ABC News: The Blotter
U.S. Checking al Qaeda Claim of Killing Bhutto

December 27, 2007 11:47 AM

Brian Ross, Richard Esposito & R. Schwartz Report:

Uscheckingal_mn While al Qaeda is considered by the U.S. to be a likely suspect in the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Banazir Bhutto, U.S. intelligence officials say they cannot confirm an initial claim of responsibility for the attack, supposedly from an al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan.   

An obscure Italian Web site said Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, al Qaeda's commander in Afghanistan, told its reporter in a phone call, "We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat [the] mujahedeen."

It said the decision to assassinate Bhutto was made by al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Ayman al Zawahri in October. Before joining Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, Zawahri was imprisoned in Egypt for his role in the assassination of then-Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

Bhutto had been outspoken in her opposition to al Qaeda and had criticized the government of President Pervez Musharraf for failing to take strong action against the Islamic terrorists.

"She openly threatened al Qaeda, and she had American support," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism adviser. "If al Qaeda could try to kill Musharraf twice, it could easily do this," he said.

Al Qaeda had claimed responsibility for the bomb attack Oct. 18 during Bhutto's homecoming rally that killed 140 people but left the former prime minister uninjured.

Senior U.S. officials say it will take several days to sort out who was responsible and that it will be "a test of credibility for the Pakistani government."

U.S. officials monitoring Internet chat rooms known to be used by Islamic militants say several claims of responsibility have been posted, although such postings are notoriously unreliable.

DCI Counterterrorist Center "Terrorist Buster" Logo

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Read Your Own DHS Travel Dossier

The Department of Homeland Security already knows everything about your travel.  Now, for the first time, The Identity Project makes it easy for you to request the unclassified parts of the dossier that the DHS has complied on you.

Warning:  You can only request records on behalf of yourself or others with their written explicit permission.  There are severe penalties for making requests for records on someone else without their knowledge.

Are you prepared to find out for yourself the outrageous amount of personal information Homeland Security has been vacuuming-up on you?  This is how to do it:

1. Download and fill-in the following two documents:
(right-click links below and select "Download Linked File..." or "Save Linked File As..."

No reason need be given for the request.  Costs may be charged for photocopying or printing your dossier, but not for the search itself.

2. Sign and date them both.  They do not have to be notarized.

3. Make and keep copies of the signed request and all correspondence.

4. Mail them – either by first class mail or (better yet) by registered mail – to the address found on the upper left-hand corner of each of the documents you downloaded.  Sending your request via registered mail helps you to prove that they were sent if you have to appeal because your request was not responded to.

Q. When will I get my dossier?

A. OMB guidelines say that Homeland Security "should" acknowledge your request within 10 business days and provide access to the records within 30 days.

Q. What will my dossier contain?

A. The unclassified records you can expect to get will include PNRs, APIS Data; and Secondary Search Records.

Q. What if Homeland Security doesn't send me my dossier?

A. The courts have authority to enjoin an agency from withholding the documents and to order them produced.

Q. Where can I read more?

A. Don't Spy On Us has an excellent example of what a travel record can contain.  The compendium of what this information means is here (download 4.6 MB PDF).  The very best resource on obtaining government records of all kinds is EPIC's book "Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws 2004".

Please let us know that you have made a request and let us know your results.

The American society under surveillance by its own government is less inclined to exercise its First Amendment rights and dissent.  This truly makes our "Homeland" less secure.  Please support our efforts at The Identity Project and our parent organization The First Amendment Project.

Military Drills - False Flag Provocation, Attack On Iran?
'Solid Curtain' And 'Citadel Shield 2007' Military Drills
Raise Spectre Of Imminent False Flag Provocation And Attack On Iran

By Webster G. Tarpley
9-13-7

WASHINGTON, DC -- US military bases in the continental United States (CONUS) will go on special lockdown between September 17 and September 21 under the auspices of Solid Curtain-Citadel Shield '07, a reliable source reported today. Under these exercises, US installations will institute enhanced anti-terror force protection measures, with increased security at all gates. The increased security was so elaborate that base personnel were being warned to expect significant delays at all base entrances. According to William Arkin's 2005 directory of military code names, Solid Curtain is a US Navy Fleet Forces Command anti-terrorism/force protection exercise. In Solid Curtain '03, Arkin reports, the drill scenario involved 15 simultaneous attacks across the country including the Corpus Christi naval air station, the Ingleside naval station, local shipyards, and other targets of attack in the coastal bend of south Texas. In earlier versions of Solid Curtain, the Newport Rhode Island naval station was featured in the scenario. Smaller local news outlets near US bases have begun to report on these drills. One such account can be found in the Ridgecrest, California Daily Independent, site of the Sierra Sands Naval Air Weapons Station. (see http://ridgecrestca.com/articles/2007/09/13/news/news02.txt) Other reports concerned the Naval Support Activity Panama City, Florida, (see http://www.wmbb.com/gulfcoastwest/mbb/news.apx.-content-articles- MBB-2007-09-13-0004.html), and the Goose Creek Naval Weapons station near Charleston, South Carolina (see http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/sep/12/briefly15607/). No further details concerning Citadel Shield could be ascertained. These drills cause acute concern because they occur before the backdrop of widely reported preparations by the Cheney clique to manufacture a new 9/11 and/or a new Gulf of Tonkin incident to be used as a pretext for a US sneak attack on Iran, with an included option for martial law inside the United States. On Friday, September 14, the US Air Force has instituted a stand-down for the alleged purpose of reviewing procedures after a B-52 transported six nuclear-armed cruise missiles from Minot AFB North Dakota to Barksdale AFB Louisiana. Intelligence community sources have pointed to the fact that Barksdale is the jumping off point for US air assets moving to the Persian Gulf, suggesting that US nuclear weapons are being readied for a strike on Iran. Another option might well be that one or more of the cruise missiles was destined for use in a false flag attack on an American city, a scenario alluded to by Cheney on April 15 in an interview on CBS New Face the Nation. Solid Curtain and Citadel Shield will be taking place within the same general time frame as Vigilant Shield '08, scheduled to be held October 15-20, 2007, with a scenario that calls for the detonation of three radiological dispersal devices within the purview of USNORTHCOM (continental US) and the US Pacific Command. Vigilant Shield is supposed to be centered in Oregon, Arizona, and Guam. The drill is slated to include multiple homeland defense, critical infrastructure protection, and aerospace events. Linked to Vigilant Shield is another drill called National Level Exercise 1-08. In addition to the US, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom are scheduled to take part. Concurrent with these drills is TOPOFF 4 (Top Officials 4), the main yearly terrorism preparedness exercise sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security. The boss of this agency, Michael Chertoff, announced earlier in the summer that he had a "gut feeling" that a terror attack on the US was about to occur. This is another drill that lends itself to going live. Also relevant to these events is Noble Resolve '07, a drill organized by the Joint Task Force Command (JTFCOM), Northern Command (NORTHCOM), J9 Joint Innovation and Experimentation Directorate, FEMA's command bunker, the Department of Homeland Security, and Virginia police. According to false flag drill expert D.L. Abrahamson, Noble Resolve '07 represents a four-day marathon of "simulated" terror attacks across the US and Europe, including a simulated detonation of a "loose" ten-kiloton nuclear weapon Virginia harbor, smuggled in by a "foreign nation." Drills like these, if flipped live, would give Cheney the pretext to put the entire world on a catastrophic slide towards general war. Recent terror events, such as London July 7, 2005, have occurred when drills and exercises went live or were flipped live by military and intelligence factions supporting the War of Civilizations, which such actions are meant to stoke. Most significantly, the original 9/11 coup d'etat by these same aggressive US military and intelligence factions was preceded and accompanied by installation security clampdowns of the type now imminent at the military bases in the Washington DC area and elsewhere. These exercises can be summed up as follows: BASE ISOLATION AND COUP PREPRATION Forts Hamilton, Meade (NSA), Belvoir, Ritchie, Myer, and McNair Starting August 15, 2001, Army limits public access to bases near Washington DC, supposedly as part of nationwide security clampdown because of terrorist threat. Fort Meyer, VA, Fort McNair, DC, 3rd US Infantry http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item= a090501fullaccesscontrol#a090501fullaccesscontrol September 5, 2001: US Army bases near Washington DC implement "full access control." Fort McNair is HQ, Army Military District of Washington DC Fort Meyer, Virginia "Force protection exercise" scheduled for week after 9/11 Fort Belvoir, Virginia On September 11, 2001: second Tuesday of "garrison control exercise," allegedly to "test the security at the base in case of a terrorist attack." Persons of good will in the United States must demand that elected representatives and presidential candidates act to expose, denounce, and shut down these reckless and highly dangerous drills. Countries outside of the US must demand explanations from the US Embassy as to whether the US is indeed preparing a nuclear aggression against Iran, under the cover of a false flag war provocation. Countries not wishing to be drawn into the abyss of such a catastrophe must take steps now to assert their national independence.

