The "King Of The North" Is Coming!

[Mary]

AL-QAIDA-LINKED GROUP CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR LATEST LONDON BOMBINGS

Canadian Press
Source of Article

Friday, July 22, 2005

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - A statement posted Friday on an Islamic website in the name of an al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility for latest blasts targeting London's transport system.

The group, Abu Hafs al Masri Brigade, also claimed responsibility for the July 7 bombings which killed 52 people and four suicide bombers. The statement's authenticity could not be immediately verified. "Our strikes in the depths of the capital of the British infidels our only a message to other European governments that we will not relent and sit idle before the infidel soldiers will leave the land of the two rivers," said the statement.

The "two rivers" in the statement refer to Iraq's Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

On Tuesday, another statement was issued in the name of the same group threatening to launch "a bloody war" on the capitals of European countries that do not remove their troops from Iraq within a month.

"While we bless these strikes, our next attacks will be Hellish for the enemies of God," said the latest statement.

"We will strike in the hearts of European capitals, in Rome, in Amsterdam and in Denmark where their soldiers are in still in Iraq pursuing their British and American masters," the statement added.

The Abu Hafs al Masri Brigades are named after the alias given to Mohammed Atef, Osama bin Laden's top deputy who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan in November 2001.

Experts have said that the group has no proven track record of attacks, and note it has claimed responsibility for events in which it was unlikely to have played any role, such as the 2003 blackouts in the United States and London that resulted from technical problems.

[Scapegoat (Leviticus 16:10)]

EGYPT BLASTS KILL AT LEAST 25, WOUND 110

By LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writer

Saturday morning 7/23/05
1:15 a.m.
9 minutes ago

Source of article

CAIRO, Egypt - As many as seven explosions struck the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula early Saturday, targeting several hotels and killing at least 25 people, witnesses and police said.

Saturday's explosions at 1:15 a.m., when many tourists would have been asleep, shook windows a mile away. Smoke and fire rose from Naama Bay, a main strip of beach hotels in the desert city popular with Israeli and European tourists, witnesses said.

A police official in Sharm el-Sheik said at least 25 were killed and 110 wounded in multiple explosions targeting the Ghazala Gardens and Movenpick hotels in Naama Bay and the Old Market area nearby. Other officials in Sharm said there may have been as many as seven blasts: three in Naama Bay and four in the market.

Amal Mustafa, 28, an Egyptian who was visiting with her family, said she drove by the Ghazala Garden — a 176-room four-star resort on the main tourist strip in Naama — and it was "completely burned down, destroyed."

Khaled Sakran, a resident, said he saw one explosion from the Old Market. "I saw the saw the fire in the sky," he told The Associated Press. "Right after, I saw a light in the sky and heard another explosion, coming from Naama Bay."

"The blast shook my house, I can see the fire and lots of smoke," Akram al-Sherif, a Jordanian who was staying at a summer house less than a mile away, said.

In October 2004, a series of explosions hit several hotels in the Sinai resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan, about 100 miles northwest along the Gulf of Aqaba coast, killing 34 people. Egyptian authorities said that attack was linked to Israeli-Palestinian violence and launched a large wave of arrests in Sinai.

Thousands of tourists are drawn to Sharm for its sun, clear blue water, and coral reefs. It also has been a meeting place where world leaders have tried to hammer out a Mideast peace agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas met there in February and agreed to a cease-fire.

[Scapegoat (Leviticus 16:10)]

AT LEAST 83 KILLED IN EGYPTIAN RESORT BLASTS
More victims feared buried under rubble after Sharm el-Sheik bombings

AP News
Updated: 9:33 a.m. ET July 23, 2005

Source of Article

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt - A rapid series of car bombs and another blast ripped through a luxury hotel and a coffeeshop in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik early Saturday, killing at least 83, a hospital official said. Terrified European and Arab tourists fled into the night, and rescue workers said the death toll was almost certain to rise.

The attack, Egypt's deadliest terror attacks ever, appeared well coordinated. Two car bombs, possibly suicide attackers, went off simultaneously at 1:15 a.m. some 2.5 miles apart. A third bomb, believed hidden in a sack, detonated around the same time near a beachside walkway where tourists often stroll at night.

Several hours after the attack, a group citing ties to al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the explosion on an Islamic web site.


The group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, al-Qaida, in Syria and Egypt, was one of two extremist groups that also claimed responsibility for October bombings at the Egyptian resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan that killed 34. The group also claimed responsibility for a Cairo bombing in late April.

'Clues' reveal possible link

The authenticity of the statement could not be immediately verified. But a top Egyptian official said there are some indications the latest bombings were linked to last fall's Taba explosions.

"We have some clues, especially about the car that was exploded in the Old Market, and investigators are pursuing," said Interior Minister Habib al-Adli. He called it "an ugly act of terrorism."

Neighboring countries, the United States, Israel and others condemned the attacks. Neighboring Jordan said it was immediately tightening security at its tourist sites.

A total of 83 people had been confirmed dead, said Dr. Saeed Abdel Fattah, manager of the Sharm el-Sheik International Hospital where the victims were taken.

At least eight foreigners were among the dead, Al-Adli said. The dead included British, Dutch, Kuwaitis, Saudis and Qataris, a security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was giving information not yet included in the official statement.

