Tag: Al-Qaeda

Turkey foils Al Qaeda plot against U.S. Embassy in Ankara, uncovers bomb-making chemicals, rifles

BY Larry Mcshane

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Turkish soldiers in Ankara, the city where Al Qaeda planned to target the U.S. Embassy.

Mustafa Ozer/Getty

Turkish soldiers in Ankara, the city where Al Qaeda planned to target the U.S. Embassy.

Fifteen Al Qaeda terrorists were nabbed and 1,500 pounds of bomb-making chemicals seized as Turkish officials foiled a purported plot against the U.S. Embassy in Ankara.

The sweep nabbed conspirators in three cities, along with the chemicals, two assault rifles, ammunition and maps of the Turkish capital, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.

The 15 were transported to police headquarters in Ankara for questioning by anti-terror specialists, according to Anatolia.

Police made their move on the suspects after a key figure was arrested earlier this week following six months of surveillance, Anatolia said.

The suspect reportedly received arms and explosives training at a two-story house in the outskirts of Ankara.

“We’ve obviously seen the press reports,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner. “I’m aware that our embassy is in touch … with Turkish authorities about these arrests.”

lmcshane@nydailynews.com

via Turkey foils Al Qaeda plot against U.S. Embassy in Ankara, uncovers bomb-making chemicals, rifles.

July 15, 2011
Revival of Muslim empire

YUSUF KANLI

Is it not a wild idea to assume that the radical Islamist fantasies of the neo-Ottomanists of the dissolution period of the Ottoman Empire or the mostly Egyptian Arab forefathers of jihadist Islam or the restoration of the Caliphate movement might have a minute chance of coming true?

If we are to take out the fundamental difference between the neo-Ottomanist ideology, which was centered on the creation of a united “Caliphate State” something like today’s European Union, with the caliphate remaining in Istanbul – and the Egypt-centered Arab jihadist or the restoration of the Caliphate movement, that was obsessed with Arabs taking back caliphate to the holy Mecca, there was a common cause: To achieve the united state of the nation of Islam, or the “ummah.”

Creation of the modern, democratic and secular Turkish republic and the March 3, 1924 abrogation of caliphate was a setback to both the neo-Ottomanist and pan-Arabic caliphate movements or aspirations of a united caliphate state of the ummah. [This is a complex discussion as according to many researchers caliphate is not indeed abrogated; its functions were ended while the institution and its powers were transferred to the Turkish Parliament.] The obsession of reviving the state of Islam – like the state that existed during the lifetime of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad and the succeeding first four caliphs – never ever died out and indeed has been one of the fundamental pillars of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement, which this way or the other, under many names, exists all through the Arab geography today. Interestingly enough, though with some slight, yet very meaningful differences, the movement exists in non-Arab Muslim societies, including Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere.

Of course, no one can claim that al-Qaeda and the Nationalist View Movement in Turkey, or the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, are one and the same, though both come from the same tradition of political Islam. No one can claim either that both Hamas and the al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun of Egypt are one and the same. There are national and cultural divides between all these parties, which irrespective whether they officially declare it or not, aspire for the creation of the united caliphate state of the ummah, where shariah or the rule of Quran would strictly prevail.

Could the “Arab Spring” – as is so far said – succeed in creating democratic nation states in the Arab geography and beyond in the lands populated by Muslim people? Or, is there a possibility of the states of Middle East and North Africa turning into Sunni alterations of the Iranian theocracy? Or, as Newsweek asked in its June 20 edition, would the Greater Middle Eastern neighborhood eventually turn to Turkey and help the governance of political Islam there revive the Muslim Ottoman Empire? Though this last scenario was branded as “nightmarish” by the Newsweek and though very few Turks would object utopia of a Turkey-based revival of the caliphate state, it would not be at all easy either for the Turks to forget the “Arabs stabbed Turks in the back” rhetoric or for the Arabs not to remember what was it like for them to live under Ottoman rule. Definitely, there would not be a need for a new “Lawrence of Arabia” for the peoples of this geography to remember the recent history and the strong animosities coated with modern-day political interests.

Political Islam throughout this geography may wish to see their ultimate goal of creation of Muslim empire realized but if that target was so easy to attain it would have been achieved long ago, perhaps when there was still an Ottoman Empire. Like the Greek Megalo Idea, having utopias might help maintain integrity, but putting them into action might bring about farfetched disastrous consequences.

via Revival of Muslim empire – Hurriyet Daily News.

