Six beheaded in militant slaughter

TALIBAN militants have beheaded six Afghans they accused of spying for the government of President Hamid Karzai.

Police today confirmed the killings of six "moderate Taliban", saying the men had "cooperated with the authorities".

The victims' bodies were found with their heads totally separated in a house near the capital of the southern province of Uruzgan on Thursday, Juma Gul Hema, the provincial police chief, told AFP.

One man survived the attack with a deep gash across his throat, he said.

"A group of moderate Taliban had gathered in a house near Tirin Kot," he said.

"A group of Taliban terrorists went there and beheaded them all. They had separated the heads of six of them."

The seventh man was still alive, he said.

The Australian

Update: Hizbullah say blast caused by espionage device

IDF sources responded to Hizbullah reports that it had uncovered three Israeli "spying devices", saying that the incident was staged by the Lebanese terror group in an attempt to divert attention from the explosion of a weapons cache in Tayr last week, Channel 10 reported on Sunday evening.

Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV station had said a blast that rocked the Wadi Houla area in southern Lebanon on Saturday was apparently caused by the detonation of three "spying devices" that Israel had planted in the area.

Al-Manar claimed that after the devices were discovered, at least one was remotely destroyed by the IDF.

Lebanese army and UNIFIL troops arrived at the scene amid public panic and began working to destroy one of the devices, the TV station reported.

The Voice of Lebanon radio station reported that the explosion following a breach in Hizbullah's secure telecommunications network, which reportedly led to the discovery of two 50-meter cables near an Israeli outpost across the border.

According to the Voice of Lebanon, one of the cables had been used for wiretapping, while the other had been used for broadcasting.

News agency DPA in Beirut quoted a Lebanese source who suggested that the devices the Lebanese army had detonated were "batteries" belonging to the "espionage device" that had exploded earlier.

IDF troops were said to have conducted patrols close to the border later in the day.

Hizbullah has for years been claiming to find various forms of "listening" or "spying" devices on Lebanese soil.

The IDF Spokesman Office said it was "looking into" Sunday's claims.

Source: JPost

London denies UK Muslim spy charge

The British government has denied that a programme for tackling religious extremism is used by its security agencies to spy on Muslim communities.

In a statement released on Saturday, the Home Office said its $230m Preventing Violent Extremism strategy did not engage in covert intelligence-gathering on potential terrorists.

"Any suggestion that Prevent is about spying is simply wrong," the Home Office said.

"Prevent is about working with communities to protect vulnerable individuals and address the root causes of radicalisation."

Launched in 2006, the programme's mission was to fund projects aimed at rejecting extremist ideology and employing youth workers and teachers to help young Muslims deemed vulnerable to radical organisations.

But in a critical report, the Institute of Race Relations claimed the programme has, in effect, established "one of the most elaborate systems of surveillance ever seen in Britain".

Arun Kundnani, the report's author, concludes that far from tackling extremism, Prevent actually fostered division, mistrust and alienation.

"The Prevent progamme constructs the Muslim population as a 'suspect community' ... encourages tokenism, facilitates violations of privacy and professional norms of confidentiality, discourages local democracy and is counter-productive in reducing the risk of political violence", Kundnani said.

Read more here,,,,

Source: Al Jazeera (English)

Britain's Spy Service Says Islamist Terrorism Severe, but Not Growing

LONDON — Britain's domestic spy service thinks the threat from Islamist terrorism has stopped growing but remains severe, with terrorists eager to acquire weapons of mass destruction, according to the first authorized history of the agency.

"The Defence of the Realm," by Cambridge University historian Christopher Andrew, was commissioned by the agency, MI5, to mark its 100th anniversary this year -- the first time a major intelligence agency has granted an outsider access to its secret files.

The 1,000-page volume, published Monday, describes an organization that fought Hitler with stunning success but struggled to combat Soviet espionage during the Cold War and initially failed to grasp the threat from Islamic extremism.

Andrew claims MI5 was "slow to see the coming menace of Islamist terrorism." The book says the agency's then-head, Stella Rimington, had never heard the name Al Qaeda until a meeting in Washington in 1996, during which MI5 representatives were "taken aback by the interest" in Osama bin Laden shown by the Americans.

