Input: I do not want to comment here on whether the American-led attack on Iraq was justified from the point of view of weapons of mass destruction or any other pre-war argument, but I can look at the post-war map of Western Asia.

Iraq

Western Asia


Input: Now that Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya are out, two and a half terrorist states remain: Iran, Syria and Lebanon, the latter being a Syrian colony.

Afghanistan

Iraq

Libya

Iran

Syria

Lebanon


Input: Perhaps Sudan should be added to the list.

Sudan


Input: As a result of the conquest of Afghanistan and Iraq, both Iran and Syria are now totally surrounded by territories unfriendly to them.

Afghanistan

Iraq

Iran

Syria


Input: Iran is encircled by Afghanistan, by the Gulf States, Iraq and the Moslem republics of the former Soviet Union.

Iran

Afghanistan

Iraq


Input: Syria is surrounded by Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Israel.

Syria

Turkey

Iraq

Jordan

Israel


Input: This is a significant strategic change and it applies strong pressure on the terrorist countries.


Input: It is not surprising that Iran is so active in trying to incite a Shiite uprising in Iraq.

Iran

Iraq


Input: I do not know if the American plan was actually to encircle both Iran and Syria, but that is the resulting situation.

Iran

Syria


Input: In my humble opinion, the number one danger to the world today is Iran and its regime.

Iran


Input: It definitely has ambitions to rule vast areas and to expand in all directions.


Input: It has an ideology which claims supremacy over Western culture.


Input: It is ruthless.


Input: It has proven that it can execute elaborate terrorist acts without leaving too many traces, using Iranian Embassies.


Input: It is clearly trying to develop nuclear weapons.


Input: Its so-called moderates and conservatives play their own virtuoso version of the "good-cop versus bad-cop" game.


Input: Iran sponsors Syrian terrorism, it is certainly behind much of the action in Iraq, it is fully funding the Hezbollah and, through it, the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad; it performed acts of terror at least in Europe and in South America and probably also in Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia and it truly leads a multi-national terror consortium, which includes, as minor players, Syria, Lebanon and certain Shiite elements in Iraq.

Iran

Iraq

Europe

Saudi Arabia

Syria

Lebanon

Iraq

Hezbollah

Hamas


Input: Nevertheless, most European countries still trade with Iran, try to appease it and refuse to read the clear signals.

Iran


Input: In order to win the war it is also necessary to dry the financial resources of the terror conglomerate.


Input: It is pointless to try to understand the subtle differences between the Sunni terror of Al Qaeda and Hamas and the Shiite terror of Hezbollah, Sadr and other Iranian-inspired enterprises.

Al Qaeda

Hamas

Hezbollah


Input: When it serves their business needs, all of them collaborate beautifully.


Input: It is crucial to stop Saudi and other financial support of the outer circle, which is the fertile breeding ground of terror.


Input: It is important to monitor all donations from the Western World to Islamic organizations, to monitor the finances of international relief organizations and to react with forceful economic measures to any small sign of financial aid to any of the three circles of terrorism.


Input: It is also important to act decisively against the campaign of lies and fabrications and to monitor those Western media who collaborate with it out of naivety, financial interests or ignorance.


Input: Above all, never surrender to terror.


Input: No one will ever know whether the recent elections in Spain would have yielded a different result, if not for the train bombings a few days earlier.

Spain


Input: But it really does not matter.


Input: What matters is that the terrorists believe that they caused the result and that they won by driving Spain out of Iraq.

Spain

Iraq


Input: The Spanish story will surely end up being extremely costly to other European countries, including France, who is now expelling inciting preachers and forbidding veils and including others who sent troops to Iraq.

France

Iraq


Input: In the long run, Spain itself will pay even more.

Spain


Input: Is the solution a democratic Arab world?


Input: If by democracy we mean free elections but also free press, free speech, a functioning judicial system, civil liberties, equality to women, free international travel, exposure to international media and ideas, laws against racial incitement and against defamation, and avoidance of lawless behavior regarding hospitals, places of worship and children, then yes, democracy is the solution.


Input: If democracy is just free elections, it is likely that the most fanatic regime will be elected, the one whose incitement and fabrications are the most inflammatory.


Input: We have seen it already in Algeria and, to a certain extent, in Turkey.

Algeria

Turkey


Input: It will happen again, if the ground is not prepared very carefully.


