30 plots on UK

Jacqui Smith reveals new terror threat

By Ian Kirby

HOME Secretary Jacqui Smith last night revealed security forces are investigating THIRTY deadly terror plots which threaten mayhem across Britain.

She told the News of the World: “We now face a threat level that is severe. It’s actually growing.

“There are 2,000 individuals who are being monitored. There are 200 networks involved and 30 active plots.”

And she warned the menace of Islamic fanatics is mounting so fast that police will be unable to cope within a year—unless they are given new powers to lock up terror suspects for longer.

At present cops can hold suspects for up to 28 days, but the Home Office wants that increased to 42 days.

“We can’t wait for an attack to succeed and then rush in new powers,” said Mrs Smith. “We have got to stay ahead.

“Because we now understand the scale of what is being plotted, the police have to step in earlier—which means they need more time to put evidence together.

Computers

“We task the police and the security agencies with protecting us. Frankly, if they say to me it’s getting more difficult and we need more time to investigate thoroughly, it is my duty to provide them with the tools they need.

“The danger has increased over the past two years. Since the beginning of 2007, there have been 57 people convicted on terrorist plots.

“Nearly half of those pleaded guilty—so this is not some figment of the imagination. It is a real risk and a real issue we need to respond to.”

In our exclusive interview Mrs Smith also revealed that in 2001, at the time of the 9/11 bombings, Britain’s anti-terror cops seized and analysed just ONE computer and no computer discs.

Yet by last year their haul had risen to a staggering 400 computers and 8,000 computer discs containing BILLIONS of vital items of data.

At the same time, the records held by Scotland Yard’s anti-terror force have soared from 69,000 files four years ago to 200,000 this year.

The Home Secretary also pointed out that before the detention period for suspects was raised from its original 14 days to 28, many people argued the new law was unnecessary because the powers would never need to be used.

But Mrs Smith said: “Well, we did need to. Since that time we have needed to hold 11 people for longer than 14 days—and six of them for a total of 28 days.

“The complexity of these plots is growing and the number of international investigations is greater than before. Each time a plot is uncovered, the terrorists learn and they develop.

“That’s why there is a massive increase in the way they are using technology and encrypting information. So it takes time to get the evidence you need to charge somebody.”

This week the Home Secretary will step up the government’s “Prevent” campaign—its battle against Islamic extremists who preach hate and indoctrinate potential jihadi recruits.

On Wednesday she will announce a new deal she struck with the Pakistani government on a visit last week. It will allow respected moderate Islamic clerics to be brought over from Pakistan to help British imams combat extremism in the Islamic communities.

Mrs Smith explained: “The vast majority of British Muslims have a Pakistani heritage. If we work with the government there we can win the arguments.

“We need to do more to tackle those places where radicalisation is developing—in prisons, schools, higher education—so that people are getting the right messages about what it means to be a British Muslim.”

She added: “We will also work to ensure we identify vulnerable people being groomed for terror—in the same way we protect young people from being dragged into crime and abuse.”

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/1304_jacqui_smith.shtml

Venezuela’s Chavez Says NATO-Like South American Defense Council in the Works

Monday, April 14, 2008

CARACAS, Venezuela —  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his government is working to create a NATO-like South America defense council along with Brazil and other countries.

During a speech Sunday night, Chavez said the council would unite the region’s countries to “design our own defense policies.” He said Venezuelan officials planned to discuss it with Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim when he visits Caracas on Monday.

The leftist leader said he brought up a similar proposal at the start of his presidency in 1999 but that it met with opposition in the region.

“I once said that if NATO exists — the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — why couldn’t SATO exist? The South Atlantic Treaty Organization,” Chavez said. “We’ve placed it on the table for Latin America once again.”

Chavez was addressing a crowd of supporters outside the presidential palace on the sixth anniversary of his return to power after a short-lived 2002 coup.

Chavez, a close ally of Cuba’s Fidel Castro, reiterated his accusation that Washington was behind the 2002 coup and shouted: “Down with imperialism!”

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The U.S. government denies supporting the coup, but tensions have grown since Washington swiftly recognized the leaders who briefly ousted Chavez in the putsch.

The Venezuelan leader was captured by dissident military officers but returned to power after two days amid massive street protests by supporters.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351188,00.html

Islamist group won’t admit magazine role

Natalie O’Brien and Sanna Trad | April 12, 2008

A RADICAL Islamist magazine pushing anti-Israeli sentiments is being sold on university campuses in Sydney, but the organisation believed to be behind the booklet, Hizb ut-Tahrir, is refusing to acknowledge its role in the publication.

