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

* A senior Egyptian al Qaeda member was killed along with other militants during a Pakistani military raid of a hideout in the northern part of Pakistan, sources have told ABC News. Multiple intelligence sources in Pakistan confirmed to ABC News that they believed Abu Mohsin Musa, also known as Abdul Rahman, had died in the overnight raid. Rahman was one of the FBI's most wanted men with a $5 million bounty on his head. He was indicted in absentia in a New York court for his alleged involvement in the bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and Nairobi, Kenya, on Aug. 7, 1998.

* On Sunday a bomb exploded on the outskirts of Istanbul, wounding 31 people in the latest round of violence in Turkey.

* Hamas is remaining defiant in the face of western aid cuts, and vowing not to allow the Hamas-led government to be toppled. Despite opposition from the United States and Great Britain, Russia is promising financial aid for the Palestinian authority and Iran is calling on the Muslim world to provide funding while pledging $ 50 million in aid to the PA. Following aid cuts a couple weeks ago, the United States has now come out and banned U.S. citizens from doing business with the Hamas led PA.

* Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad has declared Israel a threat to the Islamic world, saying that "the Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."

Other topics today include: Iranian suicide bombers; Euro attitudes about Hamas; El Baradei snubbed in Iran; Islamic Jihad vows unity with Iran; Hezbollah accuses U.S.; al Qaeda in Palestine; Chaos in Gaza; Saudi prison release; Yemen al Qaeda arrests; Moussaoui trial; USF Professor deported; Clashes in Chechnya; Violence in Afghanistan; Maoist threat to India; Attacks in Kashmir; Arrests in Baluchistan; Kidnappings in Waziristan; US Offensive in Kunar province; Confrontations in Nepal; Tamil Tiger attacks; Chad/Sudan confrontation; and more.

Iran & the Middle East

* The Sunday Times of London cites unnamed Iranian officials in reporting that Iran has 40,000 trained suicide bombers preparing to strike U.S. and British targets if Iran's nuclear infrastructure is attacked.

* Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal denounced Israel on Saturday, saying "the new government in Palestine will never recognize Israel and there is no other way than resistance to drive out the enemy from our lands." Some believe this attitude along with other events has led to a shift in European attitudes towards the Palestinians.

* In the face of continued defiance from Iran a day after Mohammed El Baradei's diplomatic efforts were brushed aside by the regime in Teheran, the United States is warning that Iran must face accountability.

* According to U.S. authorities, international drug traffickers and money launderers are using a money exchange business in Dubai to funnel $ 4 million to Iran. One of the primary suspects, Hossein Esfahani, is said to have funneled almost four million dollars between 2001 and 2005.

* Islamic Jihad is pledging support to Iran if they are attacked by the United States. According to Islamic Jihad chief Abdullah Ramadan Shala, "Any threat to the Islamic republic is a threat to the Palestinians, and Iran will not be alone in facing these threats. And any aggression against Iran is an aggression against the Palestinians." On Sunday, Shala vowed to continue attacks against Israel in an internet posting.

* Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is accusing the United States of plotting a civil war in Lebanon.

* Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh appeared at a Hamas rally in Gaza on Friday, and accused the United States of being part of an "unholy alliance" aimed at undermining the recent Palestinian elections.

* An organization calling itself "Al-Qaida's Committee in Palestine" claimed responsibility for an unconfirmed rocket attack on Israel.

* Gaza police officers held violent protests on Saturday over the failure of the Hamas-led government to pay their salaries. Fifty masked officers blocked roads and fired weapons into the air, while al Aqsa Martyr Brigade gunmen seized a government cabinet building. Reports indicate that rival armed factions are seizing pieces of Gaza in the security vacuum.

* Israeli Generals are warning they may launch a ground offensive into Gaza if the constant rocket attacks on Israel continue. On Thursday several armored vehicles rolled into the Gaza briefly to check for IEDs.

* Saudi Arabia freed thousands of former terror suspects late last week, believed to be former minor actors who had recanted.

* Since the August 2005 disengagement, IDF forces have killed some 100 terrorists in the Gaza Strip, 30 of them adjacent to the fence. Additionally, 40 bombs have also been found along the fence.