STANDOWN: DID US MILITARY LOSE A NUKE?

Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - FreeMarketNews.com

Continuing updates on story of nuclear mixup and upcoming military "standown" of air travel ...

Several alternative news sites have reported that a nuclear device seems to have "disappeared." See story and link, below, followed by previous reports, including initial FMNN Feedbacker speculation. These come on the heels of speculation that previous reports - that the recent nuclear mix-up was a warning to Iran - are disinformation. The military standown apparently continues on course for September 14 ...

=====

Report here:

"Six nuclear weapons disappeared from Minot AFB in North Dakota. Five nuclear weapons were discovered at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana. Which leads to my chilling conclusion: Someone, operating under a special chain of command within the United States Air Force, just stole a nuclear weapon."

http://abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread302187/pg1

====

Previous post from FMNN begins here with initial CNN story:

Military admits bomber mistakenly flew nukes across country WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A B-52 bomber mistakenly carried six nuclear warheads on air-launched cruise missiles on a flight from North Dakota to Louisiana last week, prompting a major investigation, military officials have confirmed. ... Lt. Col. Ed Thomas said that while the military does not publicly discuss nuclear weapons procedures, in this case the Air Force decided to acknowledge the incident in order to reassure the public. "The public was never in any danger," Thomas said. But officials also said the incident was a major breach of security rules surrounding nuclear weapons. One Air Force official said that he could not recall anything similar happening. The Air Force announced that all flights of fighters and bombers in the United States will be halted on Sept. 14 to allow for a review of procedures. --From Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr

http://digg.com/politics/ALERT_September_14th_all_US_Military_flights_grounded

Original article here,

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/09/05/loose.nukes/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail

We're All Gonna Die
    By William Rivers Pitt
    t r u t h o u t | Columnist

    Friday 13 July 2007

We are all wired into a survival trip now.

- Hunter S. Thompson

    Who can forget the incredible scandal that erupted back in May of 2002? Around about the middle of that month, details began to emerge about the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing that specifically warned Bush about Osama bin Laden's determination to strike the United States.

    Wait. Actually, everyone forgot, because two days later, the Bush administration unleashed a blizzard of dire warnings about impending terrorist attacks. FBI Director Robert Mueller intoned such attacks were "inevitable," and the Department of Homeland Security announced the imminent, explosive destruction of all American railroads, along with the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.

    Who can forget the incredible scandal that erupted back in June of 2003? Over the course of two days, reports emerged about serious doubts held by the CIA regarding the credibility of the administration's claim Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger. On the heels of this, Congress unfurled its 9/11 report, which criticized all levels of the Bush administration for its performance before and during the attacks.

     Wait. Actually, everyone forgot, because the Bush administration unleashed another blizzard of warnings about impending terrorist attacks. Specifically, the Department of Homeland Security warned terrorists were, once again, preparing to attack the United States with suicide missions using commercial airliners as bombs.

    Who can forget the incredible scandal that erupted back in December of 2003? 9/11 Commission chairman Thomas Keane declared the attacks of 9/11 should have been prevented. The next day, a Federal appeals court ruled against the administration on the case of suspected terrorist Jose Padilla, stating Padilla could not be held indefinitely without being charged.

    Wait. Actually, everyone forgot, because the Bush administration increased the terrorism threat level to Orange and claimed more suicide planes were about to come zooming out of the sky. Six international flights were diverted due to potential terrorist actions of some passengers who were later identified as an insurance salesman, an elderly Chinese woman and a five-year-old boy.

    Who can forget the incredible scandal that erupted back in May of 2004? Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared on Meet the Press and stated the intelligence on Iraqi WMD he'd been given for his UN presentation had been "inaccurate and wrong and, in some cases, deliberately misleading." Horrifying new pictures of the torture, rape and murder of prisoners by Americans at Abu Ghraib prison became public. The American military accidentally bombed a wedding party in Iraq, killing 40 civilians.

    Wait. Actually, everyone forgot, because FBI Director Mueller and Attorney General John Ashcroft announced they had reports from multiple sources of al Qaeda's "specific intention to hit the United States hard." The threat levels were not raised, but dire warnings of impending catastrophe were offered by the administration for the next several days.

