UK suspends direct Yemen flights

Britain is suspending direct flights to Yemen as part of security measures implemented in the wake of an attempted airliner bombing on Christmas Day.

Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, told parliament on Wednesday that the country would introduce new no-fly lists in response to what he said was a threat from al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Yemen.

"We know that a number of terrorist cells are trying to target Britain and other countries," he said.

He called Yemen "an incubator and safe haven" for such fighters.

"We have agreed with Yemenia airlines - pending enhanced security - that they suspend their direct flights to the UK from Yemen with immediate effect," Brown said.

A Yemenia official told the Reuters news agency that Britain had requested the airline first stop in a third country for security checks if it wants to fly to the UK.

The official said no other countries had suspended direct flights.

The decision to increase airport security comes after a Nigerian alleged to have links with extremist elements in Yemen was accused of attempting to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight to the US using concealed explosives.

Britain has already announced that full-body scanners will be set up at London's Heathrow airport within weeks.

It also comes as Yemen faces increased pressure from the West to clamp down on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed responsibility for the December 25 incident.

Yemen's government says it is winning the battle against al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters, pointing to two air attacks in December which it said killed more than 60 suspected members.

Al Jazeera

Yemen 'can handle al-Qaeda menace'

The Yemeni government has vowed to deal with the "menace of al-Qaeda in Yemen" after the group claimed responsibility for a plot to bring down an aircraft bound for the US city of Detroit on Christmas.

Saying his government would not authorise or co-operate with any potential US strike on its soil, Abdullah Alsaidi, Yemen's permanent representative to the United Nations, told Al Jazeera that his country "is capable of taking care of its own problems".

Alsaidi welcomed co-operation with and assistance from the US "with respect to intelligence information", saying it was necessary to Yemen's battle against al-Qaeda.

But he added that "we are not encouraging US attacks, we are saying that Yemen will take care of this problem on its own".

On Wednesday, Yemeni security forces raided an alleged al-Qaeda hideout in a western province, sparking a gun battle with fighters.

A security official speaking on condition of anonymity said the target was a house owned by an al-Qaeda sympathiser.

The official said the owner was arrested, a suspected al-Qaeda member was injured and several fighters who fled were being pursued.

Brigadier-General Saleh al-Zawari, Yemen's deputy interior minister, told senior military officials that the interior ministry "will continue tracking down al-Qaeda terrorists and will continue its strikes against the group until it is totally eliminated".

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian passenger, was arrested last Friday on suspicion of trying to bring down the Northwest Airlines aircraft carrying 289 people.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot of Osama bin Laden's group based in Yemen, claimed it was behind the attempt.

US investigators said Abdulmutallab told them he received training and instructions from al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen.

Yemen's government said Abdulmutallab spent two periods in the country, from 2004-2005 and from August to December this year, just before the attempted attack.

And Alsaidi told Al Jazeera that Abdulmutallab "was probably in touch with terror cells" in Yemen, although the envoy denied that the explosives from the failed attack came from his country, saying Abdulmutallab "most likely picked them up somewhere else".

"I have also heard from other governments that he picked them up in other African countries closer to Nigeria," he said.

Abdulmutallab's Yemen connection has drawn attention to al-Qaeda's presence in the country.

Before Wednesday's clashes, Yemeni forces backed by US intelligence carried out two major strikes against al-Qaeda hideouts this month, reportedly killing more than 60 fighters.

The US has increasingly provided intelligence, surveillance and training to Yemeni forces in the past year, and has provided some firepower, according to a senior US defence official, who requested anonymity.

Bryan Whitman, a US defence department spokesman, said Yemen received $67m in training and support under the Pentagon's counterterrorism programme last year, second only to $112m spent in Pakistan.

"We are going to work with allies and partners to seek out terrorist activity, al-Qaeda, wherever they operate, plan their operations, seek safe harbour," he said, adding that "this is an effort that is years old now".

But US officials downplayed reports that retaliatory strikes in Yemen would be launched.

"These reports are inflammatory and do not address the issue," Barbara Bodine, a former US ambassador to Yemen, told Al Jazeera, adding that "we need to understand the size, configuration of the al-Qaeda presence in Yemen".