Victims feared still buried

The death toll was likely to rise, rescue workers said. The lobby of the 176-room Ghazala Gardens hotel in Sharm's Naamah Bay, the main strip of hotels, collapsed into a pancaked pile of concrete. Rescue workers feared more victims were still buried under the rubble.

David Stewart, a tourist from from Liverpool, England, was staying with his wife and two teen-aged daughters at the Ghazala Gardens when the explosion hit. The windows of his room were smashed, and he and his family ran.

"Somebody shouted, 'Keep moving,"' he told AP. "The lights were out. I couldn't tell what was happening."

His family, like many others, fled toward the back of the hotel to take refuge in a grassy lawn near the pool. There, hundreds spent the night, some lying on pool mattresses.

On the other side of Sharm in the Old Market, a second car bomb in a minibus parking lot sent a ball of flaming wreckage shooting over a nearby beach and into the sea and littered the sand with body parts. Overturned chairs, broken waterpipes and pools of blood were scattered around the ravaged coffeeshop nearby, frequented by Egyptians who work in the resorts.

"The country's going to come to a stop. That's it!" sobbed Samir al-Mitwalli, who arrived in Sharm only a month ago to work as a driver. "Who's paying the price? ... Whoever did this wants to destroy the economy."

The string of attacks stunned a town that has long been dedicated to scuba diving at the famed coral reefs off its shores and partying on the beaches.

Attacks strike vital tourism industry

Sharm el-Sheik has expanded at a furious pace in recent years, making it a major player in Egypt's vital tourism industry, drawing Europeans, Israelis and Arabs from oil-producing Gulf nations. President Hosni Mubarak has a residence there where he spends the winter, and the town has been the host to multiple summits for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

The attacks last fall in Taba ended a long halt in militant violence. The last major attack was in 1997, when Islamic militants killed 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians at the Pharaonic Temple of Hatshepsut outside Luxor in southern Egypt. Saturday's violence was the deadliest since Islamic militant attacks began in Egypt in 1992.

There were signs that the bombings were by suicide attackers. Witnesses in the blast that hit the coffeeshop reported the attack vehicle was moving when it blew up, and the governor of South Sinai, Mustafa Afifi, said the car in the Ghazala attack broke through security into the front driveway of the hotel before exploding.

Britain's ambassador to Egypt, Sir Derek Plumbly, told BBC radio that eight Britons were among the injured, but no British deaths had been confirmed. A senior U.S. official traveling with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said there were no reports of American casualties.

The attack that so far appeared to have killed the most foreign tourists was a bomb hidden in a sack that went off by the beach-side pedestrian walkway, killing six foreigners and an Egyptian, said a security official in Sharm, speaking on condition of anonymity because the Interior Ministry had not yet released that information.

Devastating damage

The far heavier damage was caused by the two car bombs, which sent flames and palls of smoke over Sharm and shook windows as far as a mile away.

The blast swept through the interior of the sprawling, low-built Ghazala hotel, shattering windows and shredding metal. Blood splattered some of the walls, and tree limbs from its gardens were strewn everywhere.

The blast at Old Market tore through a coffeeshop on the side of the minibus lot, killing at least 17 Egyptians who were sitting there, said a security official in the operations control room in Cairo monitoring the crisis.

More than eight hours later, the overturned shell of a minibus was still smoldering, near a large crater in the asphalt. Witnesses said the minibus was driving nearby when the explosives-laden vehicle swept into the lot, and the minibus driver tried to swerve to avoid the blast. The square's clock was stopped at the time of the explosion.

"This flaming mass flew over my head, faster than a torpedo, and plunged into the water," said Mursi Gaber, who at the time of the blast was putting up decorations on a nearby beach. "There were body parts all over the steps down to the beach."

"This is a security farce," said Omar Ezzideen, owner of a children's clothing store in a nearby mall whose windows were shattered by the blast. "How can something like this happen here? How could (explosives) enter here? The national economy is based on this."

***

[Scapegoat (Leviticus 16:10)]

AL QAEDA LEADERS SEEN IN CONTROL
Experts say radicals in London, Egypt may have followed orders

By Craig Whitlock
The Washington Post
Updated: 12:44 a.m. ET July 24, 2005

Source of Article

LONDON - The back-to-back nature of the deadly attacks in Egypt and London, as well as similarities in the methods used, suggests that the al Qaeda leadership may have given the orders for both operations and is a clear sign that Osama bin Laden and his deputies remain in control of the network, according to interviews with counterterrorism analysts and government officials in Europe and the Middle East.

Investigators on Saturday said that they believed the details of the bombing plots in Egypt and Britain — the deadliest terrorist strikes in each country's history — were organized locally by groups working independently of each other. In Sharm el-Sheikh, where the death toll rose to 88 people, attention centered on an al Qaeda affiliate blamed for a similar attack last October at Taba, another Red Sea resort. In London, where 52 bystanders were killed in the subway and on a bus, police have identified three of the four presumed suicide bombers as British natives with suspected connections to Pakistani radicals.

But intelligence officials and terrorist experts said they suspect that bin Laden or his lieutenants may have sponsored both operations from afar, as well as other explosions that have killed hundreds of people in Spain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Morocco since 2002. The hallmarks in each case: multiple bombings aimed at unguarded, civilian targets that are designed to scare Westerners and rattle the economy.

