Achtung: Die folgende Nachichten bekomme ich regelmaessig von dem FDD Attention: This has been emailed by the FDD
Bemerkenswert sind die proteste gegen die Freilassung des Al-maghrahi, der fuer den Tod von 27o Menschen verantwortlich sei. Der Tod jedes kostete ihm (wie eben im Text erwaehnt wird) nur 11 Tagen. Geld regiert und habe schliesslich das Sagen bei den Euros. Was die Richtern vernachlaessigt haben ist naemlich das allgemeine Recht.. Dass die Angehoerige der ermordeten auf die Anklage verzichtet haben, bedeutet laengst nicht; dass das allgemeine Recht ausfehlt... Das sollten die rockierte Idioten des Gerichtes sich merken.
Geschaefte mit Diktaturstaaten sind eine Europaeische Tradition. Es kommt immer wieder dazu, dass Europaeier mit arabischen Muerder und Diktaturstaaten Geschaefte entwickeln, und sie irgendwie moral wirtschaftlich begruenden. Zusammengefasst sind die Europaeier Luegner... Sie luegen wenn sie dem Terror den Kampf ansagen

August 25. 2009

A WEEKLY UPDATE

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

AL-MEGRAHI FREED: In January 2001, a Scottish court convicted Libyan Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi of playing a role in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people (259 on the flight, 11 on the ground) when the plane exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. Today Megrahi has advanced prostate cancer -- and on Thursday, a Scottish court decided to release him on compassionate grounds due to his illness. He served around 11 days in prison for each person he was convicted of killing.

People from various corners of the political spectrum, and many of those who lost family members in the bombing, expressed outrage at Megrahi's release. Rosemary Wolfe of North Myrtle Beach, S.C., whose stepdaughter Miriam died onboard Pan Am Flight 103, told the New York Times that she had a "helpless, hopeless feeling" because Megrahi was "going back to his family, but Miriam will never be able to come back to us." British Conservative leader David Cameron said the decision to free Megrahi was "wrong" and "the product of some completely nonsensical thinking" because "[t]his man was convicted of murdering 270 people and he showed no compassion to them, and they weren't allowed to go home to die with their relatives in their own beds." President Obama called Megrahi's release "a mistake," while Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) said the Scottish court's decision "turned the word ‘compassion' on its head."

Not everyone was angered by Megrahi's release, however. Libya ensured that he was welcomed home as a hero by busing hundreds to the military airport where he landed in order to greet him. Megrahi also had some Western supporters who agreed with his contention (which was the subject of a legal appeal up until his release) that he had been wrongly identified as the man who purchased clothing in Malta that was used to wrap the bomb.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam Gadhafi contends that the British government was directly involved in securing Megrahi's release:

The political stakes for U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown mounted after a son of Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, issued a statement on Saturday thanking "our friends in the British government who played an important role in reaching this day." He said he believed the decision to release Abdel Baset al-Megrahi would further improve relations between the U.K. and the oil-rich North African nation.

A spokesman for the U.K.'s Foreign Office claimed that "the decision was Scotland's alone and had nothing to do with any trade deals between Britain and Libya." Though it is too early to know who is telling the truth, sources in the petroleum industry claimed even before Megrahi was freed that his release "would liberate Britain's largest industrial company [BP] from a string of problems hampering its $900 million (£546 million) Libyan gas projects." It is not difficult to see oil politics at work here. The role of oil is quite obvious if Britain's Foreign Office did indeed help to secure Megrahi's release; but even if it did not, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi's comments are patently designed to make other countries think about Libya's considerable oil reserves.

AFGHANISTAN VOTES: The results of Afghanistan's trip to the polls last week are still not clear. The New York Times reports:

President Hamid Karzai and his closest rival, Abdullah Abdullah, both claimed to be winning the presidential election as ballots were counted Friday. But Western officials here said it looked increasingly likely that the two would face a runoff. The possibility of a second round of voting, even as the candidates leveled accusations of fraud at each other, raised the prospect of an extended period of uncertainly for the war-torn country. The credibility of the vote on Thursday was further tarnished by new reports showing that violence in the south was greater -- and turnout lower -- than even already grim accounts on election day had suggested. The election commission called on both Mr. Karzai and Mr. Abdullah not to speculate about the results and to wait for the official count. Preliminary results were not expected until Tuesday, and final results at least two weeks after that. Complaints of fraud and specific incidents of ballot stuffing continued to grow in the meantime and may assume increasing importance in a close race.

