The Political Conundrum!

Last week, the Immigration Court removal (deportation) case in New Jersey against Mohammad Qatanani, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, ended when the Immigration Judge ruled against the Government and in favor of Qatanani, granting him permanent resident alien status in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had sought Qatanani’s removal from the U.S. for allegedly having made false statements in his application for residency concerning his detention in Israel for having been affiliated with the terrorist organization Hamas. The Immigration Judge, according to media reports, ruled the ICE prosecutors had failed to present sufficient evidence supporting their case.

Qatanani, in his defense, had several senior law enforcement officials testify on his behalf, including a representative of the U.S. Attorneys Office in New Jersey. This seeming divergence of law enforcement posture in a terrorism-related deportation case, even within the Federal Government, is almost bizarre. ICE legal personnel have yet to state if they intend to appeal the Immigration Judge’s decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals, as they may. What really happened in this case? A fine article appears today at IPT News that covers what likely did occur in this case. This may be one for solid Congressional inquiry.

My colleague Matt Levitt and I wrote two op-eds this week taking stock of the US counterterrorism efforts as we approach the seventh anniversary of 9/11. We also assess what the terrorist threat is likely to look like and what counterterrorism environment the next administration will inherit in January 2009. As we noted in one of the pieces, despite the steps that has been made, this area is still very much a work in progress.

Here is an excerpt from our op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle:

As the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, and with the Bush administration entering its final months, it's worth pausing to reflect on how much progress we've made these past seven years against the terrorist threat to the United States. Yet the next administration will face an evolving terrorist threat and inherit a counterterrorism regime that is still a work in progress.

While the United States has overhauled its counterterrorism structure to face this new, ever-evolving enemy, keeping up with the adapting threat is a serious challenge for the often plodding government bureaucracy.

At the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, al Qaeda was a centralized, hierarchical organization that directed international terrorist operations from its base in Afghanistan. By 2004, al Qaeda appeared to be in disarray, with its capabilities dramatically diminished. That picture has changed substantially over the past few years, as al Qaeda's center has grown stronger once again, with its new safe haven in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where it can train and recruit operatives, and direct its global propaganda efforts.

To read the entire piece, click here:

Our other piece appeared in the Camden Courier-Post this past Sunday. Here is an excerpt from that piece:

Despite setbacks, al-Qaida remains a potent threat. In mid-August, the U.S. intelligence community's senior ranking terrorism analyst concluded that while increased counterterrorism efforts worldwide have constrained the ability of al-Qaida to attack the United States and its allies, the group "remains the most serious terrorist threat to the United States."
As recently thwarted terrorist plots in Britain, Germany and elsewhere make clear, seven years after 9/11 we remain in a heightened threat environment. But the nature of the transnational threats facing the world today is far different than the ones the United States and its allies faced on 9/11.

While al-Qaida itself remains a formidable opponent -- particularly with its recent resurgence and secure safe haven in northwest Pakistan -- its affiliates and homegrown cells pose a growing threat as well. As of 9/11, al-Qaida was the main threat facing the United States. At the time of the 9/11 attacks, al-Qaida was a centralized, hierarchical organization directing terrorist operations around the world from its base in Afghanistan.

The Unites States now faces a different -- and in some ways more complicated -- threat than it did on 9/11. This is a threat -- and an enemy -- that continues to evolve rapidly, often in response to U.S. and international pressure. Today, the United States and its allies face a three-fold threat. The first is from the core al-Qaida. While al-Qaida was on its "back foot" from 2004 to 2007, it has now "regained its equilibrium," according to a senior Homeland Security official.

To read that entire piece, click here:

ABC Nightline aired a news story last night about the conviction of the British citizens who were involved in a conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks to bring liquid explosives on board a number of airliners that were destined to arrive in the United States. This plot is the reason that we are restricted to bring no more than 3 ounce bottles of shampoo and other fluids on airliners. It is the reason that so many seemingly bizarre measures have been taken by TSA officials, such as when nursing women were reportedly required to drink their own breast milk brought to feed their infant children.