The idialogue, a 42-page glossy magazine, was yesterday being sold to students as they left Friday prayers at the University of Technology Sydney, the University of NSW and the University of Sydney.

But the young men peddling the magazine refused to say who or what organisation is behind the publication.

“Read it for yourself,” was the only comment they would make.

The Sydney-based media officer for Hizb ut-Tahrir, Wassim Doureihi, is writing for the magazine, and other members of Hizb ut-Tahrir are involved in its production.

However Mr Doureihi has refused to return calls from The Weekend Australian.

The magazine is to be published quarterly and has a cover price of $3.50.

The first edition opens with a message from the editorial team which says in part “we launch this initiative at a time when strong political messages should not be shied away from by the Muslim community … and the ideological onslaught against Islam is evident on every level of society”.

The magazine pushes a strong anti-Israeli message focusing on the issue of the Palestinian territories, saying “the holiest of Islamic lands is in the hands of the unholiest - the illegal and illegitimate state of Israel”.

It also reproduces a 1935 fatwa issued by the religious scholars of Palestine against the selling of lands to Zionists.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a secretive organisation which promotes the destruction of Western civilisation and the overthrow of governments and their replacement by Islamic rule.

The group is banned in much of Europe, China and Saudi Arabia but remains legal in Britain and Australia.

Five years ago, most Western observers did not consider Hizb ut-Tahrir a serious threat, but its influence has grown and it now has branches in about 45 countries.

The group has twice been investigated by ASIO.

The role of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the radicalisation of young Muslims was revealed last year when four of the seven suspects in failed terror attacks on London and Glasgow were found to have had links to a Hizb ut-Tahrir cell in Cambridge.

A research paper produced last year in Australia warned the organisation was a conveyor belt for extremists.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,23526263-12332,00.html?from=public_rss

Ontario, Quebec police move on non-profit accused of financing terrorism

Ontario, Quebec police move on non-profit accused of financing terrorism

Stewart Bell, Graeme Hamilton And Adrian Humphreys

Published: Monday, April 14, 2008

Counterterrorism police in Quebec and Ontario effectively shut down a non-profit organization for Canadian Tamils this weekend due to allegations it has been raising money to finance terrorist activities in Sri Lanka.

The RCMP was expected to announce details of its unprecedented actions as early as today, but several sources said police had moved in to enforce a Federal Court restraining order against the World Tamil Movement.

The WTM’s offices in Montreal and Toronto have been under police investigation for six years, and were raided by police in 2006. While no charges have yet resulted, the decision to seek a restraining order suggests Ottawa is aggressively pursuing the group.

The restraining order pertains to real estate in Montreal and other assets in Toronto.

The recent events are focused mostly on Montreal. Police sealed off the Montreal WTM office on Friday, said Steven Slimovitch, the group’s lawyer. He said his clients were barred from entering the premises, disrupting community programs.

“A Federal Court judge has issued an order to seal the office of the World Tamil Movement and to essentially put it under the trusteeship of the federal government,” he said.

The order was issued under a section of the Criminal Code dealing with terrorism financing, but Mr. Slimovitch said no defence counsel were present for the hearing and his clients deny the allegations they are financing terrorists.

“My clients have never been charged with terrorism-financing, and my clients have never had a chance to defend themselves against terrorism-financing accusations,” he said.

The action is the latest development in two related RCMP-led investigations called Project Osaluki and Project Crible. The probes, by the Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams in Ontario and Quebec, are examining allegations the WTM has been funnelling money to the Tamil Tigers to finance civil war in Sri Lanka.

The Tamil Tigers are an outlawed terrorist group in Canada. Knowingly raising money for the group or financing its activities is against the law and punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Many members of Canada’s large ethnic Tamil community support the Tigers and their fight to create an independent state for Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority.

Police went to court last week to ask for restraining orders against WTM properties in Toronto and Montreal, said a source familiar with the case. Officers were in the process late yesterday of serving official notice to the people associated with the properties.

Police officers were having difficulty finding at least one per-son linked to the group and its properties. The RCMP was apparently waiting for that to take place before publicly announcing the moves it had taken.

This appears to be a first in the realm of terrorism, but the police action is similar to the way police routinely deal with organized crime: Officers will appear before a judge in private and present affidavits seeking judicial approval to restrain properties considered proceeds of crime.

