Al-Qaeda's second banana calls on Muslims to "disinfect" North Africa of Spanish and French

Al-Zawahiri sounds a good bit like Hitler here. It plays well with his audience. "Al-Qaeda: Al-Zawahiri calls to 'disinfect the Maghreb of Spanish and French nationals,'" a translation of a Spanish news story by Claudia at Tea and Politics, January 1:

Al-Qaeda retakes its offensive against the West threatening.

This time the message comes from Al-Zawahiri, AQ's No.2. In a video, he addresses the members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, those who have kidnapped three Spanish volunteers (and another French national).

Al-Zawahiri assures that they will never be able to reconquest Al-Andalus without cleaning, "disinfecting" he says literally, the Maghreb of the "Infidels", those who for Bin Laden's No.2 are represented by Spanish and French nationals in the area.The video message is subtitled in English and Al-Zawahiri asks Muslims to be with his sons, the mujahidienes.

He shows the territory they must reconquer, a map of the Iberian Peninsula, which in this occassion goes beyond the Pyrenees.

In the video there are images of Cordoba's mosque or Granada's Alhambra in which Bin Laden and Co. appear with the black flag of Islam....

That is the flag of jihad.

With thanks to JihadWatch

'abduction plague' in N. Africa

Kidnappings of foreigners is on the rise in North Africa as criminal cells seek financial and political gain.

Four Saudis were killed and three seriously wounded in the latest of a series of kidnapping attempts as they were ambushed in the western Tillaberi region of Niger on Monday.

According to a report in the London-based A-Sharq Al-Awsat the assailants were attempting to kidnap the Saudis with the intention of passing them on to Al-Qa'ida for profit.

"By any standard the kidnappings are lucrative," Geoff Porter, Director in Eurasia Group's Middle East and Africa division told The Media Line. "By local standards of the Sahara, the kidnappings are astoundingly lucrative."

Ransoms are rumored to reach millions of dollars.

"Most Nigerians and a large number of Malian live on less than a dollar a day. Obviously, the kidnappings have their associated expenses, so ransoms are not pure profit, but the profit margin has to be higher than many other legal activities in the Sahara."

Monday's incident went afoul when one of the Saudis opened fire in self-defense and triggered an exchange of fire, the report claimed.

The kidnappers' cell numbers some 30 people and operates mostly on the border between Mali and Niger, and in holiday resorts. Tourists, especially Westerners, are reportedly targeted and handed over to Al-Qa'ida for a cut of the ransom money subsequently paid by governments.

Algerian sources said a cell of Arab Nigerians headed by a weapons smuggler identified by the initials M.I. planned Monday's ambush with the intention of selling them to senior Al-Qa'ida member, Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

Belmokhtar is associated with Al-Qa'ida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an Algerian terrorist group aligned with the global Al-Qa'ida.

"In the majority of instances the kidnappers' motives seem to be purely financial," Porter said. "There is one active AQIM member in the Sahara, Abdel Hamid Abu Zaid, who seems to be driven by genuine Salafi-Jihadi hostility toward non-Muslims and Europeans. He seems, however, to be in the distinct minority and even other AQIM members, for example Mokhtar Belmokhtar, seem to be motivated by profit rather than ideology."

AQIM has claimed the majority of kidnappings that have plagued North Africa for the past year. The organization has also claimed responsibility for the abduction of an Italian couple earlier this month in Mauritania and the kidnapping of three Spanish nationals in Mauritania in late November.

A spokesman for the organization told Al-Arabiyya satellite channel that the abduction of the Italians was tied to what he called Italy's crime in Iraq and Afghanistan. Italy says it will not negotiate with the terror organization and that it will not change its policies in Afghanistan.

"The number of kidnappings has risen since December 2008," said Louis Caprioli, Director of the Department of International Security at GEOS, a risk management company.

"There are several reasons for this," he told The Media Line. "First, AQIM has intensified its presence in Mauritania, Algeria and in the whole Sahel region."

