IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICES: BOOKLET OF RELATED READINGS 18

IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICES: BOOKLET OF RELATED READINGS 18

A Report Prepared by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress

under an Interagency Agreement with the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization

April 1, 2008 Researcher: French MacLean Project Manager: Malinda K. Goodrich Federal Research Division Library of Congress Washington, D.C. 20540−4840 Tel: 202−707−3900 Fax: 202−707−3920 E-Mail: [email protected] Homepage: http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/

π 60 Years of Service to the Federal Government π 1948 – 2008

Library of Congress – Federal Research Division IED Booklet 18

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PREFACE

This booklet represents the eighteenth in a series of compilations of print and electronic articles that are relevant to the defeat of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that insurgent and terrorist operatives use to kill and injure U.S. military forces and civilian populations. The readings are related to IED technology, social networks that may provide insight into how insurgent groups communicate and relate to their members, and other technical and cultural phenomena that will help the Joint Improvised Explosive Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) meet its mission. The first section of the booklet contains abstracts of the articles included in the booklet in alphabetical order by author and title. The abstracts are hyperlinked to the article itself located later in the booklet. At the end of each article is a hot link to the original article on the Internet. Information of particular relevance is highlighted in yellow.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE....................................................................................................................................... i

ARTICLE ABSTRACTS ............................................................................................................. 1

ARTICLES.................................................................................................................................... 5


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ARTICLE ABSTRACTS

“After the Mullahs,” The Economist, March 19, 2008.

This article describes how the Pakistani Awami National Party (ANP), a secular Pushtun group, will take control of the provincial government in the North West Frontier (NWFP) later this month from the Islamist Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six Islamic parties. The ANP will do so in coalition with the Pakistan People’s Party of the assassinated former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto. The ANP’s leading members are descendants of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (known as the “frontier Gandhi”) who opposed British rule. The US hopes the ANP’s ties with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, will lead to more cross-border co-operation.

Ali, Imtiaz. “The Haqqani Network and Cross-Border Terrorism in Afghanistan,” The Jamestown Foundation, March 24, 2008.

Armed Taliban groups, such as the Haqqani Network, have been infiltrating from Pakistan into Afghanistan. This article is a profile of the network.

Al Shemary, Abdulaziz. “Saudi Arabia: Details of Project to Retrain the Kingdom’s Imams,” Asharq Al-Awsat, March 23, 2008.

The King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue in Saudi Arabia, in conjunction with the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, will retrain 40,000 mosque imams in all regions on communication skills and the culture of dialogue. The project is designed to achieve an ideological change away from extremism and excess and toward centrism and moderation. [Researcher Note: Part of the battle of ideas.]

Gardiner, Bryan. “Engineers Test Highly Accurate Face Recognition,” Wired, March 24, 2008. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have created a new facial-recognition algorithm that is able to recognize faces with 90 to 95 percent accuracy, “even if the eyes, nose and mouth are obscured.” [Researcher Note: One of the developers, Professor Yi Ma can be reached at [email protected], (217) 244-0871.]

“German Spy Chief Warns of Al-Qaida’s Growing Strength in North Africa,” Spiegel (GE), March 25, 2008.

The article is an interview with Ernst Uhrlau, the president of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency (Bundesnachrichtendienst [BND]), which is roughly equivalent to the CIA. Unlike in the US, the BND works with Germany’s domestic intelligence agency (the Office for the Protection of the Constitution) to monitor Muslim extremists in Germany and abroad. Uhrlau stated that there are a few hundred extremists in Germany prepared to commit acts of violence, but thousands more – such as the 26,000 members


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of Milli Görüs, Germany’s largest Islamist organization with an extremist world view – bear consideration.

Guitta, Olivier. “AQIM’s New Kidnapping Strategy,” Middle East Times, March 24, 2008.

This article describes how Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) kidnapped two Austrian citizens in Tunisia. AQIM’s purpose behind the attack was to damage the tourism industry, dry out foreign investment, and finance its own operations though ransoms. The author concludes that this is the third modus operandi that AQIM has copied from Al-Qaida in Iraq: the first two instances included the commencement of suicide bombings and the recruiting of teenagers.

“Iraq: Al-Qaeda ‘Enlisting Widows as Suicide Bombers,’” Adnkronos International, March 21, 2008.

This article discusses female suicide bombers from Anbar and Diyala provinces in Iraq. It cites sociologist Fari al-Obedi as saying, “The majority of female bombers’ motivations are getting revenge for a deceased husband or family member, or due to religious extremism.”

Jacobson, Michael. “The Bombers Who Weren’t,” The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (originally published in the Washington Post), March 23, 2008.

The author states that the stories of would-be suicide bombers who “bail” at the last moment are instructive for counter-terrorism efforts. They reveal a growing disillusionment with terrorist groups’ tactics and strategy and a general lack of respect for the groups’ leaders.

Jacoby, Mitch. “Clues at The Scene of The Crime,” Chemical & Engineering News, March 24, 2008.

This article discusses recent technology developments by scientists in academia and law enforcement that were unveiled at a forensics symposium at Pittcon (Pittsburgh Conference, a conference and exposition devoted to laboratory science) in New Orleans. Of particular interest was the Ahura Scientific’s (a US company that specializes in handheld systems for chemical identification) handheld Raman spectrometer, a compact analytical device that can identify a variety of explosives on-site. [Researcher Note: Could our IED forensic teams in Iraq use these?]

Mojumdar, Aunohita. “UN: End Abuse of Afghan Women,” Al-Jazeera, March 21, 2008.

This is an excellent article on the plight of women in Afghanistan. Some 70 to 80 percent of marriages are forced and in 57 percent of the marriages the bride is under 16. The country suffers one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates and female literacy is only 15.8 percent. [Researcher Note: While the article is an excellent description of the


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current situation, it does not mention women’s conditions under the Taliban. All fingers point to the current government for the sad state of affairs.]

“NASA’s ‘Instant’ Wireless Video Surveillance System,” Gizmag, March 21, 2008.

This article describes how NASA and two technology firms designed, procured, and deployed a security system from scratch in under sixty days. [Researcher Note: The two responsive firms were Agile Mesh and Firetide, should we be required to develop related technology with an extremely short suspense.]

“Only 17 Percent Tribesmen Favour Armed Jihad: Survey,” Daily Times (PK), March 21, 2008.

A survey conducted by the Peshawar-based NGO “Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme in the Tribal Areas” indicates that 17 percent of tribesmen in Pakistan are in favor of armed jihad, 57 percent believe that jihad entails studying the holy Quran rather than fighting, while 50 percent believe Shariah law can bring peace to the Tribal Areas.

Phares, Walid. “Bin Laden’s Threat Uncovers Jihadist Message for Europe,” Counterterrorism Blog, March 20, 2008.

The author analyzes Osama bin Laden’s latest audiotape message. He concludes that Al- Qaeda’s political operatives are having an increasing impact on the movement’s public statements.

“Risky Teen Behavior May Not Occur at Home or School: But How to Track?” EurekAlert! March 24, 2008.

Researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine conducted a pilot study that evaluated the feasibility of using global position system-enabled cell phones to track where 14- to 16-year-old girls spent their time. [Researcher Note: Establishing a baseline of where young people spend their time could be done in other countries. This information could have interesting security implications.]

Robson, David. “Mic Based on Fly Ear Can Pinpoint Sounds,” NewScientist, March 22, 2008. An engineer at the University of Maryland in College Park has developed a prototype of an extremely sensitive microphone, based on the construction of a fly ear, that is eight times more precise in determining the angle to the source of a sound as any commercially available microphone sensor. [Researcher Note: The inventor, Dr. Miao Yu, can be reached at (301) 405-3591, [email protected].]

Stephens, Bret. “How Al-Qaeda Will Perish,” The Wall Street Journal, March 25, 2008.

This interesting article describes the apparent difficulties Al-Qaeda is now having “getting permission” from parents so that their children can become suicide bombers.


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Taheri, Amir. “Iraq Plus Five: What Went Right,” FrontPageMag.com, March 24, 2008. The author reviews the current war in Iraq since its beginning. He concludes that two of the three objectives have been attained. [Researcher Note: While remaining cognizant of the work still to be done, sometimes it is worthwhile to step back and tell your folks they have done a tremendous job.]

“The Unstoppable Back-packable 6X6 SpyRobot,” Gizmag, March 22, 2008. This article is a glowing review of the Macroswiss 6X6 SpyRobot that will enter the US inventory.

Theyabi, Jamil. “The Brain Drain…Till When?” Al-Hayat, March 24, 2008. The author discusses a recent Arab League report that stated that every year 70,000 of 300,000 Arab university graduates emigrate from the Middle East to obtain better jobs. Not only does this represent an estimated US$1.57 billion loss to Middle East economies, it also adds to a shortage of medical doctors, engineers, etc. The author concludes, “Distinguished brains leave and succeed, while ‘rigid”’minds stay, disrupt Arab life, and amplify bureaucracy.”

Zahir, Fazile. “Turkey Seeks a More Modern Islam,” Asia Times Online, March 27, 2008. The author describes that one of the main premises of Turkish Islam is moderation and this characteristic allows for self-examination of religion in the nation. She also notes that religious scholars in Turkey are mostly writers, poets, academics, and artists, unlike their counterparts in other countries, where scholars are more often priests (ulema), engineers, or medical doctors.


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ARTICLES

Pakistan

After the mullahs Mar 19th 2008 | PESHAWAR From The Economist print edition A secular party takes over in the North West Frontier Province

THE moustaches have ousted the beards. While Parliament met this week in Islamabad to debate who should be prime minister nationally, at the provincial level in the North West Frontier (NWFP), a deal has been done. Later this month, the Awami National Party (ANP), a secular Pushtun outfit, will take over the provincial government from the Islamist Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six Islamic parties. It will do so in coalition with the Pakistan People's Party of the assassinated former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, with which it signed a provincial power-sharing agreement on March 5th. The takeover is the result of Pakistan's recent election,

at which the ANP increased its representation from a mere seven to 46 of the province's 99 constituencies. The Islamic alliance, half of which boycotted the poll, won just 14. The result proved that Pushtuns “are neither extremists nor terrorists”, crowed the ANP's sturdy leader, Asfandyar Wali Khan. George Bush hailed it as “a part of the victory on the war on terror”—understandable, perhaps, given that the mullahs had been voted out. But a junior American official was probably nearer the mark when he noted that the vote had not vindicated American policy but “repudiated the MMA government”. The clerics had failed to curb terrorism, were tainted by their support for the country's discredited president, Pervez Musharraf, and were chaotic administrators. They had risen to power in NWFP, and shared it in Baluchistan, boosted by outrage at America's invasion of Afghanistan. They departed fatter and richer. The new government is taking over one of the world's hardest-to-govern places. Last month a suicide-bomber killed 44 people at the funeral of a policeman in Swat. This week another suicide-bomber attacked a police station in the district. A third killed 43 people at a gathering of tribal elders at the town of Darra Adam Khel. Militants backed by al-Qaeda have expanded their


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insurgency from the lawless border areas near Afghanistan into the province's more settled parts. To make matters worse, the provincial government is taking over while the army's counter-insurgency operations are struggling, local-government institutions have atrophied after a year of upheaval and when the national government is being dogged by doubts over its durability even before it has been founded. The ANP's leading members are descendants of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the so-called “frontier Gandhi” who opposed British rule. The Americans hope their ties with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, will lead to more cross-border co-operation. But their links to Afghanistan and to India's Congress party make some Pakistanis suspicious of them. The designation of Mr Wali Khan's 37-year-old nephew, Haider Hoti, as chief minister has revived grumbles that the party treats politics as private family business. The party wants to change the province's colonial-era name to Pukhtunkhwa and says it will reform the administrative system both in the province itself and in adjoining tribal areas, which the provincial governor, Owais Ahmad Ghani, recently described as “weak, demoralised and despondent”. In Waziristan, local and foreign jihadists have demolished a fragile administration by murdering scores of pro-government tribal elders. The party will face stiff resistance to its plan to revoke a colonial-era parliamentary act that banned political parties from the tribal areas and left the field open to the mullahs. The party, whose stronghold is the valley of Peshawar, also secured seats in Swat, to the north, where the army has mounted big operations against jihadists. But the mullahs' former chief minister, Akram Durrani, says that the ANP lacks sufficient clout in the tribal areas and restive southern districts of NWFP to secure a peace. Though the Americans have backed it, the ANP has been ambivalent about the global “war on terror” and has criticised Pakistan's involvement. “The Taliban is a reality and has assumed the shape of a party and we have to talk with them,” says Mr Hoti. Such pledges may revive previous American worries about local peace deals with militants. Aftab Sherpao, a Pushtun and former interior minister under Mr Musharraf, argues that any secular government would be an improvement “as the MMA had obstructed operations against militants”. He survived two recent suicide attacks that killed 75 people. Dozens of ANP supporters were also killed when suicide bombers attacked at election rallies. Mere survival will be an achievement for Mr Wali Khan's clan. http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10881298


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AQIM's new kidnapping strategy OLIVIER GUITTA Published: March 24, 2008

A Tuareg tribesman in Mali. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb – or AQIM – kidnapped two Austrian citizens in Tunisia on Feb. 22. The hostages are reportedly being held in northern Mali and Austrian authorities, with the help of Libya, are trying hard to obtain the release of their citizens.

This latest action from AQIM should not come as a surprise, for several reasons.