"Any moves would be better done by the Yemen military. Conducting air strikes would not help either, as you would end up with collateral damage. Actions such as these are merely reactionary, but not aimed at solving the problem," she said.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama, the US president, has demanded a preliminary report by Thursday on the security lapses in the plane bomb plot.

He said the intelligence community should have been able to piece together information that would have raised "red flags" and possibly prevented Abdulmutallab from boarding the airliner.

Abdulmutallab had been placed in one broad database but never made it on to more restrictive lists, despite his father's warnings to US embassy officials in Nigeria last month.

The failed attack in Detroit was launched almost a year after al-Qaeda's operations in Yemen and Saudi Arabia united to form al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, making Yemen its base.

Al Jazeera

Spain jails 11 "men" for jihad plot

"Asians." "Men." "Men of South Asian origin." "Pakistanis." "Men." "Born in Pakistan." "Pakistani origin."

Eight paragraphs in, we learn it was a "suspected Islamist cell." Until then, one might almost have gotten the impression that Pakistan had declared war on Spain.

And that is the problem with this kind of coverage, which is, of course, thoroughly ordinary. It is not because they are "men," or "Asians," or "Pakistanis" that they are waging war on Spain. So these reports are essentially misleading.

"Asians jailed over planned metro attack," from AFP, December 15

Spain's anti-terrorism court has convicted 11 men of South Asian origin, mostly Pakistanis, in connection with a plot to stage suicide attacks in the Barcelona metro last year.

The men have received jail terms of between eight and 14 years, a copy of the ruling indicates.

They intended to "carry out a violent attack using explosives against the Barcelona metro, which could have caused many casualties", the court said on Monday.

"The indiscriminate aim is evidence of the terrorist nature of the attacks."

Shaib Iqbal and Qadeer Malik, both born in Pakistan, received the stiffest terms of 14 years and six months for "belonging to a terrorist group" and for "weapons possession".

Maroof Ahmed Mirza, also of Pakistani origin and who the court said was "the leader of the group", was jailed for 10-and-a-half years for "belonging to a terrorist group", while the other eight each received terms of eight-and-a-half years on the same charge.

Ten of the men were arrested in the northeastern city of Barcelona in January 2008 in raids during which police also recovered bomb-making equipment. Another was detained five months later in the Netherlands.

The charges were based on the declarations of an informant who was a member of the suspected Islamist cell and who then became a protected witness.

The court said the cell was inspired by Baitullah Mehsud, leader of a Pakistani Taliban group linked to al-Qaeda, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan....

In May 2007, Spain's high court acquitted 11 Pakistanis of planning extremist attacks in Barcelona, but convicted three of them of collaborating with terrorists and two of falsifying documents.

With thanks to JihadWatch

Germany to Send Observer to 9/11 Trial

BERLIN (AP) A German government official says the nation will send an observer to the upcoming trial in New York of the professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and four accused henchmen.

Justice Ministry spokeswoman Katharina Jahntz on Saturday confirmed a report in Der Spiegel that a German observer would attend the trial to ensure that no evidence provided by Germany would be used to apply the death penalty.

U.S. authorities announced last week that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be tried by a New York court. No date has been set.

Three of the four suicide pilots who carried out the attacks had lived and studied in the northern German city of Hamburg.

Germany, like the rest of Europe, except for Belarus, does not execute criminals.

1010WINS

H/T: Smooth Stone

German Authorities ID Convert to Islam as Al Qaeda Suspect

BERLIN — Authorities have identified a 27-year-old German convert to Islam as an Al Qaeda associate suspected of traveling to Afghanistan and planning to attack German targets.

The report could fuel concerns about European converts being recruited by Islamist terrorist groups for attacks.

The Federal Criminal Police Office confirmed a Spiegel Online report Sunday that it had posted notices across Afghanistan warning that the Kazakhstan-born ethnic German, identified as Jan Sch., may plan attacks on German military or civilian institutions in Afghanistan.

The German-language posters included a description of the suspect and his picture. They were put up at German military bases and civilian institutions, security check points, embassies and the international airport, according to Spiegel.

Jan Sch., who is also known as Hamza, has only recently traveled to the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Spiegel reported. He left Germany in 2004 to study Arabic in Saudi Arabia. However, he was seen in his hometown of Saarbruecken several times after his departure from Germany.