Input: On the other hand, a certain transition democracy, as in Jordan, may be a better temporary solution, paving the way for the real thing, perhaps in the same way that an immediate sudden democracy did not work in Russia and would not have worked in China.

Jordan

Russia

China


Input: I have no doubt that the civilized world will prevail.


Input: But the longer it takes us to understand the new landscape of this war, the more costly and painful the victory will be.


Input: Europe, more than any other region, is the key.

Europe


Input: Its understandable recoil from wars, following the horrors of World War II, may cost thousands of additional innocent lives, before the tide will turn."


Input: [ Karzai also has to deal with the stepped up rivalry between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan.

Karzai

India

Pakistan

Afghanistan


Input: Islamabad accuses New Delhi of using its consulates in Kandahar and Jalalabad to train Balochi insurgents who are active in Pakistani Balochistan.

Islamabad

New Delhi

Kandahar

Jalalabad

Balochistan


Input: Pakistani officials claim there are as many as 42 RAW agents based in Kandahar and another 12 in Jalalabad.

Kandahar

Jalalabad


Input: “There have no business being there unless they are undermining Pakistan,’’ says a Pakistani official.

Pakistan


Input: Both India and Afghanistan deny the claim.

India

Afghanistan


Input: ‘’Should Pakistan show us any evidence of an Indian hand using Afghan soil to work against our neighbours we will take it very seriously,” says Amrullah Saleh the head of Afghanistan ’s National Security Directorate. ]

Pakistan

us

Afghanistan

Amrullah Saleh

National Security Directorate


Input: Karzai, Musharraf new regional equations

Karzai

Musharraf


Input: KABUL:

KABUL


Input: For the past 25 years landlocked Afghanistan has suffered from constant interference from its neighbours - Pakistan, Iran and the Central Asian Republics - and regional powers -Russia and India.

Afghanistan

Pakistan

Iran

Russia

India


Input: The neighbours are still interfering, but there are signs that rather than undermining Afghanistan ’s stability they may now be trying to strengthen it.

Afghanistan


Input: “The elections should be a reassurance to all our neighbours that a stable Afghanistan, a peaceful Afghanistan is good for all.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan


Input: Nobody should feel a looser in Afghanistan,’’ President Hamid Karzai told Pakistan ’s English daily The Nation.

Afghanistan

Pakistan

Hamid Karzai

The Nation


Input: All the regional countries have publicly backed the Karzai government and supported the electoral process, but serious undercurrents remain as they all have their favourite contenders in Afghanistan.

Karzai

Afghanistan


Input: Since September 11, Pakistan has been repeatedly accused by Afghan and Western leaders of harbouring Taliban extremists who had pledged to disrupt the elections, but at the highest level the US has avoided criticising President Pervaiz Musharraf on the grounds that he is helping the US catch Al Qaeda elements inside Pakistan.

Pakistan

US

US

Pakistan

Taliban

Al Qaeda

Pervaiz Musharraf


Input: That changed on September 22 when President George W. Bush, Musharraf and Karzai held a three way meeting in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

George W. Bush

Musharraf

Karzai

New York

UN General Assembly


Input: The meeting was pushed together by the CIA and the US Defence Department who were desperately anxious to secure a peaceful election in Afghanistan and the non-interference of alleged Pakistani backed Taliban.

CIA

US Defence Department

Taliban

Afghanistan


Input: Western and Afghan diplomats intimately involved with the meeting, said Bush pushed Musharraf hard on reigning in the Taliban so the elections could take place peacefully.

Bush

Musharraf

Taliban


Input: ‘’Where are Mullah Omar, Mullah Usmani and Gulbuddin Hikmetar?’’

Mullah Omar

Mullah Usmani

Gulbuddin Hikmetar


Input: Bush is reported to have asked a flustered Musharraf.

Bush

Musharraf


Input: All three are extremist Taliban or their allies and known to be living in Pakistan.

Taliban

Pakistan


Input: (Mullah Omar is leader of the Taliban, Usmani is the former corps commander of Kandahar under the Taliban regime and now a commander of Taliban forces while Hikmetyar heads the extremist Hizb-e-Islami.)

Mullah Omar

Usmani

Hikmetyar

Taliban

Taliban

Taliban

Hizb-e-Islami

Kandahar


Input: ‘’It was the first time that Bush totally focused on the Taliban threat rather than Al Qaeda with the Pakistanis,’’ says a Western diplomat.