* On Saturday, Yemen charged two more men with assisting an al Qaeda linked group currently on trial for plotting attacks against U.S. interests in Yemen. The day before, Yemen security forces killed four Shi'ite at a mosque after a firefight erupted.

* The Jerusalem Post is reporting on a meeting two weeks ago that took place between Hamas leader Khaled Marshaal and Sheikh Abd al-Majid al-Zindani, a fund raiser for al Qaeda.

America Domestic Security & the Americas

* Al-Qaeda plotter Zacarias Moussaoui says he wished it could be September 11 every day, and that he had "no remorse" for the carnage, as he mocked grief-stricken survivors as "pathetic" and "disgusting". "It make my day," Moussaoui replied when asked for his reaction to harrowing testimony from families shattered by the loss of loved ones in the 2001 attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people.

* Federal authorities have decided to deport a former University of South Florida professor and long-time Palestinian rights activist after failing to convict him on charges he helped finance terrorist attacks in Israel. Two lawyers familiar with the case say Sami Al-Arian has reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to a lesser charge and be deported.

* An attorney for an Albany mosque leader has asked the government to turn over any tape recordings of calls that his client allegedly made to a Syrian phone number the Justice Department claims was used to gather intelligence for Osama bin Laden.

* Mexican authorities yesterday began investigations into the involvement of Colombian guerrillas in the shipment of 5.5 tons of cocaine seized from a commercial aircraft. Santiago Vasconcelos, of the Mexican attorney general's office, said there was evidence that the drugs came from guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

* Powering ahead with stringent nationalist reforms, Hugo Chávez's Venezuela is showing multinational oil firms little mercy. Tense relations between private firms and Mr. Chávez's government escalated last week when the government seized fields operated by two European oil giants - France's Total and Italy's ENI - after the two companies snubbed government demands to convert their contracts to joint ventures with the state by April 1.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

* In the village of Dargo in the Vedeno district of southeast Chechnya, two Russian soldiers were killed and five others wounded after their combat vehicle hit a remote detonate mine. Following the explosion, the soldiers came under small arms fire and an additional bombing.

* Michael Jordan has an article in the Dallas Morning News on Friday where he challenges the view that al Qaeda had any presence in the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia, and raises questions about whether or not those ties were invoked by the United States to get Russian support for the war on terror.

* On Sunday, one militant was killed and two others wounded in a shootout with local police near the village of Dattykh in the Sunzha District of Chechnya.

* The Kazakh Secret Service (KNB) held counterterrorism discussions with security and ministry representatives, focusing on boosting security around weapons storage facilities, as well as preventing the spread of radical ideology within the prison system.

* Police uncovered a weapons cache in the Nozhai-Yurt district in southeastern Chechnya on Sunday that included a large amount of explosives, and also a round for a grenade launcher and 225 7.62mm cartridges.

* This week Russia will host a new round of discussions with the United States, China and the European Union over Iran's nuclear program.

* Reports indicate a structural shift in Russia's counterterrorism efforts in Chechnya, forming units with 500-700 soldiers assigned to geographic areas that will be under the command of the military commandant’s office of the republic.

* Russian police found 1 kg of plastic explosives in the Nazran district of Ingushetia on Sunday, detaining the owner of the residence who had prior convictions.

Afghanistan & Southern Asia

* Two bombs shook New Delhi's main mosque Friday shortly before worshippers gathered for evening prayers, sending terrified people running through the ornate 17th century complex, officials said. At least 13 people were injured.

* Police have said they had detained four people in connection with the twin blasts at India's biggest mosque that injured 14 people as security was stepped up at temples and mosques across northern India to guard against reprisal attacks.

* In a post at WoC, Joe Katzman writes about "India's biggest internal security threat." And he wasn't referring to Islamists. The Maoist scourge that has brought so much violence to Nepal has also been active in India.

* Five people were killed and 15 wounded when Islamic militants staged a wave of grenade attacks in revolt-hit Indian Kashmir's main city, police said. Four of the attacks took place within an hour in the busy commercial heart of the summer capital Srinagar where an Islamic separatist revolt has raged against New Delhi's rule since 1989, police said on Friday.