The officials and analysts also said the recent attacks indicate that the nerve center of the original al Qaeda network remains alive and well, despite the fact that many leaders have been killed or captured since the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings in the United States. Bin Laden may be in hiding, the officials and analysts said, and much is still unknown about the network. But they added that his organization remains fully capable of orchestrating attacks worldwide by recruiting local groups to do its bidding.

Bin Laden still calling the shots?

"What the London and Sharm el-Sheikh attacks may have in common are the people giving directions: This is what needs to be done, and this is how you do it," said Magnus Ranstorp, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Prince Turki al Faisal, the former director of foreign intelligence for Saudi Arabia who was named this past week as the kingdom's new ambassador to the United States, said in an interview, "All of these groups maintain a link of sort with bin Laden, either through Internet Web sites, or through messengers, or by going to the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan and maybe not necessarily meeting with bin Laden himself, but with his people.

"Since September 11, these people have continued to operate," he said, speaking at his residence here, where he has been serving as ambassador to Britain. "They are on the run, but they still act with impunity. They can produce their material and get it to the media, it seems, anytime they like. Along with that, of course, are the orders they give to their operatives, wherever they may be."

Overthrowing the Saudi monarchy has been a longtime goal for bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi native who was once close to the kingdom's rulers but was stripped of his citizenship in 1994.

U.S. believes al Qaeda’s involvement waning

Some senior U.S. officials have argued that bin Laden has been effectively bottled up since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and question whether al Qaeda still has the ability to plan major operations such as the Sept. 11 attacks.

In April, for example, the State Department concluded in its annual report on terrorist activity around the world that al Qaeda had been supplanted as the most worrisome threat by unaffiliated local groups of Islamic radicals acting on their own, without help from bin Laden or his aides. The pattern of attacks in 2004, the report stated, illustrates "what many analysts believe is a new phase of the global war on terrorism, one in which local groups inspired by al Qaeda organize and carry out attacks with little or no support or direction from al Qaeda itself."

Some regional Islamic radical groups function independently of al Qaeda but enter into mutual alliances for specific operations or campaigns, experts say. In Iraq, for instance, one of the primary networks of insurgents fighting the U.S. military is led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has pledged his loyalty to bin Laden and acts publicly on behalf of al Qaeda but has developed his own organization.

But intelligence officials and analysts from European and Arab countries say there is increasing evidence that several of the deadliest bombings against civilian targets in recent years can be traced back to suspected mid-level al Qaeda operatives acting on behalf of bin Laden and the network's leadership. In some cases, counterterrorism investigators have concluded that bin Laden or his emissaries set plans in motion to launch attacks and then left it up to local networks or cells to take care of the details.

"The rather well-formed structure that they had prior to 9/11 does seem to be degraded," said a senior British counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But there is still a fairly potent, if diffuse network out there that still aspires to make decisions. We should be very wary about writing them off."

Links emerge between attacks

Saudi officials said the interrogation of terrorism suspects in that country, as well as intercepted electronic communications, show that bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, dispatched cell organizers to Saudi Arabia in 2002 and weighed in on basic strategic decisions made by the local al Qaeda affiliate. The al Qaeda leadership also gave direct orders to attack specific targets in the kingdom, Saudi officials said.

The local al Qaeda network carried out its first attack on May 12, 2003, driving explosive-laden cars into the gates of Western residential compounds in Riyadh, killing 35 people, including nine Americans. The explosion stunned Saudi government leaders, who only a few months before had said publicly that there were no terrorist groups operating inside the kingdom.

Less than one week after the Riyadh bombing, explosions hit Morocco, which has a long history of close relations with the United States and little history of terrorism. On May 16, 2003, suicide bombers launched multiple attacks on hotels, restaurants and other civilian targets in Casablanca, killing 45 people.

At first, counterterrorism officials in Saudi Arabia and Morocco saw no connection between the two attacks other than the fact that they occurred four days apart. They assumed that the timing was coincidental, or that the Moroccan bombings were prompted in part by the publicity generated by what happened in Riyadh.

Today, however, counterterrorism officials in both countries say there were connections between the two groups that carried out the attacks. Two Moroccan al Qaeda operatives suspected of helping to organize the Casablanca bombings, Karim Mejjati and Hussein Mohammed Haski, surfaced as leaders of the local al Qaeda network in Saudi Arabia and were named to the kingdom's list of most wanted terrorist suspects.

Mejjati was killed in a shootout with anti-terrorism police in a small Saudi town in April. Haski was arrested in July 2004 in Belgium, where he faces charges of helping to organize another sleeper cell with al Qaeda connections, according to Belgian officials and court documents. Both Haski and Mejjati were veterans of al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, documents show.

A similar connection has emerged between the Casablanca bombings and the March 11, 2004, train explosions that killed 191 people in Madrid. Spanish investigators have identified a suspected ringleader of the Madrid attacks as a Moroccan al Qaeda operative named Amer Azizi, who is also wanted by authorities in Morocco on charges of involvement in the network that organized the Casablanca attacks.

Like Mejjati and Haski, Azizi spent time at al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan before 2001 and is believed to be a conduit to the al Qaeda leadership, intelligence officials said.

Tracing blasts back to the source

Counterterrorism investigators and analysts said it was highly unlikely that the people who organized the July 7 London bombings were directly involved in the Sharm el-Sheikh attacks. But they predicted that both plots would eventually be traced directly to al Qaeda.