Bush

Taliban

Al Qaeda


Input: ‘’Bush was very well briefed before the meeting,’’ the diplomat said.

Bush


Input: An Afghan official at the meeting added, ‘’The Americans now realise that the Taliban are a bigger threat to our security than Al Qaeda.’’

Taliban

Al Qaeda


Input: Karzai was clearly pleased at the results.

Karzai


Input: ‘’President Musharraf promised to help us and cooperate with us on curbing terrorist activity by the Taliban,’’ says Karzai.

Musharraf

Karzai

Taliban


Input: The next day an angry Musharraf categorically said that Pakistan would not send Pakistani troops to Iraq, a clear snub to the Americans.

Musharraf

Pakistan

Iraq


Input: Until then he had said Pakistan ’s options were open.

Pakistan


Input: However Pakistani officials insist that the decision was unconnected to the tripartite meeting.


Input: US and NATO military officers in Kabul say it is too early to say whether Bush ’s tough message was instrumental in persuading Musharraf and the ISI to pressure the Taliban to restrain from disrupting the elections.

US

Kabul

NATO

ISI

Taliban

Bush

Musharraf


Input: However there were visible signs of a crackdown on the Pakistan side.

Pakistan


Input: ‘’Pakistan now has a large force deployed in Baluchistan which was not there before,’’ says Lt. General David Barno.

Pakistan

Baluchistan

David Barno


Input: ‘’There is much better tactical cooperation between our forces on both sides of the border, but the movement of Taliban still goes on both ways,’’ he adds.

Taliban


Input: Also several days before the elections Pakistan closed the border crossing point at Chaman in Baluchistan which is a key entry point for the Taliban into Afghanistan.

Pakistan

Chaman

Baluchistan

Afghanistan

Taliban


Input: However US military officers say regular army officers - many of them Pashtun - leading units of the Frontier Corps who are on the border remain deeply sympathetic to the Taliban and the mullahs of the JUI.

US

Frontier Corps

Taliban

JUI


Input: At the same time the US remains oblivious of the serious problems and political fallout which the army is facing in its operations in Waziristan.

US

Waziristan


Input: Not only is the army facing serious political fallout, growing anti-Americanism and anti-army feeling in the tribal areas but it is also taking heavy casualties -between 400-500 Pakistani soldiers have been killed in the region since March.


Input: Musharraf has always maintained that the US has never provided actionable intelligence about Taliban leaders hiding in Baluchistan.

Musharraf

US

Baluchistan

Taliban


Input: That too may change.


Input: US and Afghan intelligence will shortly be presenting the ISI with a list of Taliban extremists and their suspected whereabouts.

US

ISI

Taliban


Input: Moreover there are now major covert attempts under way to try and bring back to Kabul leading Taliban commanders, who have been living quietly in Pakistan and have taken no part in the Taliban insurgency.

Kabul

Pakistan

Taliban

Taliban


Input: With the Taliban failure to disrupt the Afghan elections, the militants are even more isolated from the mainstream Taliban who want to return home.

Taliban

Taliban


Input: Until now Pakistan has not facilitated such a return and clearly it can not happen until there is both a pull from Kabul and a push from Islamabad.

Pakistan

Kabul

Islamabad


Input: With President Karzai certain to win the elections and the demotion of key former Northern Alliance figures such as General Fahim and warlord Ismail Khan, there is now little reason for moderate Taliban leaders to fear reprisals from former Northern Alliance figures if they return home.

Karzai

Fahim

Ismail Khan

Northern Alliance

Taliban

Northern Alliance


Input: Their removal should also provide increased motivation for Pakistan to help the return of moderate Taliban.

Pakistan

Taliban


Input: Afghan officials welcomed the appointment on October 3 of Lt. General Ashfaq Kiyani as the new ISI chief.

Ashfaq Kiyani

ISI


Input: Kayani is well known and liked in Kabul as during the last year he led the Pakistani delegation in the tripartite military meetings with the Afghan and US military on issues related to border issues.

Kayani

Kabul

US


Input: Karzai also has to deal with the stepped up rivalry between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan.

Karzai

India

Pakistan

Afghanistan


Input: Islamabad accuses New Delhi of using its consulates in Kandahar and Jalalabad to train Balochi insurgents who are active in Pakistani Balochistan.