First, AQIM has made no secret that targeting foreign nationals has become one of their priorities. In Algeria, AQIM recently targeted U.S. and Russian contractors, and the U.N. compound in Algiers, while Western nations have warned their citizens of the risks associated with remaining in the country. AQIM also recently almost succeeded in kidnapping two French

executives. After this incident, a number of French nationals (mostly women and children) left Algeria to return to safer grounds. The idea behind this strategy is to kill the tourism industry and dry out foreign investment in the region.

Second, AQIM has a tradition of self-financing its operations mostly through kidnappings, racketeering and smuggling of all kinds. Interestingly enough, the kidnapping of the two Austrian tourists mirrors the operation led by the Algerian GSPC (the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat), now AQIM, in 2003 under the command of Abdel Rezak al-Para. Back then, 32 European tourists (including Austrian, Swiss and German nationals) were kidnapped in the Algerian Sahara.

Seventeen of them were freed thanks to a military operation led by Algerian forces, and the remaining 14 – one hostage had died – were released six months later after a large ransom was allegedly paid by German authorities. This money was used to buy substantial quantities of sophisticated weapons that Algerian security services seized in January 2004.

Today, AQIM's first demand was the release of a number of prisoners held in Algeria and Tunisia, but later a ransom (reportedly 5 million euros, about $7.7 million) was added, and then


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AQIM dropped the release condition. This proves that the money issue was in reality what this kidnapping is all about.

Just a few weeks ago, the Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat published a letter from AQIM entitled, "Call for help from the Islamic Maghreb." In this letter, AQIM acknowledged that it is suffering from a lack of operatives and most importantly that its elements have "an urgent need of cash."

Clearly, if Austria were to pay the ransom, AQIM would use the funds to rearm, regroup and rehire and would be emboldened to kidnap more foreign nationals.

Third, the fact that the hostages are presumably in northern Mali is also unsurprising. AQIM has been using northern Mali (in particular Timbuktu and Kidal) as sanctuaries. This is the ideal place to install a terrorist base, since the area is almost impossible to patrol for such a poor country. This area also represents a great hiding location from U.S. satellites since it is very mountainous and full of caves. Nonetheless, terrorists need to be on the move quite often: they use Toyota Land Cruisers and refueling stations buried in the ground that they locate thanks to GPS equipment. AQIM possesses heavy weapons, mortars and ground-air missiles, among other sophisticated equipment, such as scramblers for their Thuraya satellite telephone communications.

To make matters even more complicated and unstable, the area is home to the Tuareg, a Berber group whose main military group – The Alliance – is fighting Malian authorities. On March 20 violent clashes erupted between Malian forces and the Tuareg: eight people were killed and 33 Malian military personnel were kidnapped. Interestingly, the Tuareg went from being AQIM's ally to AQIM's foe.

Eglasse Ag Idar, the spokesman of The Alliance, recently told the French daily Le Figaro that the Malians do not want to die fighting al-Qaida: for them, it is an Arab problem that concerns the West. He added that, on the other hand, the Tuareg are motivated to fight al-Qaida in order to defend their territory. At the beginning of this month an AQIM cell was dismantled in the area and a big fish (Abu Osama) was caught, allegedly thanks to information provided by some Tuareg tribal leaders.

It seems that AQIM is really following al-Qaida in Iraq's modus operandi. Indeed, after having imported suicide bombings to Algeria (mostly since the April 11, 2007 attacks), then recruiting teenagers, now AQIM is kidnapping foreign nationals. The example of the Austrian hostages might just be the start of a kidnapping wave.

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Olivier Guitta, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a foreign affairs and counterterrorism consultant, is the founder of the newsletter The Croissant (www.thecroissant.com).

http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/03/24/aqims_new_kidnapping_strategy/5871/


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Bin Laden’s threat uncovers Jihadist message for Europe By Walid Phares

March 20, 2008

In an audiotape posted on Internet, Osama Bin Laden threatened Europe with punishment because of its “negligence in spite of the opportunity presented to take the necessary measures” to stop the republishing of the Danish cartoons. It also menaced the Vatican with retribution for an alleged role in incitement "against religion." This al Qaeda warning would have been normal in Salafi Jihad logic. This radical movement obviously considers the drawings as an ultimate insult to Muslims and would unleash extreme violence in retaliation. Actually one would have expected al Qaeda to strike back “for the cartoons offense” long time ago. In fact, this particular audio is intriguing precisely because it is too “political,” read too sophisticated. Bin Laden’s school of Jihadism would have smitten first, explained later. So why is this message more peculiar than previous ones? What can we read into it? In short, I see in it the imprints of Jihadi "politicians” and strategists in international relations and deeply immersed in the diplomatic games across the Mediterranean. Even though it is indeed the voice of al Qaeda’s master but nevertheless one can see increasingly the impact of political operatives on the movement’s public statements. Here is why:

A raw al Qaeda reaction to the “infidel cartoons” would have been a strike back into the heart of the enemy with simple harshness and highly ideological brutality. But the audio tape has other points to make than just about the drawings. The message is heavily targeting Europe, while using the “cartoon Jihad” as a motive. Bin Laden, and the war room behind him are concerned about the rise of tough national leaders on the continent: Sarkozy, Merkel, Brown and a possible reemergence of Berlusconi's Party. In many spots in Europe, citizens are rejecting the Jihadi intimidations and becoming vocal about it. France is going to Chad, Germany has ships in the Eastern Mediterranean and Spain is arresting more Salafists. But the traditional apologists towards the Islamist agenda in Europe, remains strong. Al Qaeda wants to use the apologists against the “resistance.” What better than threatening to strike at Europe’s peace if its liberal values are not altered? In essence this is Bin Laden’s message:

Change your laws on liberties and freedom of expression or else. “If there is no check on the freedom of your words then let your hearts be open to the freedom of our hearts.” But a thorough investigation of the origination of this argument leads not to al Qaeda’s traditional rhetoric -the group isn’t very concerned with the change of laws in infidel lands- but to demands that have been made by “long-range” Jihadists on European Governments. A simple check of archives


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shows that it wasn't Bin laden or Zawahiri who have asked Europe to enact laws against “insult to religion” but more “mainstream” Islamist forces and intellectuals. Among them the Muslim Brotherhoods, the Union of Islamic Clerics (also influenced by the Brotherhoods and headed by Sheikh Yusuf al Qardawi the spiritual mentor of al Jazeera), a number of European based academics and the bulk of Wahabi radical clerics. This revealing reality if anything shows one of the two trends: Either al Qaeda is using the argumentation of political Islamists to provoke a mass clash against Europe or is it that the “political Jihadists” are now able to influence the war discourse of al Qaeda. In both cases, it deserves a closer analysis.

Bin laden’s tape curiously repeats statements by commentators on al Jazeera who accuses Europe of being the “associate” of Washington in a “War on Islam.” It also accuses the “continent” of being hypocrite by refusing to compromise on its “liberal” legal system while it makes “exceptions” when it comes to “exempt American soldiers” from its own laws: An argument simply too complicated to al Qaeda but often advanced by Islamist cadres on al Jazeera and online.

But the audio message nevertheless produces a classical series of threats a la Bin Laden by promising revenge to be “seen.” It also goes on to indict the Pope for “inspiring” this “crusade” and doesn’t miss a chance to incriminate the “apostate” Saudi monarch for not defending Islam. The tape covers many other issues such as the vital necessity of "Jihad" in Gaza an Iraq. With such a mixture of rhetoric, how to read the letter? I would recommend looking at a changing context in the Ben Ladenist messaging.

Few months ago, he sent out a piece with heavy Trotskyist overtones, using US domestic references: The impact of “American” speech writers was evident. In this audio message one can see the fingerprints of international (perhaps European) Jihadists who seem to be frustrated by demands they made but not met by the “renegade” European Governments. In the end, the message to the continent is clear: Either you follow our advice and change your laws and accommodate our ideological agenda or else, al Qaeda is unleashed on the continent.

The voice of these shadow “advisors” -or at least their arguments- have made their way to the heart of al Qaeda’s messaging machine. From here on, it is up to the Europeans to decipher this enigmatic statement. They have an opportunity to breach a very powerful code which could answer loads of unresolved questions on the continent.

And last but not least, al Jazeera's "rapid response" to the last two tapes came in a show titled Ma wara's al khabar (Beyond the News). The anchor, interpreting the message said Al Qaeda "is perhaps now an idea," hence very difficult to defeat by counter terrorism measures. A powerful assertion as European security services are bracing for potential strikes -in response to this tape but also in retaliation to a Dutch documentary -assumable to be critical of the Koran- to be released soon. The al Jazeera assessment about al Qaeda is relevant as it projects the movement as invincible physically. More interesting, it coins Bin Laden's threat as serious as it touches an issue of ijmaa bayna al muslimeen, "consensus among Muslims." In other words, while the tape asserted so, it was al Jazeera that claimed that "the cartoons issue has created an Ijmaa-consensus among adherents." The confusion between what Bin Laden said "it should be" and what the Qatari-funded channel said "it is" is somewhat worrisome. For the millions of viewers,


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including many in Europe, the line is blurred. Then came al Jazeera's "experts in Islamist movements." Mr Yasir al Zaatra from Jordan said al Qaeda per se doesn't have to send militants to Europe because "local groups could offer to wage operations on European soil." Pushing the comment farther Zaatra added that "most likely, some groups may have already offered Bin Laden to perpetrate attacks. He asserted that there are existing cells that would carry out these attacks and Bin Laden would take credit. And to reinforce the credibility of the threat, Zaatra referred (strangely) to a statement by Michael Sheuer a former CIA officer who was in charge of the Bin Laden unit. Quoting Sheuer, the al Jazeera analyst said "Bin Laden's threats are always executed."

Following him, another "expert on Jihadist groups," Dr Diya' al Zayyat said the tape is a clear menace by whom he called (for the first time) the "general guide of the Salafi Movement worldwide. He added that Bin Laden would claim responsibility of a potential action "depending on the type of operation and the publicity that would follow." Both commentators agreed that a revenge action will take place and that European based Jihadists will carry it out. Al Jazeera's anchor taking it to the apex called the Bin laden's speech a "Jihadi road map."

What I saw in the al Qaeda message(s) and the al Jazeera debate was clear: The Salafist movement worldwide was "talking" to the Europeans and the Euro-Jihadis. It was threatening Governments to retreat from the confrontation on the one hand and unleashing the pools of indoctrinated Jihadis across the continent to "engage" in violence. The near future will tell us if the trigger will be successful or not.

******* Dr Walid Phares is a visiting scholar at the European Foundation for Democracy and the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He is the author of the recently released book, The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad

http://counterterrorismblog.org/2008/03/bin_ladens_threat_uncovers_jih.php


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Chemical & Engineering News

Clues At The Scene Of The Crime Advances in forensics push the limits of trace analysis and raise public interest in science Mitch Jacoby, March 24, 2008 Volume 86, Number 12 FORENSIC investigations look so glamorous on television. Appearing at crime scenes with data collection tools in hand, good-looking investigators on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and related shows never miss a clue. With ease and style, they quickly spot out-of-place fibers, specks of suspicious powders, faint bloodstains and fingerprints, and whisk the samples back to the labs for analysis.

Gabor Patonay/Georgia State University Watch Your Step! Invisible under ordinary viewing conditions, trace quantities of blood in boot prints are revealed by using a fluorescent-dye method. In no time, these smooth operators interrogate the materials collected at the crime scene with the latest microscopy and spectroscopy tools. And then, before the next commercial break or certainly before the episode ends, the agents identify the case-solving substance and come up with three-dimensional molecular structures of the material, not to mention the name and

photograph of the crime's perpetrator. Real forensic scientists also work with tiny fibers, faint bloodstains, and other types of samples collected at crime scenes. Unfortunately, the real McCoys don't always come up with the telling pieces of analytical chemistry data needed to solve crimes as quickly as their unusually efficient TV counterparts. To help speed things up and otherwise increase investigators' ability to secure key forensic evidence, scientists seek to improve methods for collecting and analyzing crime scene samples. A number of scientists from academia and law enforcement agencies discussed their latest efforts earlier this month at a forensics symposium at Pittcon in New Orleans. As attendees filed into the session, they inadvertently transferred microscopic fibers from the hallway carpeting, their hotel rooms, and their clothing to the symposium room. And as they moved about the room greeting colleagues and settling into their seats, they unintentionally