June 22, 2011
Kyrgyz police detain Turkish journalist as terror suspect

Moscow – Police in the Central Asian nation Kyrgyzstan have detained a Turkish journalist suspected of ties with Islamist terrorist groups, according to Wednesday news reports.

Agents acting on orders from Kyrgyzstan’s national security council arrested Turkish national Ali Osman Zor on May 2 in response to a request from Turkey’s government, the Interfax news agency reported.

Zor, 43, arrived in Kyrgyzstan in April 2010 and applied to receive political asylum there citing alleged long-term persecution by Turkish authorities, according to the report.

Zor’s criticism of Ankara and his calls for an overthrow of the Turkish government in personal blogs and news articles are the cause of the alleged political persecution, the independent Bishkek news website www.24.kg reported.

By Kyrgyz law he may not be extradited from Kyrgyzstan as long as his request for political asylum is under review, said Cholpon Dzhakupova, Director of the Bishkek-based human rights protection group Adilet, according to the report.

Zor reportedly was a member of and frequent spokesman for the Great East Islamic Raiders Front (IBDA-C), a Turkish group calling for the replacement of most secular Middle Eastern governments with a Muslim Caliphate.

Turkish authorities may also want Zor for questioning in connection with a November 15 2003 Istanbul bombing killing 22 and injuring 242, an attack IBDA-C later took credit for, the Kyrgyz newspaper DeloN reported.

The Turkish government in 2007 listed the IBDA-C as a terrorist organization with probable ties to al-Qaeda.

via Media: Kyrgyz police detain Turkish journalist as terror suspect – Monsters and Critics.

May 12, 2011
Wasn’t Bin Laden the reason we went to war?

Patrick Cockburn: Wasn’t Bin Laden the reason we went to war?

The killing of the al-Qa’ida leader offers an opportunity to make long overdue progress on Afghanistan

Does the death of Osama bin Laden open the door for the US and UK to escape from the trap into which they have fallen in Afghanistan? At first sight, the presumed weakening of al-Qa’ida ought to strength the case for an American and British withdrawal. When President Obama ordered the dispatch of an extra 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in 2009, he declared that the goal was “to deny safe-haven to al-Qa’ida and to deny the Taliban the ability to overthrow the Afghan government”.

This justification for stationing 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan and for Washington spending $113bn (£69bn) a year always looked thin. By the US army’s own estimate there are about 100 members of al-Qa’ida in Afghanistan compared with an estimated 25,000 Taliban. Even on the Pakistan side of the border, al-Qa’ida probably only has a few hundred fighters.

A problem for the US and Britain is how to dump this convenient but highly misleading explanation as to why it was essential for the safety of their own countries to fight a war in Afghanistan. This has required pretending that al-Qa’ida was in the country in significant force and that a vast US and UK military deployment was necessary to defend the streets of London or the little house on the prairie.

The death of Bin Laden reduces this highly exaggerated perception of al-Qa’ida as a threat. People, not unreasonably, ask what we are doing in Afghanistan, and why soldiers are still being killed. One spurious argument has been to conflate al-Qa’ida and the Afghan Taliban, and say they are much the same thing. But it is difficult to think of a single Afghan involved in bomb attacks against targets in the US and Britain before and after 9/11. Al-Qa’ida’s leadership was mainly Egyptian and Saudi as were all the 9/11 bombers.

The problem for Washington and London is that they have got so many people killed in Afghanistan and spent so much money that it is difficult for them to withdraw without something that can be dressed up as a victory. Could the death of Bin Laden be the sort of success that would allow Obama to claim that America’s main objective has been achieved? For the moment, at least, it will be more difficult for the Republicans to claim that a disengagement is a betrayal of US national security. Could not this be the moment for the US, with Britain tagging along behind, to cut a deal and get out?

Unfortunately, it probably isn’t going to happen. It will not be Obama’s decision alone. In 2009, he was dubious about what a temporary surge in US troop numbers would achieve and keen not to be sucked into a quagmire in Afghanistan just as the US was getting out of one in Iraq. Endless discussions took place in the offices of the White House about whether or not to send reinforcements.