Islamabad

New Delhi

Kandahar

Jalalabad

Balochistan


Input: Pakistani officials claim there are as many as 42 RAW agents based in Kandahar and another 12 in Jalalabad.

Kandahar

Jalalabad


Input: “There have no business being there unless they are undermining Pakistan,’’ says a Pakistani official.

Pakistan


Input: Both India and Afghanistan deny the claim.

India

Afghanistan


Input: ‘’Should Pakistan show us any evidence of an Indian hand using Afghan soil to work against our neighbours we will take it very seriously,” says Amrullah Saleh the head of Afghanistan ’s National Security Directorate.

Pakistan

Afghanistan

Amrullah Saleh

National Security Directorate


Input: Karzai categorically said that he has assured Musharraf repeatedly that any adverse action against Pakistan taken by Indian diplomats inside Afghanistan would be acted upon swiftly.

Karzai

Musharraf

Pakistan

Afghanistan


Input: Senior US diplomats and military officials have warned India also.

US

India


Input: In a major regional shift reflecting the newly strengthened position of Karzai, Iran, Russia and India which have traditionally backed the Tajik dominated former Northern Alliance made strenuous efforts to convince presidential candidate Younis Qanooni to strike a deal with Karzai before the elections and not to oppose Karzai.

Karzai

Younis Qanooni

Karzai

Karzai

Iran

Russia

India

Northern Alliance


Input: Iran in particular feared that Qanooni would loose and then be politically isolated from the mainstream.

Iran

Qanooni


Input: Qanooni refused to accept the Iranian advice as his fellow Panjsheri Tajiks urged him to stand against Karzai.

Qanooni

Karzai


Input: However since the elections Iranian influence has proved critical in convincing the Hazara Shia candidate Mohammed Mohaqeq to accept the results of the elections and later convincing Qanooni to do the same.

Mohammed Mohaqeq

Qanooni


Input: With the US military presence posing a threat on their borders in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran ’s moderate leadership is keen to help stabilise Karzai so that the US presence in Afghanistan is reduced.

US

Iraq

Afghanistan

Iran

US

Afghanistan

Karzai


Input: However powerful hardliners in Tehran may be trying to undermine that strategy and a new issue is likely to deepen the rift with the moderates.

Tehran


Input: Iranian officials are deeply concerned about the US occupation of Shindand, a massive Soviet-era airbase just 30 kilometres from Iran ’s border.

US

Shindand

Iran


Input: The enhanced US presence in western Afghanistan was only made possible after the ousting of Ismail Khan, the warlord and Governor of Herat province last month, who was a close ally of Iranian hardliners.

US

Afghanistan

Herat province

Ismail Khan


Input: Iranian officials say they made no objections to Khan ’s ouster because they want to strengthen Karzai ’s campaign against warlords.

Khan

Karzai


Input: At a time of heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington over Iran ’s nuclear weapons program and calls by neo-conservatives in Washington that a second Bush term should deal with Iran aggressively, the Iranians fear that Shindand could be used as a listening post, spying facility and even a launching pad for any future US actions against Iran.

Tehran

Washington

Iran

Washington

Iran

Shindand

US

Iran

Bush


Input: Afghan officials say the Americans have moved over 100 Special Forces and helicopters to Shindand.

Shindand


Input: However General Barno insists the US presence poses no threat to Iran.

Barno

US

Iran


Input: ‘’We have a very small number of forces in Shindand with a few helicopters,’’ says Barno.

Shindand

Barno


Input: Nevertheless this places Karzai in a difficult and sensitive situation because he has to maintain excellent relations with both the US and Iran.

Karzai

US

Iran


Input: ‘’Afghanistan has had the benefit of cooperation from both the US and Iran.

Afghanistan

US

Iran


Input: So far what they have done together has been good for us and that ’s how we would like to keep it’’, says Karzai.

us

Karzai


Input: Nobody can claim that the interference of Afghanistan ’s neighbours is over, but the elections will do much to strengthen Karzai and deal more firmly with neighbours ’ interference.

Afghanistan

Karzai


Input: In the post election scenario it is becoming abundantly clear that the Taliban do not have the support of the Afghan people nor the Afghan Pashtuns.

Taliban


Input: In a highly significant move Afghan Pashtun tribes along the Pakistan border warned the Taliban in Quetta and Chaman that if they try and disrupt the elections, they would be resisted.