The timing of this news story is coincidental but it is certainly worth remembering that this week our nation will mark the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. What is, in my judgement, utterly unacceptable is that fact that even with all of these concerns about potential future devastating terrorist attacks, our nation still permits aliens from some 27 countries to seek to enter the United States without first applying for and receiving a visa.

Those British terrorists, not unlike Richard Reid, the so-called "Shoe Bomber," would not require visas in order to board an airliner destined for the United States. The point is that while far from perfect, the visa requirement could well have kept Richard Reid off the airliner he had planned to destroy by detonating explosives secreted in his shoes. The point is that these British terrorists could have sought to board an airliner they were intent on destroying without first securing visas. The visa requirement also provides other significant benefits to law enforcement and hence, represent a vital, additional layer of security that is being ignored by our government, even as the administration pushes forward with plans to expand the Visa Waiver Program to include additional countries.

Last year I was interviewed by Mike Ahlers of CNN for a news report he was writing about the Visa Waiver Program and the fact that the executives of the travel and hospitality industries advocating that our government expand the Visa Waiver Program. As you read these articles and my commentaries you should be asking yourself, "Are we safer today than we were on September 10, 2001?" Our government is supposed to represent the best interests of We the People and the best interests of our nation. That our government would ratchet up security at airport and other vulnerable venues makes good sense, if those measures are truly effective and enhance our safety and the security of our nation. These measures must make a "real world" difference and not simply create an illusion of addressing vital national security issues.

Russia will station nearly 8,000 troops in two breakaway Georgian provinces, officials said Tuesday, announcing an imposing long-term presence less than a day after agreeing to pull forces back from areas surrounding the provinces.

Lt. Christopher Hanes knew something was wrong as soon as he stepped into the Friends bakery. The oven was unused, the water tank was empty and a large concrete bin was full of dirt that the two employees claimed was used to cool cakes.

Western officials are closely watching signs that North Korea's unpredictable dictator Kim Jong Il may be gravely ill. "There is reason to believe Kim Jong Il has suffered a serious health set back, possibly a stroke," a Western intelligence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

When it came time for Hobson's Farm to decide what design to use in their 2008 corn maze, they didn't have to go far for inspiration. The Hobsons chose to honor a family member and the United States military this year with their National Guard-themed corn maze.

Tomorrow at 10 am ET, I will join other distinguished experts on a special panel to discuss the effects of Saudi penetration into our nation’s financial, legal and educational infrastructure. The Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) will host the panel in room 2255 of the Rayburh House Office Building, and the other experts participating are as follows:

Dr. Ali Al Ahmed, Director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs, who will address the Saudis' culture of corruption and intimidation and how it made its way into the United States;

E.J. Kimball of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, who will talk about U.S. Muslim organizations connected to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Saudi royal family;

Reed Rubinstein, Attorney at Greenberg Traurig, who successfully prevented CAIR from suing Andrew Whitehead;

Ilan Weinglass, Editor of the Terror Finance Blog, on Saudi use of foreign courts to sue American writers and journalists in order to suppress their freedom of speech;

Frank Gaffney Jr., President of the Center for Security Policy, who will highlight Saudi infiltration into our nation’s financial infrastructure;

Winfield Myers, Director of Campus Watch, who will address the issue of Saudi funding of American college campuses and its inhibitive effect on objective scholarship;

Dr. Sandra Alfonsi, Chair, Curriculum Watch, on Islamist revisionism in American textbooks; and

Anne Korin, Co-Director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, who will tackle our dependence on foreign oil and the state of alternative energy research and development.

I will discuss the Islamic Saudi Academy of northern Virginia, about which I've written numerous posts as an example of the Kingdom's continued export of radical Islamist propaganda and as a case study in homegrown radicalization.

To find out more about this seminar and EMET, please e-mail Sarah Stern, EMET President.

