Starting Points: al-Qaida

Showing posts with label al-Qaida. Show all posts

Apr 5, 2010

The Associated Press: Web chats point to al-Qaida's Indonesian links

By CHRIS BRUMMITT (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia — It plays out like any ordinary chat between friends on Yahoo Messenger, but the subject matter is chilling: "thekiller" is looking to mesh his Indonesian militant network more deeply with al-Qaida in its Pakistani heartland.

"Come to Pak," he is told by "SAIF-a", the Pakistani at the other end. "The seniors say, send one of your boys here to represent your group."

But beware, "SAIF-a" warns. With the U.S. stepping up its rocket attacks, "The brothers are very worried, in Waziristan all missiles hit very accurately. It means someone inside is involved."

The exchange appears in transcripts of Internet chat sessions recovered from the computer of Muhammad Jibriel, identified in the documents as the man suspected of using the screen name "thekiller". Jibriel, a 26-year-old Indonesian and well-known propagandist for al-Qaida, is currently on trial, accused of helping fund last year's twin suicide bombings at luxury hotels in his country's capital, Jakarta. He claims the transcripts are fabricated.

The 40 pages of conversations are in a police dossier that provides a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Jemaah Islamiyah, Southeast Asia's main extremist group, suggesting it and allied networks in the region have more international links than was previously assumed.

Since the chats took place, from mid to late 2008, a sustained crackdown on Southeast Asian groups has continued, resulting in the arrest of Jibriel and the execution of the man identified in the police dossier as one of his most prominent conversationalists.

But the chats refer to other people engaged in contact with international extremists, and experts believe such ties likely continue.

"The transcripts are a wake-up call," said Sidney Jones, a leading international expert on Southeast Asian terror groups. "They show that Indonesian links to Pakistani and Middle Eastern terror groups are real and dangerous, even if limited to a few individuals."

The 800-page police dossier was given to lawyers and judges involved in Jibriel's juryless trial but is not part of the indictment. It was obtained by The Associated Press from someone close to Indonesian law enforcement who requested anonymity because the disclosure is sensitive.

Indonesian police declined to discuss the chat sessions, or say whether any Indonesian militants had left for Pakistan since the conversations took place.

Image by Mathieu Struck via Flickr

The participants talk about sending money and recruits to al-Qaida. They discuss in detail the progress of a credit card fraud involving several Western banks to fund terror activities. They refer to allied militant cells or contacts in Cairo, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

The man identified as Jibriel reminisces fondly about time spent in "Kash" (Kashmir), where he says he was taught to fire sniper rifles and shoulder-held rockets. He mentions a trip he made in late 2007 to the Pakistani region of Waziristan where he met with al-Qaida and Taliban leaders, including someone called Abu Bilal al Turki, who he says was "still looking young."

The chats are in a mix of Indonesian, English, Urdu and Arabic. Some of what is said seems to be in code. Slang, shorthand and "smiley face" emoticons stud the text.

The communications take an extraordinary turn as they are joined by "istisyhad," identified in the police dossier as Imam Samudra, a mastermind of the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing. At the time of the chats he was on death row, yet he was communicating from his cell on a smuggled laptop.

The police dossier says Jibriel used several aliases to talk to Samudra, even seeking advice on his turbulent relationship with a militant sympathizer he wants to marry. At one point he asks Samudra "to pray that she and I stay strong and become a great jihad partnership."

In another chat he offers to help Samudra keep in touch with al-Qaida from death row. "If you want to send an e-mail to AQ directly there, I can arrange that," he writes. Samudra was executed by firing squad in 2009.

The prosecution is leaning heavily on an e-mail hacked by the FBI at the Indonesians' request in which Jibriel allegedly asks his brother in Saudi Arabia for money to finance what he claims will be the biggest attack since 9/11, and talks about giving the funds to the organizer. The reference is to the twin hotel attacks, in which seven people died.

Jibriel has claimed the e-mail is fabricated, and says the same of the chats.