But the outcome of these repeated meetings was predictable given the balance of power between different institutions in Washington. Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA and the next US Secretary for Defence, said that the decision to send more troops should have been made in a week, because the political reality is that “no Democratic president can go against military advice, especially if he has asked for it. So just do it. Do what they [the generals] said.”

The US military is not going to eat its optimistic words of late last year when they were claiming that it was finally making headway against the Taliban. Insurgent mid-level commanders were being assassinated in night raids by US Special Forces, and survivors were fleeing to Pakistan. If the Taliban were increasing their strength in northern Afghanistan, they were losing their grip on their old strongholds in Helmand and Kandahar.

Such reports of progress appear to have been largely propaganda or wishful thinking. At the start of this year’s fighting season the Taliban have been able to launch as many attacks as last year and replace its casualties. In Kandahar last month, they were able to free 500 prisoners from the city jail by digging a tunnel 1,000 feet long over five months without anybody finding out about it. An organisation that can do this is scarcely on its last legs. The message of the last few months is that the “surge” in Afghanistan, of which so much was expected, has not worked.

The Americans and British are meant to be training Afghan military and police units to take the place of foreign forces. It is never quite explained how Taliban fighters, without any formal military training, are able to battle the best-equipped armies in the world, while Afghan government troops require months of training before they can carry out the simplest military task.

One escaped Taliban prisoner in Kandahar has said that their plan was helped by the fact in the evening the prison guards always fell into a drug-induced stupor.

Official bromides about building up the strength of the Afghan government ignore an ominous trend: the governing class is detested by the rest of the population as a gang of thieves and racketeers. I was struck in a recent visit to Kabul by the venom with which well-educated professional people and businessmen, who are not doing badly, condemn Hamid Karzai’s government. This does not mean that they support the Taliban, but it does show that Karzai’s support, aside from cronies busily engaged in robbing the state, is very small.

When negotiations do start they should be between the four main players: the US, the Afghan government, the Taliban, and Pakistan. For all the rude things being said about the Pakistan military after Bin Laden was discovered so close to their main military academy in Abbottabad, nothing is going to be decided without their say-so.

Only the Pakistani army can deliver the Taliban whose great strategic advantage in the war is that under pressure they can always withdraw across the border into Pakistan. It is the highly permeable border, as long as the distance from London to Moscow, which prevented the Soviet Union from defeating Afghan rebels in the 1980s. Pakistan is not going to try to close this border and could not do so even if it wanted to.

It would not be difficult for the Taliban to renounce al-Qa’ida and other jihadi groups. The killing of Bin Laden as the icon of evil should make this easier for the US to accept.

Obviously there is going to be no military solution to the Afghan conflict, and negotiations with the Taliban will have to begin sooner or later, so why not now?

www.independent.co.uk, 8 May 2011

Showing 10 comments
Sort by Subscribe by email Subscribe by RSS anna 21 minutes ago afghanistan has untold mineral wealth and the Unicla pipeline goes through it – that’s why they are thereGetit? the Taliban can’t get hold of that, right?

May 8, 2011
Bad news for Arab dictators: Bin Laden the scapegoat is dead

Here is the big news! Osama bin Laden is captured, dead and buried in the sea “according to the Islamic traditions.”

As a well-educated Muslim I never heard of such a tradition. For thousands of years Muslims are expected to be buried in 24 hours following their death, but after a special funeral prayer on land, not to the sea. One defense of the sea burial — the potential for a grave to become a symbolic attraction point for radicals — is also nonsense, since the Wahhabi school of Islam, of which bin Laden was a follower, strongly forbids grave markers and tomb visits. In Wahhabi terms, God is only the agency to pray for, and building tombs for regular prayer visits is interpreted as competing with the “oneness of God.” (more…)

May 6, 2011
VIDEO: Al-Qaida vows revenge for Osama bin Laden’s death
Al-Qaida confirmed the killing of Osama bin Laden Friday and vowed revenge, saying Americans’ “happiness will turn to sadness” in the first statement by the terror network since its leader was slain in a U.S. commando raid against his Pakistani hideout.

The confirmation came as newly uncovered documents found in bin Laden’s residence revealed al-Qaida plans for derailing an American train on the upcoming 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Terror experts have said bin Laden’s death on Monday was a setback for al-Qaida but the threat of attacks remains and could even spike in coming days from individuals or small extremist groups inspired to take revenge for the killing.