* Separatist guerrillas struck yet again in this Jammu and Kashmir capital lobbing a powerful hand grenade at a paramilitary force bunker at Rainawari in the downtown area on Sunday, injuring four civilian bystanders.

* Heavily armed Maoist rebels have killed 10 police officers in an attack in India's eastern Chhattisgarh state. "A group of Naxalites (Maoist rebels) traveling in a bus opened fire and 10 persons have been killed," B.K.S. Ray, a senior state home ministry official, said on the private news channel NDTV.

* Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad is responsible for the seven grenade attacks in Kashmir on Friday. Nine persons have been taken into custody in the state in connection with the explosions, Home Secretary VK Duggal said on Saturday.

* An al-Qaida member wanted for his suspected role in the bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa was killed by Pakistani forces in a raid near the Afghan border, a Pakistani Cabinet minister said Thursday. Egyptian Mohsin Musa Matawalli Atwah, 45, who was on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists, was killed along with at least six other militants in a raid led by helicopter gunships late Wednesday.

* Commercial life ground to a halt in this Pakistani city in a strike called by a religious party to protest a suicide bombing this week that killed its top leaders and some 50 others. Army troops took up positions in Karachi, where a suicide bomber Tuesday blew himself up on the dais at a public rally commemorating the anniversary of the birth of Prophet Mohammed.

* Pakistani police have detained at least a dozen suspected Islamic militants in connection with a suicide bombing at a Muslim prayer meeting last week that killed 57 people. No group has claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack in Karachi, where a suicide bomber targeted a congregation of more than 15,000 Sunni Muslims, Pakistan's majority sect, celebrating the birth of the Prophet Mohammad at a city park.

* Unidentified men kidnapped five paramilitary soldiers in North Waziristan a day after the military raided a suspected militants’ hideout, an official said on Friday. The soldiers were kidnapped in Razmak sub-division, 75 kilometres south of Miranshah, the regional headquarters of North Waziristan.

* Some 2,500 Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops pushed ahead with a massive offensive in Afghanistan's eastern mountains Thursday to flush out rebels believed hiding there, officials said. Backed up by military aircraft, the forces have killed six insurgents since the operation started Tuesday, but there has been no major battle, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi said.

* Six Taliban guerrillas were killed in an air strike by U.S.-led troops in eastern Afghanistan on Friday after blasts elsewhere in the country killed three policemen and wounded two British troops. The air strike was carried out in Kunar province as part of Operation Lion launched on Wednesday to flush out militants from the area, officials said.

* Afghan security forces backed by coalition helicopters attacked a suspected Taliban hideout in southern Afghanistan, setting off an intense gunbattle that killed 41 rebels, a provincial governor said Saturday.

* A Taliban suicide car bomb wounded three coalition soldiers and an Afghan guard today, while three policemen were killed in another Taliban bombing, officials said.

* Here is the CDI's Afghan update for the month of March. It is a roundup of events in Afghanistan.

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

* Nepal's political parties urged people on Sunday to stop paying taxes and international donors to halt aid to the royalist government as an anti-monarchy campaign widened dramatically. Police lobbed dozens of tear gas shells and fired rubber bullets at protesters demanding King Gyanendra give up power, injuring several and arrested dozens.

* Sri Lanka’s army said on Saturday Tamil Tiger rebels had killed four soldiers and wounded five in a claymore fragmentation mine attack on an army bus. The attack took place near the town of Vavuniya, just beyond the southern fringes of rebel territory in the island’s north, the army said.

* Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels detonated mines near two military vehicles in northeastern Sri Lanka, killing eight people in separate attacks, officials said Sunday.

* A monograph from RAND entitled War and Escalation in South Asia looks at how this region has become one of central concern to the US. The report "highlights key factors in the region that imperil U.S. interests, and suggests how and where the U.S. military might play an expanded, influential role."

Far East & Southeast Asia

* Burma's military government has designated four exiled political groups as "terrorist organizations", including offshoots of the National League for Democracy (NLD).

* Four members of Jemaah Islamiah have been blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury, including Radical cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir. The move allows assets to be frozen and prevents U.S. citizens from conducting any transactions with the men. The Indonesian Mujahedin Council (MMI) is denying that Abubakar Ba`asyir had financial assets linked to al Qaeda.