    The recipe is simple, like the directions on the back of a shampoo bottle. Damaging reports of Bush administration malfeasance emerge. Warnings of imminent terrorist-borne doom immediately follow, all spread far and wide by said Bush administration. Lather, rinse, repeat.

    There are many more instances of this curious timing to be found, but apparently, no one in the administration is concerned this dubious pattern - spreading fear among the populace to change the subject, an act of terrorism itself - might start to wear thin.

    Who is going to forget the incredible scandals of June and July of 2007? The Bush administration leaves Nixon in the dust by commuting the prison sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. This action strongly suggests the existence of a quid pro quo between Libby and Bush's people to cover up the criminal activities of powerful officials like Vice President Dick Cheney, who had recently claimed his office wasn't part of the executive branch to avoid handing papers over to the National Archives.

    The administration deploys spurious claims of Executive Privilege to avoid subpoenas regarding the patently illegal NSA wiretapping of American citizens. That privilege is extended to deny Congressional access to Harriet Miers, former White House counsel, regarding the issue of fired US attorneys. Contempt charges are threatened against Miers, and the NSA subpoena stonewall comes closer to getting openly challenged in court. Alberto Gonzales is exposed as having lied to the Senate in his testimony about FBI abuses of the Patriot Act.

    Few of the benchmarks for success in Iraq are met. Desperate to halt a tide of GOP defections from his Iraq policy, Bush again coughs up the totally discredited link between 9/11 and Iraq, saying, "The same people that attacked us on September the 11th is a crowd that is now bombing people, killing innocent men, women and children." The House again votes to withdraw American troops from Iraq. A new Harris poll on Bush's approval rating is published. The number reads 26 percent.

    Wait.

    Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff all but guarantees devastating new terror attacks against the United States this summer. He bases this warning on a "gut feeling." White House spokesman Tony Snow threatens that withdrawal from Iraq would bring terrorism "to a shopping mall near you."

    Meanwhile, al Qaeda is alleged to be as secure in Pakistan and Afghanistan as they were before 9/11, yet no one in the administration connects this new security to the drain of resources happening in Iraq. Additionally, no one in the administration points out the fact that, if Chertoff's gut is indeed correct, and we are indeed attacked again, responsibility for that attack will fall upon those who manufactured war in Iraq. Never mind the fact that if an attack is allowed to happen, even a minor one, more of our constitutional rights and protections will be eviscerated by the very same people who failed to stop it again.

    Will everyone forget about the scandals of June and July 2007 amid these deadly warnings of coming death?

    Lather, rinse, repeat.

al-Qaida Has Rebuilt, U.S. Intel Warns
Jul 11 06:33 PM US/Eastern By KATHERINE SHRADER and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded al-Qaida has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since just before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The Associated Press has learned.

The conclusion suggests that the group that launched the most devastating terror attack on the United States has been able to rebuild despite nearly six years of bombings, war and other tactics aimed at crippling it.

Still, numerous government officials say they know of no specific, credible threat of a new attack.

A counterterrorism official familiar with a five-page summary of the new government threat assessment called it a stark appraisal that will be discussed at the White House on Thursday as part of a broader meeting on an upcoming National Intelligence Estimate.

The official and others spoke on condition of anonymity because the secret report remains classified.

Counterterrorism analysts produced the document, titled "Al-Qaida better positioned to strike the West." The document pays special heed to the terror group's safe haven in Pakistan and makes a range of observations about the threat posed to the United States and its allies, officials said.

Al-Qaida is "considerably operationally stronger than a year ago" and has "regrouped to an extent not seen since 2001," the official said, paraphrasing the report's conclusions. "They are showing greater and greater ability to plan attacks in Europe and the United States."

The group also has created "the most robust training program since with an interest in using European operatives," the official quoted the report as saying.

At the same time, this official said, the report speaks of "significant gaps in intelligence" so U.S. authorities may be ignorant of potential or planned attacks.

John Kringen, who heads the CIA's analysis directorate, echoed the concerns about al-Qaida's resurgence during testimony and conversations with reporters at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday.

"They seem to be fairly well settled into the safe haven and the ungoverned spaces of Pakistan," Kringen testified. "We see more training. We see more money. We see more communications. We see that activity rising."

The threat assessment comes as the National Intelligence Council is preparing a National Intelligence Estimate focusing on threats to the United States. A senior intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity while the high-level analysis was being finalized, said the document has been in the works for roughly two years.

Kringen and aides to National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell would not comment on the details of that analysis. "Preparation of the estimate is not a response to any specific threat," McConnell's spokesman Ross Feinstein said, adding that it would be ready for distribution this summer.

Counterterrorism officials have been increasingly concerned about al- Qaida's recent operations. This week, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he had a "gut feeling" that the United States faced a heightened risk of attack this summer.

Kringen said he wouldn't attach a summer timeframe to the concern. In studying the threat, he said he begins with the premise that al-Qaida would consider attacking the U.S. a "home run hit" and that the easiest way to get into the United States would be through Europe.

The new threat assessment puts particular focus on Pakistan, as did Kringen.

"Sooner or later you have to quit permitting them to have a safe haven" along the Afghan-Pakistani border, he told the House committee. "At the end of the day, when we have had success, it is when you've been able to get them worried about who was informing on them, get them worried about who was coming after them."

Several European countries—among them Britain, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands—are also highlighted in the threat assessment partly because they have arrangements with the Pakistani government that allow their citizens easier access to Pakistan than others, according to the counterterrorism official.

This is more troubling because all four are part of the U.S. visa waiver program, and their citizens can enter the United States without additional security scrutiny, the official said.

The Bush administration has repeatedly cited al-Qaida as a key justification for continuing the fight in Iraq.

"The number one enemy in Iraq is al-Qaida. Al-Qaida continues to be the chief organizer of mayhem within Iraq, the chief organization for killing innocent Iraqis," White House press secretary Tony Snow said Wednesday.

The findings could bolster the president's hand at a moment when support on Capitol Hill for the war is eroding and the administration is struggling to defend its decision for a military buildup in Iraq. A progress report that the White House is releasing to Congress this week is expected to indicate scant progress on the political and military benchmarks set for Iraq.

The threat assessment says that al-Qaida stepped up efforts to "improve its core operational capability" in late 2004 but did not succeed until December of 2006 after the Pakistani government signed a peace agreement with tribal leaders that effectively removed government military presence from the northwest frontier with Afghanistan.

The agreement allows Taliban and al-Qaida operatives to move across the border with impunity and establish and run training centers, the report says, according to the official.