"The police have made this up," he said, speaking to the AP through the bars of a cell before a recent court hearing. "I know about technology and I know how easy it is to create something on a computer."

Occasionally a mordant sense of humor creeps into the chatter. "Thekiller" talks with someone offering to forge an ID for him. What name would he like — "that of an unbeliever or a Muslim"?

"Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," the late founder of al-Qaida in Iraq, he jokingly replies. "There is no way that will arouse suspicions."

In one conversation with Samudra, "irhaab _007", another name allegedly used by Jibriel, dwells on sending recruits to Waziristan, apparently to work with al-Qaida's media wing.

"I have still got my 'pass' to Pakistan, his name is Muhammad Yunus," he writes. "But the big AQ (al-Qaida) guys here do not agree that everyone should leave. We have to look at our guys and choose, based on their abilities because people there don't want any hassle.

"At the very least they have to be prepared to stay a long time, 2 or 3 years," he writes. Both men also talk about being asked to send sums of $1,500 to $2,000 to al-Qaida in Pakistan.

Jemaah Islamiyah was formed by Indonesians after they returned home from fighting and training in Afghanistan and Pakistan during the 1980s and 1990s. After 9/11, when al-Qaida began expanding into Southeast Asia, it used those connections to send money and expertise and to recruit volunteers, but was assumed to have largely given up after the crackdown that followed the Bali bombings.

Jibriel's father is an Afghan-trained cleric accused by the U.S. of being a Jemaah Islamiyah leader. In the early 2000s, Jibriel and a small group of other Southeast Asians lived in the Pakistani city of Karachi, and some of them were detained on suspicion of having al-Qaida links.

In Karachi, Jibriel attended a boarding school later linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant group accused of being behind the 2007 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people died. The Australian government, which closely watches Indonesian militant groups, has said the Southeast Asians also attended Lashkar training camps in Pakistani Kashmir when they were living in Karachi.

Returning to Indonesia in 2004, Jibriel made no attempt to hide his profile. He set up a well-funded online network with content praising terrorist attacks around the world, as well al-Qaida and Taliban propaganda videos. He also met several times with an AP reporter over the years.

As he arrived at a recent trial session he was greeted by supporters brandishing their fists and praising God.

To the AP, Jibriel claimed that in Karachi he knew Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-professed 9/11 mastermind. Yet he also revealed a love of Hollywood films and a taste for expensive Western restaurants.

Throughout the chats, participants reveal the ever-present fear of infiltrating spies.

"It is difficult to trust anyone. Many of our men are in jail," "thekiller" tells "SAIF-a, adding: "Even the fact a guy has memorized the Quran is no guarantee."

Associated Press Writer Irwan Firdaus contributed to this report from Jakarta.

Mar 16, 2010

Sahelian Foreign Ministers Discuss al-Qaida Threat

Scott Stearns | Dakar 16 March 2010

Photo: AFP

A general view of the Ministerial Conference of Sahara-Sahel States in Algiers, 16 Mar 2010

AFRICOM Commander Urges Against Moving Headquarters to Africa

Foreign ministers from Africa's Sahelian countries are meeting in Algeria to better coordinate their response to al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists who are responsible for a series of bombings and kidnappings.

The meeting outside Algiers includes foreign ministers from Algeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. They are working on a joint plan of action to confront the group al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which operates across parts of the Sahara kidnapping foreigners and bombing military posts.

The group claims responsibility for last week's bombing of an army barracks in western Niger. It is holding two Spanish aid workers and an Italian couple kidnapped in Mauritania.

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb last year killed a British hostage in Mali and shot dead a U.S. aid worker in Nouakchott before bombing the French Embassy there in August.

Mauritania's state-run news agency says government officials are concerned the deserts of northern Mauritania and Mali will be the next battlefield as more Algerian terrorists cross the border to join the group.

While al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb is not large enough to topple a government, diplomats fear it could make the Sahara a safe haven for terrorists planning attacks elsewhere.