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picked up fibers from the room and their friends, and they eventually carried those tiny fibers elsewhere. THAT TYPE of material transfer between two things that come in contact is at the heart of forensics trace analysis, explained JoAnn Buscaglia, a research scientist at the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory in Quantico, Va. She noted that material transfer as a result of contact, which is known as the Locard exchange principle and is attributed to the French forensic scientist Edmond Locard, isn't limited to the exchange of fibers. Perpetrators readily deposit telltale human and pet hair, blood and fingerprint residues, and other types of materials at a crime scene. And unwittingly, they collect those same types of materials from the vicinity of a crime or from the victim and carry them away when they leave the scene. Chemist Stephen L. Morgan of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, pointed out that exactly that type of fiber and hair transfer helped convict Wayne Williams in the early 1980s of a string of murders carried out in Atlanta. In that case, various types of fibers and hair collected from Williams' home, pet, and automobile carpeting were judged to be "consistent" with fibers found on the victims. Analyzing fibers from crime scenes isn't new, but Morgan and coworkers are trying to push the capabilities of fiber analysis to give forensic examiners the ability to discriminate between fibers that may not yield to other types of analyses. His latest efforts focus on extracting and analyzing fiber dyes. According to Morgan, experienced fiber examiners can typically distinguish between fibers made from cotton and acrylic, for example, on the basis of the fibers' characteristic shapes and appearances, simply by examining the fibers with an ordinary optical microscope. Polarized light microscopy can often be used to differentiate among nylon, polyester, and other polymers by comparing the materials' refractive indexes. To further distinguish among various types of fibers, specialists sometimes use other methods, such as ultraviolet-visible micro-spectrophotometry and infrared spectroscopy. In some cases, however, even with these types of analyses, examiners may be unable to determine, for example,

whether two similar-looking blue nylon fibers come from the same source. Typically, commercial textiles are dyed with a mixture of materials. The composition of the mixtures differs from manufacturer to manufacturer and could be exploited to distinguish similar dyes. But dye formulations are difficult to analyze spectroscopically. Mitch Jacoby/C&EN Handy Tool Bartick finds Ahura Scientific's portable Raman spectrometer to be a powerful analytical tool. So Morgan's research group has developed a microscale procedure through which picogram quantities of materials used to dye acrylic, cotton, nylon, and


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polyester fibers are extracted, separated into their components, and then analyzed via capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry. A limitation of the CE-MS method is that it destroys the sample; however, it can be used to analyze minuscule fibers measuring just 1-2 mm in length and 15 μm in diameter. Morgan reported that the technique has been used to generate diagnostic "fingerprints" of numerous test samples but has not yet been put through the paces in real forensics cases. BEFORE RETIRING from the FBI, Edward G. Bartick worked plenty of forensics cases. These days, he directs the Forensic Science Program at Suffolk University, Boston, where his law enforcement background shapes the way he conducts research. As a case in point, Bartick recently evaluated Ahura Scientific's handheld Raman spectrometer to determine not just the instrument's analytical capabilities but, "more important, its limitations." A handheld analytical device could be ideal for analyzing suspicious materials in bombings and illicit drug cases, he said. But first, the validity and reliability of new analytical tools and methods need to be tested rigorously so that the results will stand up in court. After conducting systematic tests identifying a variety of polymers and explosives, Bartick concluded that the instrument performed admirably when used properly. For example, by comparing measured spectra with data in a built-in library, the Ahura spectrometer correctly identified most pure polymers and explosives. In many cases, it differentiated among copolymers and mixtures with similar compositions. Bartick and coworkers obtained those results when working in indoor lighting and indirect outdoor lighting. Direct sunlight, however, typically causes a strong interference similar to fluorescence, which often masks the analytical signal and prevents correct sample identification. Fluorescence tends not to bother Gabor Patonay. Rather it forms the basis of a method he developed with Lucjan Strekowski and Maged M. Henary at Georgia State University, Atlanta, to make invisible bloodstains boldly stand out. Crime scene investigators widely use fluorescein-type dyes to search for trace residues of blood. A reaction between the dye molecule and blood or other biomaterials oxidizes the dye to a fluorescent form, which then shows its colors when irradiated with a suitable light source. Although such methods are used by many law enforcement agencies, they have drawbacks, Patonay noted. For example, the dye solution has a short shelf life and needs to be prepared on-site. And after spraying the solution at the crime scene, investigators have just a short period of time to study and photograph the prints before they are buried in the growing background fluorescence. To sidestep these problems and others, Patonay and coworkers reformulated the fluorescein dye solution. In contrast to the conventional aqueous alkaline medium, the team developed an acidic alcohol-based dye solution that has a long shelf life. As Patonay explained, rapid evaporation of the alcohol freezes the dye chemistry in place and thereby leads to high-contrast fluorescent prints that remain bold and easily distinguishable from the surrounding area for hours. Patonay noted that the novel dye solution, which is available as a forensics kit from his company KPS Technologies, can also be used to locate non-bloody fingerprints and minuscule quantities of other biomaterials left behind at crime scenes.


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With vast audiences captivated by exciting forensic science as depicted on "CSI," its spin-offs, and other shows with related themes, today's college students who might otherwise have never thought about studying science might be inclined to take a course or two in chemistry. Nice hypothesis, but can it be true? "Definitely," Patonay said. "In the past few years, I've certainly noticed an increased interest in forensics especially among undergrads." Some of them even directly acknowledge the role played by the TV programs in raising their interest, he said. College students don't have a monopoly on enthusiasm for forensics, Morgan stressed. "The general populace has a heightened interest in science." That's not surprising given that these kinds of shows portray science in a positive light, he added. One downside to the flattering attention, in Morgan's view, is that people now expect that analytical chemists can solve crimes and other complex problems during a three-minute commercial break, just as they do on TV. Real chemists can't always come up with solutions quite that fast. But they're working on it. http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/86/8612cover3.html


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Engineers Test Highly Accurate Face Recognition By Bryan Gardiner, 03.24.08

Yang's facial-recognition algorithm can correctly determine the true identity of an individual even the image is corrupted or occluded. Courtesy Allen Yang

You can take off that ninja mask now. A new facial-recognition algorithm created by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is able to recognize faces with 90-95 percent accuracy, even if the eyes, nose and mouth are obscured.

"Most algorithms use what's known as meaningful facial features to recognize people -- things like the eyes, nose and mouth," says Allen Yang, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley's College of Engineering who developed the new algorithm. "But that's incredibly limiting because you're only looking at pixels from a designated portion of the face and those pixels end up being much smaller than the whole image. Our algorithm shows that you only need to randomly select pixels from anywhere on the face. If you select enough of them, you can produce extremely high accuracy."

Yang's new algorithm, which was created with the help of a team of researchers at UIUC, could mark a quantum leap in face-recognition technology. Current feature-based systems have accuracy that tops out at 65 percent when some form of occlusion is introduced. They also


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require relatively high-resolution images, and can easily be fooled by changing small details such as adding a mustache, donning a hood or changing one's expression.

The secret sauce in Yang's new method is a mathematical technique for solving linear equations with sparse entries called, appropriately enough, sparse representation. While all other facial-recognition algorithms tend to compare a given feature set against all others in a database (generating percentages of likeliness along the way), Yang's algorithm ignores all but the most compelling match from one subject -- basically, its most confident choice.

"It sounds like a simple idea, but by enforcing that one extra constraint you can suddenly see a huge boost in the performance," Yang says.

As Shankar Sastry, the dean of UC Berkeley's College of Engineering, notes, Yang's new facial-detection method also renders years of research in the field obsolete.

"The academic community is really upset," he says. "It sounds terrible. You don't care what features you choose? It flies in the face of many years of research."

Nevertheless, the new technique could pave the way for completely new models for online advertising, new ways of annotating video and still images, and new techniques for monitoring and identifying people in public places.

Yang says he's already been approached by one startup (which he wouldn't name) interested in adopting this technique for what he calls "pre-annotation." For instance, this technology could automatically add family members' names to each image in a massive photo library, Yang says, saving you the trouble of flipping through thousands of photos to find that one of Uncle Bill.

It's also easy to imagine search engines like Google being interested in automatically recognizing the faces of the humans portrayed in publicly available photos, adding the image data to the textual information surrounding those photos to produce yet another dimension for targeting advertisements. Looking at a party photo of Johnny Depp on a fan site? Google could display advertisements for Sweeney Todd.

This new technique is also bound to raise a series of red flags for privacy advocates, since what Yang has developed is a highly accurate way of recognizing people even with occlusion or distortion.

With more and more cities, retailers and employers deploying security cameras in public places, it's only a matter of time before face-recognition technology like Yang's gets added to these cameras. Then the question will be not just who is watching you -- but whether they know exactly who you are.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/03/new_face_recognition


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'JIHAD ON OUR DOORSTEP'

German Spy Chief Warns of Al-Qaida's Growing Strength in North Africa

March 25, 2008

SPIEGEL talks to Ernst Uhrlau, the president of Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the BND, about the risk of attack by Islamist terrorists in Germany, how German Muslims are training in camps in Afghanistan and the risk from al-Qaida in North Africa.

Ernst Uhrlau is president of Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the BND.

The fight against Islamist terrorism is becoming increasingly globalized as intelligence agencies around the world cooperate and share information. One of the major nodes in that network is Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), which is based in Pullach in Bavaria.

Together with Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the BND keeps an eye on the activities of Muslim extremists in Germany and abroad. Although there has never been a major Islamist terror attack in Germany, a number of Islamist plots have been hatched in the country -- the most famous of which being the 9/11 attacks, which were partly planned by a terror cell in Hamburg.

In recent years, there have been two major plots to carry out attacks in Germany, both of which failed for different reasons. In 2006, two Lebanese men -- popularly known as the "suitcase bombers" -- tried to detonate bombs on trains in Germany. The plan failed when the bombs failed to explode, due to flaws in their construction.

Then in 2007, German authorities foiled a plot by a three-strong terror cell in the Sauerland region. The men, two of whom were German converts to Islam, had planned to target US Army bases and airports in Germany. The conspiracy, which was uncovered after a months-long


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surveillance operation by the German authorities, sparked fears that the kind of "home-grown" terrorism seen in the United Kingdom had spread to Germany.

SPIEGEL talked to Ernst Uhrlau, head of the BND, about the fight against Islamist terror, the dangers posed by converts to Islam and how marginalization of Muslims can lead to radicalization.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Uhrlau, last September three Islamists were arrested in the village of Oberschledorn in the Sauerland region. They were in the process of storing explosives for use in a number of potentially devastating attacks. Six years after Sep. 11, 2001, are terrorists now taking aim at Germany?

Uhrlau: We are part of a broad European danger zone. Militant Islamists have already planned attacks seven times. According to information obtained by Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office, we must now assume that it is highly likely that further attacks are planned. We are worried that in the future we will not be able to prevent all the operations.

SPIEGEL: What role does Germany play in the terrorists' strategy?

Uhrlau: On the one hand, we are a target for attack by Islamist terrorists. One example is the Cologne suitcase bombers -- two Lebanese men who deposited homemade explosive devices in German regional trains in the summer of 2006. The fact that the device didn't explode was apparently due to mistakes the men had made in assembling the bombs. On the other hand, we are also a place where terrorists prepare attacks they intend to carry out in other countries. For example, the so-called Meliani Group used Frankfurt as a base in 2000 when it planned an attack on a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France.

SPIEGEL: Where did these terrorists come from?

Uhrlau: They were North Africans who had been living in Germany for a long time. In this context, we are watching the activities of al-Qaida in North Africa with great concern. A handful of groups have become ensconced there, largely unobserved, and are strengthening (terrorist leader Osama) bin Laden's terrorist network. What is evolving there brings a completely new quality to the jihad on our doorstep.

SPIEGEL: How much influence have the al-Qaida network and Osama bin Laden's propaganda had on potential terrorists in Germany so far?

Uhrlau: The Meliani Group had no connection to al-Qaida. But the preparations for Sep. 11, 2001 bear the handwriting of bin Laden and al-Qaida. The attacks against America were


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orchestrated from the Hamburg cell run by Ramzi Binalshibh and Mohamed Atta, and that was a direct connection to al-Qaida.

Uhrlau told SPIEGEL he was concerned about al-Qaida activities in North Africa. Here a still from a video shows one of the suicide bombers responsible for attacks in Algeria in April 2007 which killed at least 23 people. Al-Qaida's branch in North Africa claimed responsibility for the attacks.

SPIEGEL: Did the suitcase bombers and the explosives makers arrested in Oberschledorn receive instructions from someone outside Germany?

Uhrlau: No, there was no connection to bin Laden. But this sort of remote control isn't even necessary. Even a small, independent group can prepare and carry out extremely serious attacks. Obtaining the necessary materials, like the explosives and the triggers, is relatively easy.

SPIEGEL: The Oberschledorn group consisted of a Turk and two Germans who had converted to Islam. Which of them was the dominant force?

Uhrlau: The Germans were the leaders. They were true fanatics.

SPIEGEL: Are religious converts especially dangerous?

Uhrlau: Most converts are peaceful people who have discovered Islam as part of a personal search for meaning. But converts that end up in extremist circles often have a tendency -- just like political renegades -- toward absolute intolerance and a high degree of radicalism. This makes them especially valuable for militant Islamic networks.

SPIEGEL: How many converts are there who are prepared to use violence?

Uhrlau: We are talking here about two or three dozen people who the intelligence agencies are keeping a close eye on. Where do they travel? Who do they meet? Which mosques do they attend? Is the imam in whom they confide a recognized religious scholar? Or are we dealing with backyard mosques, with sheiks and imams who preach violence, as was the case with the Al-Quds mosque in Hamburg's St. Georg neighborhood frequented by Mohamed Atta and his accomplices?


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SPIEGEL: How do intelligence officials become aware of these people? They must have been noticed in some way before they could be placed under observation.

Uhrlau: In the case of converts, the police and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution are often tipped off by people close to the converts, sometimes from teachers and fellow students who have noticed unusual changes in young people. For instance, a group of German high-school students suddenly announced that they wanted to become Muslims and join the jihad. They were quite serious, not just showing off.

'We Are on the Side of the Hated Americans'

SPIEGEL: According to a survey conducted by Germany's Allensbach Institute in 2006, 98 percent of Germans associate Islam with violence and terrorism. Many of the more than 3.5 million Muslims living in Germany feel that they are under general suspicion as a result of this attitude. The constant warnings about terrorism, like the ones you have given here, only reinforce the mistrust.