That changed with the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Since then MI5 has foiled several major terrorist plots against Britain, including a plan to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners using liquid explosives, for which several British Muslims were sentenced to life in prison last month.

It failed to stop the July 7, 2005 London transit bombings, which killed 52 bus and subway passengers, and Andrew said Al Qaeda-inspired terrorists remain determined to kill even more people with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

Read more here,,,,

Source: FoxNews

French agents tried under Sharia law

From correspondents in Mogadishu | July 19

TWO French agents kidnapped in Somalia will be tried soon under Islamic Sharia law for aiding "the enemy of Allah", an official of the hardline Shebab rebel group holding them said today.

A Somali minister says the two have been taken out of the capital and there's concern for their safety.

Separately, three foreign aid workers were also reported kidnapped on Friday night in a Kenyan town close to the Somali border.

The French agents "were caught assisting the apostate government and their spies'', a senior Shebab officer said on condition of anonymity.

He said they will "soon be tried and punished under the Sharia law, they will face the justice court for spying and entering Somalia to assist the enemy of Allah''.

"The decision about their fate will depend on the outcome of the Islamic court that will hear the charges against them,'' he said.

The two agents, in Somalia to train government forces, were snatched at gunpoint from their hotel in central Mogadishu early on Tuesday.

Shebab is one of two allied Islamic insurgent groups battling to overthrow the transitional government which is supported by the international community.

Somalia's Social Affairs Minister Mohammed Ali Ibrahim told French news channel France 24 on Saturday from Mogadishu that the two men have been taken out of the capital.

"As long as they were here, there were contacts,'' he said. "Intermediaries were in contact with Shebab and we knew they were in good health, but since this morning they have been taken away.''

"We must be concerned about them and take strong action'', he added.

He said France is putting pressure on Eritrea, which allegedly arms Shebab and other extremists in Somalia - something Asmara denies - and the Somali Government is also sending envoys to Shebab. Read more here ...

Source: The Australian

China tries to block Uighur film

Rebiya Kadeer has campaigned for the rights of China's Uighur community

Organisers of Melbourne's International Film Festival have defied calls from China not to show a documentary about an exiled Uighur leader.

Festival director Richard Moore said a Chinese consular official had insisted that the film be withdrawn, but he had refused to do so.

The film, Ten Conditions of Love, centres on Rebiya Kadeer, the US-based head of the World Uighur Congress.

China accuses the group of inciting recent ethnic unrest in Xinjiang.

Beijing and Canberra are already locked in a row over an Australian mining executive who has been arrested for spying in China.

'Strident'

Mr Moore said that after the event's programme was published, he was contacted by Melbourne-based Chinese cultural attache Chunmei Chen who urged him to withdraw the film.

"I said I had no reason to withdraw the film from the festival and she then proceeded to tell me that I had to justify my decision to include the film in the festival.

"No-one reacts well to strident approaches, or to the appearance of being bullied. I don't think it's a positive way of behaving," he added.

He said he told Ms Chen he did not have to justify the film's inclusion, "then politely hung up".

Chinese troops have restored order in Xinjiang after bloody riots

The Chinese consulate in Melbourne has not commented on the incident.

China has accused Ms Kadeer of orchestrating recent bloodshed in Xinjiang, home to the ethnic Muslim Uighurs and a growing number of China's Han majority.

Violence between the two groups this month has left more than 180 people dead and more than 1,600 injured, Chinese authorities say.

Ms Kadeer, one of China's richest women, was jailed in China for endangering national security but released in 2005 on medical grounds. She now lives in the US.

Ten Conditions of Love, by Melbourne film-maker Jeff Daniels, tells of Ms Kadeer's relationship with her activist husband Sidik Rouzi and the impact her campaigning had on her 11 children.

Three of her children have been jailed.

'Spying' arrest

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned China on Wednesday that governments and corporations around the world were watching how it handled the case of an Australian mining executive.

Stern Hu, the Australian head of Rio Tinto's iron ore business in China, was detained on suspicion of industrial espionage relating to negotiations with Chinese steel mills over iron ore prices.

