Tajik rebels join al Qaeda

By Bill Roggio

November 23, 2009 10:49 PM

Members of a Tajik military unit that turned against the government a decade ago have have joined the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and al Qaeda.

An unknown number of fighters who were loyal to rebel leader Mahmud Khudoyberdiyev joined the regional and global terror groups and have been fighting the Tajik government, the deputy chief of the Tajik National Security Committee said at a regional forum held earlier this month.

A smart anti-terror force for Mumbai now

Meena Menon

It takes Force One 15 minutes to get ready and respond to a strike

— Photo: Vivek Bendre

Mock drill: Force One commandos demonstrate their skills during the Passing Out Parade of the first batch of 216 in Mumbai on Tuesday.

MUMBAI: The serenity of the sylvan State Reserve Police Force grounds in Goregaon is shattered by furious gunshots. Commandos clad in midnight blue and armed with MP5 submachine guns take positions behind a mock room.

Suddenly a youth with a backpack comes out of one of these “rooms,” screaming ‘surrender.’ As the commandos close in on him, he takes out a knife, but is overpowered.

Terror threat pushes Timbuktu on to UK travel blacklist

The threat of al-Qa’eda-linked terror attacks is now too great for British tourists to visit Timbuktu, the Foreign Office has warned.

By Mike Pflanz, West Africa Correspondent

Published: 10:42PM GMT 23 Nov 2009

The new travel advisory raised the threat in and around Mali’s oft-quoted oasis town to “high” Photo: REUTERS

The new travel advisory raised the threat in and around Mali’s oft-quoted oasis town to “high” after a surge in kidnappings of Westerners by al-Qa’eda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim), a growing terror cell inspired by Osama bin Laden which is widening its reach across the unpoliced Sahara desert.

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.

Reports: Hadron Collider physicist arrested on terrorism charges

October 10, 2009 11:10 AM PDT

by Chris Matyszczyk

A 32-year-old nuclear physicist, part of the Large Hadron Collider project on the Swiss-French border, has been arrested by French police on suspicion of involvement with al-Qaeda.

According to The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hadron-lab-scientist-held-on-terrorism-charges-1800647.html), the arrest was made after anti-terrorist police had followed his movements for more than a year. Le Figaro newspaper (http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2009/10/09/01016-20091009ARTFIG00471-isere-l-un-des-terroristes-arrete-etait-chercheur-au-cern-.php) suggested that the man’s name had originally come to light in connection with the “Afghan network” of terrorist groups based in Europe.

(Credit: CC Ethan Hein/Flickr

Of Algerian origin, he was arrested together with his brother, who was not working on the Collider.

Italy: Libyan bomber ‘prayed with us’ says Muslim leader

Milan, 12 October (AKI) – The Libyan who detonated a bomb at the ‘Santa Barbara’ military barracks on Monday, Mohammed Game, prayed at Milan’s Viale Jenner Mosque, said the head of the Islamic Institute in Milan.
“He is a Libyan who hung out everywhere and who even prayed with us, just like thousands of others do, but we did not know him very well,” said the institute’s president Abdel Hamid Shaari in an interview with Adnkronos.

MOHAMMED ZAZI INDICTED FOR FALSE STATEMENT INVOLVING INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC TERRORISM DENVER

Oct 09, 2009 (JUSTICE DEPARTMENT DOCUMENTS AND PUBLICATIONS/ContentWorks via COMTEX) — David M. Gaouette United States Attorney District of Colorado THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2009 PHONE: 303-454-0243 MOHAMMED ZAZI INDICTED FOR FALSE STATEMENT INVOLVING INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC TERRORISM DENVER – Mohammed Zazi, age 53, who is presently residing in Aurora, Colorado, was indicted today by a federal grand jury in Denver for making a false statement in a matter involving international and domestic terrorism, United States Attorney David Gaouette and Denver FBI Special Agent in Charge James Davis announced. Zazi is presently free on a $50,000 unsecured bond, with the condition that he be under electronic monitoring by the court. He is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Denver (at 901 19th Street) tomorrow, Friday, October 9, 2009, at 1:30 pm, in Courtroom A201 before Magistrate Judge Craig B. Shaffer.