Uhrlau: The generalization that Islam and Muslims are dangerous does indeed tend to have more of an alienating and radicalizing effect than a de-escalating effect. But the truth is that we have a very broadly diversified Islam in Germany. The Muslims in Germany come from many nations. There are Turks, Iranians and Arabs, but also Asians from the Far East. Besides, there are various branches of Islam: Sunnis, who make up the majority, Shiites, most of Iranian extraction, as well as Alevis, who are primarily from Turkey.

SPIEGEL: Is this differentiation relevant for the intelligence agencies?

Uhrlau: We have to pay closer attention when it comes to the Sunnis. Who is a follower of Wahhabism, for example? This is an especially radical interpretation of the faith, which originated in Saudi Arabia, a country allied with the West. On the other hand, many see Iran, a Shiite theocracy, and its controversial nuclear program under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a threat to world peace. And yet Iran does not play a significant role in our threat analysis relating to jihad terrorism. To the best of our knowledge, the Shiites are not receptive to al-Qaida's way of thinking.

SPIEGEL: But isn't it risky to rule out possibilities like this?

Uhrlau: Given the dimensions of the potential threat, if you believe that everything is possible then you can no longer use the tools of observation and information-gathering in a targeted manner. Based on my past experience working for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, I know that not all left-wing extremists are terrorists, for example. Differentiation is crucial to targeted information gathering.


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SPIEGEL: The Office for the Protection of the Constitution focuses primarily on Turkish organizations within the Islamist scene in Germany.

Al-Qaida recently released an audio message from Osama bin Laden threatening Europe.

Uhrlau: Turkish Islam traditionally plays an important role for the domestic intelligence agencies. Milli Görüs, the largest Islamist organization in Germany with about 26,000 members, is under observation. With its extremist worldview, it poses a threat to our constitutional democratic order. But it is not an organization that preaches violence. Germany's 2.5 million Muslims of Turkish origin come from a secular country that is strongly oriented toward the West, a country where militant

fundamentalist movements are relatively insignificant -- unlike Lebanon, say, where the radical Hezbollah has many supporters.

SPIEGEL: Does this mean that we should be pleased that the Turkish variety of Islamism is so strong in our country?

Uhrlau: At least we don't have the kinds of problems that the United Kingdom and France are facing because of their colonial past. The Pakistani Muslims in England and the North African Muslims in France come from countries in which Islamist beliefs and violence play a more important role in parties and movements than in Germany. This is also reflected among the immigrant population.

SPIEGEL: Your counterparts in Paris and London are concerned about so-called home-grown terrorism. Is this something that we also have in Germany?

Uhrlau: The arrests in Oberschledorn are evidence that we also have this phenomenon in Germany. Even though many of the potential terrorists were born and grew up in Europe and do not stand out, they feel marginalized. As a reaction to this, the second or third generation of immigrants reverts much more strongly to its roots. In the process, religious belief becomes decisive. A process of isolation begins that leads to a parallel society. They are convinced that they must defend their own religion and values against the majority Western society.


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SPIEGEL: Feeling misunderstood and wanting to defend your faith is one thing, but wanting to killing "infidels" is another.

Uhrlau: A fanatic prepared to commit violence sees himself as part of the ummah, the Muslim community of believers. He perceives any attack on his fellow Muslims -- be it by the Israelis in the Gaza Strips or by the Americans in Iraq -- as an attack on himself and his religion. Someone like this is an easy target for jihad or al-Qaida propaganda and can be recruited for the holy war against the "infidels."

SPIEGEL: Did the refusal of the Social Democratic and Green Party coalition government under former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to take part in the Iraq war reduce the risk of attack in Germany? Will a stronger German military presence in Afghanistan increase it?

Uhrlau: Jihad is triggered by current political developments. The jihadists do not reward us for having stayed out of the Iraq war. And whether we increase our presence in Afghanistan is irrelevant for the Islamists. As far as they are concerned, Germany is already not a neutral country. We are on the side of the hated Americans and we traditionally support Israel, which they consider a "Zionist entity."

SPIEGEL: How large is the army of jihadists in Germany?

Uhrlau: We estimate that there are a few hundred extremists who are prepared to commit acts of violence. Up to 700 people are under various levels of observation by German intelligence and security agencies. Most of them live in our midst. A small proportion of these people, however, stand out by being frequent travelers. We currently know that more than a dozen people, including converts, have traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan in recent years, where they seek contact with like-minded people.

SPIEGEL: So you simply allow these potential terrorists to go about their business?

Uhrlau: As long as there is no concrete evidence that they are making preparations for attacks, we have no other choice. But we do attempt to monitor their movements and determine their destinations. Not all of them are potential bombers -- some are traveling as couriers. The Islamists are very familiar with the technical possibilities which the intelligence agencies have at their disposal. Hence important messages are delivered in person.

SPIEGEL: Can you prove direct contacts to al-Qaida?

Uhrlau: We follow them into the inaccessible tribal areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan...

SPIEGEL: ...where al-Qaida's terrorist training camps are located...


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Uhrlau: ... and we try to find out what they are doing there and with whom they are meeting. A lot of information is due to intensive cooperation with intelligence agencies in countries through which these suspects pass on their way to the Hindu Kush region. Some are briefly detained and questioned for other offences on their way back. But the fact that we are on their tail doesn't really deter them. They continue undaunted. This doesn't necessarily have to lead to the construction of a bomb. Some specialize in propaganda, in recruiting other activists or in conveying information.

'The Challenge Posed by Islamist Terrorism is Global'

SPIEGEL: What role does the Internet play in all this?

Uhrlau: One that we must not underestimate. The Internet is where ideas for attacks are dreamed up, where terrorist know-how is made accessible to the public and where concrete operation plans are shared. This takes place in hidden chat rooms and Web sites, some of which are elaborately protected. Some of these dead letter boxes are so well protected by encryption algorithms that even intelligence agencies need years to crack them.

SPIEGEL: But in that case, online surveillance, which has provoked so much controversy in Germany, doesn't help you much either.

Uhrlau: It would indeed help us, by enabling us to penetrate the secure forums more easily.

SPIEGEL: What is the importance of these forums for the terrorists?

Uhrlau: The ones that are relatively harmless campaign for jihad are filled with hate and propaganda and inflame their visitors with attack videos and emotional music. The militant forums show examples of successful attacks and films of terrorists who became martyrs by committing an attack. They also provide instructions for mass murder. They describe in detail, for example, how to set up an explosive vest so that it causes the greatest possible destruction.

SPIEGEL: The Cologne suitcase bombers also downloaded the instructions for how to make their bombs from the Internet.

Uhrlau: Luckily, some things don't always work in practice the way the terrorists imagined they would. Is it possible in Germany to test a home-made bomb to see if it works? Not really. This is why some travel to the training camps in Afghanistan or look for test sites in North African training camps.

SPIEGEL: How close are the BND and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution agents to these individuals? Do you work with Muslim informers or undercover agents?


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Uhrlau: That's a sensitive area. Intelligence agencies should never reveal how good their connections are. But naturally we use connections to Muslim organizations in order to identify changes and processes of radicalization at an early stage.

SPIEGEL: Despite all their efforts, however, the intelligence agencies still haven't managed to truly penetrate into the Islamist groups.

Uhrlau: On the contrary, they do gain access to extremist circles, as the success of the Oberschledorn operation demonstrated. We had information about these people at a very early stage, when we were told that two close friends of the two German converts were being trained in Pakistani terror camps. This information was received before an observation team working for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution observed members of this group, on New Year's Eve 2006, possibly scouting out an American military barracks as a target for an attack.

SPIEGEL: This example suggests that various agencies are working closely together.

Uhrlau: With the Joint Counterterrorism Center (GTAZ) in Berlin's Treptow district, which was established in 2004 and includes the BND and 36 other agencies, we created a well-functioning system of communication and cooperation that allows us to detect and prevent terrorist activities early on, and to support the criminal prosecution agencies. The constant presence of representatives of the German states and the various federal agencies, including the Office of the Federal Prosecutor, has led to an extraordinary professionalization of the German security and intelligence community.

SPIEGEL: What exactly does that mean?

Uhrlau: Take, for example, the case that was just described, in which two people believed to be German citizens were arrested in Pakistan. The report was also sent to the GTAZ. There, information was compared: What sort of people were they? Where did they live? Who has further information about them? Are they in contact with others who are already on file somewhere? We exchange this sort of information with the other institutions. That way we make sure that no agency keeps its information to itself.

SPIEGEL: Do you also pass on information you have obtained from your partner intelligence agencies in other countries?

Uhrlau: The challenge posed by Islamist terrorism is global. That's why our cooperation must also be international. This works well. The success in Oberschledorn last September, for example, was the result of broad international cooperation between German and American intelligence agencies, as well as with Turkish agencies.


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SPIEGEL: And how willing to help are intelligence agencies in Muslim countries?

Uhrlau: We are in regular contact. I travel a great deal within the wide Islamic crisis zone, from Morocco to the Arabian Peninsula and to the northern part of the Persian Gulf.

SPIEGEL: And are you welcome everywhere in the Middle East?

Uhrlau: We are dealing with very varied forms of government in this region. But there is a mutual interest not to allow the terrorists to succeed.

SPIEGEL: Despite everything, isn't the prevention of an attack still a matter of luck?

Uhrlau: Yes, luck is part of it. But the chances improve when we proceed systematically and know our trade.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Uhrlau, thank you for this interview.

Interview conducted by Norbert F. Pötzl and Dieter Bednarz. Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,543129,00.html


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By BRET STEPHENS

How al Qaeda Will Perish March 25, 2008; Page A22 Do minors require their parents' consent to become suicide bombers? Believe it or not, this is the subject of an illuminating and bitter debate among the leading theoreticians of global jihad, with consequences that could be far-reaching.

On March 6, Al-Sahab, the media arm of al Qaeda, released a 46-minute video statement1 titled "They Lied: Now Is the Time to Fight." The speaker is Mustafa Ahmed Muhammad Uthman Abu-al-Yazid, 52, an Egyptian who runs al Qaeda's operations in Afghanistan, and the speech is in most respects the usual mix of earthly grievances, heavenly promises and militant exhortations. It's also an urgent call for recruits.

"We call on the fathers and mothers not to become a barrier between their children and paradise," says Abu-Al-Yazid. "If they disagree who should first join the jihad to go to paradise, let them compete, meaning the fathers and the children. . . . Also, we say to the Muslim wives, do not be a barrier between your husbands and paradise." Elsewhere in the message, he makes a "special call to the scholars and students seeking knowledge. . . . The jihad arenas are in dire need of your knowledge and the doors are open before you to bring about the virtue of teaching and jihad."

These particular appeals are no accident. Last year, imprisoned Egyptian radical Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, a.k.a. "Dr. Fadl," published "The Document of Right Guidance for Jihad Activity in Egypt and the World." It is a systematic refutation of al Qaeda's theology and methods, which is all the more extraordinary considering the source. Sayyed Imam, 57, was the first "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, many of whose members (including his longtime associate Ayman al-Zawahiri) later merged with Osama bin Laden and his minions to become al Qaeda. His 1988 book, "Foundations of Preparation for Holy War," is widely considered the bible of Salafist jihadis.

Now he has recanted his former views. "The alternative" to violent jihadism, he says in an interview with the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat (translated by Memri), "is not to kill civilians, foreigners and tourists, destroy property and commit aggression against the lives and property of those who are inviolable under the pretext of jihad. All of this is forbidden."

Sayyed Imam is emphatic on the subject of the moral obligations of the would-be jihadist. "One who lacks the resources [to fight jihad] is forbidden to acquire money through forbidden means, like [burglary]," he says, adding that "Allah does not accept martyrdom as atonement for a

GLOBAL VIEW


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mujahid's debts." As for a child's obligations toward his parents, he adds that "it is not permitted to go out to fight jihad without the permission of both parents . . . because acting rightly with one's parents is an individual obligation, and they have rights over their sons."

"This has become pandemic in our times," he adds in a pointedly non-theological aside. "We find parents who only learn that their son has gone to fight jihad after his picture is published in the newspapers as a fatality or a prisoner."

These "Revisions," as Sayyed Imam's book is widely known in Arab intellectual circles, elicited a harsh and immediate response from unreconstructed jihadists. "What kind of guidance does the 'Document' offer?" asked al Qaeda commander Abu Yahyha Al-Libi in a March 9 Internet posting. "Is it guidance that tells the mujahadeen and the Muslims: 'Restrain yourselves and [allow] us [Arab regimes] to shed your blood'?"

Even more sarcastic was Zawahiri himself. "Do they now have fax machines in Egyptian jail cells?" he asked. "I wonder if they're connected to the same line as the electric-shock machines." Zawahiri then penned a 215-page rebuttal to Sayyed Imam, whom he accuses of serving "the interests of the Crusader-Zionist alliance with the Arab leaders."

The gravamen of the hardliners' case against Sayyed Imam is that he has capitulated (either through force or persuasion) to the demands of his captors, and has become, in effect, their stooge. The suspicion seems partly borne out by Sayyed Imam's conspicuous renunciation of any desire to overthrow the Egyptian regime. One Turkish commentator, Dogu Ergil, notes that "in prison many jihadist inmates were encouraged by the Interior Ministry and security apparatus to engage in religious dialogue with clerics from al-Azhar," a Sunni religious university overseen by the state. Mr. Ergil calls this part of a deliberate "counter-radicalization program" by the Egyptian government.