According to the report, Jan Sch. allegedly is an acquaintance of Fritz Gelowicz, a member of an alleged radical Islamic terrorist cell whose plot to attack U.S. targets in Germany was foiled by authorities in 2007.

Spiegel also wrote that the criminal office warns of several other German extremists who supposedly have traveled to Afghanistan in recent months.

Jan Sch. "is said to be one of the intellectuals of the German Islamist radical scene, who is often asked for advice. This makes him a possible leader in the eyes of the terrorism investigators," Spiegel Online wrote.

FoxNews

Egyptians seek to prosecute Nasrallah

Roee Nahmias

An Egyptian prosecution team, appointed to handle a suspected terror cell set up in the country, demands putting Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah at the top of the list of defendants in the affair, which includes 26 people, Egyptian newspaper al-Gomhuria reported Friday.

During a discussion held at an Egyptian court, the defendants refused to accept the appointed Egyptian defense team, after the previous team resigned last Wednesday. The court decided to postpone the discussion to November 21.

Meanwhile in Lebanon, some harsh criticism has been voiced against the Nasrallah's Shiite organization. Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir of the Maronite Church slammed Hezbollah, saying the organization works for Iran's interests more than it does for Lebanon.

He told the al-Masira magazine that weapons are not in line with democracy and that the majority faction (Lebanon's anti-Syrian camp) and the minority faction (the camp led by Hezbollah) cannot sit in the same government.

Sfeir noted that "in Lebanon, there are those who are assisted by elements from the outside to make political gains in the parliament or government," pointing to Hezbollah. He added that arms must be in the possession of the military only.

Lebanese media outlets reported that the launcher of a rocket fired at Israel from the village of Houla on Tuesday resembled the launcher of a rocket fired recently from the village of al-Qalila.

A group called "the Ziad Al-Jarrah Brigades", belonging to the Global Jihad, claimed responsibility for the previous firing incident.

Lebanese security sources noted that this organization was attempting to undermine the security and stability in southern Lebanon and portray itself as an organization leading a battle through rocket fire. According to the sources, there is no chance that this will happen as Hezbollah controls the south.

Source: YNet

'Terror cell' found in cradle of 9/11

By Tony Paterson in Berlin

German intelligence services were yesterday reported to have discovered a new Islamic terrorist cell operating from the port of Hamburg – the same city from which the devastating 9/11 attacks on the United States were secretly conceived and planned eight years ago.

The existence of the new militant group in the city was revealed in a secret report prepared by Hamburg-based intelligence agents which was leaked to German television's investigative documentary programme Report Mainz and Die Welt newspaper.

It said the cell, which had ten members, was headed by a German of Syrian extraction, identified only as Rami M.

All ten were said to have left Hamburg earlier this year to attend paramilitary training camps in the Hindu Kush. However two of the cell's members were reported to have recently returned.

All of them were said to have used Hamburg's Taiba Mosque as a meeting place, the same location frequented by the 9/11 leader Mohammed Atta and his accomplices before they carried out the attacks on New York's World Trade Centre and Washington.

"It is to be assumed that these persons are absolutely prepared to carry out suicide or other attacks at home or abroad," the report was cited as saying. "The members of the group have a basic commitment to jihad and belong to Hamburg's potentially violent pro-jihad scene."

The disclosures came amid heightened post-general election nervousness in Germany about the possibility of terrorist attacks and the release of some eight al-Qa'ida internet videos in German threatening violence in response to the continued deployment of 4,200 Bundeswehr troops in northern Afghanistan.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Germany's security services were heavily criticised for failing to catch the perpetrators. Since then they appear to have redoubled their efforts and operate closely with their US counterparts.

The leaks about the Hamburg cell came only days after German anti-terrorist police took the unprecedented step of throwing a massive security cordon around the Munich Oktoberfest. Revellers at the world's largest beer festival held in the Bavarian capital each autumn were searched and fighter jets were put on standby near the site.

"The danger is absolutely real," said Joachim Hermann, the Bavarian Interior Minister yesterday. "We know that increasing numbers are attending these training camps."

Germany's Federal Criminal Bureau says around 180 Islamic militants have either attended or are planning to attend paramilitary al-Qa'ida-run training camps in the Hindu Kush and that about 80 had returned to Germany.