Ranstorp, the terrorism expert in Scotland, predicted that Egyptian investigators would pursue possible links to Zawahiri, an Egyptian-born physician who has served as bin Laden's top deputy and al Qaeda's leading ideologue since the early 1990s. "I doubt very much that this was done by the same group of Pakistanis who were apparently responsible for what happened in London," Ranstorp said. "But this very well could have been directed by Zawahiri, in terms of activating the Egyptian front."

U.S. and European intelligence officials said they believe bin Laden and Zawahiri remain in hiding along the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where access and communications with the outside world remain difficult. But many other al Qaeda leaders have found refuge in Pakistan's urban areas, where they are freer to move around and make contact with operatives visiting from other countries.

Pakistani officials have confirmed that three of the four suicide bombers involved in the London attacks this month visited Pakistan for extended periods over the past two years, spending time in Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan's largest cities. Investigators suspect they may have met with al Qaeda operatives who gave them instructions for carrying out the bombings.

Pakistan a linchpin in jihadi operations?

British officials and counterterrorism analysts said the trail of the investigation was clearly leading to Pakistan, which has faced renewed criticism for giving haven to al Qaeda sympathizers and other Islamic radical groups. Several highly wanted al Qaeda leaders who have been captured in recent years by the FBI and CIA were caught not in the remote terrain along the Pakistani border, but in major cities such as Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore.

"Why is it that all the roads keep going back to Pakistan?" said M. J. Gohel, a terrorism analyst and chief executive of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a London-based think tank. "Is it a coincidence, or is there something more? The linkages there are just too strong and consistent. The whole backbone of the jihadi infrastructure is not being dismantled. It is still functioning."

The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, pledged this week to renew his crackdown on "extremists" and Islamic radicals in the country and said officials were doing everything they could to cooperate with the investigation into the London bombings. But he bristled at the idea that Pakistan has remained a haven for al Qaeda.

***

[Mary]

Muslim Extremist Warns of More Attacks

@Ireland Online
Source of Article
01/08/2005 - 23:53:13

An Islamic extremist tonight said that the London bombings were the consequence of Britain’s refusal to accept the offer of a “ceasefire” from Osama bin Laden.

Abu Izzadeen, who described himself as a spokesman for the Al-Ghurabaa organisation, said that bin Laden had made the offer conditional on troop withdrawal, apparently from countries including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Speaking on BBC2’s Newsnight, he said: “Sheikh Osama bin Laden offered to the British public and the UK people at large an offer of ceasefire.

“He said if they rolled up against the Government, brought the troops home, he promised not to attack them.

“But unfortunately, the stiff upper British lip became hard-headed and we saw what took place on 7th July.”

Abu Izzadeen, who is British-born but of Jamaican origin, and who converted to Islam when he was 17, would not denounce the bombings, which he described as “mujahideen activity“.

“I’m sure if you asked those who passed away on 7th July, should we negotiate with Osama bin Laden, they would say yes, to bring their lives back, to save themselves from the burning inferno underground,” he said.

He also said he had “no allegiance” to the Queen or British society.

Another extremist and former member of the Al-Muhahjiroun group, Abu Uzair, had previously said that Britain should not be attacked in the wake of the September 11 atrocities, which he described as “magnificent“, the programme said.

This was because it had accommodated Muslims, the programme said.

“We don’t live in peace with you any more, which means the covenant of security no longer exists,” he said tonight.

“That’s why those four bombers attacked London – they believed that there was no covenant of security, and for them their belief was that it was allowed to attack the UK.”

Seeming to warn of the possibility of further attacks, he added: “For them, the banner has been risen for jihad inside the UK.”

He also said that there were many other ‘Muslim cells’, as he called them, in this country.

[Scapegoat (Leviticus 16:10)]

VIDEO: AL-QAIDA VOWS MORE ATTACKS VS. WEST

By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF, Associated Press Writer
17 minutes ago

Source of Article

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri threatened more destruction in London, saying in a videotape broadcast Thursday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair would be to blame.

Al-Zawahri also threatened the United States with tens of thousands of military dead if it does not withdraw its troops from Iraq immediately.

The tape, aired on the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, was delivered exactly one month after the July 7 bombings in London that killed 56 people, including four suicide attackers.

"Blair has brought to you destruction in central London, and he will bring more of that, God willing," al-Zawahri said in the tape, referring to the July 7 and July 21 attacks on London's subways and buses.

In London, Blair's Downing Street office declined to comment on the broadcast.

Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian doctor who merged his militant faction with that of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, spoke with a Kalashnikov rifle propped up behind his right shoulder against a plain background.

He has been in hiding since the United States invaded Afghanistan in late 2001.

In the latest videotape, al-Zawahri warned the United States it could expect significantly more casualties from its military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"As for you, the Americans, what you have seen in New York and Washington, what losses that you see in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite the media blackout, is merely the losses of the initial clashes," he said, referring to the Sept. 11 attacks blamed on al-Qaida.

"If you go on with the same policy of aggression against Muslims, you will see, with God's will, what will make you forget the horrible things in Vietnam and Afghanistan."

He then addressed Americans, saying, "The truth that has been kept from you by (President) Bush, (Secretary of State Condoleezza) Rice and (Defense Secretary Donald H.) Rumsfeld is that there is no way out of Iraq without immediate withdrawal, and any delay on this means only more dead, more losses.

