another group of army soldiers also clashed with Jemaah Islamiya militants at around 4.40 a.m. in the village of Napnapan in Pantukan town in Compostela Valley province and capturing a Filipino bomb expert, Giovanni de Ocampo.
He said the captive admitted during interrogation that he is a member of the Indonesian militant group Jemaah Islamiya and is also an alleged commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“Initial report revealed that he is a trainer and an expert in manufacturing of improvised explosives which has caused the death of many innocent civilians and destruction of properties in this part of Mindanao,” Bautista said without further elaborating, saying, security forces were still hunting down other Jemaah Islamiya militants in the province.
The results on the poll on Geert Wilders (Do you agree with the English decision of declaring Wilders “persona non grata”?) are:
A total and absolute error: freedom of speech must be preserved 94% (15 votes).
While I think that freedom of speech is important, I believe that religious sensitivities must be respected 6% (1 votes)
Who is Geert Wilders? 0% (0 votes)
This week poll is about the agreement between the Talibans and the Pakistani Government in Swat’s valley. Fareed Zakaria discusses it and says that while the Talibans are “bad guys”, we don’t have to worry about them as they don’t want to achieve the Global Caliphate:
The groups that advocate these policies are ugly, reactionary forces that will stunt their countries and bring dishonor to their religion. But not all these Islamists advocate global jihad, host terrorists, or launch operations against the outside world — in fact, most do not. Consider, for example, the most difficult example, the Taliban. The Taliban have done all kinds of terrible things in Afghanistan. But so far, no Afghan Taliban has participated at any significant level in a global terrorist attack over the last ten years–including 9/11. There are certainly elements of the Taliban that are closely associated with Al Qaeda. But the Taliban is large and many factions have little connection to Osama bin Laden. Most Taliban want Islamic rule locally, not violent jihad globally.
Pakistani Taliban militants announced on Tuesday an indefinite ceasefire in the Swat valley in the northwest of the country, a day after the army said it was ceasing operations in the region.
In the neighboring Bajaur region on the Afghan border, the government announced a four-day ceasefire in response to a unilateral truce called by militants there on Monday.
The ceasefires are likely to compound concerns among Western countries which fear truces allow militants to create sanctuaries in Pakistan where they can regroup and intensify their insurgency against Western forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.
You recently said NEWSWEEK might have gotten it wrong when we said that Afghanistan could be Obama’s Vietnam. Why? We could lose Afghanistan, and it would be bad but it would not present an existential threat to this country. If you “lose Pakistan”—and by that I mean if Pakistan collapses or is taken over by Islamic extremists—you face the prospect of Islamic extremists having nuclear weapons. That’s Al Qaeda’s dream. It’s our nightmare. That’s why Pakistan is Obama’s potential Vietnam. There’s no clear solution there. What you may try to do for several years is simply manage it. Kicking the can down the road in both Iraq and Pakistan is not an emotionally satisfying outcome, but it may be the most mature and even best scenario we can come up with.
For me, one of the failures of Bush Administration was an actual lack of logic and of real understanding of what IS going on. The necessary confrontation with Iran was not followed by an also necessary confrontation with Saudi Arabia and its funding of both terrorism and wahabbism. US support for Musharraf was also not very logical, specially taking into account the ISI’s support to the Talibans.
Days after the Pakistan government and the Taliban inked a peace deal in Swat following a failed military operation in the picturesque valley, three major Taliban groups in Pakistan have formed a new alliance – Shura Ittihadul Mujahideen (Council for Unity of Holy Warriors) – in the twin agencies of North and South Waziristan after burying the hatchet, declaring the ameer of the Afghan Taliban Mullah Omar as their supreme leader and al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden as their role model.
(…) “As Jews, Christians and Hindu infidels stand united against the Muslims particularly Mujahideen under the leadership of United States, Mujahideen have set aside internal differences and have joined hands, the Taliban announcement said, adding: “In order to make happy the Muslims in general and Mujahideen in particular, the three Taliban groups have formed a 13-member advisory council to run the affairs of the new alliance which would be led by the three Taliban commanders on rotation basis.
The three senior-most Taliban leaders in North and South Waziristan have joined forces to wage jihad against Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the US…
…The new alliance further stated it was waging war “in an organized manner’” to “stop the infidels from carrying out acts of barbarism against innocent people” just as Omar and bin Laden were waging war against Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the US.
The creation of the Council of United Mujahideen and the Council’s open support of al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban has finally put to rest the Pakistani government’s claim that Bahadar and Nazir are “pro-government” Taliban. While Bahadar and Nazir opposed fighting the government for tactical reason they had openly supported al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban.
One of Al-Qaida’s founders, Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, has waged a harsh verbal attack on the terrorist organization’s leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Sharif’s criticism of the Al-Qaida ideology and the failures of its leadership have unleashed a heated debate within the global Jihad movement and it has been publicized in several western media outlets.
Sharif, who is serving a life sentence in a Cairo prison, recently wrote a book in which he said, “every drop of blood that was shed or is being shed in Afghanistan and Iraq is the responsibility of bin Laden and Zawahiri and their followers.”
