Major terrorist plot broken up by Germans

The arrests were made because it appeared that attacks were imminent. The US base at Ramstein was a primary target along with Frankfurt International Airport. BERLIN - Three militants from an Islamic group linked to al-Qaida were planning "massive" bomb attacks against Americans in Germany when an elite antiterrorist unit raided their small-town hideout after months of police surveillance, officials said Wednesday. Prosecutors said the suspects — two German converts and a Turkish citizen sharing a "profound hatred of U.S. citizens" — had military-style detonators and enough material to make bombs more powerful than those that killed 191 people in Madrid in 2004 and 52 commuters in London two years ago. [...] Germany's elite GSG-9 anti-terrorist unit arrested two of the suspects Tuesday at a vacation home in Oberschledorn, a town of some 900 people in central Germany. A third suspect fled through a bathroom window, but was caught about 300 meters (yards) away, authorities said. [...] During the first part of the year, they acquired 12 containers of 35 percent hydrogen peroxide solution, which officials said can easily be combined with other material to make explosives. As a token of the intense surveillance by German police, prosecutors said that during the investigation they were able to replace the dangerous peroxide in the containers with a harmless solution without the knowledge of the suspects. The containers were first kept in a garage in the Black Forest region in southern Germany. Subsequently, one of the three rented a vacation cottage in Oberschledorn under a false name on Aug. 17. On Sept. 2, the two other suspects joined him there with the intention, officials said, of making bombs using detonators and electrical components they had obtained. Police decided to move in when the suspects moved one of the containers to the cottage, fearing an attack could be in the offing. The more than 700 kilograms (1,500 pounds) of peroxide could have made a bomb with the explosive power of some 550 kilograms (1,200 pounds) of dynamite. "This would have enabled them to make bombs with more explosive power than the ones used in the London and Madrid bombings," Joerg Ziercke, head of the Federal Crime Office, Germany's equivalent of the FBI, said at the news conference. Terrorists love to mark important anniversaries (like 9/11) with more death and destruction, so we were probably less than a week away from a massive terrorist attack. Hopefully, German officials can use information obtained from these would-be terrorists to take down other terrorist organizers in teh al Qaeda food chain.

Michael Yon: The Ghosts of Anbar

Michael's back with Marine's in Fallujah. Check out his first dispatch... Reframed thus from a position of strength, this stage of the Anbar-war is more a sort of business transaction, where alliances beneficial to all sides—except Al Qaeda—are formed. From this perspective, there is now a moment of genuine ground-floor opportunity in Anbar, if the people here can see that by doing business with the Coalition, everyone benefits—except Al Qaeda—an exclusion that most can live with. From a distance, this seems both obvious and uncontroversial. But on that ground floor things are less pristine, because some of our new business partners were only recently actively trying to kill our soldiers and Marines. Some may even have danced beneath Blackwater Bridge. Reading Yon's dispatches is like reading a best seller... Read the rest of the part 1 and keep an for the next 3.

Al Qaeda and bin Laden's direct role in Iraq

It's always nice to see intel declassified that supports the war in Iraq and the GWOT in general... even if it's released 2 years late and so infrequently it can be easily ignored by the MSM. That's why you guys read blogs though... NEW LONDON, Connecticut (Reuters) - Trying to rally support for an unpopular war, President George W. Bush used declassified intelligence on Wednesday to equate the U.S.-led fight in Iraq with the broader battle against al Qaeda. [...] The White House said the intelligence declassified on Tuesday provided further evidence of bin Laden's connections to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of Iraq's al Qaeda wing, who was killed in a U.S. air strike in June 2006. Bush said bin Laden had ordered Zarqawi in January 2005 to form a cell to conduct attacks outside of Iraq and to make America his "number one priority." Yes this is 2 year old intelligence, but I sure wish Dubya would release this stuff in a more timely manner. No wonder his approval rating is at 33 (sad thing is that the Democratic Congress has a 29% approval rating) and support for the war is dwindling. But of course the article is quick to dismiss the report as "politically motivated". Well duh! He's got to try to gain some political support from the public because the MSM is fighting him tooth and nail at every step of the way. If the media simply reported the news and didn't spin it for their own motives, he wouldn't have to have timely releases of declassified intelligence to scrap for public approval.