"I think there is a threat to stability in the sense that these are countries that are not terribly stable in the first place. This is not an organization that risks taking over a country," says Marina Ottaway, who directs the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The Sunni group began in Algeria in 1992 after military rulers canceled parliamentary elections when it appeared Islamist groups might take power. They have since aligned themselves with the broader al-Qaida terrorist network, but Ottaway says they remain a loosely-organized group.

"They have had their problems in the sense that they started out trying to present themselves as, 'We are it', essentially," said Marina Ottaway. "'We are controlling all of the operations in the area.' They have not succeeded in getting all groups to join them. The Libyans have not joined them."

The U.S. State Department says it hopes the meeting in Algeria consolidates collective action against groups seeking to exploit the region to attack civilians.

The top U.S. military commander for Africa met with Algeria's president last November to discuss joint anti-terrorism efforts. The head of U.S. Air Forces in Africa met with senior Algerian Air Force officers earlier this year.

Ottaway says too much U.S. involvement may be counter-productive.

"I think it is open to discussion to me whether it is really in the best interest of these governments to all come together, particularly to come together with the U.S. military, to try and work out a common front because in a sense, by doing that, they also encourage these various groups to come together," said Ottaway. "All the groups involved in terrorist activities, kidnappings and so on, also find more of a reason to centralize their activities. So that it may in fact lead to have some unintended consequences."

Regional diplomats say this meeting in Algeria is especially important given the fall-out over Mali's release of four suspected militants last month. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb demanded their release or said it would kill French hostage Pierre Camatte.

He was freed, but Algeria and Mauritania withdrew their ambassadors to Mali in protest as they intended to try their own nationals among the suspected terrorists. Algeria said Mali's actions played into the hands of the insurgents.

Oct 18, 2009

Why South Waziristan offensive won't help US in Afghanistan - csmonitor.com

Image via Wikipedia

The Pakistan Army is going after terrorists who target Pakistan. All the major terrorist networks attacking US forces in Afghanistan operate from other areas of Pakistan.

By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Pakistan's offensive into South Waziristan is targeting the terrorists who have wreaked havoc in Pakistan during recent weeks and not those attacking American troops in Afghanistan.

None of the three terror groups singled out as the greatest threat to American troops – according to the commander of US forces in Afghanistan – is based in South Waziristan.

This has been a notable feature of Pakistani antiterror efforts from 9/11 to today. The Army and its intelligence resources have focused their attention on terrorists seen to be a threat to the Pakistani state and done much less to curb those focusing on India or Afghanistan.

After 9/11, former Preisdent Pervez Musharraf turned over several top Al Qaeda leaders but refrained from cracking down on the Taliban. Now, one element of the Taliban, known as the Tehreek-i-Taliban, has turned against Pakistan, and the Pakistan Army is focusing on their stronghold in South Waziristan.

The same was true earlier this year, when the Pakistani Army routed terrorists attacking Pakistan from the Swat Valley.

The Quetta Shura Taliban

The greatest threat to US forces in Afghanistan comes from the faction of the Taliban still loyal to supreme leader Mullah Omar, according to Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top US general in Afghanistan.

Virtually all reports suggest that Omar is located in the Pakistani city of Quetta. In fact, the US is so sure that Omar is there – and is so frustrated by Pakistan's unwillingness to do anything about it – that it strongly intimated it might expand drone attacks to Quetta, the Sunday Times reported last month.

Pakistan responded that Quetta was off-limits to US drones.

When a New York Times journalist traveled to Quetta in 2007 to report on potential links between the Pakistani Army and the Taliban, plainclothes intelligence officers broke into her hotel room, confiscated her computer, and punched her twice.

In his assessment of Afghanistan, McChrystal calls the wing of the Taliban commanded by Omar the Quetta Shura Taliban, and reports that it "has been working to control [the southern Afghan] city of Kandahar and its approaches for several years and there are indications that their influence over the city and neighboring districts is significant and growing."

More broadly, it aims to return Afghanistan to Taliban rule.