While the property is restrained, the owner cannot sell it, move it, alter it or dispose of it. The order secures the property pending a court hearing. The owners are then notified and can appear before the courts and mount a defence against the Crown’s allegations.

A judge will then decide whether the restrained property should be forfeited to the Crown or returned to its owner. The process is similar to how police restrain fortified clubhouses of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club and other bike gangs.

The weekend police action in Montreal has disrupted community activities scheduled for the group’s headquarters in the city’s Cote-des-Neiges district, Mr. Slimovitch said.

“Essentially they’re shutting down the entire community — artistic things, sporting things,” he said. “My clients completely deny any terrorism financing. They support the Tamil people and they support the Tamil people’s right to self-determination, but they are very much against any form of terrorism.”

An official with the WTM Montreal office declined comment and referred all questions to Mr. Slimovitch. The lawyer said he intends to go to court to have the reasons for the order disclosed.

Corporal Elaine Lavergne of the RCMP said the police force could not comment as a result of the secrecy order.

“We are under the authority of a court,” she said. She could not even disclose the level of court that issued the order, which she said is sealed from public view. “It has never happened before,” she said of the sweeping secrecy provisions.

The president of the WTM’s Ontario branch, Sitta Sittampalam, also declined to comment yesterday. “I was asked by my lawyer not to reveal anything on this matter,” he said. “I’m not in a position to divulge anything.”

http://www.dose.ca/news/story.html?id=f57de80f-5733-4fd9-96f4-171fbebc1f3b&p=1

ETA set booby trap bomb for Civil Guard officers

ETA set booby trap bomb for Civil Guard officers

14/04/2008 00:00

The small bomb that exploded on Saturday in Navarre was intended for officers.

14 April 2008

MADRID - A small bomb apparently planted by Basque terrorist group ETA that exploded on Saturday near a group of telecommunications transmitters in Navarre. The bomb was intended as a booby trap for Civil Guard officers, authorities say.

The device, containing around five kilograms of homemade explosive and packed with shrapnel, had been placed at head height on top of a small building inside the complex near the town of Lapoblacion.

It detonated at 11am and the blast was heard by a walker, who approached and saw a sign warning “Danger, ETA bomb.” He called the police, who then found a second unexploded device nearby.

Police suspect the unexploded device was supposed to have gone off first, with the terrorists hoping that officers would be on the scene when the other device detonated at 11am.

http://www.expatica.com/es/articles/news/ETA-set-booby-trap-bomb-for-Civil-Guard-officers.html

Norway: Somalis suspected of helping finance nun’s murder

Monday, April 14, 2008

Norway: Somalis suspected of helping finance nun’s murder

The PST (Norwegian security service) thinks the Norwegian-Somali who’s been arrested for financing terrorism had sent money to an extremist leaders suspected of liquidating a 65-year old Italian nun in Somalia in 2006.  The 38 year old and the two other Norwegian-Somalis suspected by the PST of giving economic support to terrorism, deny sending money out of Norway for financing terror acts.

The PST thinks, through communication taps and with help of a detailed review of money transactions, that it has evidence the money from the suspects was transferred to three extremist leaders in Somalia.  One of the leaders is on a list of operative al-Qaeda terrorists in Somalia which appears on the American foreign department site.  According to the site Aden Hashi Ayrow leads a radical faction al-Shabaab and is the military commander of the Council of Islamic Courts (CIC).  He had gotten extensive training in the use of explosives and weapons by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan before 2001.

USA holds Hashi Ayrow responsible for executing a Somali peace activist in July 2005, and of being involved in killing the Catholic nun, sister Leonella (Leonella Sgorbati) outside a women’s and children’s hospital in Mogadishu on Sep. 17, 2006.  The BBC reported that the Catholic nun, who had helped children and youth in Africa for 40 years, was shot three times in the back and was killed.  Her bodyguard was also killed in the attack.  It was speculated that the liquidation came as a result of a statement by Pope Benedikt XVI which provoked Muslims worldwide.  The pope cited a Christian leader from the 1400s who had said that everything Muhammad brought the world is evil and inhuman.  The pope later regretted this statement and said his statement was misunderstood and did not represent his personal opinion.

The man the PST thinks transferred the money from the suspects in Norway was in the news as recently as November last year.  BBC News wrote then that rebel leader sheik Aden Hashi had ordered his forces to attack peacekeepers from the African Union (AU) in their base in the Somali capital.  According to the BBC Ayrow called on foreign soldiers to switch sides and to take part in al-Shabaab’s war against the peace forces.