Saudis arrest 172 in airplane terror plot

They're saying this plot was at the zero hour. Even scarier then that is how extremely well funded these psychos were. Times Online - Police in Riyadh say that they have arrested Islamic militants who were being trained as pilots to fly suicide attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil fields. The Saudi interior ministry issued a statement saying that the 172 detainees held in raids today were involved in plots to carry out suicide atttacks against “public figures, oil facilities, refineries ... and military zones". Some of the planned targets were outside the Saudi kingdom. “They had reached an advance stage of readiness and what remained only was to set the zero hour for their attacks,” Brigadier Mansour al-Turki, an interior ministry spokesman, told the Associated Press news agency. “They had the personnel, the money, the arms. Almost all the elements for terror attacks were complete, except for setting the zero hour for the attacks.” The ministry did not say that the militants would fly aircraft into oil refineries, as the 9/11 hijackers flew planes into buildings in New York and Washington, but it said in a statement that some detainees had been “sent to other countries to study flying in preparation for using them to carry out terrorist attacks inside the kingdom”. The militants also planned to storm Saudi prisons to free the inmates, the statement said. In their crackdown, the police seized large quantities of weapons, explosives and money. More than 120 million riyals (US$32.4 million) had been seized in the operation, one of the largest sweeps against terror cells in the kingdom. Wow. It makes me wonder though, suppose this plot had been fully executed, assuming the targets were strictly located in the Saudi kingdom, how would that change the perception of the world toward the GWOT, toward the Bush adminstration, and to the US/west in general? Saudi Arabia says they're an ally, but in reality they're no major help. If the Saudis were devestated by several suicide air attacks, the US is instantly there with aid and any military support they request. Saudi Arabia immediately moves away from the terrorist groups and their politics and begins to vigorously pursue them, ostracizing them from the majority of society. Perhaps the marginalized terrorists begin to lash out more like their bastard Iraqi insurgent brothers; they're not part of the solution for the country so they turn to the only option they have: cowardly acts of violence and murder. World opinion can't hammer Arabs for trying to police and protect themselves, so as an Arab nation takes the point (even if only for the moment) in the fight against terrorism, the world supports them, re-legitimizing the GWOT and strengthening Iraqi resolve and our position in it. Bush is once again the maverick cowboy trying to police the world. Of course excellent intelligence, surveillance, and police work went into preventing these planned attacks, no doubt saving thousands of lives. So I guess we'll never know how the world would react because the MSM sure as hell won't pay this story any attention.

Al Qaeda's military commander in Afghanistan captured

And guess where they caught him? WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Iraqi al Qaeda member accused of assassination plots against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and other attacks was transferred by the CIA to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo this week, the Pentagon said on Friday. Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi was also accused of commanding al Qaeda's paramilitary operations in Afghanistan and launching attacks on U.S. and coalition forces from Pakistan, the Defense Department said. Al-Hadi was detained trying to get back into Iraq to "manage al Qaeda's affairs" there, according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. There's no mention of axactly where al-Hadi was captured, or how long he's been in custody. Al-Hadi was a known long time trainer at terrorist camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan and was known and trusted by bin Laden. Seems like we might be able to get some good intel out of this guy if only Democrats would let us speak to him without his lawyer present. Heaven forbid we infringe on his civil liberites or so much as mess his hair up.

Signs the surge is working

Charles Krauthammer has a novel idea to determine if its working: talk to the people on the ground making the decisions to find out what's going on. You'd think something so profound yet simple would have occurred to some others in the MSM, but apparently they're too busy reading their Democrat talking points... The news from Anbar is the most promising. Only last fall, the Marines' leading intelligence officer there concluded that the U.S. had essentially lost the fight to al-Qaeda. Yet, just this week, the marine commandant, Gen. James Conway, returned from a four-day visit to the province and reported that we "have turned the corner." Why? Because, as Lt. Col. David Kilcullen, the Australian counterinsurgency adviser to Gen. David Petraeus, has written, 14 of the 18 tribal leaders in Anbar have turned against al-Qaeda. As a result, thousands of Sunni recruits are turning up at police stations where none could be seen before. For the first time, former insurgent strongholds such as Ramadi have a Sunni police force fighting essentially on our side. Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, a major critic of the Bush war policy, now reports that in Anbar, al-Qaeda is facing "a real and growing groundswell of Sunni tribal opposition." And that "this is a crucial struggle and it is going our way -- for now." Baghdad's a bit more of a mixed bag, but don't take my word for it. Read the rest at Real Clear Politics.