The Haqqani Network

The second greatest threat to US forces in Afghainstan is the network run by Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son, Sirajuddin. Reports place them in North Waziristan.

A State Department document connects the Haqaani network to an attack in Kabul's only five-star hotel, the Serena, as well as to a failed assassination attempt against President Hamid Karzai.

The US recently shifted the focus of its drone attacks to North Waziristan from South Waziristan. It had concentrated on South Waziristan throughout the summer – apparently in an attempt to placate the Pakistanis. The attacks in South Waziristan were successful, killing the leader of the Tehreek-i-Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud.

But the renewed focus on North Waziristan – even as Pakistan invades the South – "indicates the US is now targeting the dangerous Haqqani Network and also al Qaeda's network, which operates in the agency," according to The Long War Journal.

The Haqqani Network's goal is "to regain eventually full control of its traditional base in [the three eastern Afghan provinces of] Khost, Paktia, and Paktika."

Hizb-i-Islami Gulbuddin

Third on McChrystal's list of Pakistan-based threats to troops in Afghanistan is the Hizb-i-Islami Gulbuddin network led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. This group is believed to be responsible for the recent firefight in Afghanistan's Nuristan Province that left eight American soldiers dead.

It operates in parts of tribal Pakistan much farther north than South Waziristan. According to McChrystal, it "aims to negotiate a major role in a future Taliban government."

The South Waziristan offensive is not irrelevant to American strategic interests. "Stability in Pakistan is essential, not just in its own right, but also to enable progress in Afghanistan," McChrystal writes.

But, in and of itself, it is unlikely to have any dramatic effect on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.

Sep 14, 2009

VOA News - New Bin Laden Tape Calls Obama Powerless to Stop Afghanistan War

By Steve Herman
New Delhi
14 September 2009

A new audio message, directed at the American people - purported to be from al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden - claims the President Barack Obama will find himself powerless to halt the American-led war in Afghanistan.

The latest audio recording, attributed to Bin Laden, again attempts to justify al-Qaida's September 11, 2001, terror attack on the United States as being part of the group's quest for the liberation of Palestine.

An image made from video, provided by IntelCenter shows a frame from the video released by al-Qaida showing a still image of Osama bin Laden, 14 Sep 2009

The tape was provided by an American-based firm - IntelCenter, which monitors terrorist propaganda. It says the 11-minute video shows a still picture of bin Laden while audio of the address plays.

In the recording, the man identified as Bin Laden reiterates long-standing grievances including American support for Israel and "some other injustices."

He puts forward a reading list of recent books, including one by a former CIA agent, which the tape says will clarify the "message" of the terrorist attack eight years ago.

The recording notes that the Obama administration includes key figures from the previous Bush administration, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The voice, believed to be that of Bin Laden, thus concludes President Obama is a weakened man and powerless to change course in Afghanistan because of "pressure groups." And, if he tries, the tape says "his fate will be feared" to be like that of the assassinated President John Kennedy and his brother, Robert.

It is the first message believed to be from the reclusive terrorist leader since one in June, in which bin Laden accused President Obama of sowing new seeds of hatred against America among Muslims.

The United States now has about 60,000 troops in Afghanistan - the largest contingent in the 42-nation international force.

Following the September 2001 attack, the United States invaded to oust the Taliban from power in Kabul.

The Taliban had given safe haven to al-Qaida, which had carried out the hijacking of four airliners to attack New York and Washington, in which more than 3,000 people died.

Bin Laden is believed to be in hiding in Pakistan, along the remote mountainous terrain border with Afghanistan. Pakistani leaders have recently said they believe the terrorist leader is dead. But top American officials say there is no credible evidence to confirm that.

The audio recording, posted on a web site, includes an undated photograph of the al-Qaida leader. There is also a scene of a banner with an American flag in the background and the New York City skyline with the destroyed World Trade Center twin towers.

No fresh images of Bin Laden appear. He was last seen in video that coincided with the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attack.