"Second, they are taking advantage of people from Mali and Mauritania to support them and lead their actions in those countries. They're benefiting from the many cells in those countries."

"Another reason is that the security services in Mauritania, Mali and Niger do not have the equipment or the ability to fight these organizations," Caprioli added. "There's a huge difficulty in controlling this desert region of the Sahel."

"Historically the Sahel is a region where a lot of illegal trafficking takes place," he explained. "Cigarettes, drugs, stolen cars and weapons - all this illegal trafficking has increased the criminality rate in this region. The illegal weapons trafficking benefited from the civil wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Ivory Coast."

Governments very rarely admit they have paid ransom to secure the release of their nationals, Caprioli said.

"I think that when a hostage is liberated it's not because of the kindness of the kidnappers," Caprioli said. "It's not a good solution but the governments don't have other solutions. The public opinion is also pressuring the governments to pay, so it's their only solution. One of the difficulties in the region is that the liberation of hostages by military means is really difficult. The problem is that the armies in Niger, Mauritania and Mali do not have the material means to lead operations to release hostages. Add to this the problem that usually the hostages are held in regions like north Mali, which are very difficult to access. They're held in no-man's land."

Governments in the region are often prevented from accepting military assistance from foreign governments due to sovereignty considerations.

"While states may oppose paying ransoms, many companies and some individuals buy Kidnap-and-Ransom insurance," Porter said. "These pay out a ransom in the event of being taken hostage."

"Foreign firms that operate in kidnap-vulnerable areas include the cost of K&R insurance in their operating budgets," he added. "Obviously if ransoms were no longer being paid that would remove a huge incentive for the kidnappers, but when someone you know has been kidnapped, you are no longer looking at patterns and trends. Instead, you're focusing on resolving one particular situation and you pay the ransom."

"The payment of ransoms has demonstrated that money can be made taking hostages," Porter explained. "Eventually the pace of kidnappings will level out, and then decline as the number of foreigners traveling to the region decreases. Travelers will become more and more aware of the risk and will no longer visit or pass through areas with a high likelihood of being kidnapped."

Kidnappings that have taken place in North Africa over the past year:

- December 2008. Two Canadian diplomats working for the United Nations are kidnapped in Niger. AQIM claims responsibility. They were released in April. Canada said no ransom was paid.

JPost

U.S. Officials: Arrests in Africa Link Al Qaeda and Drugs

WASHINGTON — Three accused Al Qaeda associates taken to New York on Friday are charged with plotting to ferry drugs through the Sahara desert to raise money for terror attacks — evidence of what prosecutors say is a dangerous, growing alliance between terror chiefs and drug lords.

The arrests mark the first time U.S. authorities have captured and charged Al Qaeda suspects in a drug trafficking plot in Africa.

The three suspects — believed to be in their 30s and originally from Mali — were arrested by local authorities in Ghana earlier this week and turned over to U.S. agents.

They arrived in the United States early Friday morning, officials said, and were ordered held without bail after a brief court appearance later in the day in which they did not enter pleas to charges of narcoterrorism conspiracy and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

Michele Leonhart, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the case shows a "direct link" between Al Qaeda and drug traffickers.

The U.S. has long been concerned about close ties between militants and the heroin trade in Afghanistan. But the African case appears to show an expansion of both Al Qaeda's illegal activities around the globe and American efforts to curtail black market deals that funnel cash to spur terror operations.

The four-month investigation was also the third time in recent years that the U.S. has targeted transnational suspects in an elaborate sting using informants posing as South American narcoterrorism operatives.

U.S. attorney Preet Bharara said the charges show "the emergence of a worrisome alliance between Al Qaeda and transnational narcotics traffickers.

As terrorists diversify into drugs, however, they provide us with more opportunities to incapacitate them and cut off the funding for future acts of terror."

Authorities say the men are associates of Al Qaeda's North African branch, and told DEA informants that Al Qaeda could protect major shipments of cocaine in the region, driving the drugs by truck through the Sahara desert before eventually bringing them to Spain.