But whatever Sayyed Imam's motives, it is the neuralgic response by his erstwhile fellow travelers that matters most. There really is a broad rethink sweeping the Muslim world about the practical utility -- and moral defensibility -- of terrorism, particularly since al Qaeda began targeting fellow Sunni Muslims, as it did with the 2005 suicide bombings of three hotels in Amman, Jordan. Al Qaeda knows this. Osama bin Laden is no longer quite the folk hero he was in 2001. Reports of al Qaeda's torture chambers in Iraq have also percolated through Arab consciousness, replacing, to some extent, the images of Abu Ghraib. Even among Saudis, a recent survey by Terror Free Tomorrow finds that "less than one in ten Saudis have a favorable opinion of Al Qaeda, and 88 percent approve the Saudi military and police pursuing Al Qaeda fighters."

No less significant is that the rejection of al Qaeda is not a liberal phenomenon, in the sense that it represents a more tolerant mindset or a better opinion of the U.S. On the contrary, this is a revolt of the elders, whether among the tribal chiefs of Anbar province or Islamist godfathers like Sayyed Imam. They have seen through (or punctured) the al Qaeda mythology of standing for an older, supposedly truer form of Islam. Rather, they have come to know al Qaeda as


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fundamentally a radical movement -- the antithesis of the traditional social order represented by the local sovereign, the religious establishment, the head of the clan and, not least, the father who expects to know the whereabouts of his children.

It would be a delightful irony if militant Islam were ultimately undone by a conservative, Thermidor-style reaction. That may not be the kind of progress most of us imagined or hoped for. But it is progress of a kind.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120640588050061101.html


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Security

Iraq: Al-Qaeda 'enlisting widows as suicide bombers'

Baghdad, 21 March (AKI) - Al-Qaeda has decided to enlist widows to carry out suicide bombings in Iraq, according to a study by the Voices of Iraq news agency. During the last three months, six suicide attacks were carried out by women. A total 10 women have carried out suicide attacks in Iraq since April 2003 , according to statistics from the United States army.

As recently as Wednesday, a woman blew herself up in volatile Diyala province, killing five people. On Monday, a female suicide bomber blew herself up among a group of civilians in the holy Shia city of Karbala, killing 47 people and wounding 75 others. Police investigators established that the women were both middle-aged and recently widowed. The majority of female suicide bombers come from Anbar and Diyala provinces, the report said. "Al-Qaeda is active in those two provinces, and military operations that kill this organisation's elements are also active there," the report cited sociologist Fari al-Obedi as saying. "The majority of female bombers' motivations are getting revenge for a deceased husband or family member, or due to religious extremism," he said. The women are recruited and trained by men, but are much more effective, because police have not been searching women, the report noted. The fact that many are veiled will make searching them more difficult, it said. Mohammed Al-Askari, advisor to the Iraqi defence ministry , quoted by the report, attributed the phenomenon of female suicide bombers to "the reduction in al-Qaeda's influence in Iraq." They are used to "shame" men into Jihad, he said. "Interrogations revealed that most of these women are relatives of al-Qaeda elements," a senior Iraqi military official, Major General Qassim Atta was quoted as saying.


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"Preliminary investigations indicate that some women may not know that they will be used as suicide bombers," Atta said. A religious edict (fatwa) issued by several imams close to al-Qaeda state that women have the same rights as men to wage Jihad. http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1996297263


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Iraq Plus Five: What Went Right By Amir Taheri New York Post | Monday, March 24, 2008 JUDGING by the way much of the Western media is dealing with the Iraq War's fifth anniversary, we're still fighting the acrimonious debates of 2002 and early 2003. Focusing on the past, however, may prevent us from understanding what's happening in Iraq today and its effect on the broader region.

The war had three objectives:

* To dismantle the regime of terror created by Saddam Hussein and his Tikriti clan.

* To restore to the Iraqi people the power that the Tikritis had usurped.

* To help Iraqis build a new system that might, in time, become a model for other Muslim countries.

The first two objectives have been achieved. The Tikritis are gone. Iraqis have regained their usurped power and exercised it in two general elections and one referendum. The only useful debate, therefore, is whether or not the third objective has been achieved.

At first glance, it hasn't. Anyone watching on TV the frequent suicide attacks and car bombs, not to mention vigilante groups on the rampage, would not want this Iraq for a model.

Other facts also make new Iraq look unattractive. While over 1.5 million Iraqis returned home after Saddam Hussein fell, as many fled to neighboring countries after 2004. A further 2 million have become "displaced persons" inside Iraq.

Nevertheless, it's possible to argue that Iraq has achieved a measure of success in dealing with some basic problems that Muslim states, most of them post-colonial creations, have failed to solve for decades.

The first of these concerns legitimacy, an issue linked with that of the origin of power.

In traditional Muslim states, legitimacy is based on dynastic claims with a veneer of religious authority.

In the so-called republics, it's based on foundation myths, military coups d’état marketed as revolutions. The myths are then exploited to justify arbitrary rule by small, clan-based, military elites backed by brutal security services.


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In post-Saddam Iraq, however, the source of legitimacy is the people's will as expressed in free elections.

None of the political parties and certainly none of the scores of political figures that have emerged on the national scene since 2003 would claim legitimacy on the basis of divine mandate, mythical event or blood ties.

To people in more mature democracies, all this may sound trite. In a nation trying to come to terms with the modern world, it's a vital concern. The popular legitimacy of power in new Iraq is illustrated by the fact that it's the only Muslim state that didn't have its constitution written and imposed by a narrow ruling elite.

Iraq's constitution was made through a process that involved thousands of people in two years of consultation and debate, followed by closer scrutiny at an elected Constituent Assembly and, ultimately, a popular referendum. In that sense, all 11 million or so Iraqis who voted could be regarded as founding fathers and mothers of new Iraq.

Iraq's second achievement is the consensus it has developed over the exercise of power. New Iraq is the only Muslim country with a system of separation of powers and checks and balances.

In Iran, which like Iraq has a Shiite majority, a single individual, the "Supreme Guide," has unlimited powers over state institutions in the name of the "Hidden Imam."

In Turkey, an unelected National Security Council, dominated by the military, can transcend civilian authority and impose its choices.

In Syria, a "star chamber" dominated by the president, himself chosen in a one-candidate election, can annul decisions by the legislature and judiciary.

The third major problem that Iraq has started to tackle concerns the overconcentration of power as observed in almost all Muslim states. In Iran, even opening a private school in any of the 30 provinces requires approval from Tehran, ultimately from the "Supreme Guide" himself. In Syria, a permit to operate a taxi in Aleppo must be approved in Damascus. The term decentralization doesn't have a proper equivalent in Arabic, Persian or Turkish.

New Iraq, however, is designed with decentralization in mind. Over the next few years, with elected regional assemblies in place, Iraq will develop into a federal state, something unknown in the Muslim world.

The fourth issue that new Iraq is trying to tackle concerns ethnic and/or religious diversity. Almost all Muslim countries are home to a variety of ethnic and/or religious communities, often with long histories of mutual suspicion if not enmity.

The usual method is to ignore diversity.


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In Egypt, the Coptic minority, some 10 percent of the population, has no representation in the national parliament.

In Turkey, the state has long pretended that 15 million Kurds don't even exist. (They are called "Mountain Turks.")

In Iran, few Arabs, Kurds, Baluchis and Turkmen are found either in the parliament or in the higher echelons of power even though they account for 15 percent of the population. Iranian Sunni Muslims, some 12 percent of the population, are not allowed to have a single mosque in Tehran.

New Iraq offers a different model in which diversity is allowed full expression through power-sharing in a federal system.

Finally, Iraq is also trying to tackle the problem of sharing the country's wealth, especially oil.

In most oil-producing Muslim countries, the state has exclusive control over the industry and the sharing of the revenues. Often, this results in corruption and regional disparities.

In new Iraq, the regions are allocated shares proportionate to their demographic strength, while parliament has the final word on the national budget.

Iraq is tackling problems that most Muslim nations have ignored or failed to solve and already shows some signs of success.

To be sure, history isn't written in advance. New Iraq may still fail in its courageous attempt at developing an alternative to various forms of despotism that have dominated the region for centuries. Its friends may abandon it before its successes have been consolidated. Its enemies, working round-the-clock to make sure it does not develop into a rival model, may end up having the last laugh.

Now, however, as we mark the war's fifth anniversary, new Iraq, despite its many travails, appears to be on the right path.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=88B89881-0872-46E1-94CB-778A5475AE93


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Mic based on fly ear can pinpoint sounds David Robson, New Scientist Print Edition, 22 March 2008

IT MAY be inspired by a humble fly, but a sensor just a couple of centimetres in diameter could turn out to be the best microphone yet for pinpointing the source of a sound. The device could be added to hearing aids or mounted on autonomous robotic vehicles to locate cries for help during disaster relief efforts.

Humans detect slight differences in the timing of sound waves as they arrive at each eardrum and use this to reconstruct where a sound is coming from. However, the differences are only noticeable because our

eardrums are at least a few centimetres apart. In contrast, despite the small distance between its two eardrums, the parasitic fly Ormia ochracea can pinpoint a sound source far more accurately than humans.

Its secret is a chitin bridge that links the fly's eardrums (see Diagram). Because they are close together, the difference in the way the eardrums deform in response to the same sound wave is very slight. But as they deform, the bridge rocks like a see-saw, amplifying the tiny differences in the sound wave arriving at each ear and allowing the fly to detect them. "We call this the

rocking mode, and it helps to amplify the directional signals," says Miao Yu, an engineer at the University of Maryland in College Park.

Although scientists knew how sensitive Ormia's ears are (New Scientist, 7 April 2001, p 25) no one had managed to create a successful artificial mimic based on fly's ears. Now Yu has created a prototype "fly mic" just a couple of centimetres in diameter. It can pinpoint the angle of a sound's source eight times as precisely as a larger, commercially available microphone sensor.

The "eardrums" of her tiny mic are flat diaphragms made from a flexible polymer called polyamide, which moves even under very small vibrations. The bridge is a wafer of silicon


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dioxide. Yu's prototype also has an air-filled cavity surrounding the eardrums, which helps to transmit the sound waves from one drum to the other, as does the real fly. "In the past people ignored the effect of the cavity, but this helps to improve the fly's directional hearing," she says.

To detect the deformation of the eardrums, the mic's casing contains two fibre-optic cables, which shine light onto the drums and transmit the reflected light back to an optical sensor. As the eardrums deform, the pattern of reflected light changes. A computer uses these changes to calculate the angle the sound is coming from. Yu believes that using optical sensors has allowed her to eliminate the noise that plagued other systems.

She plans to shrink the device further and hopes it will be used in small airborne vehicles to find people in emergencies. The mic might also improve hearing aids, as precise directional information, combined with a sensor for different sounds, would help to filter out unwanted noise. "The dream is to have a device that could detect the acoustic landscape," says Daniel Robert of the University of Bristol, UK, who has studied the structure of the fly's ear.

http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/mg19726485.600


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Gizmag

NASA’s “instant” Wireless Video Surveillance System

NASA’s “instant” Wireless Video Surveillance System March 21, 2008 – NASA Dryden Flight Research Center now protects several of its unique aircraft at a satellite facility with an interesting high-tech wireless video surveillance system. Given 60 days to design, procure and deploy a security system from scratch, the security department turned to AgileMesh, a provider of rapidly deployable video surveillance, and Firetide, a developer of wireless mesh and access networks.

The AgileMesh/Firetide system secures a recently leased hangar that houses NASA’s SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) and DC-8 Airborne Laboratory aircraft, both of which are unique in the nation. The rapidly deployable, solar-powered, high-resolution wireless system transmits evidence-grade video from the perimeter of the hangar to the on-site security operations center. The video is monitored in real time; personnel patrolling the perimeter communicate with the operations center and can respond to incidents, such as an unauthorized entry, within seconds. “Our AgileMesh/Firetide system is an incredible ‘force multiplier’ for asset protection and employee safety,” said William Crews, chief of security at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. “My team’s role is not only to secure the research aircraft, which are high-dollar-value national assets, but also to ensure that the utmost attention to safety procedures is paid by all – be it employees, contractors or visitors. Without the system, I would need to hire six additional personnel to provide 24/7 monitoring. Now I can deliver the same level of security, with the benefit of a permanent video record, with limited staff.” The eight-camera system was set up in less than a day. Using embedded Firetide mesh technology, the AgileMesh units wirelessly transmit video signals to a head-end node located in the security operations center. The video is stored for 30 days for incident review and investigation, and has already provided information leading to improved enforcement of safety procedures. For example, such seemingly trivial oversight as not checking vehicles’ tires for debris before entering a flight line may lead to the loss of aircraft, if debris gets into an engine. The biggest deployment challenge came from the unexpected side: how to secure the AgileMesh units to the ground in the high desert, where winds can reach 60 miles per hour (20-gallon water containers, serving as anchors, did the trick).


