An open source, around the world tour of international security-related news.
By Professor Joseph B. Varner
Global War on Terror
U.S. and Afghan special forces killed two influential tribal leaders and a number of their followers in western Afghanistan in a joint airborne operation Wednesday night amid more accusations of causing civilian casualties, military officials said Thursday.
Both NATO and the Afghan Ministry of Defense said that the tribal leaders were high-priority Taliban targets and that the operation against them successful. There was no evidence of civilian casualties, a statement issued by the NATO press office in Kabul said. But villagers gave a different account, saying houses were bombed and civilians killed and wounded as they fled in the night. Local officials confirmed the bombardment and damage to houses but did not say if civilians were killed or injured. The operation took place in the Zerkoh valley near Shindand, where United States special forces clashed with the same tribe in April 2007. When they came under fire from villagers the special forces called in airstrikes on the village, resulting in 57 deaths, including women and children.
That incident, coming after marines had killed 19 civilians in eastern Afghanistan the previous month, caused an outcry from Afghan politicians and humanitarian organizations and led the NATO commander of the time, General Dan McNeill, to issue orders to his forces to take extra care to avoid civilian casualties. (Source: IHT)
Two Canadian soldiers have suffered minor injuries after an explosion in Kandahar province. The soldiers were participating in a routine patrol in Zhari district when an explosive device detonated near their armored vehicle. (Source: CTV.ca)
Japan has dropped a plan to send ground troops to Afghanistan after the ruling coalition failed to reach a consensus due to fears over the continuing violence in the area, Japanese media said on Friday. Hard-pressed by the length of the campaign, the United States and NATO called on Japan to expand its support for military activities in Afghanistan, which currently consists of a naval refueling mission in the Indian Ocean, the Asahi newspaper said. Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was quoted as saying last month that Japan could send ground troops. But fact-finding missions dispatched to the area determined that the level of violence would make it difficult for Japan to provide troops or equipment such as aircraft, the Asahi and Kyodo news agency said. (Source: Reuters)
Afghanistan has been drawing a fresh influx of jihadi fighters from Turkey, Central Asia, Chechnya and the Middle East, one more sign that Al Qaeda is regrouping on what is fast becoming the most active front of the war on terrorist groups. More foreigners are infiltrating Afghanistan because of a recruitment drive by Al Qaeda as well as a burgeoning insurgency that has made movement easier across the border from Pakistan, U.S. officials, militants and experts say. For the past two months, Afghanistan has overtaken Iraq in deaths of U.S. and allied troops, and nine American soldiers were killed at a remote base in Kunar province Sunday in the deadliest attack in years.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned during a visit to Kabul this month about an increase in foreign fighters crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan, where a new government is trying to negotiate with militants. Two U.S. officials said that the United States is closely monitoring the flow of foreign fighters into both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Jihadist websites from Chechnya to Turkey to the Arab world featured recruitment ads as early as 2007 calling on the “lions of Islam” to fight in Afghanistan, said Brian Glyn Williams, associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Williams has tracked the movement of jihadis for the U.S. military’s Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. (Source: AP)
Taliban militants in Pakistan threatened Thursday to attack the provincial government in the troubled North West unless it quit within five days, deepening the security crisis. Baitullah Mehsud, a warlord based in the tribal area of Waziristan and the leader of Pakistan’s Taliban movement, demanded the military cease its sporadic operations against Taliban groups. The showdown came as the Taliban across the border in Afghanistan have stepped up their campaign against NATO and Afghan forces, exacting greater casualties and launching more daring assaults. The North West Frontier Province government is led by the secular Awami National Party, which has tried to promote peace talks with militant groups. But in two parts of the province, Swat Valley and Hangu district, it has been forced to call on the army and paramilitary forces to combat local insurgent groups allied to Mr. Mehsud’s Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan movement. (Source: Globe and Mail-CAN)
Airlines are being told to stay away from Beijing’s airport during the opening ceremony of the Olympics and further scrutiny is being applied to foreign entertainers in the latest security moves ahead of next month’s games. No official announcement has been made, but local media and airlines said Friday that the Beijing airport will close for about four hours during the opening ceremony, affecting dozens of flights. Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific said it would postpone one flight after receiving word from Chinese authorities recently that the airport would be closed during the opening ceremony, set to begin at the auspicious time of 8 p.m. on August 8. (Source: Washington Times)
