Amsterdam, a Dutch merchant was sentenced to 15 years in prison for selling chemicals to Iraq in the 1980s that were used in chemical weapons.
* A British court has convicted Abu Baker Mansha under the terrorism act, after it was revealed the man had a gun and the address of a British soldier who had served in Iraq, and planned to carry out an attack on him for his success. In Iraq, Cpl. Mark Byles won the military cross for leading an attack that killed five insurgents.
* Adel Yahya, a 23 year-old student in Britain, has been charged with conspiracy to cause explosions in connection with the failed July 21st bombing plot in London. Yahya is the 43rd person arrested for involvement in the failed bombings.
* The French parliament, by a vote of 202-120, approved a new anti-terrorism bill that will increase video surveillance in public areas, including airports and places of worship. Police authorities will be granted more time for questioning terror suspects, and in checking internet and telephone records.
* Spanish authorities have arrested six men suspected of recruiting militants to travel to Iraq in order to wage jihad. Three of the men have been charged with belonging to a terrorist organization, while the other three have been charged with collaboration with a terrorist organization.
* Susanne Osthoff, a German archaeologist, was kidnapped in Iraq in late November. She was released this past Sunday. In a troubling parallel development, though, last Thursday, three days before Osthoff was released, Germany had paroled a Hezbollah terrorist wanted by the US for the murder of US Navy diver Robert Stethem. Did Germany release a terrorist to free a hostage?
Africa
* Chad accused neighboring Sudan on Thursday of trying to draw it into the civil war in Sudan’s Darfur region and urged the U.N. Security Council to help prevent the conflict from spreading.
* Chad says it is in "a state of war" with neighbour Sudan over the security crisis in the east of the country. It accuses Sudan of being the "common enemy of the nation" after a Chadian rebel attack on a town last week.
* Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on 22 December ordered that all defence and security personnel in the Niger Delta be placed in a state of "high alert". The President gave the order at a meeting with senior members of the nation's security and intelligence communities. The meeting was called to review the security situation in the Niger Delta following two pipelines explosions in the region in the past few days.
* A report (available here) from the International Crisis Group says the fragile peace maintained by Ethiopia and Eritrea since they signed a comprehensive agreement at Algiers in December 2000 is fraying dangerously. Resumption would destabilize the entire Horn, fuelling flows of weapons to armed groups throughout the region, rekindling a proxy war in Somalia and undermining the fragile peace process in southern and eastern Sudan.
* A report at The Jamestown Foundation looks at Sierra Leone and its history of harboring Islamic militants.
The Global War
* Because terrorists are increasingly using peroxide-based explosives to carry out devastating attacks, the FBI is training some of the best noses in the U.S. to sniff them out. Meet explosive-detection dogs—an extraordinarily talented breed of anti-crime specialists.
* The U.S. Department of the Treasury hosted the inaugural meeting of a new international private sector outreach working group that unites public and private sector entities – both foreign and domestic – in an effort to strengthen defenses against terrorist financing and money laundering in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
* China's trade and oil interests in Sudan have induced the permanent U.N. Security Council member to provide diplomatic cover for the government accused by many of war crimes against its own people, analysts say.
* Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri praised the Taliban, saying the Islamic movement still controlled large parts of Afghanistan, according to an audio tape aired by Al Arabiya television on Saturday. Al Arabiya said the date of the tape, which it said it had just obtained, could not be determined and made no mention of recent events.
* On the SBS TV program yesterday, "Han Soo-jin’s Sunday Click," U.S. ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow claimed that he has evidence that a North Korean official had contacted an Irish Republican Army (IRA) terrorist indicted for the circulation of counterfeit notes, and this evidence could reveal the connection between the counterfeit currency and the North.
From the Briefing 2,005 years ago
* A Jewish couple from Nazareth travelled to the West Bank town of Bethlehem in observance of the tax regulations instituted by Caesar Augustus, head of the Italian government. Housing shortages forced the couple to stay in a stable.
* King Herod ordered a massacre of all boys age 2 and under living in the Bethlehem area. Some families fled to Egypt to escape the slaughter.
* Dignitaries from the Iraq-Iran region had an audience with King Herod, and then visited a young Jewish boy, presenting him with gifts. In a diplomatic slight, the dignitaries returned without meeting with Herod as he had requested.
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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