More here.

THE U.S. COMMITMENT TO AFGHANISTAN: Expect Afghanistan to become more of a hot-button issue in coming months: a new Washington Post-ABC News poll has found that the majority of Americans "now see the war in Afghanistan as not worth fighting." This is bad news for Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the new commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, who believes he needs more troops to successfully carry out his mission.

AFP reports that Gen. McChrystal may decide to cut support staff:

The commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, may cut the number of support staff to free up US troops for combat against Taliban insurgents, US officials said on Monday. "The idea is use troops more effectively," a US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP. Cutting back on desk jobs and other non-combat positions would mean "doing more with what you've got versus asking for more" troops, the official said. A second official also said such a move was under review. McChrystal, who oversees American and NATO troops in Afghanistan, is weighing the step as he carries out an assessment of the war effort amid widespread speculation he is preparing to request more US troops. Cutting the number of support staff could mean McChrystal would make a more modest appeal for additional forces.

More here.

TARHEEL JIHADIST: On July 22, seven men from the Raleigh, North Carolina area -- allegedly led by Daniel Patrick Boyd, a white convert to Islam -- were indicted on charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, as well as conspiring to murder, kidnap, and injure persons abroad. An eighth suspect is being sought in Pakistan. I recently spent the better part of a week in the Raleigh area investigating the Boyd case, and the new issue of the Weekly Standard carries the resulting article:

I was struck by the contrasts in how the man is perceived. His neighbors have rallied around him, saying the indictment is inconsistent with the Boyd they knew; one called him "the best neighbor I've ever had." Spokespeople for some Muslim organizations in the area also quickly came to Boyd's defense. Yet others saw a different side of Boyd, a man who embraced Islamic militancy and spoke often of jihad.... A few Raleigh-area Muslims had spoken to the press before my visit, prompting the News & Observer to claim that "anyone who knows Boyd in the context of his faith agrees that he was extreme." Bosnian immigrant Jasmin Smajic told the paper Boyd "often talked of jihad." I interviewed at length one active local Muslim who knows Boyd well. "It's hard to dispute anything in the indictment," this source said.

Much more here. I was accompanied by CBN News terrorism analyst Erick Stakelbeck on the Raleigh trip. You can read his notes on the trip here.

WEST BANK SUCCESS: Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., notes the West Bank's flourishing economy:

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the West Bank economy is flourishing. Devastated by the violence and corruption fomented by its former leadership, the West Bank has rebounded and today represents a most promising success story. Among the improvements of the last year cited by the IMF and other financial observers are an 18% increase in the local stock exchange, a 94% growth of tourism to Bethlehem -- generating 6,000 new jobs -- and an 82% rise in trade with Israel.... Much of this revival is due to Palestinian initiative and to the responsible fiscal policies of West Bank leaders -- such as Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad-many of whom are American-educated. But few of these improvements could have happened without a vastly improved security environment.

More here.

HIZBALLAH ON THE HORIZON?: Meanwhile, Israeli officials and Hizballah spokesmen have been engaged in a "war of words," in large part because Israel's government fears that the terrorist group will try to retaliate for last winter's assassination of Imad Mugniyah. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for example, warned that Lebanon's government will be "held accountable" if Hizballah attacks Israel. Lee Smith weighs in on the seriousness of these threats:

First, Israeli officials across the political spectrum assume that it is only a matter of time before a resumption of hostilities with Hezbollah, and there are several scenarios that might kick off such a conflict. Israel believes that the Islamic Resistance will continue to try to avenge Mugniyah, perhaps, as [Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny] Ayalon suggested, abroad rather than inside Israel proper. Should the Islamic Resistance succeed, Israel will likely respond, and in a fashion that the international community has come to call "disproportionate." Also, with rumors afloat that Syria has passed on or will pass on anti-aircraft missiles to Hezbollah, such an arsenal quite possibly constitutes an Israeli red line. In an unfortunate, albeit typical, fashion, Israel will let Damascus off the hook while Lebanon bleeds. But the most significant context of course is Iran. Given Israel's existential fears of an Iranian nuclear program, Hezbollah is a distant second on the Jewish state's to-do list. To be sure, the Netanyahu government assumes that Hezbollah would enter the fray on behalf of its Iranian patron, but, correctly or not, Israel believes that it has an answer for Hezbollah.