The latest of eight recent al-Qa'ida videos in German surfaced at the weekend. They included threats delivered by a 32-year-old German Moroccan called Bekkay Harrach, a student who once lived in Bonn but who is now thought to be living on the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The clips also contained statements by militants hitherto unknown to the intelligence services.

In one of his statements, Harrach evidently wanted to evoke the 2004 Madrid bombings which killed 191 people days before a Spanish general election. He threatened attacks within two weeks of Germany's general election and warned Muslims living there be on their guard.

German security experts have interpreted the latest threats as an attempt to put pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel's new coalition of conservatives and liberals, which is committed to keeping troops in Afghanistan for the forseeable future.

Source: The Independent

H/T: Islam in Europe

Doctor jailed 32 years for UK plots

December 18, 2008

LONDON: An Iraqi doctor found guilty of trying to murder hundreds of people in failed car bombings in London and Glasgow was last night jailed for at least 32 years.

Bilal Abdulla, 29, who was born in Britain but raised in Iraq, was found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London on Tuesday of conspiracy to cause explosions for the failed attacks in June last year.

Judge Colin Crichton Mackay told Abdulla last night he was a "religious extremist and a bigot" before passing two life sentences on him, with a minimum of 32years.

"Many people felt and still feel strong opposition to the invasion of Iraq. You do, you are sincere in that and you have strong reasons for holding that view," the judge said. "But you were born with intelligence and you were born into a privileged and well-to-do position in Iraq and you are a trained doctor."

Abdulla's radical beliefs meant he remained a danger, he said. "All of the evidence makes you a very dangerous man; you pose a high risk of serious harm to the British public in your present state of mind.

"That fact plus the circumstances of the offences themselves means that the only possible sentence on each of these two counts is a life sentence."

During the trial, Abdulla admitted he was a "terrorist" but accused the British Government of terrorism too for invading Iraq - and maintained he was not trying to kill or injure anyone.

His co-defendant Mohammed Asha, a 28-year-old Jordanian neurologist, was cleared on all counts. Dr Asha will be transferred to an immigration detention centre pending an attempt to deport him to his native Jordan. His solicitor said the doctor wanted to continue his career and would fight the deportation.

Counter-terrorism sources say Abdulla had been part of a terrorist cell in Iraq and had come to Britain to open a "new front" in the Islamist jihad after he had been refused permission to carry out a suicide attack in Baghdad.

The car bombs he tried to detonate outside the Tiger, Tiger nightclub and at Glasgow airport were the first attacks in Britain to have been inspired - but not directed - by al-Qa'ida in Iraq.

Previous Islamist plots had connections to al-Qa'ida and Kashmiri extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The only victim of the failed attacks was Kafeel Ahmed, Abdulla's accomplice, a student from India, who died from burns suffered after driving the car bomb into the airport terminal.

Police are satisfied that Abdulla was the leader of the terrorist cell and had indoctrinated Ahmed, whose engineering skills he needed to construct the bombs.

Abdulla, the son of respected physicians who had trained in Britain before returning to Iraq with their five-year-old son, had witnessed the first and second invasions of his home country by allied forces. A Sunni, he came to hate Shia Muslims.

US sources say that before he arrived in Britain, he had associated with a Sunni terrorist cell in Baghdad and had played a backroom role, possibly as a quartermaster. His professional background and excellent English meant he could not be wasted in a martyrdom mission in Iraq.

In Britain, he was detected by MI5 on the periphery of extremist activity when he associated with Muslim radicals, including members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir party, while studying in Cambridge.

He was not known to have associations with any active terrorists in Britain.

The planting of the two car bombs - which were packed with petrol canisters, propane gas cylinders and nails - in the West End caught the authorities off guard in June last year. The devices failed to explode.

Police across Britain were involved in a fast-moving pursuit of the two bombers as they made their way north to prepare their suicidal assault on Glasgow airport.

Having recovered mobile phones from the bomb cars, police were able to track Abdulla and Ahmed as they returned to Scotland, stopping to visit Dr Asha.

Police arrived at the bomb factory about 5am on the day of the airport attack. The bombers had left an hour before.

Source: The Australian