A criminal complaint unsealed Friday charges that Oumar Issa, Harouna Toure, and Idriss Abelrahman worked with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb.

Court papers say Toure and Abelrahman at one point claimed the profits from the drug business "will go to their people to support the fight for 'the cause'."

Court papers say the DEA infiltrated the group by using informants posing as supporters of Colombia's rebel army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist organization.

More at FoxNews

Al-Qaeda group claims kidnappings

A spokesman claiming to represent al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings last month of four Europeans in Mali and Mauritania.

The claim was made in an audiotape obtained by Al Jazeera on Tuesday.

"Two units of the valiant mujahedeen managed to kidnap four Europeans in two distinct operations:

the first in Mali where Frenchman Pierre Camatte was seized on November 25, and the second in Mauritania where three Spaniards were held on November 29," the spokesman, who identified himself as Saleh Abu Mohammad, said on the tape.

He added that "France and Spain will be informed later of the legitimate demands of the mujahedeen", but did not go into detail about the demands.

Camatte, the kidnapped Frenchman, was snatched from a hotel in the Sahel region of northern Mali on the night of November 25.

The three kidnapped Spaniards were working as volunteers in Mauritania delivering humanitarian aid when they were kidnapped on November 29.

They have been named as Albert Vilalta, 35, Alicia Gamez, 35, and Roque Pascual, 50.

Earlier this year a US-based monitoring group reported that AQIM had claimed responsibility for killing Briton Edwin Dyer, one of a group of six Westerners kidnapped in Niger in January.

The group had said threatened to kill Dyer unless the British government released Abu Qatada, a Muslim cleric, from a UK prison.

Al Jazeera

Atomic collider scientist 'offered to work' for al-Qa'ida

Charles Bremner and Adam Sage

A FRENCH physicist with the European atomic research centre near Geneva has been charged with terrorism offences after investigators said he offered to work with the North African branch of al-Qa'ida.

Adlene Hicheur, 32, who is of Algerian origin, was arrested last week with Halim, his younger brother, after intelligence agents intercepted his alleged internet contacts with al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb.

The physicist, who works at the giant atomic collider at CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research), which straddles Swiss and French territory, told the Islamic group that he was interested in committing an attack but had not begun any material preparation, according to police sources. He had acknowledged contacting the militant organisation, they said.

The brother was released last weekend without charge.

Judge Christophe Teissier, of the anti-terrorist branch, ordered the French internal security service, the DCRI, to open an investigation into the possible offence of "association with criminals in relation with a terrorist enterprise". Judge Teissier placed the scientist under formal investigation and ordered his detention.

The arrest raised the possibility that Islamist militants could be seeking nuclear weapons technology or planning to attack nuclear targets.

Mr Hicheur is reported to have worked for the British Government's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in Oxfordshire for about a year in 2005. He was placed under surveillance by French officers last year after US intelligence services intercepted internet messages he allegedly sent to contacts close to al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim).

Read more here,,,,

Source: The Australian

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb banned in Russia

MOSCOW, November 13(RIA Novosti) - Russia's Supreme Court has ruled to ban al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, classifying it as a terrorist organization, the General Prosecutor's Office said on Thursday.

"The Supreme Court has upheld a request by the General Prosecutor's Office to acknowledge the international organization al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb a terrorist organization and ban its activities in Russia," the office said on its website.

Based on the court's decision, the organization will be put on the federal list of terrorist organizations.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, is an Islamist militant organization aiming to overthrow the Algerian government and establish Islamist rule. The group targets Algerian, U.S. and French nationals and facilities, and has been classified a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the EU.

The organization claimed responsibility for a terrorist attack in March 2007, which killed one Russian and several Algerian nationals when a roadside bomb went off 130 kilometers from the Algerian capital as gas pipeline construction workers were returning by bus to their base camp. The group said the attack was an act of retribution to those Russians waging war against Islam in Chechnya.

Source: RIA Novosti