According to PST spokesperson Martin Bernsen the investigation involving the three Somali suspects in Norway is ongoing.  The Oslo court arrested the 38 head suspect until April 25.  PST had also met with several groups of Somalis in Oslo to explain the police’s work methods.

Bernsen told Dagsavisen that they have explained that they’re aiming their investigation against people and not organizations.  They had met with Somali organization G10, where they had mutual understanding, and they had made it clear that they’re not investigating the Somali community and not the general rebellion in Somalia.

Source: Dagsavisen (Norwegian)

http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2008/04/norway-somalis-suspected-of-helping.html

Islamic extremism returns to Sudan capital

Islamic extremism returns to Sudan capital

Abd Raouf, Associated Press

MUSLIM ANGER: Sudanese join a government-backed rally in February in Khartoum denouncing Danish newspapers’ republication of a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad.

The recent killing of a USAID worker in Khartoum is the latest sign that a new generation of Islamists threatens what had been among the safest of African capitals.

By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 13, 2008

KHARTOUM, SUDAN — The young assassins prowled Khartoum’s streets for hours on New Year’s Eve, looking for Westerners on the way home from parties.

They stopped a Land Cruiser but released it after seeing two children in the back seat. Another foreigner was let go because he was the “wrong” nationality, said Khartoum state Gov. Abdul Halim Mutaafi. “They wanted Americans or British,” he said.

Their victim was John Granville, 33, a USAID official and former Peace Corps volunteer, who was shot to death along with his Sudanese driver early New Year’s Day.

The assassination, the first of a foreigner in Khartoum since the 1970s, was the latest in a string of troubling signs that one of Africa’s safest capitals faces a growing threat from home-grown Islamic extremists, part of a conservative sect that has doubled in size here in the last decade.

In August, Sudanese police broke up a suspected bomb plot involving young men who planned to attack the British and U.S. embassies. Instead, they accidentally blew up their own apartment, Sudanese and Western officials said.

In February, graffiti began appearing in several Khartoum neighborhoods with slogans claiming to be from “Al Qaeda Organization of Sudan.” Although clear links to Al Qaeda have been difficult to prove, some officials fear that the terrorist network and its leader, Osama bin Laden, who were ejected from Sudan in 1996, are trying to reestablish a base.

Most alarming to Sudanese officials is that this new generation of extremists appears to be almost as hostile toward the Arab-dominated Sudanese government as they are to the West, despite Khartoum’s efforts to bolster its Islamic credentials. In a high-profile case last year, the government prosecuted and briefly jailed a British grade-school teacher who allowed her students to name a class teddy bear after the prophet Muhammad.

Sudanese police have arrested more than 40 people in a crackdown during the last six months, including those believed to be responsible for Granville’s killing, Mutaafi said. Many are students or recent university graduates.

“These are young people with very strong religious feelings and very strong feelings against the West,” said Ali Sadiq, spokesman for Sudan’s Foreign Ministry.

Police suspect that the same cell behind Granville’s assassination may have plotted the foiled embassy bombings, and they believe they have broken up the ring, Mutaafi said. Upon interrogation, the suspects admitted they also planned to target government facilities in Sudan, officials said.

American officials in Khartoum are expressing growing concern. In March, the U.S. Embassy issued a stark public warning, its second in a year, disclosing that “the U.S. government has received indications of terrorist threats aimed at American and Western interests in Sudan.” The consulate advised Americans to avoid travel to the country and said it had beefed up security measures.

After the New Year’s attack and the 2006 beheading of an outspoken Sudanese newspaper editor, two previously unknown groups, one claiming affiliation with Al Qaeda, took responsibility for the killings in messages published on Islamist websites. The claims could not be verified, and Sudanese officials questioned their veracity.

Nevertheless, Sudanese and Western officials said that the young men recently arrested in Sudan display similar goals and ideology. One diplomat called them “Al Qaeda wannabes.”

“I don’t know if they are Al Qaeda, but they think just like Al Qaeda,” Mutaafi said.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir’s regime has faced mounting criticism from both foreign extremists and domestic hard-liners since dropping his opposition to deploying 26,000 United Nations peacekeepers in the restive Darfur region of western Sudan. He has tried to soften the backlash by insisting troops chiefly come from African or Muslim nations. But in an October message, Bin Laden urged followers to strike not only U.N. troops in Sudan, but also the government that “let them in.”