It also says that al-Qaida is particularly interested in building up the numbers in its middle ranks, or operational positions, so there is not as great a lag in attacks when such people are killed.

"Being No. 3 in al-Qaida is a bad job. We regularly get to the No. 3 person," Tom Fingar, the top U.S. intelligence analyst, told the House panel.

The counterterror official said the report does not focus on Osama bin Laden, his whereabouts or his role in al-Qaida. Officials say the network has become more like a "family-oriented" mob organization with leadership roles in cells and other groups being handed from father to son, or cousin to uncle.

Yet bin Laden's whereabouts are still of great interest to intelligence agencies. Although he has not been heard from for some time, Kringen said officials believe he is still alive and living under the protection of tribal leaders in the border area.

Armed Services Committee members expressed frustration that more was not being done to get bin Laden and tamp down activity in the tribal areas. The senior intelligence analysts tried to portray the difficulty of operating in the area, despite a $25 million bounty on the head of bin Laden and his top deputy.

"They are in an environment that is more hostile to us than it is to al-Qaida," Fingar said.

Chertoff bases warning of terror risk on 'gut feeling'
Homeland chief says he's offering an assessment, not a prediction

By E.A. TORRIERO
McClatchy-Tribune

CHICAGO — Fearing complacency among the American people over possible terror threats, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in Chicago on Tuesday that the nation faces a heightened chance of an attack this summer.

"I believe we are entering a period this summer of increased risk," Chertoff told the Chicago Tribune's editorial board in an unusually blunt and frank assessment of America's terror threat level.

"Summertime seems to be appealing to them," he said of al-Qaida. "We do worry that they are rebuilding their activities."

Still, Chertoff said there are not enough indications of an imminent plot to raise the current threat levels nationwide. And he indicated his remarks were based on "a gut feeling" formed by past seasonal patterns of terrorist attacks, recent al-Qaida statements, and intelligence he did not disclose.

There is an assessment "not of a specific threat, but of increased vulnerability," he added.

There have been reports already that suggest intelligence warnings at a similar level to the summer before Sept. 11, 2001 and that al-Qaida may be mobilizing.

In recent days, ABC news reported that a secret law enforcement report prepared for homeland security warns that al-Qaida is preparing a "spectacular" summer attack. On Tuesday, ABC News also reported that "new intelligence suggests a small al-Qaida cell is on its way to the United States, or may already be here."

"We could easily be attacked," Chertoff added. "The intent to attack us remains as strong as it was on Sept. 10, 2001."

The dire warnings and Chertoff's comments come as the Bush administration faces political and business opposition over its immigration and border policies that have security implications.

With stiff blowback on those issues, the administration has been unsuccessful in efforts to enact broader security measures — ones opponents fear are too costly, unnecessary and infringe on people's rights.

Chertoff said, too, that the recent failure of Congress to pass an immigration bill has negative repercussions for homeland security and will lead to continued federal crackdowns on illegal immigrants.

Resistance has built as well, he said, from business and travel interests blocking his proposals to tighten border security, especially with Canada.

Secret Document: U.S. Fears Terror 'Spectacular' Planned
Official Cites Resemblance to Warnings and Intelligence Before 9/11
By BRIAN ROSS, RHONDA SCHWARTZ and RICHARD ESPOSITO

July 1, 2007 —

A secret U.S. law enforcement report, prepared for the Department of Homeland Security, warns that al Qaeda is planning a terror "spectacular" this summer, according to a senior official with access to the document.

"This is reminiscent of the warnings and intelligence we were getting in the summer of 2001," the official told ABCNews.com.

U.S. officials have kept the information secret, and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said today on ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" that the United States did not have "have any specific credible evidence that there's an attack focused on the United States at this point."

As ABCNews.com reported, U.S. law enforcement officials received intelligence reports two weeks ago warning of terror attacks in Glasgow and Prague, the Czech Republic, against "airport infrastructure and aircraft."

The warnings apparently never reached officials in Scotland, who said this weekend they had received "no advance intelligence" that Glasgow might be a target.

Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff declined to comment specifically on on the report today, but said "everything that we get is shared virtually instantaneously with our counterparts in Britain and vice versa."

Unlike the United States, officials in Germany have publicly warned that the country could face a major attack this summer, also comparing the situation to the pre-9/11 summer of 2001.

The FBI's Post-9/11 Helping Hand to Osama bin Laden

By Larisa Alexandrovna
Posted on June 21, 2007, Printed on June 22, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers//54811/

This post, written by Larisa Alexandrovna, originally appeared on The Huffington Post

According to newly obtained documents - through FOIA - by the Conservative watchdog, Judicial Watch, eight days after September 11, 2001, "A 727 PLANE LEFT LAX, RYAN FLT #441 TO ORLANDO, FL W/ETA (estimated time of arrival) OF 4-5PM. THE PLANE WAS CHARTERED EITHER BY THE SAUDI ARABIAN ROYAL FAMILY OR OSAMA BIN LADEN...THE LA FBI SEARCHED THE PLANE [REDACTED] LUGGAGE, OF WHICH NOTHING UNUSUAL WAS FOUND."

Furthermore, from the Judicial Watch Web site:

"According to the FBI documents, incredibly not a single Saudi national nor any of the bin Laden family members possessed any information of investigative value.

Moreover, the documents contain numerous errors and inconsistencies which call to question the thoroughness of the FBI's investigation of the Saudi flights. For example, on one document, the FBI claims to have interviewed 20 of 23 passengers on the Ryan International Airlines flight (commonly referred to as the "Bin Laden Family Flight"). On another document, the FBI claims to have interviewed 15 of 22 passengers on the same flight.

"Eight days after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, Osama bin Laden possibly charters a flight to whisk his family out of the country, and it's not worth more than a luggage search and a few brief interviews?" asked Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "Clearly these documents prove the FBI conducted a slapdash investigation of these Saudi flights. We'll never know how many investigative leads were lost due to the FBI's lack of diligence."

But my favorite part of this whole FBI OBL farce is as follows:

"Incredibly, the FBI had previously redacted Osama bin Laden's name from the records in order "to protect privacy interests.""

Can you say fuck you very much?

At least this might finally explain a nagging problem I have had with the FBI's most wanted poster of OBL, which makes no mention of September 11, 2001 among the crimes OBL is wanted for:

"Usama Bin Laden is wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. These attacks killed over 200 people. In addition, Bin Laden is a suspect in other terrorist attacks throughout the world."

