Over at The Tank on National Review Online, I despair over the state of politics in our Nation and its debilitating effect on the prosecution of the War on Terror (or call it what you will), one which is defensive and reactionary in nature only after such was declared by attacks upon us. It opens with a still-relevant 1964 quote from Ronald Reagan.

We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it has been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening. — Ronald Reagan, 1964 Republican National Convention Address

The question addressed, or rather re-stated, ponders whether the enemy Reagan spoke of in 1964 at the height of the Cold War has truly been replaced with militant, radical Islamist terrorists and movements, or has the Cold War ideological enemy remained - simply with a closer proximity and with snarls replaced by enticing smiles.

Perhaps I was pushed over the edge into such thought by the disgraceful comments by Congressman Delahunt that he “glad they (al-Qaeda) finally have a chance to see you, Mr. Addington, given your penchant for being unobtrusive” in addressing Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington during Congressional testimony. My reaction then was unrestrained and direct.

It is regardless ironic that as our Nation today celebrates its 232 years of Independence, roughly half of our population seems to be crying out for greater dependence upon a government - this time our own.

Perhaps it is indicative that fewer and fewer celebrate (or even understand) Independence Day, as more and more Americans simply gather for the ‘Fourth of July.’

It was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who once said, “Politics is Islam, and Islam is politics.” Along those lines, perhaps National Security is politics, and politics is National Security. And I wonder if I have been wrong in trying to extract one from the other for the past four years.

By Steve Schippert | Permalink | Feedback (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Handcuffed and hooded, the 9 Indonesian terror suspects rounded up in Palembang arrived in Jakarta yesterday as details of the cell and its ties to Mas Slamet Kastari and Noordin M. Top are beginning to emerge.

According to multiple local press reports, the Palembang cell had planned to bomb the well-known Kafe Bedubel in the Chinese section of Bukitinggi, West Sumatra. The plan was scuttled, however, because of the fear of killing muslims and the cell had begun planning operations in Jakarta, where the likelihood of killing foreigners and non-muslims would be greater.

Members of the cell were also involved in a 2005 plot to assassinate a Christian pastor, Father Joshua, in Bandung.

The leader of the cell is believed to be a 35 year old Singaporean English teacher of Pakistani heritage named Mohammed Hassan (alias Omar, alias Fajar, alias Alim, alias Taslim, alias Abu Hazam) who was already wanted by Singaporean authorities. Hassan, Kompas reports, was a protege of JI bombmaker Dr. Azahari and had also trained with al-Qaida in Afghanistan. He is alleged to have also met with Usama bin Laden on several occasions.

Hassan is believed to have run to South Sumatra with Mas Slamet Kastari. Kastari, an Indonesian national who served as the head of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) in Singapore, disappeared after a daring prison escape in February. “It’s true,” an Indonesian police source told the Batam Pos. “He is now here. I can assure you that we are hunting for him in every corner now.”

Kastari, who had been extradited to Singapore in 2006, is now believed to be hiding in Central Java.

Hassan taught English at the Cambrichindo English Language Centre in Banyuasin, outside of Palembang, and lived with his pregnant wife and two children. His capture on June 28 followed the issuance of an arrest warrant by Singapore and after four days of interrogations led to the break that shattered the Palembang cell.

The other members of the cell, according to Detik News, are identified as:

- Musa (alias Abdul Rahman, alias Ifan), a 35 year old private sector worker who served as the head of the Anti-Apostacy Forum (FAKTA), which campaigns against religious conversion. He is suspected to be the main bombmaker and was involved in the plan to bomb Kafe Bedubel and the 2005 plot to assassinate Father Joshua in Bandung. He attempted to evade capture on his motorbike but crashed into a police motorcycle. During his capture he had a 38 mm Colt handgun with 6 bullets. “My feeling is that it’s not possible,” a neighbor who knew him told Kompas. “He always did the morning call to prayer at our local mosque. His voice was smooth with a bit of a Javanese accent.”

- Sugi, a 22 year old student and member of FAKTA. He was trained in bombmaking and arrested at Warnet Mujahid (Mujahid Internet Cafe) in Lorong Banten, Palembang.

- Wahyudi, a 26 year old rubber worker and member of FAKTA. He lived with Heri Purwanto and is suspected of guarding the bombs.

- Heri Purwanto, a 25 year old freelancer and member of FAKTA. He lived with Wahyudi and is suspected of guarding the bombs.

- Rohman, a 35 year old private sector worker and member of FAKTA who participated in the Father Joshua plot.

- Agus Carang, a 36 year old Palembang prison employee and member of FAKTA who participated in the plans to bomb Kafe Bedubel and Father Joshua plot.