More here. Smith warns that "wars are less often planned than they are stumbled into, especially by a military tactician who believes that frank warnings are nothing but empty talk."

THE NORTH CAUCASUS: A suicide blast killed 20 in Russia's Ingushetia province amid mounting unrest:

A truck packed with explosives crashed through the gates of a police building in Russia's volatile Ingushetia province Monday, triggering a powerful blast that killed at least 20 people and injured scores of others, authorities said. The apparent suicide attack was the deadliest in recent years in the North Caucasus, where escalating separatist violence has put the Kremlin on the defensive and forced it to reconsider the harsh tactics that its security forces use in the region. Nearly two dozen people were killed in clashes in Chechnya and neighboring Ingushetia and Dagestan on Thursday and Friday after the killings of two human rights workers in the Chechen capital and the Ingush construction minister earlier in the week. The truck, loaded with as much as 440 pounds of TNT, according to initial estimates, leveled much of police headquarters in Nazran, the largest city in Ingushetia, as police officers were arriving for morning roll call, officials said.

More here.

YOU AIN'T SEEN PIRATES YET: FDD Senior Fellow J. Peter Pham warns in Foreign Policy of the spread of piracy:

This week, the Russian Navy found the Arctic Sea, a timber freighter that mysteriously disappeared at the end of July after passing through the English Channel. The Maltese-registered, Russian-crewed ship ended up 300 miles off the coast of Cape Verde -- a spectacular act of piracy and one of the first in European waters since the 1700s. The incident has shaken sailors and governments. This week, for instance, the Swedish Shipowners' Association went so far as to remind its members that they faced a real pirate threat, advising them to adopt the same safety procedures in home waters as they do elsewhere. But they don't know the half of it. Naval commanders and ship owners alike are bracing themselves for an imminent surge in attacks -- and the world's navies are in no position to stop it.

More here.

-- Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

"He was celebrated as if he was heading back to his country with a Nobel peace prize.... this is not the first nor the last time that killers and criminals of the calibre of Mohammed Atta, Osama Bin Laden, al-Zawahiri and al-Zarqawi are honoured and praised by some Arab people and governments." (8/24/09) Subhi Fu'ad writing in the Arabic online newspaper Elaph about Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.

"Iran possesses one of the biggest reserves of oil in the world and consequently no country can apply gasoline sanctions on it." (8/18/2009) Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari

"The present Zionist generation is a generation that likes comfort and ease. It lacks the toughness of the first generation of the kibbutzim and the settlements. It cannot withstand [the hardships] of battle. With the Palestinians, the situation is completely different. In the past, during killings and massacres, the Palestinians would pack their belongings and leave their villages. The present generation, [on the other hand], clings to the land and prefers to die on the soil of the homeland rather than leave it in the hands of the occupying enemy."
(April 2009) Safwat Al-Zayyat, a former high-ranking officer in the Egyptian army, speaking at a festival hosted by Hamas.

IN THE MEDIA

Tarheel Jihadist
8/24/2009, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, The Weekly Standard, vol 14, issue 36.
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross travels to Raliegh, North Carolina to investigate Daniel Patrick Boyd.

Islamist vs. Islamist
8/22/2009, Jonathan Kay, National Post (Canada)
It says something about the politically pathologized state of Palestinian society that Hamas -- itself a murderous Islamist terrorist group bent on Israel's destruction -- has in recent days found an even crazier group to fight with.

You Ain't Seen Pirates Yet
8/21/2009, Dr. J. Peter Pham, Foreign Policy.com
This week, the Russian Navy found the Arctic Sea, a timber freighter that mysteriously disappeared at the end of July after passing through the English Channel.