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“The flexibility and rapid deployment of AgileMesh equipment lends itself well not only to emergency situations, but also to asset protection in highly sensitive locations, when time is of the essence,” said Joseph Stefan, president and chief executive officer of AgileMesh. “The unmatched throughput that Firetide mesh technology delivers is a great benefit to customers who need high-resolution real-time video for both situational awareness and evidentiary purposes.” The research center is currently deploying a fixed video surveillance system in and around the hangar. Once that system is in place, the AgileMesh units will be used for securing crash scene investigations and during special events, such as air shows at nearby Edwards Air Force Base. “This deployment for NASA by AgileMesh provides convincing testament to the superior technology and reliability of our mesh infrastructure,” said Bo Larsson, CEO of Firetide. “It also validates that real-time wireless video surveillance enabled by Firetide is both economical and practical, putting advanced technology and applications within reach of any agency, enterprise or organization seeking ways to better protect lives and material assets. We are proud to partner with AgileMesh to deliver rapid solutions to the challenges that our customers face.” http://www.gizmag.com/nasas-instant-wireless-video-surveillance-system/9028/


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Only 17 percent tribesmen favour armed jihad: survey March 21, 2008

LAHORE: Only 17 percent of tribesmen are in favour of armed jihad, while 57 percent believe that jihad entails studying the holy Quran, not fighting, and 50 percent believe Shariah can bring peace to the Tribal Areas. A survey conducted by a NGO Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme in the Tribal Areas revealed that 50 percent of the tribesmen were willing to allow political parties to function in their areas, BBC Urdu reported.

However, it shows that 44 percent are not ready to permit the activities of political parties. They fear that, with the arrival of political parties, the already volatile law and order situation will further aggravate.

The survey, which questioned 1,000 people - 150 each from the seven agencies that comprise the Tribal Areas - also showed that 68 percent of the tribals, including women, literate and illiterate people, were in favour of honour killings. However, CAMP head Naveed Shanwari admitted that he was unable to visit Bajur Agency and Waziristan because of the law and order situation, and had to settle for answers from tribesmen present at bus stands.

The survey revealed that the tribals appeared to be divided on whether their areas should be incorporated into the NWFP and showed that 83 percent of them believed that they should be allowed to carry weapons to ensure their safety.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\03\21\story_21-3-2008_pg1_5


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EurekAlert!

Risky teen behavior may not occur at home or school: but how to track? March 24, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS – How can researchers track where teens go when not in or near home or school to see if this movement has an impact on health-related behavior such as smoking or sexual activity" The answer is through that ubiquitous teen accessory – the cell phone.

In a paper published in the April issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine report on a pilot study which evaluated the feasibility of using global position system-enabled cell phones to track where 14- to 16-year-old girls spent their time.

“We didn’t know if the technology would work, if the kids would take the cell phones with them or would leave them at home. But they did carry the phones and the GPS data revealed that they were spending more time away from home, school and surrounding areas than anticipated. Learning that we were able to track their movement is important because previous studies which have looked at the effect of environment on teens have focused only on home, school and surrounding areas,” said Sarah Wiehe, M.D., M.P.H., an assistant professor of pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine and a Regenstrief Institute affiliated scientist.

“A person’s environment in some way influences or is at least associated with their health and health outcomes and in the case of adolescents their health behaviors. But we don’t have a great idea of why that association exists. What in the environment is contributing to behavior choices such as drug use" When tracked with GPS we know where the teens are and when they are there but we don’t know what they are doing. Now that we know that the technology works, that the girls took their phones with them, we need to learn the characteristics of the environments in which they find themselves,” she added.

This pilot study of the feasibility of GPS tracking to discern teen travel patterns was supported by the IU School of Medicine’s General Clinical Research Center’s Health Outcomes and Research Feasibility Fund. Based on the success of the initial project, the researchers have received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to enroll 160 urban teenage girls in a study to track their movements in spring, summer, fall and winter (to account for seasonal variations). They hope to learn much more about how teenage girls interact with their many environments in ways that impact health.

“We are at the tip of the iceberg seeing where and how teens spend time. As a doctor charged with keeping kids healthy, I am hoping our studies will result in interventions, perhaps something as simple as text messages encouraging healthy behavior or something we haven’t even thought of yet, that will encourage good choices,” said Dr. Wiehe, who is a pediatrician with the Wishard Health System.


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###

In addition to Dr. Wiehe, authors of the study are Shawn C. Hoch, M.S. and Jeffery S. Wilson, Ph.D. of the Department of Geography, School of Liberal Arts, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis; Gilbert C. Liu, M.D., M.S. and Aaron E. Carroll, M.D., M.S. of the IU School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute; and J. Dennis Fortenberry, M.D., M.S. of the IU School of Medicine.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/iu-rtb032408.php


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Saudi Arabia: Details of Project to Retrain the Kingdom's Imams Sunday 23 March 2008 By Abdulaziz al Shemary Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat- Saudi Arabia announced earlier this week a new plan to retrain 40,000 mosque imams in all regions on communication skills and the culture of dialogue. The King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue will carry out the training in cooperation with the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. The National Dialogue, which is a project that was launched in 2003 by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, is considered the largest project designed to achieve ideological change toward centrism and moderation and away from extremism and excess. This, in addition to broadening the base of dialogue among the various groups in Saudi society. This inclination toward the spread of the ethos of dialogue and centrism within Saudi society, which the King Abdulaziz Center is seeking to implement, falls within the framework of reinforcing the results of the first National Dialogue meeting, which stressed the centrist nature of Islam in terms of belief and Shari’a-related rules and highlighted its rejection of excess and extremism. The meeting emphasized that Islam does not accept disengagement from Sharia constants; that it differentiates between extremism and excess, and between adhering to the Sunnah [of Prophet Muhammad] and committing to it. This, in addition to the realization that dissimilarity, ideological diversity, and a multiplicity of creeds are a reality that we see in our daily lives and a part of human nature, in which we must invest by establishing the base for a strategy for conduct in the fields of preaching, guidance, and dialogue. In coordination with the King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue, government bodies in Saudi Arabia are seeking to spread an awareness of the importance of national unity and of the Sharia principles on which national unity is based, in addition to the pioneering role of science and of scholars in Saudi Arabia in ensuring national unity by permitting ideological diversity among the various groups of society, accepting others' opinions, projecting the central nature of Islam, and combating excess and extremism. In December 2007, Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif Bin Abdulaziz told the press that: "Mosque platforms are focusing on minor or outside issues at a time when the homeland and its citizens are suffering from major events that influence the fate of this homeland." He pointed out that: "This reflects incapacity and shortcomings. We must shift our focus to the greatest danger


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of all -- that is, deviation from religion and disobedience to those in charge." This step to retrain mosque imams falls within the framework of the ethos of dialogue in an effort to reinforce ideological security, which is no less important than other security measures in the field. Prince Naif said that: "Unfortunately, to date, efforts to deal with the ideological aspect have fallen short of the standard that we hoped for. This is because security measures alone are not sufficient. Ideological measures protect our youth and prevent deviant ideas from reaching their minds." He added: "Moreover, we are purifying these ideas, which are foreign to Islam yet which it is claimed are part and parcel of its teachings; in reality, Islam is innocent of such ideas and they damage it." He went on: "I am not the only one to say that. Scholars, rational thinking people, and all those who possess some kind of knowledge in Sharia-related fields, however limited, agree with me. These people were the first ones to work, and are still working, against Islam in an effort to further the goals of anti-Islamic parties. Thus, ideology-related efforts must be unique and distinct, and they must produce results on the ground." It is worth noting that the Saudi National Dialogue has completed six major discussions addressing sensitive and important issues. It has also produced a set of recommendations that were referred to the custodian of the two holy mosques. The seventh National Dialogue session is expected to begin in the Al-Qasim region on 21 April, and it will be addressing the topic of "Fields of Work and Employment: A Discussion between Society and Work Organizations." This session will be held with the participation of government officials from the Ministries of Labor and Civil Service and from the Human Resources Development Fund [HRDF], in addition to businessmen and businesswomen, intellectuals, students, and unemployed workers of both genders. http://www.asharqalawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=12187


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The Bombers Who Weren't By Michael Jacobson Washington Post, March 23, 2008 On Dec. 10, 2001, after completing his al-Qaeda training in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Sajid Badat returned home to Britain. Badat, a 22-year-old Muslim born in Gloucester, had an associate, a gangly man named Richard Reid, and the duo were now ready to carry out their mission: blowing up two separate aircraft traveling from Europe to the United States. Badat and Reid had been given identical explosive devices, specially designed to evade airport security and destroy an aircraft in mid-flight. On Dec. 22, Reid -- now infamous as the "shoe bomber" -- was jumped by his fellow passengers when he tried to light his device on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami. He got further than Badat, who simply bailed on the plot, leaving his dismantled bomb in his parents' house.

Badat is now serving a 13-year sentence in a British prison. He told prosecutors that he decided to "get away from danger and introduce some calm in his life."

Badat's case sheds some light on a rarely considered question: Why do some terrorists drop out? We rightly think of al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups as formidable foes, but the stories of would-be killers who bail give us some intriguing clues about fault lines that counterterrorism officials should exploit. The reasons for a change of heart can be strikingly prosaic: family, money, petty grievances. But they can also revolve around shaken ideology or lost faith in a group's leadership.

It's become a truism of counterterrorism that we must understand how and why individuals become jihadists in the first place. But almost nobody is studying the flip side of radicalization -- understanding those who leave terrorist organizations. We'd do well to start. Figuring out why individuals walk away from terrorist groups can help governments predict whether an individual -- or even a cell -- is likely to go through with a plot. Understanding the dropouts should also make it easier for governments to determine which terrorists might be induced to switch sides, help stop radicalization and craft messages that could peel away people already in terrorist organizations. The more we know about why terrorists bail, the better we can fight them.

So where to start? Despite al-Qaeda's reputation for ferocity and secrecy, plenty of wannabes wind up dropping out from it and its affiliates -- not just the hapless Badat.


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Consider the Sept. 11, 2001, plot. Even in Osama bin Laden's greatest triumph, not all of his recruiting efforts paid off. Two Saudis who were selected for the plot -- Mushabib al-Hamlan and Saud al-Rashid -- decided not to participate in the attacks after leaving the training camps in Afghanistan. And in the summer of 2001, Ziad Samir Jarrah, who became the hijacker pilot on United 93, agonized about whether to withdraw from the operation. In an emotional conversation, Ramzi Binalshibh -- the Hamburg-based liaison between the plotting cell and al-Qaeda's senior leadership in Afghanistan -- persuaded Jarrah to stay.

Al-Qaeda prides itself on its esprit de corps, but key members have turned against the group from its earliest days. These include Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl, a Sudanese radical who was one of al-Qaeda's first members and helped work (unsuccessfully) in the early 1990s to procure uranium for the organization; Essam al-Ridi, an Egyptian veteran of the 1980s jihad against the Soviets who later purchased an airplane in the United States to help ship Stinger missiles from Pakistan to Sudan; and L'Houssaine Kherchtou, a Moroccan who trained to serve as bin Laden's personal pilot. (All three became prosecution witnesses in the trial of the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998.)

Looking at al-Qaeda dropouts, some clear patterns emerge. Some left after becoming disillusioned with the group's tactics and strategy. Probably the unkindest cut from any former member was delivered by bin Laden's fourth son, Omar bin Laden, who had spent nearly five years living in Afghan training camps. After 9/11, Omar quit al-Qaeda, calling the attacks "craziness," according to the journalist Peter Bergen. "Those guys are dummies," bin Laden's son said. "They have destroyed everything, and for nothing. What did we get from Sept. 11?"

Another factor driving jihadists to drop out is a general lack of respect for the group's leadership. Ridi testified during the embassy bombings trial that he resented having to take battlefield orders during the Afghan jihad from bin Laden and others who lacked military experience. For Ridi, the final straw was a battle in which many jihadists died -- in his view needlessly -- thanks to inept leadership, but that al-Qaeda nonetheless declared a victory. Jarrah, the 9/11 pilot, felt cut out by ringleader Mohamed Atta's leadership style.

Another reason bad guys bail out is money. Like the rest of us, some terrorists see inadequate compensation as a sign of unfair treatment. Fadl, the Sudanese radical, fumed over his salary while al-Qaeda was based in Sudan and began embezzling funds -- stealing approximately $100,000 from bin Laden, according to his testimony in the embassy bombings case. (When bin Laden got wind of Fadl's theft, he ordered Fadl to repay the money; after forking over about $30,000, Fadl fled, fearing retribution.)

Don't forget the role of petty slights, either. Kherchtou grew bitter after a bin Laden aide turned down his request for $500 to cover the costs of his wife's Caesarean section -- and grew livid when al-Qaeda subsequently paid the expenses of a group of Egyptians sent to Yemen to renew their passports. "If I had a gun," Kherchtou later testified, "I would shoot [bin Laden] at that time."


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The final factor seems to be good old family ties. Terrorists who maintain contact with friends and family outside their cell or organization seem more likely to drop out. This may be why Atta forbade the 9/11 hijackers to contact their families to say goodbye. The wobbliest of the hijackers, Jarrah, resisted al-Qaeda calls to cut his ties with his fiancée in Germany and his family in Lebanon, souring his relationship with Atta, according to the 9/11 commission.

Something similar happened to two would-be 9/11 plotters, Rashid and Hamlan. Both men bailed out when they left the fanatical, insular atmosphere of the Afghan training camps and returned home to Saudi Arabia. After getting a visa to enter the United States, Hamlan contacted his family, despite clear al-Qaeda instructions to the contrary. He found out that his mother was ill and decided not to return to Afghanistan, despite intense pressure from his handlers. Hamlan later moved back in with his parents and returned to college. Similarly, Badat, the would-be shoe bomber, appears to have decided to abandon the plot once he returned to Britain and resumed contact with his family.