- Gandhi, a 42 year old alumni of the Afghan jihad and had fought against the Soviets between 1987 and 1992. He served as the headmaster of the Pondok Pesantren Al Furqon Baitussufah Islamic boarding school in Bumiarjo village and is suspected of harboring Hassan. He is also suspected to be the Indonesian leader of the Palembang cell.

- Agus Tiawarman, a 28 year old teacher at Pondok Pesantren Al Furqon Baitussufah. He is also suspected of harboring Hassan.

- Ali, a 30 year old teacher at Pondok Pesantren Al Furqon Baitussufah and member of FAKTA. He was captured with a bomb inside of a tupperwear container.

The investigation uncovered a cache of bombs and weapons, including 20 electronic pipe bombs, 50 38-calibre bullets, 2 cans of black powder, cables, various electronics, timers and a bombmaking manual. Some of the bombs were reportedly set to explode. A cache of chemicals were also discovered, including aluminium powder, pottasium nitrate, pottasium chlorat, nitrate and urea. Eighteen computers were also seized during the raids, which may provide significant information on the current status of JI.

“The Palembang group,” police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira told Kompas, “is directly connected to JI cells in Wonosobo and Semarang, Central Java, that are controlled by Noordin M. Top. The bombmaking, however, comes from Mas Slamet Kastari’s JI cell in Singapore.”

According to various press reports, Hassan led authorities to Musa, who attempted to flee on his motor bike. His arrest then led to the Mujahid Internet Cafe, where Sugi was caught. They then descended on the rented house where Wahyudi and Heri Purwanto were protecting the bombs and bombmaking materials. At that point, Detachment 88 raided the Islamic boarding school in Bumiarjo village, where they captured Gandhi, Rohman, Ali and Agus Carang.

By Nick Grace | Permalink | Feedback (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Is it me, or does it sound like the highest ranking terrorist currently in US detention has approval/denial rights over images created by courtroom artists?

K.S.M. was not pleased. During a break in the proceedings, Hamlin saw Mohammed gesturing in disapproval as he examined her work. “They said, ‘Um, listen, K.S.M. doesn’t want to O.K. this,’ ” she recalled. “He says, ‘The nose is wrong, and tell the artist to go get my F.B.I. picture off the Internet and use that as a reference to fix it. ’ ” So began an hour-long process in which Hamlin was escorted to the media tent, where she printed out an image before returning—“always the gate, the search, the wand”—to make reparations.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed “doesn’t want to O.K. this”? There is a wholly appropriate response to this, but its candor and color is simply inappropriate for this site.

Much more of this and our civilian courts’ rolling decisions and there will inevitably be those (in military as well as intelligence services) who adopt an unspoken “take no prisoners” approach in the field.

Why bring them from a hot battlefield to a cold one where they enjoy significant advantage and potentially access to intelligence data, not to mention the right to disapprove a courtroom artist’s drawing?

Make sense of that.

By Steve Schippert | Permalink | Feedback (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Feeling like a broken record, it is difficult nonetheless to find another way of saying “Ralph Peters nailed it (again) in New York Post,” this time regarding Pakistan.

Of course, trouble on Pakistan’s Afghan frontier isn’t new: It was long the stuff of adventure novels and splendid black-and-white movies. A friend reminded me that, during World War I, the Brits fired artillery from the walls of the fort in downtown Peshawar to fend off tribesmen shouting, “God is great!”

But there’s a vital difference now: In the past, jihads were tribal and local, if fierce. The Islamist rebellions sweeping the country’s Northwest Frontier and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas reflect a global vision: It isn’t just the Khyber Pass and Peshawar that are threatened these days.

Once more, no veneer to peel off or nuance to translate into reality. Ralph at his usual best.

By Steve Schippert | Permalink | Feedback (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Indonesia’s elite anti-terror squad, Detachment 88, broke up a suspected terror cell on July 1 in south Sumatra and, according to local press reports, may have captured terror fugitive Mas Slamet Kastari.

The terror cell, according to Indonesian intelligence expert Dyno Cresbon in an interview with Tribun Batam, was being watched for over a year and had just begun to practice building bombs. “Noordin M. Top,” he said, “after witnessing the disruption of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) cells in Java and the death of (bomb maker) Dr. Azahari in Malang, began going after new cadre outside of Java. He decided to move his efforts to the Mantiqi II area in order to spawn the birth of a new generation of JI.”

The geographic structure of JI is built upon regional commands called “Mantiqi.” Mantiqi II covers Singapore, Malaysia and Sumatra.

