The Political Conundrum!

The NEFA Foundation has obtained a new video from the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) showing a group of alleged German nationals receiving instruction at an IJU terrorist training camp in northwest Pakistan. The video also includes footage of a balding Caucasian male identified as a U.S. national fighting alongside the IJU, "Abu Ibrahim al-Amriki." The IJU has claimed responsibility for a failed terrorist plot in 2007 targeting airports and other critical infrastructure in Germany - including Ramstein Air Base.

The video can be viewed on the NEFA Foundation website.

See also - The October 2008 NEFA Foundation report on the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) by Ron Sandee: "The Islamic Jihad Union was founded by breakaway fighters from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in March 2002 in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas. The organization initially called itself the Islamic Jihad Group, but, after failed attacks in Uzbekistan in 2004 and early 2005, changed its name and became closer to core al-Qa’ida. Since then, the organization’s focus has shifted, as the IJU began plotting terror attacks in Pakistan and Western Europe, especially Germany. Based in Mirali in South Waziristan, the IJU is training Western recruits for attacks in the West. The recruits are mainly Turks from Turkey and Turkish communities in Western Europe, but also Muslim converts from Europe."

Following Hakimullah Mehsud’s meeting with tribal reporters last week, the NEFA Foundation gained access to a brief autobiographical sketch handwritten by the TTP leader to provide a reliable account of his life and origins to the media. The most significant section of Mehsud’s brief autobiographical sketch outlines the early days of the Pakistani Taliban, which, according to Hakimullah, first emerged alongside their Afghan brethren in Khost Province, namely the Haqqani network under the leadership of commander Maulvi Sangeen. Significantly, Amir Baitullah, who Hakimullah succeeded at the helm of the TTP, is mentioned as one of the early leaders, alongside Nek Mohammed Wazir, the first figurehead of the Pakistani Taliban, and Abdullah Mehsud, his successor for a brief period. Also, Hakimullah takes care to mention both Al-Qaida and the Uzbek insurgents, with whom he has reportedly been associated since his early days. He also seems to point out that he directly succeeded Nek Mohammed as the paladin of Uzbek and Al-Qaida fighters, even under Baitullah’s rule.

NEFA has packaged the biography along with an accompanying report by Senior Investigator Claudio Franco and video footage of a recent meeting between Hakimullah Mehsud and the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Tahir Yuldashev.

As fighting in Afghanistan, particularly the south, intensifies U.S. policy-makers are beginning to shift their gaze to Afghanistan’s southern border with Pakistan and wondering if the northern regions of Baluchistan are – like the FATA on Afghanistan’s eastern border – serving as a Taliban haven. U.S. officials have even claimed that Taliban head Mullah Omar and his top leaders are living in Baluchistan’s capital Quetta.

This has, unsurprisingly, set off a spasm of denials in Pakistan along with the immediate conclusion in Pakistan that the U.S. was planning drone attacks in Quetta. Not helpful, in the context of American attempts to attach conditions to aid in the Kerry-Lugar bill.

Old News
Two points about this “new” front. First, Quetta should have been on the radar screen from the beginning – back in May 2003 The New York Times reported on Taliban gathering in Quetta. The reporter Carlotta Gall and her Pakistani photographer Akhtar Soomro were beaten up by Pakistani intelligence agents for their trouble.

Pakistan’s Other Insurgency
The second point is that most of the articles speculating about the Taliban leadership residing in Quetta ignore the ongoing Baluchi insurgency in the province. This is not an irrelevant point.

Read the complete post here.

Ever since President Obama outlined his Afghan strategy in March, the notion that the US would deepen its involvement there seemed like a foregone conclusion. But a grim assessment from the US commander on the ground and flawed elections have strengthened the voice of the naysayers who warn of a costly quagmire.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has passed legislation extending the Patriot Act without a proposal by Senator Feingold that would, in effect, eviscerate an important 13-year old-statute that makes it illegal to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations.

The committee yesterday approved by an 11-8 vote and sent to the floor a compromise bill that extends, with modifications, Patriot Act provisions allowing “roving wiretaps” on multiple phones, access to business records and a never-used “lone wolf” provision to conduct surveillance of non-U.S. citizens who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group. These provisions expire at the end of this year unless extended by Congress.

The bill is S. 1692, USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2009, sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Committee Chairman, and co-sponsored by members Senators Benjamin Cardin of Maryland and Ted Kaufman of Delaware, all Democrats. The bill also received the important co-sponsorship of Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee after modifications were made Oct. 1.

Before passage yesterday, the Judiciary Committee approved several Republican amendments. Reflecting the divided views, however, only two Republicans voted for the bill on final committee passage and three Democrats voted against it, as described in the Wall Street Journal.