The statement, dated Tuesday but posted Friday on militant websites, opens the way for the group to name a successor to bin Laden. His deputy Ayman al-Zawahri is now the most prominent figure in the group and a likely contender to take his place.

“The blood of the holy warrior sheik, Osama bin Laden, God bless him, is too precious to us and to all Muslims to go in vain,” the statement said. “We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries.”

“Soon, God willing, their happiness will turn to sadness,” it said, “their blood will be mingled with their tears.”

The group gave no indication how it will retaliate. But separate details emerged Friday showing that bin Laden was scheming how to hit the United States hard again.

Materials confiscated by the Navy SEALs who killed the al-Qaida leader in Abbotabad, Pakistan, reveal the rail attack planning as of February 2010. One idea outlined in handwritten notes was to tamper with an unspecified U.S. rail track so that a train would fall off the track at a valley or a bridge.

Counterterrorism officials said they believe the plot was only in the initial planning stages. The FBI and Homeland Security issued an intelligence bulletin with details of the plan to law enforcement around the country. The bulletin, marked “for official use only,” was obtained by The Associated Press.

Rather than making vehement cries of vengeance, the al-Qaida statement — entitled “You lived as a good man, you died as a martyr” — struck a tone of calmness and continuation. Though it included praise of bin Laden, much of the 11-paragraph statement was dedicated to underlining that al-Qaida would live on, depicting him as just another in a line of “martyrs” from the group.

“It is impossible, impossible. Sheik Osama didn’t build an organization to die when he dies,” the statement read. “The university of faith, Quran and jihad from which bin Laden graduated will not close its doors,” it added.

“The soldiers of Islam will continue in groups and united, plotting and planning without getting bored, tired, with determination, without giving up until striking a blow,” the statement.

It said bin Laden was killed “along an established path followed by the best of those who came before him and those who will come after him.”

In the statement, al-Qaida also called on Pakistanis to rise up in revolt against its leaders to “cleanse the shame.” It also said that an audio message bin Laden recorded a week before his death would be issued soon.

The writers of the statement appeared unaware of the announcement by American officials that bin Laden’s body had been buried at sea. The statement warned against mishandling or mistreating bin Laden’s body and demanded that be handed over to his family, saying “any harm (to the body) will open more doors of evil, and there will be no one to blame but yourselves.”

The statement’s authenticity could not be independently confirmed, but it was posted on websites where the group traditionally puts out its messages.

Reaction in the Islamic world to bin Laden’s death has been relatively muted compared with the rage that he long inspired, raising questions about his relevance in a region that has been changed by a wave of pro-democracy uprisings.

On Friday, hundreds of members of radical Islamic parties protested in several Pakistan cities against the American raid and in favor of bin Laden. Many of the people chanted “Osama is alive” and blasted the U.S. for violating the country’s sovereignty.

The largest rally took place in the town of Khuchlak in southwestern Baluchistan province, where about 500 people attended.

“America is celebrating Osama bin Laden’s killing, but it will be a temporary celebration,” said Abdullah Sittar Chishti, a member of the Jamiat Ulema Islam party who attended the rally in Khuchlak. “After the martyrdom of Osama, billions, trillions of Osamas will be born.”

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May 6, 2011

Al Qaeda admits bin Laden’s death online

Militant group says blood of leader killed in U.S. military raid “will not be wasted,” calls for more attacks
- Play CBS Video Video Al Qaeda confirms Osama bin Laden is deadAl Qaeda confirmed Osama bin Laden is dead in a statement appearing on a militant website. As Jeff Glor reports, the statement also vowed more attacks on the U.S.
- Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda statement confirming OBL’s death. (CBS/AP)
(CBS/AP)CAIRO – Al Qaeda on Friday confirmed the killing of Osama bin Laden and warned of retaliation, saying Americans’ “happiness will turn to sadness.”

The confirmation came in an Internet statement posted on militant websites, signed by “the general leadership” of al Qaeda. The announcement opens the way for the group to name a successor to bin Laden. His deputy Ayman al-Zawahri is now the most prominent figure in the group and is a very likely contender to take his place.