Pakistan

Quetta

Chaman

Taliban


Input: Many Taliban living in Afghanistan voted for President Karzai.

Taliban

Afghanistan

Karzai


Input: It is now abundantly clear that with the rapidly changing face of Afghanistan, the demise of key Northern Alliance figures and the fluid political situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan should reconsider its policy of giving unlimited sanctuary to Taliban extremists living on Pakistani soil.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Pakistan

Northern Alliance

Taliban


Input: Pakistan Link 16/10/2004

Pakistan Link


Input: Unreported by the international media, the Valley of Kashmir has seen an ethnic and cultural genocide that has resulted in the fleeing from the valley of almost all the Hindu families who have been living there since human habitation was first recorded.

Valley of Kashmir


Input: Over nine dozen temples that had served the Hindu population have been destroyed, with some used as building material and others as urinals.


Input: Thus far, none of the many "human rights" busybodies across the world have bothered to even notice such a development.


Input: Musharraf calls the bluff

Musharraf


Input: M.D. Nalapat


Input: While most U.S. secretaries of state -- save perhaps Dean Rusk -- have gobbled up credit for outcomes that they had little to do with, few have been as brazen as Colin Powell.

U.S.

Dean Rusk

Colin Powell


Input: Two years ago, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was surprised when the leader of the main Islamist alliance -- Maulana Fazlur Rahman -- visited India and issued a series of highly conciliatory statements.

Pervez Musharraf

Maulana Fazlur Rahman

India


Input: As Pakistan 's president had been telling the United States he was "forced" into taking a hawkish line on India precisely by the likes of Rahman, this was an embarrassment.

Pakistan

United States

India

Rahman


Input: The reality is that India is no longer the enemy of choice for the people of Pakistan.

India

Pakistan


Input: That distinction has now gone to the United States.

United States


Input: Realists, and this even includes members of the U.S. Democratic foreign policy establishment such as Strobe Talbott, who have long sought to divest India of its defensive capability against another nuclear power in Asia, understand the only feasible solution for Kashmir is the acceptance of the status quo.

U.S.

India

Asia

Kashmir

Strobe Talbott


Input: India keeps what it has while Pakistan and China (which was gifted a slice of the territory three decades ago) do likewise.

India

Pakistan

China


Input: Simultaneously, New Delhi would ensure a degree of autonomy for the state that would help cut popular support off from jihadis attempting to convert Kashmir into a second Afghanistan.

New Delhi

Kashmir

Afghanistan


Input: Bill Clinton understood this at the end of his term in office yet, under Colin Powell (who appears to have an affinity for generals active in politics), the pendulum of U.S. policy has once again swung toward a quixotic effort to prize at least the Valley of Kashmir loose from India.

Bill Clinton

Colin Powell

U.S.

Valley of Kashmir

India


Input: This, Pakistan 's lobbyist in Washington Christina Rocca has been told, is the "minimum" that the Pakistan army will accept.

Pakistan

Washington

Christina Rocca

Pakistan army


Input: It is also far more than what any administration in New Delhi can deliver.

New Delhi


Input: This writer has for years regarded the best solution to the Kashmir problem as being the trifurcation of the Indian part of the state into a Hindu-majority Jammu, a Buddhist-dominated Ladakh and the overwhelmingly Muslim Kashmir Valley, with the third state given little of taxpayers ' money but substantial autonomy.

Kashmir

Jammu

Ladakh

Kashmir Valley


Input: With luck, the Kashmir Valley can attract investment from the Middle East and other locations where Muslims are dominant and become a tourist, education and services haven within India.

Kashmir Valley

Middle East

India


Input: The overwhelming majority of Muslims in Kashmir would be happy with such an outcome, except for the tiny jihadi segment patronized by the U.S. State Department and the Pakistan Army, which would like to even the score with India for their catastrophic defeat in Bangladesh in 1971.

Kashmir

India

Bangladesh

U.S. State Department

Pakistan Army


Input: Unreported by the international media, the Valley of Kashmir has seen an ethnic and cultural genocide that has resulted in the fleeing from the valley of almost all the Hindu families who have been living there since human habitation was first recorded.

Valley of Kashmir


Input: Over nine dozen temples that had served the Hindu population have been destroyed, with some used as building material and others as urinals.


Input: Thus far, none of the many "human rights" busybodies across the world have bothered to even notice such a development.