* Mindinao in the southern Philippines has been labelled as the "weak link" in counterterrorism efforts in Southeast Asia according to Singapore Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee, who cites ongoing terror training and smuggling of arms and explosives as evidence.

* North Korea announced it was utilizing the time between talks over their nuclear program to make "more deterrent force", a reference to nuclear weapons.

* South Korea is reported to be holding Vietnamese dissident leader Chanh Huu "Tony" Nguyen on terror related charges. Nguyen is said to be a member of the Government of Free Vietnam, an exile group based in California.

* There is little sympathy in Indonesia for the terrorists responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings, as the nation moves closer towards the execution of Amrozi, Imam Samudra, and Ali Gufron for their respective roles in the attack.

Europe

* Police have been granted more time to question a 20-year-old man who was detained under the Terrorism Act in a Scottish town. The Central Scotland force has been given a further five days to question Mohammad Siddique, who was detained in Alva, Clackmannanshire, on Thursday.

* A Norwegian police officer has admitted to selling nine passports to a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam member. Because of its terrorist activities the LTTE been proscribed by a number of countries, including the U.S. Britain, Canada, India, Australia and Malaysia. The policeman admitted stealing six passports in 2004 and three passports in 2005 and selling them for more than $3,000 to a 37-year-old LTTE agent living in Norway.

* The Irish Republican Army on Thursday admitted it killed a Catholic civilian during a botched 1974 attempt to ambush British troops, and it apologized to the man's family.

* Britain has deported Hedi Ben Youseff Boudhiba to Spain, a Tunisian accused of helping the 9/11 attackers raise funds.

Africa

* Chad's government has announced it has cut off diplomatic relations with Sudan after repelling a rebel attack on the capital, N'Djamena, on Thursday. Sudan denies Chad's accusations that it backs the United Force for Change rebels, who were beaten back by Chadian troops after launching a dawn raid. France is also denying claims that they bombed rebels in Chad.

* Five Islamic publishers in Egypt were arrested on Friday after preparing literature challenging Egypt's Emergency Law. All of those arrested are members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

* The Security Council is threatening to reduce its monitoring force along the border of Ethiopia and Eritrea, unless the two countries settle their border dispute.

* Peace Like a River has a roundup of ongoing African conflicts.

* Libya marked the twentieth anniversary of U.S. airstrikes on Tripoli, ordered by President Reagan in response to a Libyan backed bombing of a Berlin Disco. Deputy parliament speaker Ahmed Ibrahim condemned the United States and declared President Bush "insane".

The Global War

* Terrorist groups, which for years have used the Internet and its various tools to organize and communicate, are paying more attention to addressing security and privacy concerns similar to those of other Web users, counterterrorism experts say.

* The American military said Thursday that it had ordered an investigation into reports that military data was being sold in an Afghan bazaar outside the main American air base at Bagram, north of Kabul. The American commander in Afghanistan has also ordered a policy review of security and accountability of computer hardware and software across the command, the military's statement said. No arrests have been announced, a spokesman said.

* The Washington Post has a Sunday article titled "Al Zawahiri tries to keep al Qaeda in his grips", which highlights the broader Islamist movement beyond al Qaeda and the growing resentment from other militants that al Qaeda is trying to put their face on everything.

* Science Daily takes a look at chemical companions, technology developed at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) that enable first responders and Hazmat teams a high-tech tool in identifying chemical spills.

* Comedy Central has censored a segment of a South Park episode that featured the Prophet Mohammed, but the same episode showed Jesus defecating on an American flag.

* Iran has been appointed to the United Nations Commission on Disarmament.

* Daveed Gartenstein-Ross of the Counterterrorism Blog has two recent posts on Google News inclusion of Hezbollah television al-Manar as a source, which isn't really surprising considering Google's acceptance of uruknet as a credible "news" source as well as the Democratic Underground.

* Bryan Finoki has an interesting read titled "Genealogy of a Car Bomb" posted at Subtopia.

* A Dutch and two U.S. warships set sail toward the Yemeni coast Sunday to aid a U.S.-flagged sailboat under attack by pirates. No further details are available at this time.

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