Who has been fired for these oversights and likely criminal negligence, at best? Anyone? Apparently no one needs to be, seeing as how the US media is busy chasing Paris Hilton in and out of jail. Perhaps the Senate should ask Alberto Gonzales on his next visit to Congress if he may have asked the FBI to back off looking into who authorized these flights, the OBL redaction in the FOIA document, and why the FBI's OBL wanted poster does not appear to be up to date? Did I mention that Judicial Watch is a Conservative watchdog?

While you are holding your breath, you can see the full FOIA files HERE.

Larisa Alexandrovna is a journalist, essayist and poet. She is currently managing news editor for Raw Story, and contributes regularly to other publications in the alternative press. She also hangs out at her blog, AT-LARGELY.

© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/bloggers//54811/

Today's paper features and article on the front page about a new program, here in Minnesota, called Code Ready. This program is to make people aware of being prepared for an "emergency"--be it a pandemic, terror attack, etc... They are recommending that you have a ONE MONTH emergency supply of food and water.

ONE MONTH supply...

...seriously, if things are going to breal down to the point where we need a ONE MONTH emergency supply of food and water, it isn't going to matter.

Is this just the neo-version of building the backyard bunker to protect yourself from the nuclear commie threat? Or do they know something?

FYI, the Code Ready site will help you create a list for either a 3-day, 1 week, 1 month, or 1 YEAR emergency supply kit.

Come On, You Slacker Terrorists, Attack Us Already!

By Guest Blogger
Posted on June 17, 2007, Printed on June 17, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/guest/54403/

This post was written by Russ Wellen

Listen to Clyde Lane, Homeland Security's chief nuclear scientist, speaking at a conference in Miami this week:

"A number of terrorist groups have the capabilities to produce a crude radiological weapon, which would combine conventional explosives with radioactive material. Given the relative ease of creating a dirty bomb, the fact that one has never been set off is slightly puzzling.

"The RDD [radiological dispersion device] seems to be fairly simple, so why haven't we seen some of these?"

Talk about your double-dares -- this one trumps President Bush's "Bring it on." Layne then makes a bad situation worse by shaming terrorists because, never mind a dirty bomb, they haven't made a real nuclear bomb.

"There is enough information on the Internet to piece together a workable nuclear weapon design," he says. In fact, "It is something that's doable with reasonable machine shops and casting facilities." Yeah, get to work, you slacker terrorists.

In fairness, Layne may have been reduced to hyperbole by his frustration over the difficulties of securing "loose nukes" (nuclear materials in Russia). Not to mention intercepting nuclear materials on their way from states "of proliferation concern" to the US.

According to Mark Valencia in the June Arms Control Today, the Bush administration's Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), intended for just that purpose, has been ineffective. Other nations, leery of us, thanks to not only the Iraq War, but the Bush administration's poor record on nuclear nonproliferation, have been reluctant to sign on.

Equally suspicious are those of us stateside who, since the days of the transparently political terror alerts, view WMD warnings as a means of fear-mongering us into docile acceptance of yet more NSA spying. Besides, as Stephen Younger, former head of nuclear weapons research and development at Los Alamos Laboratory, makes clear in his new book "Endangered Species," constructing a nuclear weapon actually is rocket science.

There's more to it, he writes, than: "Just put a slug of uranium into a gun barrel and shoot it into another slug of uranium into a gun barrel and shoot it into another slug of uranium. . . . There are many tricks of the trade that even the most complete set of instructions won't contain, a fact apparent to anyone who has ever tried to follow the instructions for a complex do-it-yourself project."

Still, minimizing the terrorist threat just because the administration hypes it is a trap liberals and progressives fall into all too readily. Of course, there are multiple obstacles to creating a nuclear bomb, none, as Iran has learned through painful experience, larger than getting those getting those damned cascading centrifuges to properly enrich uranium.

Purchasing -- or stealing -- weapons-grade uranium are other options. Let's go, Chechen rebels! Pinch some from a poorly secured Russian nuclear facility. Come on, al Qaeda! Divert a few shekels from requisitioning grenade launchers to buying enriched uranium on the nuclear black market.

More to the point, why haven't terrorists gotten their hands on a "nuclear suitcase," as seen on "24" this season? The Russians encased comparatively low-yield bombs in what looks like a heavy piece of luggage. The US version, stuffed in a backpack instead, was called, ironically, SADMs (Small Atomic Demolition Munitions).

One defector from the GRU (Russia's largest intelligence agency) said the number of these tactical nukes missing from Russian nuclear facilities, "is almost identical to the number of strategic targets upon which those bombs would be used." In other words, plenty for every major city in the US with enough left over for places like the Mall of America.

Meanwhile, we hate to break the news to Clyde Layne but the real reason terrorists, particularly al Qaeda, may have made neither a dirty bomb nor a nuclear bomb is that they might already have suitcase bombs in their possession. Why haven't they used them? Commentators never pass up a chance to remind us that al Qaeda gives more than lip service to the homily "Patience is a virtue" (its only one apparently).

Meanwhile, according to Mr. Nuclear Terrorism himself -- Graham Allison of Harvard's Belfer Center -- there is "yet another reason for thinking some of these weapons may be unaccounted for." Unlike the rest of Russia's nuclear weapons, they "had no individual serial numbers on them."

Even before "24," a show of such cultural impact that it's got West Point students salivating over the prospect of torturing an "enemy combatant," the Cold War, of course, ended. Then, during the last presidential election, Dick Cheney issued a string of variations on his pronouncement that "you've got to get your mind around" the concept of terrorists using an WMD on an American city. Consequently, nuclear fear in America has migrated from use of nuclear weapons by states to "non-state actors" (a nice way of referring to terrorists).

As if to make it official, former Secretary of Defense William Perry and his associates have just released a report called "The Day After" (sorry, Mr. SecDef, no points for originality), which was excerpted in The New York Times. Concentrating on prevention and survival of a nuclear terrorist attack, it also attempts to rescue the fall-out shelter from the oblivion it shares with "duck and cover."

But states with nukes -- like the US -- remain equally dangerous. With their plans to deploy missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, Bush & Co. seem bound and determined to revive the Cold War.

Maybe Russia is a bone Cheney and his people are throwing Condoleezza Rice, to whom Sovietology is a first love. It could serve as a reward to her for going down with the Fatah ship in Palestine. Or, more important, it might divert her from continuing to diplomatically triangulate with Iran and the International Atomic Agency, thus clearing the decks for air strikes against Iranian nuke sites.

On the other hand, there was some rare good news on the nuclear disarmament front. Last week, the House Appropriations Committee voted to increase Department of Energy nonproliferation programs by $940.7 million. It also eliminated $88.8 million worth of proposed funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead. (Their selling points are greater simplicity and lower maintenance than existing warheads.)