Aussie al Qaeda detained at Gitmo pleads guitly

Al Qaeda operative pleads guilty!! Too bad that will probably lead to a reduced sentence as opposed to death. [David] Hicks, a Muslim convert, allegedly attended al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, conducting surveillance on the British and American embassies as part of his training. But he remained on the margins once the U.S. invaded to oust the Taliban following the Sept. 11 attacks. He eventually joined al-Qaida fighters hours before the front lines collapsed and was captured as he tried to flee, according to the U.S. military. The count he pleaded guilty to says he intentionally provided support to a terror organization involved in hostilities against the United States. He denied the charge that he supported for preparation, or in carrying out, an act of terrorism. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, but Davis has said he would seek a sentence of about 20 years. He said the five years Hicks has spent at Guantanamo could be considered in the ultimate sentence. Of course now the talk is that Hicks will be sent to Asustralia, and th anti-war left in Australia insist this military tribunal decision won't be upheld down under. I'm not sure they can overturn it legally... I know Howard would never allow it, but I'm sure the looney left and their lawyers will try to come up with something...

Al Qaeda #3 confesses to plotting 9/11 attacks plus dozens more

We'd suspected as much for years, but I won't turn down a flat out confession... Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, long suspected as the chief architect of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, confessed to masterminding those attacks and dozens more during a U.S. military hearing held Saturday at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a transcript released Wednesday by the Department of Defense. "I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z," says Mohammad. In a meandering series of admissions, Mohammad claims full or partial responsibility for nearly 30 terror actions, including the 1993 World Trade center bombing, a blast at an Indonesian nightclub, the attempt by Richard Reid to use shoe bombs on an airliner over the Atlantic, and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that brought down the World Trade Center towers and damaged the Pentagon. On the edited transcript, Mohammad, a key aide to Osama bin Laden, also admits being the principal behind plots to assassinate Pope John Paul II and Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. I bet this guy is a wealth of good intel and I hope they get all that they need from him in a timely manner now that he appears willing to cooperate. But what's slightly more interesting in this piece, beyond the confession, is this little quote. [...] Towards the end of his statement, Mohammad compared himself to a patriot, saying that "if now we were living in the Revolutionary War and George Washington he being arrested through Britain, for sure he, they would consider him enemy combatant." Hmmmm... Now where have we seen that comment before? What liberal idiot has compared the terrorists to the minute men? Hmmmm... I wonder... UPDATE @ 3:19pm: Mohommad also claims he personally beheaded Daniel Pearl too.

Lest we forget that terrorism and specifically al Qaeda aren't limited to Iraq

I think we're so focused on our own problems and issues in Iraq and to a lesser extent in Afghanistan, that we're losing the bigger picture. Terrorism is still a major threat in the world and al Qaeda, and their evil spawn sub-groups, is still the foremost perpetrator of terrorist attacks around the world. Playfuls - Seven people were killed, five of them soldiers, in separate attacks by terrorist groups in Algeria over a 48-hour period, local media reported Tuesday. Four soldiers and a local policeman were killed early Monday in a mortar attack on a military base at Batna, 435 kilometres east of the capital Algiers. In the ensuing reprisal, Algerian troops killed about 10 members of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), a terrorist group associated with al Qaeda, in a sweeping operation in the region around Batna. In addition, one Algerian soldier was killed and another injured during a battle with suspected Islamist terrorists at Ain Kechra, some 550 kilometres east of Algiers. In related news, a former fighter for Algerian independence was found dead at a fake military roadblock erected by Islamic insurgents at Boumerdes, 50 kilometres east of Algiers. Terrorism isn't just a threat to Iraqis, it's a worldwide threat, and worldwide includes us. The MSM focuses all their attention on Iraq and can't seem to see anything outside of Iraq like the above al Qaeda terrorist attack in Algeria. Or what about this story about terrorist gangs in the Netherlands. Or a similar story from Toronto. Or Sri Lanka. Or Yemen. So don't forget to ignore the rest of the world, and remember America is the root of all problems great and small. If only we got out of Iraq and Afghanistan, all terrorism would stop immediately, and peace would reign over the world... Nevermind the millions of people freed from oppressive regimes that used torture, rape, murder, and genocide as basic tools for governing... But that's not what's important to the anti-war crowd. War is bad. War for oil. War for Halliburton. Give peace a chance and all the other lame slogans that are nothing more than cheap, meaningless soundbites. So if you're tired of people who don't think beyond their three word soundbite directing policy for the nation, go take the pledge. Tell Congress that war is tough, but the only way we'll lose this one is if we give up, so grow a set of brass ones and do what it takes to win the war. We already invested so much, why give up part way through? All that does is invalidate all that has been accomplished, abandon a fragile, new democracy, and make the sacrifice our soldiers have made pointless. Sign the pledge.

What to do with Iran...