Gaza: Big Jihadi Fish Eating Little Jihadi Fish, All Part of the Wider Hamas Plan
8/20/2009, Dr. Walid Phares, The Australian Conservative
Hamas' attack against a Jihadist group inside Gaza is about to provide the Palestinian Islamist organisation a pass to become a "mainstream" movement.

The U.N. Kicks Off Another Season Of Bedlam
8/20/2009, Claudia Rosett, Forbes.com
Next month brings the annual opening of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Even more than usual, it is shaping up as such a carnival of thugs that not only does Libya's Muammar Gaddafi look likely to make an unprecedented appearance, but jokes are circulating that he wants to bring his own tent.

Beyond 'Purple Power' In Afghanistan
8/20/2009, Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland, Fox News.com
It would be a miracle if Afghanistan's presidential election goes smoothly. It's a country that hasn't progressed much in the last 1500 years; despite being at the world's crossroads since the reign of Darius II in the 5th Century BC.

U.S. Avoidance of Jihad Term Dangerous
8/20/2009, Dr. Walid Phares, Newsmax.com
The only terminology the Barack Obama administration wants to use nowadays is that the United States is at war with al-Qaida and its violent extremist allies who seek to carry on al-Qaida's murderous agenda.

Terrorism Trends
8/19/2009, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, The Weekly Standard On-Line A cluster of recent events has put homegrown terrorism on the country's radar for the second time in two months. We have seen alleged members of a jihadist cell arrested in North Carolina, a Minnesota-based Somali man plead guilty to aiding Islamic militants in Somalia, and the revelation that a Long Island man gave al-Qaeda information about New York subways and trains.

The New Strategic Importance of Africa
8/18/2009, Dr. J. Peter Pham, The Impact of 9/11 on Politics and War, edited by Matthew J. Morgan
The progressive establishment of AFRICOM, a structure with profound political and diplomatic as well as military implications for American policy on the continent.

Jihadi Public Relations
8/18/2009, Dr. Walid Phares, Human Events.com
How far will terrorists go to cloak themselves in legitimacy? Last week's action in the Gaza Strip, now governed by the terrorist network Hamas, is a good example. Hamas' attack against the Jund Ansar is a good example.

Whatever U.S. Calls It, War On Terror Is Real
8/18/2009, Dr. Walid Phares, Newsmax.com
As we read in the speech delivered by the White House's top advisor on homeland security and terrorism on dropping the use of phrases such as war on terror and jihad we realize that the administration is going backward in understanding the threat and explaining it to the public.

Adam Gadahn and al-Qaeda's Internet Strategy
8/20/2009, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Laura Grossman, quoted by George Michael, Middle East Policy
In a thorough study on the radicalization of homegrown American and British terrorists, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Laura Grossman identified six manifestations of this process.

Incursion Into Iran
8/19/2009, Dr. Michael Ledeen, quoted by The Washington Times The civil unrest in Iran is being directed by a secret cabal of intellectuals in the United States, or so the Islamic regime would like the world to believe.

News Update
8/19/2009, Dr. Walid Phares, France 24 Arabic
Afghanistan elections.

Defcon 3 by KT
8/18/2009 Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland, Fox News.com
Predator drones in the War on Terror.

News Update
8/18/2009, Dr. Walid Phares, Russia Today
Connections between terrorist attacks in the Caucus regions and those in Afghanistan.

Studio 24
8/19/2009, Tony Badran, Future News TV (Lebanon)
Syrian-Iranian relations and United States policy towards Syria.

News Update
8/19/2009, David B. Rivkin, Jr., BBC World Service
Release of Pan Am 103 bomber.

Dateline: Washington
08/19/2009, Dr. Walid Phares, Syndicated
Elections in Afghanistan.

The Hugh Hewitt Show
8/19/2009, Claudia Rosett, Syndicated
Tyrants at the United Nations.

The Hugh Hewitt Show
8/19/2009, Dr. Michael Ledeen, Syndicated
Iranian prosecutors accuse Michael Ledeen for being responsible for protests.

The Curtis Sliwa Show
8/19/2009, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, WABC - New York (NY)
Afghanistan elections.

Inside the Story with Rick Amato
8/19/2009, Dr. Walid Phares, Washington Times Radio
Hamas' attack against Jund Ansar Allah.

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