But, as Kyle Atwell reports on Nukes of Hazzard, a blog affiliated with the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation: "The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) released its markup of the Defense Authorization Bill yesterday. . . . and allotted just over $195 million for the RRW program, a 165% increase from the president's request of $118.8 million." He concludes: "My guess is that the House will keep funding low, the Senate will keep funding high, and a middle ground will be hashed out in the joint committee."

Can we ever reach nuclear disarmament, a destination ever more distant, using baby steps like that?

Ian Anthony heads up the Nonproliferation and Export Control Project for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. "The decisions taken by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council," he said, "will keep nuclear weapons in their arsenals beyond 2050."

Russ Wellen is a senior editor at Freezerbox.com and nuclear deproliferation editor at OpEdNews.com.

© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/guest/54403/

US government fans homeland terrorism fear
Washington consensus plans for martial law, nuclear terror holocaust, behind closed doors

By Larry Chin

Global Research, May 15, 2007

The US government and Washington elites are aggressively ramping up their "war on terrorism" rhetoric and propaganda, stoking fear and paranoia in order to bolster its war agenda, and reinvigorate the mass public perception of new and growing "homegrown terrorism" threats to the US homeland.

The next phase of America’s war abroad (under the management of a post-Bush neocon/neoliberal consensus), and the deepening militarization of the US homeland towards a full police state, are well underway.

Who or what was behind the Fort Dix Six?

On May 8, 2007, six foreign-born Muslims were arrested during an attempt to purchase assault weapons, and accused of plotting a terror attack on Fort Dix (New Jersey), as well as an assault on a Pennsylvania Navy installation.

While evidence regarding this case continues to unfold, what is clear is that the FBI and US intelligence had been infiltrated and monitored over an extensive period, as early as January 2006. An unnamed "shadowy informer", likely an intelligence asset, is the key figure behind this operation and the arrest.

An objective analysis of the Fort Dix incident leads to questions about US military-intelligence involvement, and the use of the incident as a pretext:

"There is no doubt that the actions of the US military around the world are provoking a level of disgust and anger that could well produce misguided terrorist attacks within the US itself. Nonetheless, the various terrorist ‘plots’ exposed by the Bush administration have virtually without exception been characterized by a similar lack of any real preparation for violence combined with the central role of a covert informant/agent provocateur.

"In each of these cases, the supposed conspiracy has been heavily publicized in a transparent bid to justify the ongoing military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and to create a climate of fear in order to suppress democratic rights in the US itself.

"The exposure of the latest alleged plot has coincided with an unprecedented political crisis for the administration. With the president’s standing in the polls falling to record lows and US military casualties in Iraq increasing as the quagmire in the occupied country deepens, the political motive for unveiling another supposed terrorist threat from within is abundantly clear."

The Fort Dix suspects allegedly came to the attention of authorities after one of them was fingered by a Circuit City store manager while requesting to dub a terrorism training videotape from VHS to DVD. This bungling is reminiscent of the actions of the so-called 9/11 hijackers (all of them guided US intelligence assets), and suggests low-level and amateurish "patsies", guided and set up by larger forces.

This foiled "spectacular" terror plot comes shortly after the bizarre Virginia Tech massacre (which, perhaps coincidentally, bears striking similarities to other "manchurian candidate" incidents such as the Robert F. Kennedy assassination and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley) successfully sparked fear across the country, and ignited new calls from citizens to "make our children safe".

The clear political beneficiary of both the Fort Dix and V Tech episodes are the same: Homeland Security.

The emerging "homegrown" threat

When asked if the Fort Dix arrests had any connection to Al-Qaeda, the Bush administration immediately stated that there is "no direct evidence of a foreign terrorist tie".

This telling break, from the administration’s known pattern (seizing every opportunity to attribute violence to "Al-Qaeda", "Islamo-fascists", etc.) suggests that the new and overriding "war on terrorism" imperative favored by the Washington neocon-neoliberal consensus involves the threat of "homegrown" terrorism.

According to FBI agent J.P. Weis, who announced the arrest of the Fort Dix suspects, "these homegrown terrorists can prove to be as dangerous as any known group, if not more so. They operate under the radar."

This rhetoric coincides with a larger effort on the part of elite policy shapers to manufacture, and sell, a nightmare scenario to an American public that is beginning to distrust its government, at the very moment that the real possibility of a resource-depleted post-Peak Oil American dystopia, the decline of the American empire, is beginning to hit home in earnest.

The "Preventive Defense Project": martial law and nuclear holocaust in the United States

In a series of closed-door sessions in Washington,

a panel of high level government and military officials, security "experts" are constructing a homeland security plan that would include martial law and the suspension of civil liberties.

See:

Contigencies for nuclear terrorist attack: government working up plan to prevent chaos in wake of bombing of major city:

Financed and organized by a joint Stanford-Harvard program known as the "Preventative Defense Project", and led by the hawkish former Clinton administration defense secretary William Perry, and Harvard’s Ashton Carter (another Clinton defense department official), this panel of 41 "security experts", directors of US nuclear weapons labs, and Homeland Security officials operatives are constructing a "blueprint" for the scenario that "Al-Qaeda" or another terrorist group with nuclear weapons will strike the United States.

The panel has concluded that such a terror strike would cause catastrophic destruction and death, "cause a possible disintegration of government order", halt economic activity and unravel social order itself. The overriding objective of this panel, therefore, revolves around ways to maintain "order" and control the civilian populace.

In a workshop called "The Day After", panel declared that preventing such a terror strike (similar in size to a Hiroshima-style detonation) was no longer enough, and that the "collapse of government order was so great, that a contingency plan is needed.

In an example of breathless and hawkish speculation,

Carter declared: "We have had glimpses of something like this with Hiroshima, and glimpses with 9/11 and Katrina. But those are only glimpses. If one bomb goes off, there are likely to be more to follow. This fact, that nuclear terrorism will appear as a syndrome rather than as a single episode, has major consequences".

(The chaos of all three historical incidents cited by Carter were the result of government-orchestrated criminal aggression, two of them mass murders of the domestic US population. Carter, of course, did not acknowledge this.)

Another panelist was Fred Ikle, former defense department official during the Reagan-Bush Iran/Contra era, and author of a 2006 book, "Annihilation from Within". Ikle’s book, and his work on the panel, aggressively promotes the suspension of civil liberties and the imposition of martial law.

Steven Fetter, dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, and one of the panelists, believes that "cities would empty and people would completely lose confidence in the ability of the government to protect them. You’d have nothing that resembles our current social order. I’m not sure any preparation can be sufficient to deal with that."