"If you don't leave today, certainly you will leave tomorrow, and after tens of thousands of dead, and double that figure in disabled and wounded."

Referring to the Western nations contributing troops to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, he said: "As to the nations of the crusader alliance, we have offered you a truce if you leave the land of Islam.

"Hasn't Sheik Osama bin Laden told you that you will not dream of security before there is security in Palestine and before all the infidel armies withdraw from the land of Muhammad?" al-Zawahri added.

"Instead (of accepting the truce), you spilled blood like rivers in our countries and we exploded the volcanoes of wrath in your countries."

He did not name any countries apart from Britain, but he appeared to be referring to the terror attacks in Madrid, Spain, last year that were linked to al-Qaida.

"Our message is clear: you will not be safe until you withdraw from our land, stop stealing our oil and wealth and stop supporting the corrupt rulers," al-Zawahri said.

The tape showed al-Zawahri positioned in front of a woven cloth that moved with the wind and showed the sunlight, indicating it appeared to be made outdoors. He was wearing a white robe and a black turban and emphatically wagged his finger at the camera while speaking.

In June, Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape of al-Zawahri disparaging the U.S. concept of reform in the Middle East and saying armed jihad was the only way to bring change in the Arab world.

***

[Scapegoat (Leviticus 16:10)]

IRAN MAY DRAW REBUKE OVER NUKE ACTIVITES

By ANDREA DUDIKOVA, Associated Press Writer
10 minutes ago

Source of Article

VIENNA, Austria - The U.N. nuclear watchdog postponed a meeting Wednesday as diplomats sought consensus over how to rebuke Iran for resuming activities that could lead to an atomic weapon. Tehran prepared to break agency seals and extend work at a uranium conversion facility.

International Atomic Energy Agency board members were seeking to persuade Iran to reimpose a voluntary suspension of uranium conversion and enrichment. They have the authority to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council, which could trigger punitive sanctions, but there was no talk of that at an emergency meeting of the agency's 35-nation board.

Signaling how difficult it was for delegates to agree on the best response to Tehran's decision to restart uranium conversion, board members canceled a session tentatively planned for Wednesday afternoon. It was unclear when the meeting would resume.

"They need more time," IAEA spokesman Peter Rickwood said. Diplomats were expected to continue negotiations privately on a resolution urging Iran to suspend its latest nuclear activities.

U.N. nuclear inspectors, meanwhile, were installing the last surveillance cameras at a nuclear facility in central Iran and preparing to break their seals, enabling Iran to resume full uranium conversion at its nuclear facility here Wednesday, the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization said.

Iran's nuclear boss, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, made clear that the Islamic Republic would not be deterred in its nuclear program, which it says is for peaceful purposes.

"Today all seals will be removed by IAEA inspectors, and all reprocessing activities can be carried out at the facility," Aghazadeh said on Iranian state television.

Washington suspects Tehran of having a clandestine nuclear weapons program, and President Bush said Tuesday he was "deeply suspicious" about Iran's intentions.

Aghazadeh said the seals would be broken only after the inspectors had finished installing their cameras and other surveillance equipment at the Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan, 255 miles south of Tehran.

Earlier this week, the Iranians restarted operations at Isfahan with equipment that had not been sealed. Technicians in white protective suits and surgical masks rolled out barrels of uranium ore concentrate, known as yellowcake, to begin the conversion process.

In conversion, yellowcake is turned into UF-6 gas. In the next stage of the process — which Iran has said it will not resume for the time being — the gas is fed in centrifuges for enrichment. Uranium enriched to a low level is used to produce nuclear fuel; further enrichment makes it suitable for use in an atomic bomb.

Iran had suspended conversion under an agreement with Britain, France and Germany, which have been negotiating on behalf of the European Union to persuade Tehran to drop its enrichment program in return for incentives. Iran rejected the latest EU offer on Saturday.

Sirus Nasseri, Iran's top delegate to the IAEA, dismissed that offer of economic and political incentives as a package of "lollipops" and argued that moves to curb countries' right to produce their own nuclear power fuel were dangerous.

Countries barred from producing fuel become "dependent on an exclusive cartel of nuclear fuel suppliers — a cartel that has a manifest record of denials and restrictions for political and commercial reasons," he said.

But IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei warned of the "danger of disseminating fuel cycle activities around the world, because that brings us very close to the capability to develop nuclear weapons."

He said he wanted a new framework under which countries would have the right to produce nuclear power, but not to carry out "fuel cycle activities."

Nasseri said Iran wants to continue the EU talks and assure the board that Tehran "never" would leave the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty or abandon IAEA safeguard agreements.

Before Iran resumed conversion, U.S. and EU officials had urged that Tehran be taken to the Security Council for possible sanctions if it abandoned its voluntary suspension.

But a draft resolution crafted by Britain, France and Germany and obtained by The Associated Press did not mention the Security Council.

The text, which could be altered during negotiations, expressed "serious concern" about the resumption of conversion in Isfahan and urged Iran to cooperate by "re-establishing full suspension of all enrichment-related activities."

It also said that "the agency is not yet in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared materials or activities in Iran."

Diplomats said there was little stomach for reporting Tehran to the Security Council, in part out of fears that such a move — the IAEA's last resort — might inflame support within Iran for the regime's nuclear ambitions and scuttle any chances at winning the country over with broader economic incentives.