Israeli investigators have arrested six men suspected of trying to set up an Al Qaeda-linked terror network, including one who wanted to shoot down President Bush’s helicopter, the Shin Bet security service said Friday. Two of the men are Arab citizens of Israel, both of them students at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, according to the statement. The other four are Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem. The men range in age from 21 to 24. The new charges follow the arrest this month of two Israeli Arabs on suspicion they gave strategic information to Al Qaeda. Those arrests marked the first time Israel had accused any of its citizens of cooperating with the terror network. Investigators found bomb-making instructions on the personal computers of several of the six new suspects, the Shin Bet said. But the statement gave no indication that their activities ever moved beyond the planning stage. None face charges of active involvement in any attacks. (Source: AP)
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=105&sid=1436981
A Spanish court cleared four men and upheld the acquittal of a fifth on Thursday in convoluted legal proceedings relating to the 2004 Madrid commuter train bombings that killed 191 people, the deadliest attack by Islamic militants on European soil. The rulings related to appeals of some of the 21 convictions decided by a lower court in October. Seven people were acquitted then. On Thursday, the court upheld the acquittal of Rabei Osman, an Egyptian who was found guilty in 2006 in Italy of belonging to a terrorist organization and who is accused of having been a mastermind of the bombing. With many convictions upheld and few channels of appeal left available to those sentenced, some survivors of the bombings said that they saw Thursday’s decisions as moving toward the end of one of the most painful episodes in Spain’s recent history. (Source: IHT)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/17/europe/madrid.php
European terrorists are trying to enter the United States with European Union passports, and there is no guarantee officials will catch them every time, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday. Chertoff’s comments on Capitol Hill comes as the country is entering a potentially vulnerable period with the presidential nominating conventions coming up next month; the presidential election in November; and the transition to a new administration in January, all of which may be attractive targets for terrorists. In his last scheduled appearance before the House Homeland Security Committee, Chertoff said that the more time and space Al Qaeda and its allies have to recruit, train, experiment and plan, the more problems the U.S. and Europe will face down the road. (Source: AP)
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080718/D920562O1.html
Iraq
Staff Sergeant David W. Textor was an expert in international weaponry. He was a Green Beret, had a parachutist’s badge and had just arrived in Iraq in May. He was also a father of five. Textor, 27, was killed July 15 in a vehicle accident in Mosul, the military said yesterday. The accident, which did not occur during combat, is under investigation.
(Source: Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/17/AR2008071702570_pf.html
Iraq’s government hopes to bring the entire country under its security control by year’s end. But one critical area stands in the way: the western province of Anbar, where the Sunni insurgency was born and later received its first blows from a civil uprising. The transfer from U.S. military authority in Anbar has become stalled by worries that a hasty move could tempt unrest and reopen rivalries, drawing in the same armed Sunni factions that the U.S. courted to help uproot Al Qaeda in Iraq. The cautious approach also apparently reflects a desire by Washington not to risk any new complications while Iraqi leaders tussle with a host of messy problems, including seeking agreements on holding provincial elections and opening oil fields to foreign investors. (Source: AP)
United States
A federal judge in Washington has refused to halt the war crimes trial of Osama bin Laden’s former driver. The action clears the way for what is expected to become the first trial of a terror suspect via military commission at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on Monday.
Lawyers for Salim Ahmed Hamden had asked US District Judge James Robertson to delay the start of the war crimes trial, saying the legal foundations of the tribunal process had been undermined by a recent US Supreme Court decision. After a two-hour hearing on Thursday, Judge Robertson declined to block the trial. In a statement from the bench he said that under the military commission system set up by Congress and the White House, Mr. Hamdan’s lawyers must wait until a final verdict in the trial before raising their constitutional challenges. A military judge at Guantánamo had earlier rejected similar arguments from Hamdan’s lawyers. (Source: CSM)
Former attorney general John D. Ashcroft defended his approach to forestalling terrorist attacks but told lawmakers yesterday that he moved quickly to respond to concerns that some Justice Department memos employed shoddy reasoning. In his first Capitol Hill appearance to address national security issues since leaving the Justice Department three years ago, Ashcroft batted away probing questions, blaming his memory and citing the still-classified status of memos and programs the Bush administration adopted after Sept. 11, 2001. Pressed by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, he argued that coercive interrogation techniques including waterboarding did not meet the legal definition of torture. Ashcroft said he was aware of no evidence during his term that would have prompted him to open a criminal investigation into actions by interrogators.