Source: BBC

McClelland gave references for sheik 'spy'

EXCLUSIVE: Paul Maley and Drew Warne-Smith | July 17

THE federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, supplied a glowing character reference for a Sydney sheik accused of spying for Iran just months after learning ASIO had rejected his residency application on national security grounds.

The Australian can reveal that Mr McClelland wrote two character references in 1997 for controversial Iranian cleric Mansour Leghaei, who is accused by ASIO of engaging in "specific acts of foreign interference".

Sheik Leghaei has been fighting to stay in Australia for more than a decade, despite ASIO issuing two adverse security assessments against him.

However, The Australian has been told the assessment may be reviewed, a move that would pave the way for a fresh visa.

When he was appointed Attorney-General in 2007, Mr McClelland said he disclosed the first reference written on Sheik Leghaei's behalf to the "relevant agencies" within his portfolio. But he has refused to say whether he disclosed the second reference, in which he expressed "surprise" at ASIO's findings and vouched for Sheik Leghaei's good character.

Mr McClelland's second reference is likely to become an issue for him if ASIO, which falls under his portfolio, is required to review its assessment of Sheik Leghaei.

News of the references comes amid claims that a prominent local leader met Mr McClelland and fellow Rudd government minister Anthony Albanese to plead on Sheik Leghaei's behalf in the months immediately after Labor took office.

Last night, a spokesman for Mr McClelland confirmed that when he was an opposition backbencher, he had written two references for Sheik Leghaei, who was a local constituent and a preacher in his electorate.

The spokesman said Mr McClelland was not privy to the content of security assessments about Sheik Leghaei at the time. "Upon his appointment as Attorney-General, Mr McClelland disclosed the contents of the reference to relevant agencies within his portfolio," he said.

However, the spokesman refused to say which reference the minister had disclosed. Nor did he address Mr McClelland's expression of surprise in the second reference about ASIO's finding, in his residency application, that the sheik was a threat to national security.

Read more here.....

Source: The Australian

Iran says US-Iranian reporter appeals jail term

Jailed Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi has appealed against her eight-year sentence for spying against Iran, the official IRNA news agency said on Tuesday.

Saberi, 31, was sentenced on Saturday on charges of spying for the United States, in a verdict that could complicate Washington's efforts towards reconciliation with the Islamic Republic after three decades of mutual mistrust."Saberi has appealed and I hope that the appeal court will change the verdict," IRNA quoted judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi as saying.

Source: Ynet

Ahmadinejad enters US reporter's case

Roxana Saberi with former Iranian President Mohammad
Khatami

April 20,

TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called last night for fair treatment of US journalist Roxana Saberi, who has been convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison by Iran's Revolutionary Court.

In a rare intervention in judicial proceedings, Mr Ahmadinejad said the Tehran prosecutor should examine the cases against Saberi and Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian-Canadian blogger who has been behind bars since November.

"At the President's insistence, you must do what is needed to secure justice ... in examining these people's charges," said a letter from the President's chief of staff, Abdolreza Sheikholeslami, to prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi. "Take care that the defendants have all the legal freedoms and rights to defend themselves against the charges."

Saberi, 31, a former American beauty queen, has been in detention in Tehran's notorious Evin prison since January 31. She was charged with espionage this month and tried last week behind closed doors.

Derakhshan has been detained since his arrival in Iran in November last year and is being investigated on charges of insulting Shia imams.

US President Barack Obama, who has called for dialogue with Iran since he took office in January, was "deeply disappointed" at Saberi's sentence.

Saberi holds both American and Iranian citizenship, but she travelled to Iran on her Iranian passport and this puts her under Iran's jurisdiction. Her sentence on Saturday marks the first time an Iranian-American journalist has been convicted of espionage in Iran.

Saberi, whose freelance work has appeared on National Public Radio, the BBC, Fox News and CBS, initially told her parents she was arrested for buying a bottle of wine. Purchasing alcohol is illegal in Iran.

Iranian officials said last week Saberi had confessed to charges of passing information to US intelligence agents. But her father, Reza Saberi, told US radio on Saturday his daughter had been "tricked" into a confession and said she told him the investigators promised her a release if she co-operated.

Saberi was born in New Jersey.

Source: The Australian