Envoys from nations like Brazil and Argentina whose own nuclear activities have come under scrutiny also appeared reluctant to subject Iran to restrictions that could be applied to their programs one day.

[Scapegoat (Leviticus 16:10)]

PURPORTED AL-QAIDA VIDEO THREATENS TROOPS

By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 9,10:51 PM ET

Source of Article

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - A purported al-Qaida-made video shows militants in Afghanistan — including Europeans, Arabs and others — preparing to attack U.S. troops and showing off what they said was a U.S. military laptop.

The video, parts of which have been shown by Al-Arabiya television, including a segment aired Tuesday, features interviews with a masked man yelling "As you bomb us, you will be bombed!" and shows a group of men packing explosives into bombs.

The authenticity of the videotape could not be confirmed. Air Force Capt. Lennea Montandon, a spokeswoman for U.S. Central Command in Qatar, said the military would not comment because it had not seen the broadcast.

If authentic, the program would be the latest attempt by the al-Qaida network to use the broadcast media and Internet to promote its cause.

The three-part video, titled "The War of the Oppressed People," depicts what appears to be a few months in the lives of a group of fighters in wilderness camps in the Afghan mountains.

The men cook tea over campfires and kneel in prayer under the open skies, then duck into a makeshift classroom where an instructor outlines the coming "Operation to Defeat the Crucifix" against U.S. and allied forces.

In one scene, the tape claims al-Qaida was responsible for shooting down a U.S. Chinook helicopter, killing all 16 American troops on board.

The tape features an appearance by top-ranking al-Qaida member Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, as well as shots of a U.S. Air Force A-10 jet making bombing runs on a mountainside, and a close-up of a U.S. soldier quivering face down on the ground.

Al-Iraqi, speaking with a scarf hiding his face, says the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have created "two fronts" for recruiting terrorists to the cause of Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

"Now all the world is united behind Mullah Omar and Sheik Osama," he says.

The program includes interviews with bearded fighters claiming they are avenging the killing of Muslims by the U.S., Britain, Israel and India.

"If this is terrorism and fundamentalism, then OK, we are terrorists and fundamentalists," a Pakistani man who identifies himself as Bilal says in Urdu.

The tapes feature a diatribe by a British- or Australian-accented man wearing a black robe, AK-47 and military-style vest, who warns Westerners of "the lies of Blair and Bush."

"The Muslim world is not your backyard," he yells. "The honorable sons of Islam will not let you kill our sons. It is time for us to be equals. As you kill, you will be killed. As you bomb, you will be bombed."

One grisly segment shows a dead soldier lying face up, his bearded face caked in blood. The soldier, perhaps an Afghani, is dressed in green camouflage fatigues with a red shoulder patch. The insurgents display his rifle, an American M-16.

In another scene, a group of bombmakers slices white bricks of plastic explosive, packing them into cooking oil cans along with heavy steel bolts and gobs of glue.

Green-hued night footage shows the men digging holes at the roadside and planting the bombs.

Later, shaky footage follows a blue SUV as it travels along a remote dirt road. Text on the bottom of the screen says the car is carrying the head of security for Afghanistan's Kunar province.

Without warning the vehicle is ripped apart in a giant fireball. The attack appears to depict the June 28 roadside bombing that killed a district police chief and two other officers.

Yet another scene pans across a cache of captured U.S. gear, including a laptop, an M-16, military radios, a global positioning satellite display and the Department of Defense ID card of slain Navy SEAL Danny Phillip Dietz Jr.

Dietz, 25, of Littleton, Colo., was killed June 28 after his four-man reconnaissance team came under attack in Kunar province. The Chinook helicopter was downed and the 16 troops killed as the craft was on its way to aid Dietz, killing all aboard.

An insurgent is shown going through the laptop's hard drive, zooming in on a U.S. military document marked "For Official Use Only" and a map of Kabul marked with the locations of the U.S. and British embassies.

The film is subtitled in Arabic, but carries interviews in English, French, Pashto and Urdu, as well as Arabic spoken with Yemeni, Saudi and Iraqi accents.

Baker Atyani, Al-Arabiya's Asia bureau chief, said the network received the tape last week, but would not say how or where it was delivered.

[Scapegoat (Leviticus 16:10)]

FOUR GIs KILLED BY BOMB IN AFGHANISTAN

By DANIEL COONEY, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 45 minutes ago

Source of Article

KABUL, Afghanistan - A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers and wounded three others Sunday as they were patrolling in southern Afghanistan, the deadliest attack on American forces here in nearly two months, the U.S. military said.

Militant assaults elsewhere killed a senior pro-government Islamic leader and two Afghan policemen, as Taliban-led rebels step up a campaign to subvert key Sept. 18 legislative elections. Seven U.S. soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan over the past four days.

Sunday's blast that killed U.S. troops occurred in Zabul province's Daychopan district, the military said in a statement. The three wounded soldiers were hit by shrapnel and were in stable condition, the military said.

"The unit was conducting offensive operations in support of an ongoing mission to find and defeat enemy forces in the area when the attack occurred," the statement said. "The unit's mission is part of a much larger operation to disrupt enemy forces and to thereby provide a safe environment for upcoming September elections."

The statement quoted Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, the U.S.-led coalition's operational commander, as saying the attack would "strengthen, not weaken, the resolve" of the force.

