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
- Time Magazine is now catching on to the problem of extremist Islam in southern Thailand. This primer on al-Qaeda in Thailand should hopefully prove useful to readers.
- Arab League foreign ministers have endorsed the concept of democracy in a document for the Arab League summit expected to take place in Tunis this month.
- The New York Times has some pretty good coverage of the Pan-Sahel Initiative, which is aimed at countering the threat posed by the GSPC.
Other Topics Today Include: Iran Reports; Taliban attack; LeT medical wing; new Pakistani lashkar formed; Chavez assassination plot; Afroze discharged; election violence in the Philippines; Zarqawi nephew jugged; Saudi princess calls for end to anti-Saudi campaign; Kadyrov assassination round-up; 3/11 investigation round-up; Sweden fighting image as terror haven; Syria's uneasy truce with radical Islam; and a hermaphrodite suicide bomber.
IRAN REPORTS
- National Review's Johnathan Schanzer takes a look at the depth of the Iranian involvement in Iraq.
- Iran has thwarted a series of bomb attacks planned by Azeri nationalists based in Baku.
- Iran has drafted a report that will spell out in full detail the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, according to the nation's UN ambassador.
THE WIDER WAR
- Taliban have attacked a Belgian aid group in eastern Afghanistan.
- Paul Moloney is taking a look at the Lashkar-e-Taiba medical wing and notes some similarities between it and Hezbollah.
- Pakistan is forming a new tribal lashkar to root out the terrorist threat, though no action is being planned against the madrassas.
- Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez claims to have discovered an assassination plot involving Colombian paramilitaries (presumably members of the AUC) with the help of opposition leaders. Is it true? I don't know, but Chavez's past behavior doesn't exactly make me too eager to believe him.
- Mohammed Afroze, who has been accused in some circles of planning a series of terrorist attacks designed to run parallel to 9/11, is going to be discharged.
- Election-related violence in the Philippines has killed 7. The toilet voting, however, proceeded without incident.
- Jordan has jailed 3, including the nephew of Abu Musab Zarqawi, for plotting attacks on US and Israeli tourist sites.
- Saudi Princess Fahda is calling for an end to the anti-Saudi campaign she alleges is being directed by MEMRI.
- The death toll from the blast that killed Chechen president Kadyrov (which had al-Qaeda hallmarks) includes a Reuters journalist. Kadyrov's followers are launching a vendetta against the alleged culprits, and Kadyrov's son Ramzan has temporarily assumed control of Chechnya in his father's stead.
- Spain has indicted Saed al-Harrak as a co-conspirator in the 3/11 bombings. This comes as revelations surface that the 3/11 bombers may have trained in Indonesia as well as that jailed UK cleric Abu Qatada authorized the mass suicide of the 3/11 cell.
- Sweden is fighting its image as a haven for terrorists.
- Jihad Unspun has the full text of bin Laden's latest rant.
- The BBC takes a good look at the uneasy nature of the Syrian truce with radical Sunni Islam.
- Newsweek takes a look at how terrorists are financed, in particular with regard to al-Taqwa.
- We try to end on a lighter note if possible. While there's nothing funny about suicide bombing, it seems that the Palestinians have resorted to using hermaphrodites as suicide bombers. I think it's safe to say that they're scraping the bottom of the barrel.
The BBC Syria link goes to a story about China's building boom. Here's the correct URL:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3705861.stm
Dan - you quote the Herald Sun article that says that the Kadyrov assassination bears al-Qaeda hallmarks. I've just read the article and the sum total of the links that it makes to al-Qaeda are:
One: "recently Moscow has produced evidence that some Chechen leaders have been working in close co-ordination with al-Qaeda"
and Two: "The daring and expertise in placing a bomb right beneath the VIP stand at Grozny stadium suggests meticulous planning."
I'd agree with both of these statements in and of themselves(although I know you and I disagree on overall the level of al-Qaeda involvement in Chechnya), but the article doesn't make an even halfway persuasive case that the bombing itself had al-Qaeda hallmarks. It is speculation, pure and simple, with nothing to back it up whatsoever.
I tend to agree, but I was in hurry and needed to include the article so I decided just to with the headline ;)
A pro-Islamist group that calls itself the YELLOW-RED OVERSEAS ORGANiZATION has threatened to attack American and Allied targets thoughout the Pacific and Asian regions - I guess it just a weird, weird, weird and mysterious coincidence that the objectives of Cold War SOviet or Chicom Commando-sappers, read SECULAR COMMUNIST SOCIALISTS, are similar to that of Radical Islamists, ie FAITH-BASED THEOCRATS/THEO-SOCIALISTS! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...!