Smaller terror plots posing new threats

Two recent terrorism cases in the United States have officials worried that Al-Qaida is changing tactics.

By DAVID JOHNSTON and ERIC SCHMITT , New York Times

Last update: October 31, 2009 – 7:16 PM

WASHINGTON – After disrupting two recent terrorism plots, U.S. intelligence officials are increasingly concerned that extremist groups in Pakistan linked to Al-Qaida are planning smaller operations in the United States that are harder to detect but more likely to succeed than the spectacular attacks they once emphasized, senior counterterrorism officials say.

Somalia: Hizbul Islam Claims Victory Over Fighting Out of Kismayu Town

Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)

6 October 2009

Somalia — The Islamist organization of Hizbul Islam has claimed victory over the fighting in out of Kismayu town, just after heavy fighting between the Islamist fighters that continued overnight there, officials told Shabelle radio on Tuesday.

Sheik Osma’il Adow, the spokesman of the Islamist organization of Hizbul Islam for the consulting council said that they had achieved about overnight and yesterday’s fighting between Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen and Hizbul Islam that continued in out of the port town of Kismayu in Lower Jubba region in southern Somalia.

An Interview with Dr Bruce Tefft:Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Lybia, Syria and Saudi Arabia

For those of us who do NOT speak Romanian:

de Adrian Novac HotNews.ro

Luni, 7 septembrie 2009, 8:38 Actualitate | Internaţional

Bruce Tefft

Foto: Arhiva personala

Background: Dr. Bruce Tefft served 21 years in the CIA, including 17 years abroad, many as a CIA Chief of Station; and was a founding member of the CIA’s Counter Terrorism Center in 1985.

Dr. Tefft has traveled more than 350,000 miles, training more than 17,000 thousand law enforcement officers and first responders in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Mexico. After 9/11 he served as the New York Police Department’s Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence advisor.

Dr. Tefft is vice-president of the Western Defense Studies Institute in Rome and is Director of CRA’s Terrorism Assessment Center in the USA, providing world-wide terrorism prevention and emergency response training to first responders, law enforcement and security agencies and civil servants.

He has a Master’s degree in History and Doctorate in International Law from the University of Denver.

How does someone get a job at the CIA? Should you have special skills, it’s about luck or it’s a job for the Average Joe?

There is a lot of information on the internet about applying for employment with the CIA…many questions are answered, for example, at this site:

http://www.wikihow.com/Become-a-CIA-Agent

Within the CIA there are thousands of people with many different skill sets and capabilities.  I met “Average Joe’s” and geniuses.

Some skills are more useful than others:  language abilities are highly prized as well as adaptability, flexibility, intelligence, common-sense (not so common) etc.

Chances of being accepted depend more on whether your skills match the needs of a particular job vacancy than on what skills you actually have.  One year the CIA may have no need for someone with your skills or educational background and experiences and the next year an opening may appear.  I applied 3 separate times in 5 years before being accepted for the intial interview.

Did you consider your career to be adventurous? What aspects made it adventurous?

Of course.  ANY career involving travel and living overseas in dangerous parts of the world is adventurous.  I was fortunate to spend 17 of my 21 years abroad; mostly 3rd  or 4th world countries and war zones.

The challenge is in dealing with or adapting to unknown and potentially dangerous circumstances of a culture or country not your own.  Travellers and tourists do this all of the time…most are not also engaged in other risky activities at the same time.

Jemaah Islamiyah and Indonesian Terrorism: A renewed struggle?

Noor Huda Ismail and Carl Ungerer

The recent arrest near Johor Bahru, Malaysia of Mas Selamat Kastari, a fugitive Singaporean member of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) group is an important achievement in the effort to stamp out Southeast Asian terrorism. Other actions by the Indonesian police over the past 18 months, including the arrest of JI members in Palembang and Central Java, have dealt a further blow to the organisation.

Kastari’s earlier escape from a Singaporean detention facility in February 2008 and his ability to evade the police and security services of both Singapore and Malaysia for over 12 months was less encouraging. It suggests that JI’s informal networks and support groups in the region remain active, and that many of them are probably unknown to the authorities.

But, despite several attempts, JI has failed to replicate the mass casualty attacks of the years between 2002 and 2005. And, in the absence of a renewed bombing campaign, questions have been raised concerning the nature of the continuing threat from JI as an organisation. The prevailing view among leading analysts is that the overall threat from JI is receding and that another campaign of expensive, large-scale bombings is unlikely.1

Suspect in Bangalore blasts held in Kerala

Ananthakrishnan G, TNN 23 July 2009, 05:14am IST

HIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Raised in Kerala, trained in Hyderabad and linked to jihadi terror networks across India. That is Mohammed Abdul Haleem, a suspected terrorist arrested by Kerala police on Wednesday for his alleged role in the July 2008 Bangalore serial blasts and a series of low-intensity blasts in the state in the last decade. 

American Man Charged With Terrorism Offenses

7/22/2009 8:09 PM ET

(RTTNews) -  A 26-year-old American from New York has been charged with conspiracy to murder U.S. citizens, providing material support to a terrorist organization and receiving military-type training from a terrorist group, according to court papers unsealed Wednesday in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York. 

US Diplomat Offers Help to Pakistanis Displaced in Terrorism Fight

By Ayaz Gul Islamabad 22 July 2009

U.S Special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, is in Islamabad where he has met with top civilian and military leaders to discuss efforts aimed at helping hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the anti-Taliban military offensive in the country’s northwest.  The United States has pledged $330 million in response to a U.N appeal in May for $543 million to avoid a humanitarian crisis in Pakistan.

United States’ special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke speaks during a press conference in Islamabad, Pakistan, 22 Jul 2009

U.S special envoy Richard Holbrooke says he has reassured Pakistani leaders the Obama administration is making all possible efforts to help Pakistan deal with the humanitarian crisis.  He told a news conference the United States has committed $165 million of the financial assistance it pledged to support internally displaced Pakistanis.