Some 187 U.S. service members have been killed in and around Afghanistan since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom in late 2001 — including 64 during an upsurge of insurgent attacks in the last six months that have also left about 1,000 others dead.

On Friday, a U.S. Marine was killed in a clash near Asadabad in eastern Afghanistan, while a day earlier, a roadside bomb killed two U.S. soldiers as they were protecting road workers on a U.S.-funded project in southern Kandahar province, a former Taliban stronghold.

U.S. officials have warned that fighting could escalate ahead of the parliamentary and provincial assembly elections, seen as the next step in building Afghanistan's democracy after a quarter-century of civil strife and war.

In attacks elsewhere, a roadside bomb exploded late Saturday under a police vehicle also in Zabul province, killing two police officers, said local government chief Rozi Khan.

In southern Kandahar province Sunday, gunmen riding a motorbike shot dead cleric Mawlawi Abdullah, the latest in a string of attacks on religious leaders who have openly condemned the Taliban and other extremists.

Abdullah — a senior figure in the Islamic Ulama Council — and a colleague were killed as they walked out of a mosque after praying at dawn, Interior Ministry official Dad Mohammed Rasa said.

In the eastern province of Kunar, rebels ambushed two tanker trucks hauling fuel to an American military base, burning the vehicles but letting the drivers go, officials said.

[Mary]

AL QAEDA IN IRAQ ISSUES VIRULENT MANIFESTO

Document calls for violence, destruction of 'American empire'

Friday, August 26, 2005; Posted: 6:20 p.m. EDT (22:20 GMT)
Source of Article

(CNN) -- The group al Qaeda in Iraq -- which has been behind many of the worst attacks, beheadings, and kidnappings in Iraq -- has issued a manifesto in which it calls for violence and hate for all but "true Muslims."

Shiites do not belong among "true Muslims," the group says, calling their faith "a confession of polytheism and rejectionism."

It also declares: "We vow by the name of God that we are determined to destroy the American empire," adding that the insurgency is stronger than Washington acknowledges.

The document also warns there will be no end to the insurgency.

"The call for jihad goes on until doomsday, whether there is an imam calling for it or not."

The group's e-book surfaced on an Islamic Web site this week and offers links to three issues of al Qaeda in Iraq's e-magazine, a forum often used to claim responsibility for attacks. In numerous sections totaling dozens of pages, the e-book covers topics from the justification of beheadings in the Quran and why democracy is wrong.

No date was given for the document, and no author was listed. The reference to its Jordanian-born leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in the third person suggests he did not write the document.

Iraq and the United States call him the most wanted terrorist in Iraq. The United States has posted a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture.

While part of the document seems to have been written relatively recently, another part refers to to the government of Ayad Allawi, who was interim leader in Iraq until April.

The document also called President Bush's insistence on staying in Iraq "until we accomplish our mission" a "desperate catchphrase ... used to make the public believe that the mujahedeens are in bad shape."

The document repeatedly urged Muslims to launch attacks against foreign forces in Iraq and their allies and for Iraqi troops and police to turn their backs on the new elected government.

"You who betrayed Muslims and in humiliation became one of many collaborators, a servant under the command of the cross, we ask you to return to your Islamic instinct or cutting your neck will be your only punishment for your treason against your religion and your people."

It adds this warning: "Repent or else."

The group calls its doctrine and mission guided by "our agreement to believe in and fight for the religion of God. We believe that those who follow these beliefs and the provisions of faith are true Muslims, and anyone who denounces any of these beliefs and conditions is an infidel even if he still claims to be a Muslim."

The central image of the e-book is the group's logo: a globe with an open book, presumably the Quran. Emerging from the center of the Quran are a spear, a Kalashnikov rifle, a hand with the index finger sticking up -- a symbol of unity -- and a banner reading, "There is no God but God; Mohammed is the messenger of God."

CNN's Octavia Nasr contributed to this report.

[Mary]

IRAQI MINISTER: AL-QAEDA PLANS MAJOR ATTACKS IN EUROPE

August 27, 2005 3:55 p.m. EST
Source of Article

Douglas Maher - All Headline News Staff Reporter

Baghdad, Iraq (AHN) - Reports are surfacing Saturday morning that intelligence in Iraq had uncovered plans that include major attacks across Europe.

"Osama Bin Laden has asked the head of Al Qaida in Iraq, Al Zarqawi, to organize an attack in Europe, more devastating than that of Sept. 11, 2001," Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid Al Bayati tells Italian daily Il Messaggero.

Al-Qaeda ring leader, Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi, has reportedly moved operatives to Europe for a series of attacks against NATO states, the report says.

Sources say the strikes are meant to pressure members of the U.S.-led coalition to leave Iraq.

Al Bayati told the Italian newspaper that Al Zarqawi has established a network throughout Europe for imminent strikes. Bayati says Italy is a leading target of the Al Qaida network.

[Mary]

'LONDON BOMBER' VIDEO AIRED ON TV

Story from BBC NEWS:
Source of Article

Published: 2005/09/01 20:37:09 GMT


A video of a man claiming to be one of the four bombers behind the 7 July Tube attacks which killed 52 people has been shown on Arab TV.

The man, who said he was Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, talked about his motives on a tape on al-Jazeera.

Khan said the UK government had committed atrocities against Muslims and he hailed Osama Bin Laden.

In a second video, al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri claimed responsibility for the blasts and threatened new attacks.