Today FDD's Center for Terrorism Research brings you the second installment of our Voices of the Awakening project, authored by Sterling Jensen, which is designed to provide Westerners a better understanding of ongoing developments in Iraq's Awakening movement. This regular feature includes critical translations of Awakening news and documents, Jensen's observations and analysis, and occasional interviews with the movement's leaders.

The Iraqi Awakening has reported an eventful first week of September, including the transfer of Anbar provincial security responsibility to the Iraqi security forces (ISF), an official letter from the Awakening to the prime minister conveying Ramadan blessings, and a visit from the head of the Sunni Endowment of Iraq. An excerpt from this week's news:

[A]s a message to the government of Iraq (GoI), Sheikh Ahmad [Bezia] said that Anbaris accomplished this heroic fight against international terrorists by joining the ISF. The Awakening thought that by joining the ISF and helping the national government to eliminate extremism, terrorism, and sectarian violence, the justification for Iraq's de-Baathification laws would end. However, the Iraqi Awakening was surprised when the GoI announced they had prepared a list of former Iraqi officers, soldiers, and members of the Baath Party [there is no indication in the speech as to the purpose of the list, but the context is a GoI list of "irreconcilable" former regime elements]. Sheikh Ahmad asked the GoI to take into consideration the sacrifices and efforts of those who were once covered under the de-Baathification laws, but who supported the GoI and fought al-Qaeda from 2006-2008--and to re-evaluate them so long as they have not shed innocent Iraqi blood....

INSIDER'S PERSPECTIVE: The Iraqi Awakening is approaching the GoI diplomatically on the issues of transfer of security responsibility, and former regime element reconciliation and integration. It was the GoI that wanted the transfer of the security responsibility to happen sooner rather than later, even though the Iraqi Awakening and provincial government would have preferred to postpone it because of autonomy issues. However, the Iraqi Awakening thought it was in their best interest to support the GoI initiative. Sheikh Ahmad Bezia wants to show the GoI that this tribal-movement-turned-political party is law abiding, patriotic and subservient to Baghdad.

For the entire Voices of the Awakening update, click here.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was just in Algeria to talk mostly about terrorism. Indeed Algeria has been witnessing regular and numerous terror attacks perpetrated by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
For one of the most exhaustive coverage on AQIM, please visit The Croissant.

I wrote a piece for the MIddle East Times last week on how the Algerian government is minimizing AQIM's threat. You can read it here.

Here is an excerpt:

Several spectacular and bloody suicide attacks have been perpetrated by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in Algeria in recent weeks. The high number of deaths has attracted much publicity, but these are far from being isolated events. Indeed, AQIM has been targeting, murdering, kidnapping or maiming law enforcement personnel, regular citizens and foreigners on an almost daily basis. The situation is dire, yet the Algerian government goes on pretending that everything is under control. Clearly it is not.

AQIM aims to pull-off spectacular attacks that make the international headlines. For example, at the end of July a car bomb targeted President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika' s convoy in Bouira. Fortunately, security services thwarted this attack - AQIM's second on the president. In September 2007 a suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of the crowd that was awaiting the president's arrival, after being spotted by a police officer who lost his life during the attack.

While it is true that Algerian security forces have been relatively successful in fighting off AQIM terrorists, the organization remains very active, carrying out attacks sometimes on a daily basis. On average AQIM is successful in two out of three times. Its members are mostly quite professional, and the trend has been toward an "Iraqization" of its tactics. Car bombs and suicide attacks are the new modus operandi of AQIM. But this switch in tactics has resulted in a huge decline of AQIM's popularity among Algeria's population, especially since they are also very much targeting civilians.

But AQIM is not the only organization that has lost credibility; the Algerian government has too. And for a few reasons.

First, the authorities continue to downplay AQIM's capacity to hit Algeria. The declaration from Interior Minister Zerhouni after each attack repeating that AQIM is dying off and that the latest attack was proof of its weakness and despair is ringing very hollow. Zerhouni also sounds like a broken record when he keeps on repeating that AQIM has only 400 militants.