It's funny to see this coming from the LATimes, but it's an op-ed that basically says diplomacy's failed, start bombing Iran. So if sanctions won't work, what's left? The overthrow of the current Iranian regime might offer a silver bullet, but with hard-liners firmly in the saddle in Tehran, any such prospect seems even more remote today than it did a decade ago, when students were demonstrating and reformers were ascendant. Meanwhile, the completion of Iran's bomb grows nearer every day. Our options therefore are narrowed to two: We can prepare to live with a nuclear-armed Iran, or we can use force to prevent it. Former ABC newsman Ted Koppel argues for the former, saying that "if Iran is bound and determined to have nuclear weapons, let it." We should rely, he says, on the threat of retaliation to keep Iran from using its bomb. Similarly, Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria points out that we have succeeded in deterring other hostile nuclear states, such as the Soviet Union and China. Go figure... the MSM runs around in circles screaming "the sky is falling, the sky is falling." I don't know that I'd totally throw in the towel on revolutionary elements within Iran, but time is short. If that's still an option, something needs to happen there fast. Besides that, our options are bleak if we continue to put all our eggs into the diplomacy basket. Do we simply sit back and hope Israel can take out all of Iran's reactors? If that fails we're faced with a nuclear Iran, and what Koppel fails to realize is that this would be more than just a cold war. Iran would be more than willing to pass a nuke off to a terrorist group. Why else could they want an Iranian, Saif Adel, to take bin Laden's place as al Qaeda's leader? That'd certainly be convenient, wouldn't it? And what about the power shifft in the region? Israel's nuclear program is probably the only reason they still exist, along with their willingness to pre-emptively strike at those attempting to develop nukes. Would a nuclear Iran send Iraq's fledgling democracy into a tailspin? And Syria could easily hop on the coat tails of their nieghbor. Syria's going to continue to get bolder as we continue to wring our hands, so we'll get more demands from Syria, like their current demand for a timetable of our withdrawal from Iraq. Should we take bets on what Iran wants to discuss with this summit they've invited Syria and Iraq to? They say it's about the sectarian violence, but if you take what Ahmadinejad tells you at face value, I've got some great beach front property in Arkansas I'd love to sell you. I'd like to keep the "bombing Iran back to the stone age" option on the shelf, but we're painting ourselves into a corner here...

Al Qaeda leader in Iraq takes credit for Rumsfeld's resignation

Why is it so hard for Americans to believe that the Iraqis are closely watching what we do here at home, including our elections? BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A purported audio recording by the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq vows to step up the group's fight against the United States, saying, "We haven't had enough of your blood yet." The recording was posted Friday on an Islamist Web site and the speaker is identified as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Muhajer is also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri. "Come down to the battlefield, you coward," the speaker says on the recording, which CNN cannot independently confirm as the voice of al-Muhajer. Calling President Bush a "lame duck" the speaker tells Bush not to "run away as your lame defense secretary ran away," referring to Donald Rumsfeld, who resigned Wednesday. [...] The speaker on the tape vows that al Qaeda in Iraq will not stop its jihad "until we sit under the olive trees in Rumiya after we blow up the wicked house known as the White House." He says the first phase of the jihad is now over, and that the next phase -- building an Islamic nation -- has begun. "The victory day has come faster than we expected," he says. "Here is the Islamic nation in Iraq victorious against the tyrant. The enemy is incapable of fighting on and has no choice but to run away." And being that we're in a "lame duck session" on top of Rumsfeld's resignation, America needs to take note that our actions at home are being monitored by the terrorists, and they're taking their cues from us. Rumsfeld's resignation is seen as a retreat. The Republican's loss in the midterm election is seen as weakness. America take note. We are under surveillance...

The AP's latest pro-terrorist headline

All you've got to do is read the headline, "Militants blame U.S. for Pakistan strike" and then ask yourself why the hell do we care what militants terrorists think anyway? ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani helicopter gunships on Monday destroyed a religious school the military said was fronting as an al-Qaida training camp, killing 80 people in the country's deadliest military operation targeting suspected terrorists. Islamic leaders and al-Qaida-linked militants blamed the United States for the airstrike and called for nationwide demonstrations to condemn the attack that flattened the school — known as a madrassa — and ripped apart those inside. Furious villagers and religious leaders said the pre-dawn missile barrage killed innocent students and teachers. U.S. and Pakistani military officials denied American involvement. Among those killed in the attack in the remote northwestern village of Chingai, two miles from the Afghan border, was a cleric who had sheltered militants in the past and was believed associated with al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri. Oh, so the main story here according to the AP is that the terrorists are mad that we blew up one of their training camps. And nevermind that the madrassa's leaders were warned to stop using the school as a terrorist training camp and that the US wasn't involved in the attack. A memo to the AP: a more sensible title might read something like "Pakistan destroys terrorist training camp killing 80 ruthless, bloodthirsty murderers cowardly hiding among innocent civilians." Just a thought...