There's no obvious silver bullet here, of course. But the tales of the terrorists who weren't are of more than academic interest. Counterterrorism officials have spent a great deal of effort trying to understand the process of radicalization that turns ordinary people into killers. But strikingly little work has been done on the flip side of the coin: on the factors that can turn a fanatical would-be killer into a somewhat chastened citizen. We'd do well to spend some time trying to understand how Mr. Hyde turns back into Dr. Jekyll. It might help us beat back a rising tide of radicalization -- and win a war that is clearly not going well.

Michael Jacobson, a former staff member of the 9/11 commission, is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC06.php?CID=1144


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The Brain Drain… till when? Jamil Theyabi Al-Hayat 24/03/08 The study conducted by the Arab League on the Arab brain drain can only be described as "frightening" and "saddening." Frightening because all indicators point out to the "gloomy" future awaiting the Arab world, with all those brains we are in dire need of slipping away to work in other countries that benefit from them - at a time when they still lack recognition in their own homelands. And saddening because it confirms that the Arab world is still "unable" to absorb the ideas and innovations of such brains that the Western countries try to lure and rehabilitate with huge funds destined to this end. Saddening too, because our world is still "unable" to offer the appropriate environment for the ideas and innovations to flourish and for the competent brains to contribute to the development of their countries. The study indicates that the Arab brain drain has dramatically increased during the past years, with the annual migration of around 70,000 out of 300,000 Arab university graduates. The ensuing losses incurred by the Arab countries are estimated at $1.57 billion. The statistics of the organizations involved indicate that Arab countries contribute to 31% of the migration of competent people from developing countries. 50% of doctors, 23% of engineers, and 15% of scientists emigrate to Europe, the United States, and Canada. Also, 54% of Arab students abroad do not return home after completing their studies. Arab doctors constitute 34% of the active doctors in Britain, and three wealthy Western countries (the United States, Canada, Britain) draw around 75% of Arab emigrants. In addition, this study points out to a noticeable decrease in Arab migrants to the GCC countries: from 72% in 1975 to 31% in 1990, and between 25% and 29% in 2002, to the benefit of Asian labor force that constitutes today around two thirds of the labor pouring in to the Gulf countries. These figures and indicators undoubtedly substantiate the massive brain drain to the West, where development is boosted, whereas the Arab countries lag behind and come under compound losses, as all the sums they have spent on these youth in terms of education and health are lost. The Arab countries fail to harness these brains to boost national and regional development and even spend more funds to attract foreign competent people who would replace them in development projects even though they lack regional experience. Distinguished brains leave and succeed, while "rigid" minds stay, disrupt Arab life, and amplify bureaucracy. This poses an additional problem, particularly as fewer jobs are available for the


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ever-increasing "untalented and unskilled" labor force, which aggravates crises and increases poverty and unemployment. The containment of brains prompts emigration in search of better opportunities and a better life amid an ongoing pursuit of scientific research in an environment that encourages innovation and offers attractive financial and moral perquisites. Amid Arab rigidity and brain drain, the Arab reality will not change. Any competent, skilled and innovative person will keep searching for the adequate atmosphere that acknowledges his research and activities outside the borders of Arab countries. This perpetual brain drain threatening the future of Arab countries deserves to be reconsidered. Such brains must return to their homeland, or at least be taken advantage of through appropriate channels and mechanisms. The existing brains must be offered a motivating environment so that they give more, so that they are not faced with two choices: either accept reality (just like thousands of exceptional scientists) or accept the alluring offers of scientific centers in the West - i.e. with benefits pertaining to finance, nationality, and perquisites that one cannot even dream of in his "homeland," particularly with the decline of national values and the appearance of the "global village." Emigration will continue as long as there are some who still label as infidel and immoral those who disagree with them; as long as there are some who legitimize the bloodshed of those who disagree with them. http://english.daralhayat.com/opinion/OPED/03-2008/Article-20080324-e18a45a9-c0a8-10ed-017c-432435eac5e4/story.html


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The Haqqani Network and Cross-Border Terrorism in Afghanistan

03/24/2008 - By Imtiaz Ali (from Terrorism Monitor, March 24) - There has been an increase recently in alleged missile strikes inside Pakistani territory by U.S. forces operating across the border in Afghanistan. The attacks come at a time when there is a growing call in the United States for strikes on Pakistani territory to take out al-Qaeda safe havens believed to exist in the tribal agencies along the Afghan border. NATO military commanders in Kabul have time and again expressed their dissatisfaction with the performance of Pakistani security agencies in stopping the infiltration of armed Taliban groups like the “Haqqani Network” from Pakistan’s tribal areas into Afghanistan. Despite the fact that U.S. authorities have consistently expressed their respect for Pakistan’s sovereignty, they are simultaneously growing impatient with the growing strength

of the militants on the Pakistani side of the border. According to U.S. officials, the cross-border activities of these militants have a direct impact on U.S. operations in Afghanistan. Attack on Lwara Mundi A March 12 missile attack targeted a home in the town of Lwara Mundi in North Waziristan, killing two women and two children. Pakistan quickly registered a protest with the Coalition forces in Afghanistan, deploring what an official called “the killing of innocent people.” However, U.S.-led Coalition officials in Kabul said that the target of the precision-guided missile was a safe house of the Haqqani Network based in the border region of the North Waziristan agency (Daily Nation [Lahore], March 14). Just a day after Pakistan lodged its protest over the attack in Lwara Mundi, another missile attack on March 16 left as many as 20 killed, including a


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number of foreign fighters, when a house was targeted in Shahnawaz Kheil Doog village near Wana, the regional headquarters of South Waziristan. It is believed that the missiles were fired from two U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the belief that the house was being used as a training camp for terrorists (Daily Post [Lahore], March 14). Though a U.S. Central Command spokesman would only say the missiles were not fired by any military aircraft—Predator UAVs are operated by the CIA—U.S. forces took responsibility for the earlier “precision-guided ammunition strike” on Lwara Mundi but made it clear that the target was the Haqqani Network (Daily Mail [Islamabad], March 14; AFP, March 13; Reuters, March 17). A spokesman for Coalition forces in Afghanistan said that Pakistan was informed after the attack, not before. The spokesman made it clear that U.S. forces will respond in the future as well if they identify a threat from across the border in Pakistan’s tribal belt (Daily Times [Lahore], March 14). Though the Pakistani tribal region has been a center of concern since late 2001 when hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters took refuge there, the lawless belt between Pakistan and Afghanistan is now receiving attention for the growing activities of the Haqqani Network, a Taliban group which has been spearheading the insurgency against U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan. A Profile of the Haqqani Network The “Haqqani Network” is a group of militants led by Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son, Sirajuddin Haqqani. Jalaluddin, who is said to be in his late 70s, is a noted Taliban commander with a bounty on his head and a place on the U.S. most-wanted list. Jalaluddin Haqqani is considered to be the closest aide of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar and was a noted mujahideen commander in the 1980s resistance against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. He rose to prominence after playing a leading role in the defeat of Muhammad Najibullah’s communist forces in Khost in March 1991. After the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in 1995, the senior Haqqani joined the Taliban movement and rose to the top echelon of power in the regime. He remained a minister during the Taliban government and a top consultant to Mullah Omar. The senior Haqqani has rarely been seen in public since the collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001, when he is believed to have crossed into Pakistan’s Waziristan Tribal Agency to evade the advance of Coalition forces. There are continuous rumors that he is seriously ill or has even died. However, his son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, alias Khalifa, has not only filled the void created by the absence of his veteran jihadi father, but his well-organized group, known as the Haqqani Network, has emerged as the most dangerous and challenging foe for the Coalition forces in Afghanistan.


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The Haqqani Network is based in the Dande Darpa Khel village near Miramshah, headquarters of the North Waziristan Tribal Agency. The town is about 10 miles from the Afghan border. Sirajuddin, believed to be in his early thirties, has a $200,000 bounty on his head. He belongs to the Zadran tribe of Afghanistan, which also has roots on the Pakistani side of the border. Residents in Dande Darpa Khel say that the junior Haqqani grew up in this small and remote town of North Waziristan, once the operational headquarters of his father’s jihadist activities. It is said that he attended the now defunct religious seminary which his father founded in the early 1980s in the town of Bande Darpa Khel. Though he could not be considered a religious scholar, Sirajuddin certainly sharpened his jihad skills under the guidance of his father. Considered to be the leader of a new generation of Taliban militants on both sides of the border and a bridge between the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, NATO officials have recently declared him as one of the most dangerous Taliban commanders in the ongoing insurgency in Afghanistan (Los Angeles Times, March 14). He is suspected as the mastermind behind the deadly attack on Kabul's only five-star hotel last January, which left eight people killed, including three foreigners (Daily Times, March 4). A U.S. military spokesman at Bagram Air Base described Sirajuddin’s role in a series of devastating suicide bombings: “We believe him to be much more brutal and much more interested in attacking and killing civilians. He has no regard for human life, even those of his Afghan compatriots” (AP, February 21). The United States has offered a $200,000 bounty for Sirajuddin, who is expanding his operations from east Afghanistan into the central and southern regions. Sirajuddin has evaded capture several times despite attempts by Pakistani security forces to arrest him at his house and seminary in Miramshah in North Waziristan. In 2005 Pakistani officials raided his headquarters in Dande Darpa Khel, the religious seminary and residential compound used by his network. The raiding party seized huge caches of weapons and ammunitions but Sirajuddin again escaped arrest (Dawn [Karachi], September 15, 2005). Sirajuddin is also reported to have taken credit for a suicide-truck bombing in Khost on March 3 that killed two NATO soldiers and two Afghan civilians (Xinhua, March 13). The attack on a government building involved a truck loaded with explosives, drums of petrol, mines and gas cylinders. A Taliban videotape of the bombing was released on March 20, including a statement from the German-born suicide bomber, Cuneyt Ciftci—also known as Saad Abu Furkan—“The time has arrived to give sacrifices to Islam. Since we lack resources to fight the enemy, we will have to turn our bodies into bombs” (Newkerala.com, March 20).


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On the Pakistani side of the border, Sirajuddin’s influence has been growing as a “revered jihadist commander.” He strongly opposed Maulvi Nazir’s campaign against Uzbek and other foreign militants waged earlier this year by the militant tribal leader in South Waziristan (see Terrorism Monitor, January 11). He is reported to have played an important role in stopping the fighting between Maulvi Nazir’s tribal militia and Uzbek militants in Wana and the surrounding area in March last year. Sirajuddin took part in a tribal jirga, attempting to sort out differences between combatant foreigners and local militants, but the talks collapsed when Maulvi Nazir asked for the surrender of all foreign militants residing in the region bordering Afghanistan (Dawn, March 24, 2007). In late January, two arrested members of the Haqqani Network revealed that up to 200 suicide bombers had infiltrated into Pakistan’s cities in preparation for the current wave of bombings (Khabrain [Lahore], January 28). Two months ago, one of Sirajuddin’s most important commanders, Darim Sedgai, was reported killed after being ambushed by unknown gunmen in Pakistan, though spokesmen for the Haqqani Network claim that Sedgai is recovering from his wounds (The News [Karachi], January 28). Coalition forces in Kabul confirmed the killing of Sedgai, who was known as a powerful commander of the Haqqani Network, overseeing the manufacture and smuggling of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) into Afghanistan. These activities led U.S. forces to post a $50,000 reward for information leading to his death or arrest. A native of the North Waziristan agency, Sedgai was a follower of Jalaluddin Haqqani and fought under his command with the mujahideen in Afghanistan. Until his reported death in January, Sedgai was an important leader of the Haqqani Network and was considered to be a close friend of Sirajuddin Haqqani (Pajhwok Afghan News, January 28). Conclusion Afghan officials as well as Coalition forces in Kabul have cited Sirajuddin’s use of North Waziristan as operational headquarter for his alleged cross-border terrorist activities as one example of Pakistan’s inability to eliminate terrorist sanctuaries in its tribal areas. Though the Pakistan government regards these claims as baseless, it is known that two years ago Sirajuddin issued a circular urging militants to continue their “jihad” against the United States and the Karzai government “till the last drop of blood.” But in the same statement he pointed out that “fighting Pakistan does not conform to Taliban policy… those who [continue to wage] an undeclared war against Pakistan are neither our friends nor shall we allow them in our ranks” (Dawn, June 23, 2006). There are signs that this is no longer the policy of the Haqqani faction of


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the Taliban. As the Haqqani Network has risen to the first rank of the Taliban insurgency it can be expected that U.S.-led Coalition forces in Afghanistan will continue to target Sirajuddin Haqqani and the rest of the network leadership. With such strikes now occurring on Pakistani soil the Haqqanis are emerging as a serious domestic problem for Islamabad. How it chooses to deal with the Haqqani Network threat will provide a test case for Pakistan’s role in the ongoing war on terror. Imtiaz Ali is a Pakistan-based journalist working as a special correspondent for the Washington Post. http://www.jamestown.org/news_details.php?news_id=312


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Gizmag The unstoppable back-packable 6x6 SpyRobot

March 22, 2008 – The extremely robust 4WD Spybot from Macroswiss would no doubt be the most tenacious robot we’ve seen – it can swim and traverse almost any terrain with its 4WD flapper wheels and seems virtually unstoppable. The tiny Spybot has been so impressive that it has earned itself a combat role for the U.S Army Airborne Expeditionary Force (AAEF) and Macroswiss is working in concert with the U.S

Army Rapid Equipping Force (REF) in the development of a 6x6 SpyRobot with greatly improved payload capacity (it can also carry 4 times its own weight) which will also be back-packable to offer UGV capability at squad level.