The committee did not take up a provision in a substitute bill S 1686, by Senator Russ Feingold (D-Washington) that would gut the Material Support provision of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.
For more details, see my October 1 posting “Material Support: Killing it with “Humanitarian Kindness.”

Sen. Feingold’s bill would severely undermine the material support provision by inserting into 18 U.S. Code Sec 2339B (a) (1) language that says the contributions to such groups would be illegal only if assistance was provided “knowing or intending that the material support or resources would be used in carrying out terrorist activities.”

If enacted, the Feingold amendment would make it easy for persons indicted for providing funds, financial services, or even physical support such as vehicles, to claim they did not know the assistance “would” be used for terrorist activities—even though the organization had been formally and publicly designated by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization after a long administrative record process that could be challenged in court.

A committee source said there were some Republican proposals to strengthen the provision but the committee had enough on its plate without getting into that issue.
A close observer of the committee told the Counterterrorism Blog that the Feingold provision appeared dead. The Wisconsin senator’s office has not returned repeated calls and emails seeking their comment.

In a committee statement issued by Senator Leahy's office, the chairman said :“I remain mindful of our responsibility to ensure both security and liberty as we proceed,” said Leahy. “Our bill will provide the tools that are needed to protect us, while increasing the protections of our vital constitutional rights, as well. We have taken the administration up on its offer to work with us to ‘provide additional protection for the privacy of law abiding Americans’ and have done so without undermining the operational effectiveness of the counterterrorism tools provided in the Patriot Act.

Senator Cardin, who chairs the Judiciary Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee said “our priority is to protect the American people – both safety and civil liberties,” We must make sure that our law enforcement and intelligence professionals have the tools they need to prevent and disrupt terrorist attacks, while maintaining an appropriate balance between national security and protecting civil liberties. With these parallel goals in mind, I believe the Judiciary Committee took the right action today to extend the provisions that expire at the end of the year. This legislation provides stronger Congressional and judicial oversight of the Patriot Act, as well as new limits on the use of National Security Letters.”

As expected, the ACLU was not satisfied. Michael Macleod-Ball, Acting Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Washington Legislative Office said in a statement:

“We are disappointed that further changes were not made to ensure Americans’ civil liberties would be adequately protected by this Patriot Act legislation. This truly was a missed opportunity for the Senate Judiciary Committee to right the wrongs of the Patriot Act and stand up for Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights.

The ACLU complained that “Amendments that were offered but failed by voice vote included an amendment by Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) to curb the abuse of the overly broad National Security Letter (NSL) statute and another offered by Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI) to allow the “lone wolf” provision to expire (the never-used provision that targets individuals who are not connected to terrorist groups). An amendment also failed that would make it more difficult for recipients to challenge the gag order that comes with receiving an NSL.”

It is uncertain when the bill will reach the Senate floor in view of other pending business, including health reform legislation. Passage is needed in time to allow for the Senate-House conference on a final version and Congressional enactment before the end of the year.

Congress will ask the Defense Department to review its procedures for awarding the Purple Heart to troops suffering from traumatic brain injury, whom some lawmakers feel are being overlooked by the awards process.

Slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers will be honored Friday with a Navy supply ship named for him.

U.S. forces have withdrawn from an isolated base in eastern Afghanistan that insurgents attacked last week in one of the deadliest battles of the war for U.S. troops, the NATO-led coalition said Friday.

French police have arrested a nuclear physicist on suspicion that he had links to terrorist organizations in Algeria, the European Organization for Nuclear Research said Friday.

In his latest move to insure his permanence in power and control over loyal forces, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has established nation-wide armed civilian militias that are answerable only to him.

According to the El Universal newspaper, the Bolivarian Militia of Peasants will become operational very soon.

For a country about to go on line with an AK-47 assault rifle factory, and with a government that has spent some $6 billion on weapons (publicly announced, without counting those that are not disclosed) in the past four years, this is a worrisome development, especially given Chávez's deep and growing authoritarian tendencies.

Yet it fits perfectly with Chávez's conception of the coming asymmetrical battle agains the United States and the need his forces will have to retreat to the hinterlands to wage guerrilla warfare. Here is my posting on this concept and actions.

There is no ambiguity on where the militias' loyalties lie. Not with the Venezuelan state, not with the military, but directly and personally with Chávez.

"We will start training (the militia) next week. We will establish some centers in the farms that have been seized, in the Zamoranos farms (named after Ezequiel Zamora, a leader of the Venezuelan Federal War) and in the fields and plants that have been seized, to defend the farmers and the fatherland, if necessary, against the imperialist occupation," said Jaua, who was in the event as Minister and Vice President of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) for the Venezuelan plains region.

Further, Orlando Zambrano, a leader of the Simón Bolívar National Front of Peasants, said, "We must solidify the militia – the people's armed power- to defend ourselves. We are voicing anger, joy and willingness to support Commander Chávez." My full blog is here.