Like many others, Fetter pushes the unfounded assumption that the US government protects its citizens, ignoring the fact (exemplified by 9/11 and the "war on terrorism") that the civilian populace is under ongoing attack from the government itself.

It is no surprise that these policies are being hatched behind closed doors, by elites, and military-intelligence operatives and other "architects of reality", with no involvement from the citizenry. It is, however, yet another ominous sign of things to come.

Nothing has been done to undo the Patriot Act, or end such things as illegal domestic spying and surveillance of American citizens. Nothing will be.

The world’s elites, from the "Preventive Defense Project" to the Council on Foreign Relations and other intelligence "think tanks", are actively engineering future policies for a nightmare scenario (both the orchestration of scenario itself, as with 9/11, as well as in response to "disorder" and civilian unrest.

Real and fake terrorism: products of Washington

It is a fact that "Islamic terrorism" has always been a "homegrown" product.

"Al Qaeda" and "Militant Islam" are creations of, and guided assets still working at the behest of, Anglo-American intelligence (the CIA, Pakistan’s ISI, etc.). Anglo-American involvement behind "terrorism", and the manufacture of the "war on terrorism", exhaustively documented in Michel Chossudovsky’s America's "War on Terrorism" , Michael C. Ruppert’s Crossing the Rubicon:The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil , and other investigations, continue to be the focus of ongoing official cover-up. (See: Who is Osama bin Laden?, Al-Qaeda:the database)

As Michel Chossudovsky points out in "The Anglo-American War of Terror: An Overview":

"One of the main objectives of war propaganda is to ‘fabricate an enemy’. As anti-war sentiment grows and the political legitimacy the Bush Administration falters, doubts regarding the existence of this illusive ‘outside enemy’ must be dispelled.

"Propaganda purports not only to drown the truth but also to ‘kill the evidence’ on how this ‘outside enemy’, namely Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda was fabricated and transformed into ‘Enemy Number One’. The entire National Security doctrine centers on the existence of an ‘outside enemy’ which is threatening the Homeland."

It has been clear for months that the scandal-ridden Bush administration, collapsing under the weight of its own criminality, and plummeting public confidence and political support, is desperate to manufacture the appearance of progress, even triumph, in its waning months. In order to portray themselves as the Homeland’s premier "anti-terrorist" saviors, Bush and his functionaries must now attempt to sell their ability to solve to bogus problem with "terror" arrests and foiled plots, which have recently included the capture and execution of certain key Al-Qaeda" figures.

The official "Al-Qaeda" narrative itself is being given a makeover. "Al-Qaeda", "on the move", is being implanted into the Anglo-American empire’s new hot spots, the new targets of Western military-intelligence intervention, such as Iraq, Irbil (near Iran), Somalia and even Gaza.

In addition, with America’s Middle East war agenda derailing under Bush-Cheney management, new bipartisan political desperation to "restore order", shared by neocons and neoliberals alike, is resulting in a push towards a new and even more dangerous phase of the "war on terrorism", and an increased potential for new manufactured crises and "new 9/11s".

It is no surprise that most if not all of the so-called Democratic congressional opposition to the Bush administration uniformly embraces the "war on terrorism". In fact, evidenced by recent debates between Democratic presidential candidates (Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, etc.), the Democrats advocate aggressive Homeland Security and renewed ("even better") "security" policies and improved ways to "kill terrorists", expand Bush’s world war, and militarily intervene in new areas of "national security" interest. Far from being genuine opponents of the Bush-Cheney agenda, the Democrats are fully complicit.

Gullible, paranoid and violent US citizenry

Lurid news coverage of the Fort Dix plot, the Virginia Tech massacre, and "war on terrorism" and a steady diet of "anti-terror" entertainment such as the television series 24, continue to spark panic and constant fear of "terrorism threats" among US citizens.

Reaction to the Fort Dix incident among the acquiescent and complacent populace has been uniformly paranoid, marked by saber-rattling and war-mongering. Some portions of the United States have been reverted quickly to the immediate post-9/11 mindset. A fear-struck populace is easily led.

The real threat remains the same

What the world must continue to take seriously is not a threatened strike by "terrorists", but the violent desperation of a stumbling New World Order that 1) compounds its criminal desperation by continuing to commit terrorism and "run" terror groups to achieve its political purposes (the foremost being energy and resource conquest), 2) engage in terroristic provocations (foment backlash, or "blowback"), 3) wittingly and unwittingly creates new insurgencies and opposition from victimized populaces and occupied nations.

As it was on the morning of 9/11, all eyes must remain locked on the guilty parties in Washington---the political criminals who are "above the law", armed with the power to manipulate, control and exterminate broad sections of humanity, within the US homeland and abroad.

Bush: Iraq pullout could spark new 9/11

By Toby Harnden in Washington and Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

Most Iraqis support attacks on British and Americans President George W Bush has used the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war to warn that US withdrawal would unleash a "contagion of violence" that could spark a repeat of the Sept 11 attacks. Although he conceded that there would be "bad days ahead", he insisted that there had been "good progress" in Iraq and there were "hopeful signs" that the influx of 30,000 additional troops would stabilise Baghdad. Bush: 'Four years after this war began, the fight is difficult, but it can be won' But the bullish self-confidence of 2003 was absent as he said only that the war could be won, rather than portraying victory as inevitable. "Four years after this war began, the fight is difficult, but it can be won," he said. He delivered a tough message to Democrats, who now control Congress, that he would veto any bill that did not provide "the funds and the flexibility that our troops need to accomplish their mission". Democratic proposals for deadlines for troop withdrawals, he suggested, could be "devastating" for America's security and could help al-Qa'eda plan attacks against the United States on a scale not seen since Sept 11. "It can be tempting to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude our best option is to pack up and go home. That may be satisfying in the short run, but I believe the consequences for American security would be devastating. "If American forces were to step back from Baghdad before it is more secure, a contagion of violence could spill out across the entire country. In time, this violence could engulf the region. "The terrorists could emerge from the chaos with a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they had in Afghanistan, which they used to plan the attacks of September 11th 2001. For the safety of the American people, we cannot allow this to happen." By stating that the war would be won "if we have the courage and resolve to see it through", he appeared to be preparing the ground for blaming an eventual failure in Iraq on a new Democratic president should he or she order a withdrawal. But Democrats have been increasingly contemptuous of Mr Bush's protestations that the removal of Saddam Hussein has made America safer. In a statement to mark the fourth anniversary, Nancy Pelosi, the new Speaker of the House, condemned the "an ill-conceived war of choice" in Iraq. "It has brought our military's readiness to the lowest levels since the Vietnam war, cost billions of dollars; and significantly damaged the standing of the United States in the eyes of the world." A new poll showed American support for the Iraq war had sunk to 32 per cent, compared to 72 per cent just after it began. Iraqi opinion also appears to be souring. A BBC poll found that a majority of Iraqis support insurgent attacks on US and British troops, although almost two-thirds simultaneously believe the US-led coalition shouldn't pull out. Out of 2,000 people questioned across all 18 provinces more than half, 51 per cent said they supported "politically motivated" attacks on coalition forces. More than 80 per cent said they lacked faith in American and other troops, while 69 per cent believed the US presence made violence worse. Dissatisfaction with Iraqi politicians had soared since the last survey in 2005, to 53 per cent from 34 per cent. Only 43 per cent said democracy provided the best hope of good government while 34 per cent supported the return of a dictator. Violence continued today as an explosion ripped through a Shia mosque in Baghdad during prayers, killing at least eight worshippers. A series of car bombs then struck the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, killing 12 people.