He refused repeated invitations to directly criticize John C. Yoo, who as a deputy in the Office of Legal Counsel worked closely with vice presidential aide David S. Addington and then-White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales to draft legal memos underpinning treatment of detainees and a warrantless surveillance initiative. Ashcroft later rescinded two of those memos, citing faulty reasoning. (Source: Washington Post)
A former sales executive for an aircraft parts company is on the run after being charged with illegally sending military items to the United Arab Emirates and Thailand, prosecutors said Thursday. John Nakkashian, former vice president for international sales at Air Shunt Instruments Inc., has been indicted on four counts of violating the Arms Export Control Act, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Officials said he vanished during the investigation in 2007 and was charged in May. Prosecutors allege Nakkashian in 2003 and 2004 exported components for the F-5 fighter jet to Dubai and a gyroscope used on military helicopters to Bangkok without first obtaining the required export licenses from the U.S. State Department. (Source: AP)
The Air Force’s top leadership sought for three years to spend counterterrorism funds on “comfort capsules” to be installed on military planes that ferry senior officers and civilian leaders around the world, with at least four top generals involved in design details such as the color of the capsules’ carpet and leather chairs, according to internal e-mails and budget documents. Production of the first capsule, consisting of two sealed rooms that can fit into the fuselage of a large military aircraft, has already begun. Air Force officials say the government needs the new capsules to ensure that leaders can talk, work and rest comfortably in the air. But the top brass’s preoccupation with creating new luxury in wartime has alienated lower-ranking Air Force officers familiar with the effort, as well as congressional staff members and a nonprofit group that calls the program a waste of money. (Source: Washington Post)
U.S. aid to Africa is becoming increasingly militarized, resulting in skewed priorities and less attention to longer-term development projects that could lead to greater stability across the continent, according to a report released Thursday by the advocacy group Refugees International. The report warns that the planned U.S. Africa Command, designed to boost America’s image and prevent terrorism, is allowing the Defense Department to usurp funds traditionally directed by the State Department and U.S. aid agencies. A Pentagon spokesman did not return a call requesting comment. But Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned this week against the risk of a “creeping militarization” of U.S. foreign policy and said the State Department should lead U.S. engagement with other countries. The Pentagon, which controlled about 3 percent of official aid money a decade ago, now controls 22 percent, while the U.S. Agency for International Development’s share has declined from 65 percent to 40 percent, according to the 56-page report. (Source: Washington Post)
The U.S. intelligence community in May completed a major National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran that concluded the Iranian military is building up its missile and conventional forces but that its forces remain relatively outdated, according to U.S. officials. The classified assessment, circulated to senior policy-makers, comes amid rising tensions in the region over Iran’s refusal to halt uranium enrichment and concerns that Israel or the United States will take military action to knock out Iranian nuclear facilities. Intelligence officials familiar with the estimate declined to disclose its details or even its key judgments, noting that the entire document is classified. However, the officials said one of the strategic issues discussed in the estimate is whether Iranian military forces have the capability to follow through on threats to close the Strait of Hormuz to oil shipping in the event of a U.S. or Israeli strike on Iran. An estimated 20 to 40 percent of the world’s oil passes through the 21-mile strait. That question was discussed earlier this month by Admiral Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said the Iranian military could threaten the strait with its forces but could not keep it closed in response to U.S. and allied military action to re-open it. (Source: Washington Times)
Africa
With an arrest warrant pending against Sudan’s president, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said Thursday he was focusing on another war crime case in Darfur involving two suspected rebel commanders allegedly directing attacks against peacekeepers. Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s comments came days after announcing he was seeking a warrant to arrest the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. On Thursday, he discussed new details about an investigation into violence against peacekeepers in Sudan’s remote Darfur region. One case of key interest is an attack against the Haskanita military base late last year that left 10 African Union soldiers dead and 1 missing. (Source: AP)
Killings, kidnappings and the threat of famine are turning the Horn of Africa into the most dangerous and deadly spot on earth. Already plagued by drought, food shortages and massive malnutrition, Ethiopia and Somalia are now facing a potentially catastrophic humanitarian crisis, say international aid workers. So far, 19 foreign aid workers have been killed in Somalia this year. In January, three MSF staffers died in a roadside car bombing in the southern town of Kismayo, while a fourth was killed in an ambush near Mogadishu in March. This week, a World Food Program contractor was gunned down in Mogadishu, the fifth WFP employee to die in the country this year. Lately the killings have become more dramatic and targeted. On July 6, gunmen assassinated Osman Ali Ahmed, head of the UN Development Program in Mogadishu, as he left a mosque. (Source: National Post)
Americas
Amnesty International has added its voice to a chorus of critics who fear a new federal protocol on Canadian detainees could leave the door open to abuses like those seen in the cases of Maher Arar and Omar Khadr. The newly disclosed agreement gives the Canadian Security Intelligence Service the go-ahead to meet with a Canadian imprisoned abroad before consular officials do when there are “urgent national security or terrorism-related considerations.” The protocol, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, also suggests CSIS approach foreign authorities when a government denies Ottawa diplomatic access to a prisoner. (Source: Chronicle Herald-CAN)
