1. Anwar al-Awlaki: translator of jihad
The obvious, but it must be stated, is al-Qaeda’s aim to raise its profile abroad. Every bit as important is the necessity to raise its stature with followers and potential followers in the US. Central to this strategy is the rise of Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen of Yemeni descent now based in that country. Awlaki’s life in the US is well documented. Notable are his close associations with September 11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Hani Hanjour. Most recent is Awlaki’s relationship with Major Nidal Hasan, the alleged assassin at the US military base at Fort Hood, Texas, begun at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in northern Virginia and continued via e-mail from Yemen.
Of prime importance to al-Qaeda is Awlaki’s extensive understanding of US politics, culture and mores earned by a highly intelligent, highly educated, keenly articulate man.
…Metro Detroit is home to the two largest mosques in the US, built in a Muslim community of a density with no equal in that country. Al-Qaeda’s plan, if successful, seems designed to exacerbate already evident frictions between Muslims and the FBI in the Detroit Metro and more widely between the US Muslim community and the FBI.…It is unclear whether Awlaki survived a December 24 air strike on an al-Qaeda hideout in the mountains of Yemen’s Shabwah region. In any case, Yemen looks now to be too hot for him. Awlaki may be on the move to Somalia or Pakistan. All that is necessary to accomplish his role could be as little as a laptop, a video camera, Internet access and a prayer rug.
more here: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LA07Ak05.html
2. and as previously noted, they expect something like this in the “jewish homeland”
Other than Hizbullah, Israel is concerned that al-Qaida is trying to recruit Europeans and Americans who have been indoctrinated with radical Islamic ideology to carry out attacks inside the Jewish state, the newspaper added.
3. Jordan disputes bomber’s ID
THE Jordanian official said Balawi had been interrogated by intelligence officers ‘around a year ago because of suspicions about his activities, but the probe found nothing and he was freed.
‘Humam left Jordan and traveled to Pakistan to continue medical studies that he had begun in Turkey. From Pakistan, he contacted the Jordanian authorities by e-mail and provided security information of extreme value that allowed (us) to abort terrorist operations that would have threatened the security of Jordan.’ He added that contact had been maintained with Balawi ‘in the interest of the security of Jordan.’
Friends close to the family said Balawi was born in Kuwait to a Palestinian family, which moved to Jordan following the Iraqi invasion of the Gulf emirate in 1990. They said he married a Turkish woman in the town of Tonya, where he was studying medicine, and that the couple has two children. AFP spoke to a sister, Hanan, but she declined to answer any questions. — AFP
AMMAN - A SENIOR Jordanian official said on Tuesday there was no proof that Jordanian Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi was, as has been claimed, the suicide bomber who killed eight people at a CIA base in Afghanistan.
‘There is no proof that Humam was actually the author of the attack, especially given that Taleban websites claim that it was an Afghan,’ said the official who declined to be identified. He added that Balawi had provided Jordanian intelligence with valuable information, but did not say whether he was still alive….The Jordanian intelligence services, believing the bomber to be their double agent, took him to eastern Afghanistan with the mission of finding Al-Qaeda number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the websites and Western intelligence agents cited by US media said. But instead he blew himself up at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost province near the Pakistani border, killing seven CIA agents and his Jordanian handler, a top intelligence officer and member of the royal family. — AFP
4. he was an al qaeda TRIPLE agent (yeah, yeah…)
A suicide bomber who killed eight people at a CIA base in Afghanistan was an al-Qaida triple agent who duped Western intelligence services for months before turning on his handlers, jihadist websites boasted on Tuesday…Western diplomats said that the revelation of Jordanian involvement in a U.S. intelligence operation in Afghanistan was a blow for the Amman government.
“Jordan is likely to be embarrassed by the fact that Captain Ali’s death has revealed its cooperation with the CIA, which is not going to go down well with a predominantly anti-American public opinion,” one Western diplomat told AFP.
5. “successful” security op kills two relatives, wounds three others, in capture of big AQ honcho, now the embassies can reopen oh thank god
Mohammed al-Hanq had evaded arrest on Monday during a security force raid in Arhab, 40 kilometres north of Sanaa, in which two of his relatives were killed and three other people wounded. He was arrested on Wednesday, along with two others who were wounded in the attack, at a hospital in the province of Amran, north of Sanaa, a security official said.
The US embassy, followed by the British and the French missions, had closed over security concerns prompted by fears of an Al-Qaeda threat against foreign interests just days after a failed attack on a US airliner claimed by the Al-Qaeda franchise in Yemen.
The US mission cited ’successful’ security operations north of the capital as it reopened for business on Tuesday, saying that Yemeni security forces had addressed a ’specific area of concern’ the previous day - thought to be a reference to the crackdown on Hanq’s group.
6. Iran tells Iranians not to talk to strangers — here are the tools used to drive the psychological operations against Iran and AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. of course they will spin this as hysteria and paranoia, but this is a good list. the Iranians do not imagine it, and if you think they do, you been listening to people on this list:
1. Soros Foundation — Open Society
2. Woodrow Wilson Center
3. Freedom House
4. National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
5. National Democratic Institute (NDI)
6. International Republican Institute (IRI)
7. Institute for Democracy in East Europe (EEDI)
8. Democracy Center in East Europe (CDEE)
9. Ford Foundation
10. Rockefeller Brothers Foundation
11. Hoover Institute at Stanford University
12. Hivos Foundation, Netherlands
13. Menas, U.K.
14. United Nations Association (USA)
15. Carnegie Foundation
16. Wilton Park, U.K.
17. Search for Common Ground (SFCG)
18. Population Council
19. Washington Institute for Near East Policy
20. Aspen Institute
21. American Enterprise Institute
22. New America Foundation
23. Smith Richardson Foundation
24. German Marshall Fund (US, Germany and Belgium)
25. International Center on Nonviolent Conflict
26. Abdolrahman Boroumand Foundation
27. Yale University
28. Meridian Center
29. Foundation for Democracy in Iran
30. International Republican Institute [again --- see 6]
31. National Democratic Institute [again --- see 5]
32. American Initiative Institute (?)
33. Institute of Democracy in Eastern Europe
34. American Aid Center (?)
35. International Trade Center
36. American Center for International Labor Solidarity
37. International Center for Democracy Transfer
38. Community of Democracies (?)
39. Albert Einstein Institute
40. Global Movement for Democracy
41. The Democratic Youth Network
42. Democracy Information and Communication Technology Group
43. International Movement of Parliamentarians for Democracy
44. ???
45. RIGA Institute
46. The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School
47. Council on Foreign Relations
48. Foreign Policy Committee, Germany
49. Middle East Media Research Institute (described as an Israeli institute)
50. Centre for Democracy Studies, U.K.
51. Meridian Institute [again --- see 28]
52. Yale University and all its affiliates [again --- see 27]
53. National Defense University, U.S.
54. Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
55. American Center FLENA (active in Central Asia)
56. Committee on the Present Danger
57. Brookings Institution
58. Saban Center, Brookings Institution
59. Human Rights Watch