The Macroswiss SpyRobot 6x6 will be an important new tool for the detection, recognition and identification of targets from a distance, using thermal and optic sensors as well as new generation sensors such as Synthetic Aperture Radar. With its greatly improved carrying capacity, who knows what else it might find itself carrying in the back streets of Baghdad, Mosul, Tikrit and other hotspots. It is known that several versions of the new 6x6 robot are being developed that will allow the

operator to manoeuvre and operate a variety of weapons and sensors. Urban reconnaissance, sensor delivery, search, sentry, perimeter, and force protection fully controlled by the soldier, including checking out a potential ambush sites and vulnerable points, are applications for this 5kg Unattended Ground Vehicle (UGV). Developments such as a planned autonomous "return


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home" function, and increased operating ranges and endurance, whilst maintaining as small and portable a UGV as possible are future design goals.

The Macroswiss SpyRobot 4WD system is capable of close target surveillance and reconnaissance, of high risk and difficult to access targets. Providing live imagery and audio information, on a multi terrain platform that can deliver a sensor capability where personnel cannot go. The micro robots have already shown their capability in defensive roles, mainly dealing with Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) in the UK, Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan. The Macroswiss

Micro 4WD SpyRobot which will be will be initially supplied, will come with a soldier worn control system to provide a UGV capability down to squad level, putting into the hands of fighting units the ability to carry out close target reconnaissance of a target pre assault and allowing the commander and soldiers to make informed decisions, by providing a preview of enclosed spaces (particularly in the urban environment), which will significantly increase their Situational Awareness (SA).

It is typically used in applications of a tactical scope such as reconnaissance of buildings, search and close examination of suspicious objects, vehicles, and sensor delivery. The small 1kg platform performs very well in broken terrain. It has the ability to operate in any orientation and it is so robust that it can be thrown 10 meters on to the target. The relatively high speed of the unit (10 km/h) also enables rapid exploration times both in structured urban environments and

in rural scenarios. Its small size and light weight puts UGV capability into the domain of fighting units operating without base vehicle support. http://www.gizmag.com/the-spyrobot-6x6-new-back-packable-unstoppable-ugv/9030/


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KEBABBLE

Turkey seeks a more modern Islam By Fazile Zahir, March 27, 2008 "We are not here as Turkish Muslims to put ourselves in the service of Islam, but to put Islam in the service of life." - Fethullah Gulen, Turkish Islamic scholar and writer FETHIYE, Turkey - The level of surprise with which the world's media greeted the news that Turkey's highest religious authority, the Diyanet, has instructed a commission of scholars to re-evaluate the Hadith (oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of the Prophet Mohammad) with respect to modern society, seems all out of proportion to the actual exercise the Ankara school is conducting. The Western media are of course keen to promote moderate versions of Islam, but the tradition of ijtihad (legal interpretation) is nothing new to Turkish religious thinkers. In 2006, the Diyanet had already started a process to filter the Hadith to delete misogynistic statements. This new project is an even more ambitious attempt to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith and has taken the theologically radical step of ignoring later conservative texts in favor of earlier more liberal ones and by being prepared to evaluate the sayings of the Prophet within a historical framework. The Turkish state has come to see the Hadith as having a negative influence on a society that is in a hurry to modernize and some scholars are convinced that it obscures the original values of Islam. Turkish Islam has always had a very different face and practice to Arab or African Islam for many reasons. Ottoman expansion forced Muslims to embrace and co-exist with Christian and other groups. This tradition of diversity allowed for the inclusive societal model, the millet system, a type of religious federalism. The empire was a melting pot, incorporating various ethnic and religious groups including Kurds, Croats, Asiatic tribes, Buddhists, Christians, Bektashi/Alevi and others. Through years of interaction, relations have softened between groups and Muslim ideals continually evolved. Turkish modernization began at least a century before Kemalism. In the 19th century, the Ottomans produced a new secular civil law, a constitution, a parliament in 1876, and Western-style schools and universities for both sexes. They also encouraged sophisticated intellectual debate. In 1895, Descartes' Discourse on Method was translated into Turkish under the auspices


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of the sultan. Many other Western classics, as well as the political debates of the day in Europe, became part of Ottoman intellectual life. All this was embraced not just by the secular young Turks, but also by more open-minded Islamists. Fethullah Gulen, a modern-day key reformist and Sufi thinker extends tolerance toward secularists and non-believers in Turkey and sees this approach as a way to revive the multi-culturalism of the Ottoman Empire. Prior to Islam, Turks were shamanistic and it was these pagan shamans who became the first proselytizing foot soldiers of Islam among the nomadic Turkish tribes, they were the Sufi order. Even at these early times, Turkish Muslims accepted and embraced the pre-Islamic traditions and combined them with their own in a form of Sufi mysticism. Turkey's Sufism has a non-literal and inclusive reading of religion and the Turkish understanding of Islam is very much punctuated by the tolerance of mystical poet Jalaladdin Rumi, love of Sufi poet Yunus Emre and reasonability of the Ottoman "saint" Haci Bektasi Veli. The main premise of this Turkish Islam is moderation, Sufi tradition is based on the philosophy that all creatures should be loved as God's physical reflection and objects of the Creator's own love. There is no place for enemies or "others" in this system. Gulen, Turkey's best-known and most modern Sufi philosopher, rejects the idea that a clash between the "East" and "West" is necessary, desirable or inevitable and frequently emphasizes that there should be freedom of worship and thought in Turkey. Religious scholars in Turkey are largely a different breed to their counterparts in other Muslim countries. Rather than being ulema (priests) or practical men like engineers and medical doctors as they are in Egypt and Pakistan, they are mostly writers, poets, academics and artists who are open-minded and keen to discuss new ideas. These writers are not didactic in their writings but rather narrative in style and eclectic in terms of their sources. As early as 1951, an American scholar of religion W C Smith made the following comment: "Whereas the Arab dream is of restoration, the modern Turks consciously talk of novelty." Others attribute Turkish moderation with the important role of the 25% of Alevi Muslims who practice a religion that is confessional and based on adoration, but which does not seek to conquer. It is a fusion form of Islam that considers a person's relationship with God to be relevant to the private sphere and which believes that women are equal to men. The tolerant approach of these people often referred to as "Islamic protestants", allows them to maintain both a Kemalist tradition and a progressive religious spirit alive within the Turkish population. Others see the growth of prosperity encouraging a relaxation of the religious laws. Economic stability and security give one the luxury of picking and choosing while defining a personal identity. Turkey has recently experienced previously unknown economic growth for 20 quarters consecutively. Islamic social movements represent the "coming out" of now wealthy and visible conservative business men anxious to combine their private religion with the roles they now have in the public sphere. They are keen for their values to be reflected in Turkey's new


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secular constitution and have been active in pushing forward human rights and freedom of expression in the headscarf debate that has gripped Turkey for the past six months. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party are now confidently in control of Turkey. Until this last election their power had previously been predicated on their "giving up" or "delaying" their "Islamic" demands on society in return for being allowed to govern. Now, with the huge electoral endorsement of 2007, they are moving forward with a program to allow Turkey more freedom of religious expression. The recent headscarf debate has been resolved in a typically Turkish way, the government changed the law so university students can attend wearing a scarf - but their teachers still can't. Even then only 30% of universities adhered to it and the rest carried on doing their own thing. Chaos did not ensue, there was some confusion and then the stoical Turkish people just get on with the new status quo, adapting as they always do to religious evolution without hardly creating a ripple in society. Turkey has the incredible capacity to do nothing less than recreate Islam, changing it from a religion whose rules must be obeyed, to one designed to serve the needs of people in a modern secular democracy. Fazile Zahir is of Turkish descent, born and brought up in London. She moved to live in Turkey in 2005 and has been writing full time since then. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JC27Ak01.html


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UN: End abuse of Afghan women Aunohita Mojumdar in Kabul, March 21, 2008

Violence against women in Afghanistan has reached "endemic" proportions, says one UN official [AP]

Jamila was married off when she was seven years old. Subjected to brutal beatings for nine years by her husband,

she approached her father-in-law for help. For this "shame," a family member shot her in the leg.

During a rare visit to her parental home, she sought a divorce. A jirga, or assembly of local elders who act as informal dispute-resolution mechanisms in the absence of a formal justice system in many parts of Afghanistan, rejected her plea and sent her back to her marital home.

Jamila, whose real name and location cannot be revealed for her own safety, was punished once again, this time by her father-in-law, who beat her, cut off one nostril, shaved her head and tied her with a rope before throwing her outside the house.

Andre Huber, the director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in Afghanistan, says mistreatment and abuse of women persists because cases such as Jamila's are rarely reported.

"Violence against women exists in every continent, every country and every culture, and Afghanistan makes no exception, but the problem here in Afghanistan is that most of the cases remain unreported due to the severe restrictions women face in seeking justice," he told Al Jazeera.

"Female victims are often denied equal access to justice because traditionally they rarely register cases themselves."


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'Endemic' violence

Even when women do manage to report the violence, the act of reporting may itself increase the abuse against them, either from family members, as in the case of Jamila, or from officials of the criminal justice system.

A United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem) report cites documented cases of women who were killed after returning home.

The UN says more Afghan girls are returning to school, but violence persists [AP]

"The initial violence is compounded by further violations of the victim as she approaches or comes into contact with different institutions of the State of community," the report stated.

"When the women or girls seek recourse from the government, they are further molested by the government representatives" and

"most of the time women who report incidents of violence to the police end up in prison themselves".

However, Jamila's case is different in that she actually divorced her husband, who is now serving a three-year jail sentence. Documentation of the violence against her, as well as a follow-up by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, made this possible.

Social, religious norms

An earlier report by the UN's Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) also found that the majority of women prisoners in Afghanistan were being held for violating social, behavioural and religious norms.

Christina Orguz, UNODC's country director, said that most of the "criminals" would have been considered and treated as victims elsewhere.

Najia Zewari, a senior national program officer at Unifem in Afghanistan, said there is a social intolerance towards women who do not belong to a family unit.

"Women are more vulnerable if they are not attached to a group, family or tribe," she said.


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She added that any intervention on the issue of violence against women needs to be sustainable. "We cannot create another monster by taking people out of the family."

Few options

The lack of representation of women in decision-making positions (only one cabinet minister is a woman and there are no vocal women in leadership positions), reinforces stereotypes that limit a woman's role to the household.

Women's rights advocates say this also engenders hostility to women who participate in civil society and public life.

Afghanistan has one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates [GALLO/GETTY]

Suzana Paklar, the head of Medica Mondiale, an NGO that provides support to women in war and crises zones, told Al Jazeera: "There is systematic oppression of women based on the deep-rooted belief that women have a lesser value."

A woman is perceived as an 'it' rather than a 'she,' Paklar said, adding that the

problem in addressing the issue of violence against women in Afghanistan is that "we don't have real options to offer women".

"There is nothing really functional as protection," she said.

The strong shame associated with a woman leaving her home, even if as a victim of abuse, makes reintegrating into society and family nearly impossible.

If she returns home, the victim may be killed. If she does not return home, it is likely she will face more violence as a result of being an 'unattached woman'.

Currently, Afghanistan has only short-stay provisions for emergency cases, most of which do not allow women to keep their children.

Matrix of repression

A recent editorial in the government-owned Kabul Times offered a stark reminder of the widespread acceptance of violence against women in Afghanistan. The editorial, which ran four


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days after International Women's Day on March 8, was titled "A few reasons for violence against women."

"We always condemn men who beat their wives or sisters … but overlook what some women do to invoke men's ire. To begin with, there are numerous obstinate, groggy, nagging, quarrelsome, stingy and arguing women in this country who disturb the peace in their families. When they get charged they go on and on till they provoke their husbands to beat them black and blue."

The apparent justification of violence against women was written by Abdul Haq, the English-language newspaper's editor-in-chief. The acting editor, S. Ghiassi, told Al Jazeera that Haq could not comment on the issue because he was ill and hospitalised.

Root causes

A Unifem study, based on a primary database of violence covering 21 districts over a year-and-a-half during which 1,011 cases were registered, found that most of the cases of violence were a result of forced marriages.

Afghan women celebrate International Women's Day [AP]

The report also stated that the incidence of forced marriages is as high as 70 to 80 per cent, while 57 per cent of marriages are estimated to be before the legal age of 16.

The widespread prevalence of child marriage compelled Hamid Karzai, the nation's president, to publicly address this issue on International Women's Day, calling on religious elders to end

this practice and the social custom of giving away girls as a means of settling disputes and debts.

Afghanistan also suffers one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates - one woman dies every 29 minutes during child birth – and a female literacy rate that stands at 15.8 per cent, nearly half that of men.

Campaign for change

Several groups, including the SDC, the governments of Norway and Italy, and the UN are fighting violence against women by setting up a trust fund for projects that raise legal aid awareness, provide psychosocial aid and build safe houses and shelters.


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As part of the initiative, Unifem and Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs opened its second referral centre in the northern Parwan province last week. The referral centre will ensure that women seeking help from authorities are not automatically arrested pending investigation.

Reports from the first referral centre indicate that the initiative has made some gains.

"Not one of the women who went there ended up in custody," Zaweri said. The next step, Unifem and its partners said, will be the introduction of specific legislation for the elimination of violence against women.

A draft of the proposed law has been sent to the Ministry of Justice for review. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9B2DAD0F-5DE8-4450-84C5-1B378B458B24.htm

IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICES: BOOKLET OF RELATED READINGS 18

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