The statement, dated May 3, was the first by the terror network since bin Laden was killed Monday by U.S. commandos in a raid on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The statement’s authenticity could not be independently confirmed, but it was posted on websites where the group traditionally puts out its messages.

The Killing of Osama bin Laden

“The blood of the holy warrior sheik, Osama bin Laden, God bless him, is too precious to us and to all Muslims to go in vain,” the statement said. “We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries.”

“Soon, God willing, their happiness will turn to sadness,” it said, “their blood will be mingled with their tears.”

There was no indication how the group will retaliate. Rather than making vehement cries of vengeance, the statement — entitled “You lived as a good man, you died as a martyr” — struck a tone of calmness and continuation. Though it included praise of bin Laden, much of the 11-paragraph statement was dedicated to underlining that al Qaeda would live on, depicting him as just another in a line of “martyrs” from the group.

Obama: I won’t release bin Laden photos

“It is impossible, impossible. Sheik Osama didn’t build an organization to die when he dies,” the statement read. “The university of faith, Quran and jihad from which bin Laden graduated will not close its doors,” it added.

“The soldiers of Islam will continue in groups and united, plotting and planning without getting bored, tired, with determination, without giving up until striking a blow,” the statement.

It said bin Laden was killed “along an established path followed by the best of those who came before him and those who will come after him.”

In an interview with Steve Kroft for Sunday’s “60 Minutes” President Obama said he wouldn’t release post-mortem images of bin Laden taken to prove his death, largely out of concern that they would fuel anti-U.S. sentiment in the Middle East.

“It is important to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence or as a propaganda tool,” the president said.”We don’t trot out this stuff as trophies.

The president said he had discussed the issue with his intelligence team, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and that they agree with the decision.

In explaining his choice not to release the photo, Mr. Obama said that “we don’t need to spike the football.” He said that “given the graphic nature of these photos it would create a national security risk.”

In the statement posted Friday, al Qaeda also called on Pakistanis to rise up in revolt against its leaders to “cleanse the shame.” It also said that an audio message bin Laden recorded a week before his death would be issued soon.

The writers of the statement appeared unaware of the announcement by American officials that bin Laden’s body had been buried at sea. The statement warned against mishandling or mistreating bin Laden’s body and demanded that be handed over to his family, saying “any harm (to the body) will open more doors of evil, and there will be no one to blame but yourselves.”

© 2011 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION

Al-Qaeda ( /ælˈkaɪdə/ al-KY-də or /ælˈkeɪdə/ al-KAY-də; Arabic: القاعدة‎, al-qāʿidah, “the base” or “the foundation”), alternatively spelled al-Qaida and sometimes al-Qa’ida, is a global militant Islamist group founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988^[6] and late 1989.^[7] It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army^[8] and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad.

Al-Qaeda has attacked civilian and military targets in various countries, such as the September 11 attacks, Beslan massacre, US embassy bombings and Bali bombings. The U.S. government responded by launching the War on Terror. Al-Qaeda has continued to exist and grow through the decade from 2001 to 2011.^[9]

Characteristic techniques include suicide attacks and simultaneous bombings of different targets.^[10] Activities ascribed to it may involve members of the movement, who have taken a pledge of loyalty to Osama bin Laden, or the much more numerous “al-Qaeda-linked” individuals who have undergone training in one of its camps in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq or Sudan, but not taken any pledge.^[11]

Al-Qaeda ideologues envision a complete break from the foreign influences in Muslim countries, and the creation of a new Islamic caliphate. Reported beliefs include that a Christian-Jewish alliance is conspiring to destroy Islam,^[12] which is largely embodied in the U.S.-Israel alliance, and that the killing of bystanders and civilians is religiously justified in jihad.

Al-Qaeda is also responsible for instigating sectarian violence among Muslims.^[13] Al-Qaeda is intolerant of non-Sunni branches of Islam and denounce them with excommunications called “takfir”. Al-Qaeda leaders regard liberal Muslims, Shias, Sufis and other sects as heretics and sometimes issue attacks on their mosques and gatherings.^[14] Examples of sectarian attacks include the Yazidi community bombings, Sadr City bombings, Ashoura Massacre and April 2007 Baghdad bombings.^[15]

Al-Qaeda is also known as the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Crusaders and the Jews.[
May 6, 2011