Tuesday’s raids in Palembang netted a total of 9 suspects, Tempo Interaktif reports. Other reports put the total at 7 suspects.

According to Detik News, the raids began after the arrest in of an English teacher from Semarang, Central Java, who also has a Singaporean work permit. He led investigators to a rented house in the Kecamatan Ilir section of Palembang where a cache of weapons and bombmaking materials were discovered. The cache included 50 kg TNT, 10 guns, 4 fully assembled bombs, plastics, plaster, cabling and various electronic devices.

The house had been rented to two 23-year old men, Wahyu and Nanang (aka Fauzi). Wahyu, neighbors said, was quiet, reserved and a frequent visitor to the community mosque and gado-gado vendor. Sources have told Radio Elshinta that both men are proteges of Mas Slamet Kastari, a Javanese-born JI commander who recently escaped from detention in Singapore.

The arrest of Wahyu and Nanang led authorities to an Internet cafe, where two women were interrogated. The women, identified in the press only by their initials, denied that they knew anything about a terror cell.

Detachment 88 also raided the house of the head of the local branch of the Anti-Vice Activities Forum (Forum Anti Kegiatan Permurtadan), Fauzi, and took two Nokia mobile phones. Fauzi also denied to the press any involvement with terrorism. “I am shocked that my house was raided,” he told Detik News, “I wasn’t even home and my wife was alone there.”

Police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira refused to provide specific details in a press conference late Tuesday night, however, he confirmed that suspects have been detained. There is suspicion, according to Radio Elshinta, that Kastari had taken refuge at one of the raided locations and that he could even have been captured.

By Nick Grace | Permalink | Feedback (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Three were killed and approximately forty injured when a terrorist went on a rampage inside a front end loader today. While more details about the terrorist’s background and means of infiltration and attack will be clearer soon, in the meantime two stories tell you what you need to know

First, from Voice of America.

“The employee of a contractor company working on the street here in Jerusalem directed his bulldozer in the direction of civilian vehicles - a bus and cars that are on the street all the time yelling Allah al-akbar, apparent to us based on things we have experienced in the past,’ said Daniel Seaman, a spokesman for the Israeli government. “This is undeniably a terrorist attack.” Police say the attacker was a Palestinian who lived in East Jerusalem who held Jerusalem identity papers. Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have access to Jewish West Jerusalem and carry out nearly all construction work in the city.

Second, from the Jerusalem Post.

Hamas said the terror attack was “a natural reaction to Israeli aggression.” A Hamas spokesman, nevertheless, stressed that the group did not know who was behind the attack. The armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, the Quds Brigades, praised the attack. In a press release, the group said that the attack was a “natural reaction to the crimes of the occupation.”

The driver was shouting “Allahu Akbar!” and Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad - both heavily funded by Iran - praised the murderous rampage.

A scroll on one of the cable news channels this morning read “the attack is believed to be politically motivated,” and I felt compelled to put something up as soon as able to give more ‘political’ context.

UPDATE: I knew there was a reason I felt compelled to put up something with the proper context of the Jerusalem attack. Note the following headline from the UK’s Times Online and the usage of quotation marks around ‘terror’ attack: Bulldozer ‘terror’ attack on bus in Jerusalem.

Perhaps the editors mean something else, but most readers will infer that there are doubts about the linkage of terrorism to the attack.

By Steve Schippert | Permalink | Feedback (0) | Trackbacks (0)

The country was still reeling from the attacks of September 11th when the anthrax letter attacks occurred in early October 2001. Speculation ranged from al Qaeda being the culprit to Iraq being behind the anthrax laced letters. Despite other leads and potential suspects, on June 25, 2002, Steven Hatfill was questioned and his apartment was searched for the first time. At the time, an associate of mine who was involved in chem-bio analysis suggested to me that while Hatfill was a “person of interest,” there were other scientists at Ft. Detrick who might also be considered, in cluding a report of a disgruntled former researcher (speculated to be an Egyptian scientist).

Still, Steven Hatfill remained a “person of interest.” Afterall, it was suspected that he, among other things, had fabricated parts of his resume and had expertise in using “dry” biological agents. But there was no physical evidence linking Hatfill to the attacks.

Earlier this week, the U.S. government settled the 2003 law suit that had been brought by Dr. Steven Hatfill for the news leaks from the Amerithrax investigation. The settlement will pay Dr. Hatfill $2.825 million in cash and an annuity worth $1.8 million that will pay Hatfill $150,000 a year for 20 years.

The point of this post is not to judge the investigation one way or the other. The question that needs to be answered is “if Steven Hatfill didn’t do it, who did?”

By Jay Fraser | Permalink | Feedback (0) | Trackbacks (0)