Al-Zawahiri has already said that al-Sharif /Dr. Said is really working for Egyptian intelligence
Related links: The Rebellion from Within. A truly interesting reading. I am not surprised they are really worried of this book seeing the light as Al-Sharif/Dr. Said wrote “The Essential Guide for Preparation”, a guide for Jihadists in the Afghan war and was released on 1988:
The “Guide” begins with the premise that jihad is the natural state of Islam. Muslims must always be in conflict with nonbelievers, Fadl asserts, resorting to peace only in moments of abject weakness. Because jihad is, above all, a religious exercise, there are divine rewards to be gained. He who gives money for jihad will be compensated in Heaven, but not as much as the person who acts. The greatest prize goes to the martyr. Every able-bodied believer is obligated to engage in jihad, since most Muslim countries are ruled by infidels who must be forcibly removed, in order to bring about an Islamic state. “The way to bring an end to the rulers’ unbelief is armed rebellion,” the “Guide” states. Some Arab governments regarded the book as so dangerous that anyone caught with a copy was subject to arrest.
The ideologic transformation is surely very interesting. We will see what direction Al-Qaeda takes from now on.
In the last Garzon’s judicial operation (jan 20th) against alleged Al-Qaeda collaborators, a Pakistani named Abdul Razzaq Sadiq was detained. It has been discovered he is Executive Secretary’s of the Catalan Socialist Party (the branch of Zapatero’s party in Catalonia) in the Catalonian city Ciutat Vella. Interior Ministry’s press release published his surnames changed, so no one could guess who he really was. In all police’s documents, his surnames were in right order, so the change was made only afterwards in the Interior Ministry’s press release.
Three days after, they were freed by a Garzón’s resolution, which said that he didn’t have proofs which could link them with the terrorist group’s financing scheme. But they had been accused of sending illegally money to Pakistan.
This case makes me think: why some people are detained and only three days after the judge “discovers” that there was no reason for that arrest? It’s ridiculous. All were freed. Spanish police rarely messes up in these cases as they have truly good experience in dealing with terrorist thugs. So why on earth did this happen? Yes, I know that “people are innocent till proven guilty”, but isn’t this a kind of “rare” thing to arrest several people on these so grave charges to free them only three days after?
Three members of a suspected terror cell with links to al-Qaeda are on the run in the Midlands.
The alleged jihadists, who all have joint Libyan/British citizenship, have been placed on Interpol’s Most Wanted list over claims they funded terror plots for Osama Bin Laden.
The international police force has made the men subject to a Red Notice – the highest level of arrest warrant – and have traced them to areas in and around Birmingham.
Five years after March 11th, which made Spain a target of the Islamist terror, Interior Minister has stated that “Spain is now a source of Human Resources for future terrorists”, “situated in the 1st place in the ranking of their preferred recruitement’s places for Al-Qaeda’s recruitment in Europe, and, at the same time, it continues to be a target of international terrorism”.
Moreover, in the last report from National Police and Civil Guard in the subject to the Interior Minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, it’s underlined that the true objective of Al-Qaeda is to “submit Al-Andalus”.
Since March 11th, State Security Forces have detained 384 alleged Islamist terrorists.
Some of the them had the objective of recruiting, teaching, training and sending mujahidins to Irak. Others only did “apology of terrorism or defense and proud display of extremist ideas”, according to the counterterrorist sources of the National Police, or they just financed Jihad by sending money from Spain, for example, using the zakat or alms obtained thank to mosques.
Spanish Confederation of Police (CEP) points out that, in these last years, around 4 muslim residents in Spain per month have gone to Iraq, Chcchenya or Afghanistan, to get training, a number that is reduced to a “hundred” since March 11th 2004 bombings, by the antiterrorist services.
Most of the Islamist terrorist choose the Muslim communities in Catalonia to create sleeping cells. 80% of the police operations have taken place in Catalonia and 31% of the 130 Islamists who are now in prison were arrested in Catalonia.
The number of arrests have descended (108 in 2005, 56 in 2006, 47 in 2007, 65 in 2008), but Ceuta y Melilla, Andalucía, Madrid y Valencia, are other important Jihadist places in Spain.
“We can’t forget that Al Qaeda always points out Ceuta y Melilla in their statements as a consideration to their satellite groups, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Islamic Moroccan Combatant Group (GICM)”, according to the same sources.
Even if there have been 384 arrested, only 130 are now in prison (33%) Why? “In terrorism matters, prevention is fundamental”, according to police sources, “even if judges do not think the same”.
The National Court has established that “Jihadist terrorism has some peculiarities which makes it difficult to apply the jurisprudence laid on other terrorist cases”, according to the last report of the Judicial Power.” A democratic State cannot punish religious deliriums that preach hate to different people. Only the action, not beliefs or thoughts which can be punished”, underlines a sentence from the Supreme Tribunal that acquitted the terrorists”.
This fortnight’s poll: priorities in the fight against Islamism
Fareed Zakaria says we don't have to be very worried by the Talibans as they don't advocate Global Jihad. Do you agree? Vote in this fortnight's poll!!
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