The capture was worthy of an action thriller: elite Mexican troops rappelling from a helicopter onto the deck of a mysterious submarine. The 33-foot vessel turned out to be crammed with parcels apparently containing cocaine, possibly tons of it. The disheveled crew of four had emerged in stocking feet and baggy shorts, claiming to have shipped out from Colombia a week earlier under threat of death. Mexico’s military confirmed Thursday that the men were Colombian, but it offered little new information on the capture of the mini-sub off the southern coast a day earlier. (Source: Los Angeles Times)
Asia
Cambodia and Thailand sent more troops Thursday to a disputed border area around a spectacular 11th-century Hindu temple that stands atop a mile-high cliff. The buildup proceeded despite agreement by the two sides to hold talks next week to avoid military action. The standoff, in its third day, is the latest escalation in a long-standing conflict over land around Preah Vihear, a temple that is similar in style to the more famous Angkor Wat in northwestern Cambodia. Despite escalating rhetoric and the presence of heavily armed soldiers, the atmosphere at Preah Vihear appeared relaxed on Thursday. Cambodian soldiers snapped photographs of their Thai opponents just yards away, and some tourists, including at least one American woman, visited the temple. After years of Thai-Cambodian feuding over ownership of the monument, the International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that it belonged to Cambodia. The Thai government formally accepted that decision, but the two sides have never agreed on the precise location of the border. Each country claims an area of about 1.8 square miles around it. The dispute came to a head last week when a U.N. body approved Cambodia’s application for World Heritage Site status for Preah Vihear. Protesters in Thailand have decried their government’s decision to endorse the application, saying it undermines Thai claims to the disputed territory. (Source: Washington Post)
Europe
Amid increasing concern from the United States and the European Union that tensions between Russia and Georgia could escalate into open conflict, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany is seeking to mediate among all sides, traveling to Georgia and its Russian-backed breakaway region of Abkhazia on Thursday, then to Moscow on Friday. This is the first time Germany has taken on such a role in the Caucasus region, which is beset by regional conflicts. In Georgia, where the government in Tbilisi has been trying for nearly 16 years to bring back under its control the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, there is a diplomatic push to resolve the dispute in the coming months. (Source: IHT)
Turkey’s military says 11 Kurdish rebels have been killed in clashes in the country’s southeast. The toll raises the number of rebels killed in clashes in the past five days to 33.
A statement on the military’s Web site Tuesday said the 11 were killed in an ongoing operation in Hakkari province, near the border with Iraq. On Monday, the military had reported 22 rebels killed in separate fighting in Sirnak province. The rebels have battled more than two decades for autonomy in southeastern Turkey. The group use bases in northern Iraq for cross-border raids. (Source: Washington Times)
Middle East
The best course of action to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners is the kidnapping of more Israeli soldiers, Abu Yousef, the military spokesman for the An-Nasser Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, said Thursday. This goes some way to confirming several analysts’ predictions that the prisoner exchange deal, executed on Wednesday, would embolden both Palestinian and Lebanese resistance fighters. He added that the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, kidnapped in 2006 by militants from Gaza, should not be released until it was possible to arrange a deal that satisfies the needs of the Palestinian people. (Source: Maan News-PA)
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to host peace talks in Washington with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators on July 30, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Thursday. Rice met a Palestinian delegation in Washington on Wednesday and offered to host the three-way meeting between herself, chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurie and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Erekat said. (Source: Reuters)
Hizbullah is bolstering its presence in south Lebanon villages with non-Shi’ite majorities by buying land and using it to build military positions and store missiles and launchers. The decision to build infrastructure in non-Shi’ite villages – where Hizbullah has less support – is part of the group’s post-war strategy under which it has mostly abandoned the “nature reserves,” forested areas where it kept most of its Katyusha rocket launchers before the Second Lebanon War. Behind the change is the fact that UNIFIL peacekeeping forces can patrol freely throughout the countryside but cannot enter villages or cities without being accompanied by soldiers from the Lebanese Armed Forces, which regularly tips off Hizbullah ahead of raids. “Hizbullah is moving into every town that it can,” a senior defense official said. “This is in order to evade UNIFIL detection.” On Thursday, Lebanese complained they were receiving recorded phone messages from Israel promising “harsh retaliation” for any future Hizbullah attack. The automated messages also warn against allowing Hizbullah to form “a state within a state” in the country. (Source: Jerusalem Post)
At a joint news conference with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem was asked how his country’s indirect peace negotiations with Israel might impact Syria’s relations with Iran, whose president has called for Israel to be wiped off the map. Al-Moallem said the “strategic alliance” between Syria and Iran was strong and would not be shaken by the possibility of a peace treaty with Israel. (Source: AP)
Joe Varner is Assistant Professor and Program Manager for Homeland Security at American Military University.
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