In addition, Bashir’s regime has been criticized for its close relationship with the CIA. Sudan has quietly shared counter-terrorism intelligence with the U.S. for the last seven years.

“Now Sudan is being castigated because of all this,” said Osman Khalid Mudawi, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Sudan’s parliament. The extremists, he added, “believe we have buckled to the U.S. and are selling them out.”

But he said he doubted whether terrorist groups could gain a foothold in Sudan. “We don’t have that brand of Islam here,” he said.

Others in the government agreed, downplaying the terrorism risk and insisting that Khartoum remains safer than most other African capitals. In an apparent attempt to calm nerves after the Granville slaying, police at first circulated rumors that the attack was the result of a love triangle or gambling debt. Although government officials now confirm the shooting was the work of Islamic fundamentalists, they call the killing an isolated incident, not the start of a trend.

“These are really just lads,” said Sadiq of the Foreign Ministry. “It’s hard to even call them organized groups.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-threat13apr13,1,2983894.story?track=rss

Intelligence services to be restructured

Security

Home Affairs Minister requires a detailed report Intelligence services to be restructured Home Affairs Minister, Nourredine Yazid Zerhouni has required from Homeland Security General Direction, DGSN submit him a comprehensive report assessing the performance of intelligence services two years after restructuring it. A source within Home Affairs Ministry said Mr Zerhouni has recently required a detailed report from DGSN General Director, Colonel Ali Tounsi on the work of intelligence services in view of determining its deficient. The same source added that Home Affairs Ministry targets exploiting intelligence services more perfectly by requiring it granting as much information as possible for competent authorities to take the right decision on the right time. Some observers said Home Affairs Ministry is targeting to rely more on intelligence units in terms of maintaining social and civil peace as well as following up directly movements and different activities taking place nationwide in order to anticipate the outbreak of any perturbation. To recall Home Affairs Ministry ordered DGSN in 15 Mai 2005 to separate regional intelligence units from regional security services by allocating them independent headquarters to facilitate their task. However, Colonel Ali Tounsi has already admitted that intelligence services made several mistakes, pointing out that DGSN discovered many fake cases in reports being elaborated on some officers.

http://www.elkhabar.com/quotidienFrEn/lire.php?idc=114&ida=105691&key=2&cahed=1

“I’m not scared by Al-Qaeda assassination threats”

Security

Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem to El Khabar: “I’m not scared by Al-Qaeda assassination threats” Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem has not paid any concern to terror threats against him, saying “life and death are in God’s hand.” Mr. Belkhadem has sent political messages to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb which said it plotted assassinating Prime Minister at least twice, saying assassination threats “did not scare me.” move a hair of my head,” adding: “ages are in God’s hand.” Special security surveillance has been set over Prime Minister house and convoy since the suicide attack targeting Government Headquarter in 11 April 2007. Mr. Belkhadem used to express his embracement towards security control over him, while preferring walking without attracting people’s attention; however, he seems today accepting being protected, mostly after security services disclosed an Al-Qaeda assassination plot against him. Prime Minister has been advised to give up going to mosque in Fridays without being accompanied by security surveillance. Furthermore security services have reinforced their presence around his house to anticipate any terror attack against him and his family members.

14-04-2008 By H.Yes/ Translation A.A

http://www.elkhabar.com/quotidienFrEn/lire.php?idc=114&ida=105496&key=2&cahed=1

Jordan sends three suspects to prison on terrorist charges

Posted : Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:44:01 GMT Author : DPA Category : Middle East (World)

<!– google_ad_client = “pub-6607258750979944″; /* 120×240, created 28/02/08 */ google_ad_slot = “3981968632″; google_ad_width = 120; google_ad_height = 240; //–> Amman - Jordan’s State Security Court sentenced Sunday three suspects to imprisonment after convicting them of trying to smuggle weapons to the West Bank to attack Israeli troops, legal sources said. The tribunal sentenced Salim al-Mahshi to five years imprisonment and Saeed Sawarkah to seven-and-a half years. The third defendant, Saleh al-Err, who is still at large and was tried in absentia, received a 15-year prison sentence with hard labour. All three were charged with “unlicensed possession of arms and plans to export weapons to the West Bank“. The verdicts can be appealed at the Cassation Court within 30 days, legal sources said. Under the peace treaty that was concluded with Israel in 1994, Jordan pledged not to allow its territory be used for staging attacks against the Jewish state.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/198592,jordan-sends-three-suspects-to-prison-on-terrorist-charges.html