Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today's "Winds of War" is brought to you by Dan Darling. of Regnum Crucis.
TOP TOPICS
- Osama bin Laden, or someone who sounds like him, is offering $136,000 apiece in gold for the heads of top US administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer, UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, and UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. One might note that contrary to the news story, bin Laden earlier posted a $9,000,000 bounty on the heads of the CIA, FBI, State, and Defense departments, in addition to the more recent $15,000,000 bounty placed on the heads of Sanchez, Kimmit, and Rumsfeld.
- Russian-backed Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov has been assassinated along with 31 others in a massive explosive in Grozny during the Victory Day celebrations. Details are sketching, but some accounts suggest that the culprit was a female suicide bomber.
- more and more is being learned about the elaborate web of financing that Jemaah Islamiyyah is relying upon in the Philippines. At least one of the individuals in question, Abdullah, still has a huge bank account that has been open since at least 1998. This financial network is run by Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, bin Laden's brother-in-law and a free man in Saudi Arabia.
Other Topics Today Include: Iran Reports; warlords opposing Afghan disarmament drive; no breakthrough in Wana negotiations; more sectarian violence in Pakistan; Georgia reclaims Ajaria; Pattani separatists have Wahhabi and al-Qaeda ties; Islamists vs. Maosts in northern Bangladesh; Pekanbaru linked to Bali; 3 Bosnian charities identified as al-Qaeda fronts; al-Qaeda attack on Canada inevitable; every Iraqi mujahid an al-Qaeda member; Zarqawi ordered Casablanca bombings; al-Ansari is a Tora Bora veteran; Azizi met with 3/11 plotters; sectarian violence rocks Nigeria; Macedonian minister claims innocence; Indonesian Islamists want Bashir sprung; and the world's nuttiest dictator.
IRAN REPORTS
- The US is planning for the likelihood of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.
- The SMCCDI is reporting that Iran is importing as many as 2,000 Sudanese police to receive special training.
- Iran's hardline Council of Guardians have passed a law banning the use of torture. No doubt their next move will be to release all of the students currently behind bars.
THE WIDER WAR
- The UN special representative in Afghanistan is warning that the nation's disarmament drive is being placed jeopardy through the actions of Afghan warlords Ismail Khan, Mohammed Daoud, and Atta Mohammed.
- Despite all the bluster, there have been no breakthroughs in the Wana negotiations.
- Another suicide bombing targeting Shi'ites in Quetta has killed 15 and wounded 125. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi appears to be the top suspect at this point.
- President Mikheil Saakashvili has reclaimed Ajaria in a major victory for Russo-American relations. The more stable Georgia becomes, the less likely its lawless Pankisi Gorge is to harbor al-Qaeda and their Chechen allies.
- The Pattani separatists in southern Thailand are said to have Wahhabi ties as well as links to both al-Qaeda in general and JI in specific. The latest violence has been another cop killing in Narathiwat province.
- The Jagrota Muslim Janata has sprung up in northern Bangladesh to fight Maoist rebels campaigning for a communist state.
- Indonesian authorities are linking the Pekanbaru bombing that recently killed 2 to the Bali bombing.
- The US Treasury Department has frozen the assets of 3 Bosnian charities believed to have served as al-Qaeda front organizations.
- Canadian intelligence chief Ward Elcock says that it's only a matter of time before al-Qaeda tries to attack Canadian targets.
- Iraqi Salafist leader Abu Usama is boasting to al-Wasat that every mujahid in Iraq is a member of al-Qaeda.
- Abu Musab Zarqawi ordered the Casablanca bombings using local Moroccan and Libyan al-Qaeda affiliate groups.
- Mustafa Abdul Kadeer Abd al-Ansari, the mastermind of the recent killings of Westerners in Saudi Arabia, was a Tora Bora veteran who was linked to a Yemeni national believed to be planning further attacks on the US. Saudi interior minister Prince Nayef, meanwhile, has the grace to inform us that al-Qaeda is backed by the Zionists. How could we have all been so blind?
- Amer Azizi, a key al-Qaeda leader who helped to plan the 9/11 attacks, also met with the 3/11 bombers prior to the attacks.
- Hundreds of Nigerians are dead in the latest round of sectarian violence between the Christian Tarok and Muslim Fulani over control of the Plateau state farmlands.
- A former Macedonian minister is claiming innocence to charges that he staged the killing of 7 immigrants nearly 2 years ago under the pretext that they were linked to al-Qaeda.
- The Indonesian Islamist parties Prosperous Justice, Crescent Star, National Awakening, and National Mandate want Abu Bakar Bashir released despite his alleged connection to the Bali bombing.
- We try to end on a lighter note if possible. It appears that
NiyazovTurkmenbashi is in the running for the world's nuttiest dictator of all-time. He certainly makes the short list ...
Dan, I believe Karzai met with Khan in Herat today.
Something's broken after "Details are sketching...". A URL isn't there.
Should be fixed now.