The War on Terror Is the Leading Cause of Terrorism

By Kim Sengupta and Patrick Cockburn, The Independent UK
Posted on March 1, 2007, Printed on March 2, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/48620/

Innocent people across the world are now paying the price of the "Iraq effect," with the loss of hundreds of lives directly linked to the invasion and occupation by American and British forces.

An authoritative U.S. study of terrorist attacks after the invasion in 2003 contradicts the repeated denials of George Bush and Tony Blair that the war is not to blame for an upsurge in fundamentalist violence worldwide. The research is said to be the first to attempt to measure the "Iraq effect" on global terrorism.

It found that the number killed in jihadist attacks around the world has risen dramatically since the Iraq war began in March 2003. The study compared the period between 11 September 2001 and the invasion of Iraq with the period since the invasion. The count -- excluding the Arab-Israel conflict -- shows the number of deaths due to terrorism rose from 729 to 5,420. As well as strikes in Europe, attacks have also increased in Chechnya and Kashmir since the invasion. The research was carried out by the Centre on Law and Security at the NYU Foundation for Mother Jones magazine.

Iraq was the catalyst for a ferocious fundamentalist backlash, according to the study, which says that the number of those killed by Islamists within Iraq rose from seven to 3,122. Afghanistan, invaded by US and British forces in direct response to the September 11 attacks, saw a rise from very few before 2003 to 802 since then. In the Chechen conflict, the toll rose from 234 to 497. In the Kashmir region, as well as India and Pakistan, the total rose from 182 to 489, and in Europe from none to 297.

Two years after declaring "mission accomplished" in Iraq President Bush insisted: "If we were not fighting and destroying the enemy in Iraq, they would not be idle. They would be plotting and killing Americans across the world and within our borders. By fighting these terrorists in Iraq, Americans in uniform are defeating a direct threat to the American people."

Mr Blair has also maintained that the Iraq war has not been responsible for Muslim fundamentalist attacks such as the 7/7 London bombings which killed 52 people. "Iraq, the region and the wider world is a safer place without Saddam [Hussein]," Mr Blair declared in July 2004.

Announcing the deployment of 1,400 extra troops to Afghanistan earlier this week -- raising the British force level in the country above that in Iraq -- the Prime Minister steadfastly denied accusations by MPs that there was any link between the Iraq war an unravelling of security elsewhere.

Last month John Negroponte, the Director of National Intelligence in Washington, said he was "not certain" that the Iraq war had been a recruiting factor for al-Qa'ida and insisted: "I wouldn't say that there has been a widespread growth in Islamic extremism beyond Iraq, I really wouldn't."

Yet the report points out that the US administration's own National Intelligence Estimate on "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States" -- partially declassified last October -- stated that " the Iraq war has become the 'cause célèbre' for jihadists ... and is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives."

The new study, by Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, argues that, on the contrary, "the Iraq conflict has greatly increased the spread of al-Qa'ida ideological virus, as shown by a rising number of terrorist attacks in the past three years from London to Kabul, and from Madrid to the Red Sea.

"Our study shows that the Iraq war has generated a stunning increase in the yearly rate of fatal jihadist attacks, amounting to literally hundreds of additional terrorist attacks and civilian lives lost. Even when terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan is excluded, fatal attacks in the rest of the world have increased by more than one third."

In trying to gauge the "Iraq effect," the authors had focused on the rate of terrorist attacks in two periods -- from September 2001 to 30 March 2003 (the day of the Iraq invasion) and 21 March 2003 to 30 September 2006. The research has been based on the MIPT-RAND Terrorism database.

The report's assertion that the Iraq invasion has had a far greater impact in radicalising Muslims is widely backed security personnel in the UK. Senior anti-terrorist officials told The Independent that the attack on Iraq, and the now-discredited claims by the U.S. and British governments about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, had led to far more young Muslims engaging in extremist activity than the invasion of Afghanistan two years previously.

Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, head of the Secret Service (MI5) said recently: "In Iraq attacks are regularly videoed and the footage is downloaded into the internet.

"Chillingly, we see the results here. Young teenagers are being groomed to be suicide bombers. The threat is serious, is growing and will, I believe, be with us for a generation."

In Afghanistan the most active of the Taliban commanders, Mullah Dadullah, acknowledged how the Iraq war has influenced the struggle in Afghanistan.

"We give and take with the mujahedin in Afghanistan," he said. The most striking example of this has been the dramatic rise in suicide bombings in Afghanistan, a phenomenon not seen through the 10 years of war with the Russians in the 1980s.

The effect of Iraq on various jihadist conflicts has been influenced according to a number of factors, said the report. Countries with troops in Iraq, geographical proximity to the country, the empathy felt for the Iraqis and the exchange of information between Islamist groups. "This may explain why jihadist groups in Europe, Arab countries, and Afghanistan were more affected by the Iraq war than other regions," it said.

Russia, like the US, has used the language of the "war on terror" in its actions in Chechnya, and al-Qa'ida and their associates have entrenched themselves in the border areas of Pakistan from where they have mounted attacks in Kashmir, Pakistan and India.

Statistics for the Arab-Israel conflict also show an increase, but the methodology is disputed in the case of Palestinian attacks in the occupied territories and settler attacks on Palestinians.

* The U.S. is joining the Iraqi government in a diplomatic initiative inviting Iran and Syria to a "neighbours meeting" on stabilising Iraq, the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday. The move reflects a change of approach by the Bush administration, which previously had resisted calls to include Iran and Syria in such talks.

© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/48