Tentacles of terror, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Tentacles of terror

By B Raman

December 31 2009

The recent attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airline, which was part of a wider conspiracy orchestrated from Yemen, clearly shows that the Obama Administration now faces a two-front war against Al Qaeda: One in the AfPak region and the other in the Yemen-Saudi axis

According to the NEFA Foundation of the US, a non-Governmental organisation created following 9/11 to track Islamic terrorism, Al Qaeda's network in Yemen has issued an official communiqué claiming responsibility for the failed terrorist bomb plot targeting a Delta/Northwest airliner travelling from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas day. The communiqué included original photographs of would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab grinning in front of an Al Qaeda banner. The group acknowledged that the device had failed to properly detonate, but promised that it would "continue on this path until we achieve success." The statement also congratulated Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Malik Hasan and urged fellow Muslims to follow his footsteps and kill American soldiers.

According to the same foundation, Al Qaeda's network in Yemen has issued an official response to the airstrike earlier this week on a suspected Al Qaeda gathering in the region of Shabwah that reportedly killed up to 30 people, including a number of senior Al Qaeda operatives.

The group threatened that it would not allow "the slaughter of Muslim women and children to pass without taking vengeance for them, Allah willing. We call upon all Yemeni tribes... and the people of the Arabian Peninsula to confront the crusaders and their clients in the Arabian Peninsula by attacking military bases, embassies, intelligence agents, and naval fleets occupying the waters of the Arabian Peninsula."

http://newageislam.com/tentacles-of-terror/war-on-terror/d/2319

Jihad's mailed fist of fury, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Jihad's mailed fist of fury

B Raman

Aug 27, 2008

The e-mail put out before the Ahmedabad blasts was allegedly sent by the same Guru al-Hind. By the side of his signature at the bottom of the e-mail, the word 'al-Arbi' was written in capital letters. Al-Arbi means 'The Arab'. It also stands for Wednesday. It was taken to mean that the e-mail must have been signed by Guru al-Hind on the Wednesday preceding the blasts. In the latest e-mail, the reference to Guru al-Hind is not there -- neither in the e-mail ID nor at the bottom of the message. Instead, the e-mail is signed as al-Arbi in capital letters. The e-mail identity of the originator has also been changed as al-arbi-al-Hind. In this context, al-Arbi could mean only 'The Arab' and not Wednesday. Thus, the e-mail identity used means 'The Arab of India'. Why so since the Indian Mujahideen claims to be an organisation totally of Indian Muslims with no external links? Why is the sender of the e-mail projecting himself as 'The Arab'? Is it a reference to one of the two Indian Muslims operating from Saudi Arabia for many years?

http://newageislam.com/jihad-s-mailed-fist-of-fury/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/646

Pakistani jihadis in Taliban?, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Pakistani jihadis in Taliban?

Reports from Pakistan need to be looked at

By B Raman

After an unidentified jihadi group (about 200 strong) attacked a US-commanded outpost in the Kunnar-Nuristan area of East Afghanistan and forced its withdrawal on July 13,2008, Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, was reported to have stated as follows: "We're seeing a greater number of insurgents and foreign fighters flowing across the border with Pakistan, unmolested and unhindered. We simply must all do a better job of policing the border region and eliminating the safe havens, which serve today as launching pads for attacks on coalition forces. The group that launched the attack trained in safe havens in Pakistan. We see this threat accelerating, almost becoming a syndicate of different groups who heretofore had not worked closely together." (The News of Pakistan of July 17 and The Financial Times of London of July 18.)

In preparation for his visit to Washington, DC later this week, accompanied by Mr Asif Ali Zardari, the co-Chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), for talks with President George W Bush, Mr Yousef Raza Gilani, the Pakistani Prime Minister, was reported to have convened a special meeting with his senior officials to get himself briefed on the ground situation. Mr Zardari was also believed to be present.

http://newageislam.com/pakistani-jihadis-in-taliban?/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/276

Is it SIMI or Wahabis in garb of Indian Mujahideen?, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Is it SIMI or Wahabis in garb of Indian Mujahideen?

Pradeep Thakur,TNN

28 July 2008

The three strikes claimed by IM reveal the same objective and modus operandi as that of SIMI, he added. Raman, however, doesn’t rule out the existence of a homegrown outfit which had so far managed to skip the radar of the intelligence agencies.

"There may be some elements that did not come to notice in the past," he said.

Intelligence officials also don’t discount the possibility of Al-Umma, a TN-based outfit that was behind the 1998 Coimbatore blasts, and SIMI forming a pool of dedicated, homegrown terrorists. Al-Umma, also known to have a presence in Bangalore, shares the ideology of SIMI.

The serial blasts in UP courts raised suspicion that IM was nothing but a loose coalition of LeT and JeM that had intimidated the legal fraternity for the lawyers’ unwillingness to represent terror suspects.

http://newageislam.com/is-it-simi-or-wahabis-in-garb-of-indian-mujahideen?/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/326

We Are Sitting Targets: ISI has succeeded in Indianising the Jehad, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

We Are Sitting Targets: ISI has succeeded in Indianising the Jehad

By B Raman

29 July 2008

The blasts are ominous for India. They mark the success of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in its efforts to Indianise the jehad by creating Indian versions of organisations such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami. They are now manned increasingly, if not totally, by Indian Muslim recruits and are being projected as the Indian Mujahideen.

The Indianisation of the jehad serves the ISI in three ways: it could aggravate the communal divide; it keeps the jehad going with limited Pakistani involvement; and Islamabad escapes pressure from the US to act against the jehadi set-up in its own territory.

Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad are only the beginning of this process. There is a danger of the Indianised jehad spreading to other areas. If it succeeds, it would not only add to political instability, but would also come in the way of our attempts to compete with China.

The atmosphere of insecurity would also cause nervousness in the foreign business and investor community.

The growing jehadi terrorism is a bleeding ulcer. The solidarity of the jehadis is, however, not confronted by the solidarity of the political class and civil society. We are frittering away our resources and energy in divisive debates marked by partisan point scoring. A disunited political class, clueless in the face of terrorism, cannot provide leadership to the counterterrorism community, which has been lurching from one failure to another.

http://newageislam.com/we-are-sitting-targets--isi-has-succeeded-in-indianising-the-jehad/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/349