[Mary]

VIDEO: AL-QAIDA BEHIND LONDON BLASTS


By SALLY BUZBEE, Associated Press Writer
14 minutes ago
Source of Article


Al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, claimed responsibility for the July 7 London bombings in a video aired Thursday on Al-Jazeera that included a farewell statement by a man identified as one of the four suicide attackers.

It was the first explicit claim of responsibility for the blasts by the terrorist group headed by Osama bin Laden.

Al-Zawahri, who is thought to be hiding along the rugged Afghan-Pakistani border, threatened the West with "more catastrophes" in retaliation for the policies of President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The Al-Jazeera newscaster who presented the al-Zawahri tape said it contained a "testament" by one of the suicide bombers who attacked the London transport system on July 7, killing 56 people.

Speaking with a heavy Yorkshire accent, the bomber, Mohammad Sidique Khan, said he was inspired by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, al-Zawahri and the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi.

"Until you will stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people we will not stop this fight," said Khan, wearing a red-and-white checked keffiyeh and a dark jacket. "We are at war, and I am a soldier and now you too will taste the reality of this situation."

In his tape, Al-Zawahri did not say outright that his terror group carried out the bombings on the London transport system that killed 56 people including the four bombers, but said they were a direct response to Britain's foreign policies and its rejection of a truce that al-Qaida offered Europe in April 2004.

After the March 2004 train bombings that killed 191 people in Madrid, Spain, bin Laden was reported to have offered European countries a three-month cease-fire to consider his demands to withdraw their troops from Muslim countries. Effectively it meant that European forces should leave Afghanistan and Iraq.

"I talk to you today about the blessed London battle which came as a slap to the face of the tyrannical, crusader British arrogance," al-Zawahri said. "It's a sip from the glass that the Muslims have been drinking from."

"This blessed battle has transferred — like its glorious predecessors in New York, Washington, and Madrid — the battle to the enemies' land, after many centuries of the battle being on our (Muslim) land and after (Western) troops have occupied our land in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine."

In a clear bid to turn Britons against the government, al-Zawahri said: "Blair not only disregards the millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he does not care about you as he sends you to the inferno in Iraq and exposes you to death in your land because of his crusader war against Islam."

Al-Zawahri appeared in black turban and white robes with an automatic weapon leaning against the wall beside him.

In his part of the tape, Khan said he had forsaken "everything for what we believe" and went on to accuse Western civilians of being directly responsible for the terror attacks that befall them.

"Your democratically elected governments continuously perpetuate injustice against my people all over the world, and your support of them makes you directly responsible, just as I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters," Khan said.

The image of Khan, a 30-year-old Leeds resident who died in the bombing of the London Underground train near Edgware Road, resembled photos of him published after the deadly attacks.

Khan was shown in the video with a trimmed beard and appeared to be sitting against a wall lined with an ornate carpet.

Al-Zawahri appeared in black turban and white robes with an automatic weapon leaning against the wall beside him.

Two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the message's sensitive nature, said any claim of responsibility does not necessarily indicate that al-Qaida planned or directed the attack.

The officials said al-Qaida would regard the London bombings as a victory whether they were directly involved in them or not.

It was not the first time al-Zawahri has addressed the London bombings on videotape.

In a tape aired Aug. 4 by Al-Jazeera, al-Zawahri did not directly claim that al-Qaida carried out the July 7 bombings or the failed July 21 attacks, but he brought the July 7 attacks under al-Qaida's wing and depicted the terror network as still capable of delivering strikes around the world despite arrests in Europe and blows against its leadership in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He presented the attacks as a result of Blair's decision to deploy troops in Iraq.

Nor was it the first time that a group has claimed responsibility for the July 7 attacks. On the day of the blasts a group calling itself "The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe" posted a claim of responsibility on a Web site popular with Islamic militants. The group purportedly said the London bombs were in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Another al-Qaida-linked group, Abu Hafs al Masri Brigade, also claimed responsibility in a statement posted on an Islamic Web site shortly after the attacks.

___

Associated Press writer Katherine Shrader in Washington contributed to this report.

[Mary]

Hurricane Katrina:

AL QAEDA LEADER IN IRAQ SEES "START OF US COLLAPSE"


Posted: 04-09-2005 , 12:44 GMT
Source of Article


Al Qaeda group in Iraq, which is led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, on Sunday praised in an Internet statement what it said was the "start of the collapse" of the United States after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.

"Congratulations to the Islamic nation, to our sheikh Osama abu Abdullah (Osama bin Laden) and to sheikh Ayman Zawahiri (bin Laden's deputy) for the destruction of America, which is at the forefront of evil. It is the start of its collapse."

The statement was referring to the hurricane which left some 10,000 dead.

In recent days, Islamists website connected between the storm and the "US war against Islam." According to them, Katrina was sent by God to torment the American empire.

© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

[Mary]

AL-QAEDA CLAIMS LONDON BOMBINGS

BBC World Edition
Source of Article

Al-Qaeda's deputy leader has said for the first time the group carried out the 7 July suicide bombings in London, in which 52 people were killed.
In a videotaped message aired on Arab television station al-Jazeera, Ayman al-Zawahri said al-Qaeda had the "honour" of carrying out the attacks.

Osama Bin Laden's lieutenant had previously praised the bombings, and blamed them on the UK's foreign policy.

On the new tape, he also criticised Afghanistan's parliamentary elections.