Input: Indeed, their reports are filled with tales of the "atrocities" of Indian troops on the innocent jihadis.


Input: Despite Sept. 11, the United States still supports the Kashmir groups that back jihad as part of the price Washington is paying to keep Pervez Musharraf happy.

United States

Kashmir

Washington

Pervez Musharraf


Input: Unfortunately for them, the general has decided to take seriously Colin Powell 's frequent boasts that it was on his nudging that the Indians made conciliatory gestures toward Islamabad.

Colin Powell

Islamabad


Input: The U.S. State Department and the misnamed think tanks that follow its lead have held numerous conferences on Kashmir and, in most of them, the solution that has emerged is a valley prized loose from Indian control and under its own version of Ibrahim Rugova.

U.S. State Department

Kashmir

Ibrahim Rugova


Input: That India is not Yugoslavia and that the "foreigner-led" Indian National Congress can least afford to ignore Indian nationalism, has not struck the conferees, among whom have been several Indian "scholars" and "analysts" ready to say and endorse anything for the sake of a free trip to New York or Vienna.

India

Yugoslavia

New York

Vienna

Indian National Congress


Input: Despite many wrinkles, India remains a part-democracy and merely signing on to a piece of paper that calls for an independent Kashmir does not get you into the trouble that writing an op-ed piece against Sonia Gandhi or Atal Behari Vajpayee would instantly.

India

Kashmir

Sonia Gandhi

Atal Behari Vajpayee


Input: It was the business community in India that stepped in after Vajpayee indulged in an empty bout of saber rattling in 2002, pointing out that the only beneficiary of the mythical perception that war -- especially nuclear war -- was around the corner in the subcontinent was China.

India

China

Vajpayee


Input: The reason for this is that India is emerging as an alternative investment destination to China, hence the favor that the generals in Islamabad do to their trusty supplier of nukes and missiles by creating a scare about war involving India when in fact the real flashpoints are the Taiwan Straits and North Korea.

India

China

Islamabad

India

Taiwan Straits

North Korea


Input: Since then, India has talked peace while always signaling that only the status quo would be acceptable as a final settlement: a line of action that is followed in the case of disputes with China as well.

India

China


Input: Unfortunately for those eager to indefinitely carry on with the lucrative business of conflict resolution in South Asia, Pervez Musharraf has now called Colin Powell 's bluff, challenging him to deliver on his frequent statements implying that the Indians jump to his commands.

South Asia

Pervez Musharraf

Colin Powell


Input: Once the Manmohan Singh government shows that it has little appetite for suicide, Musharraf will face the moment of truth: accept the inevitable, or once again ramp up the insurgency and spawn a fresh lot of killers that can hit not merely Mumbai and New Delhi but London and Chicago as well.

Manmohan Singh

Musharraf

Mumbai

New Delhi

London

Chicago


Input: The one country that has shown that it understands the realities in South Asia is China.

South Asia

China


Input: Under President Hu Jintao, Beijing has opened out to New Delhi and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao is expected to visit early next year, making friends by formally accepting Sikkim as part of India and backing India as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council -- thus leaving Washington as the only one of the "permanent five" that has not yet done so.

Hu Jintao

Wen Jiabao

Beijing

New Delhi

Sikkim

India

India

Washington

U.N. Security Council


Input: With Colin Powell around, the U.S. has no need of an Osama bin Laden

Colin Powell

U.S.


Input: M.D. Nalapat, an expert on jihad, is professor of geopolitics at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India.

M.D. Nalapat

Manipal Academy of Higher Education

India


Input: Washington Times 28/10/2004

Washington Times


Input: Tamils feel that the proposed defense agreement between India and Sri Lanka would encourage Sinhala rulers to prepare for another war abandoning the current peace process

India

Sri Lanka


Input: But there are strong hints in the country that a new Indo-Sri Lanka defense deal could be in the making.

Sri Lanka


Input: And this has already drawn protests from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which was backed by the LTTE in the April general elections held in Sri Lanka.

Tamil National Alliance

TNA

LTTE

Sri Lanka


Input: Apart from the 1,200 Indian lives lost in 1987, the Indian peacekeeping force was immensely unpopular not only in Tamil Nadu and the Jaffna peninsula but also among the Sinhalese majority who considered it a violation of their country 's sovereignty.

Tamil Nadu

Jaffna peninsula


Input: India defensive over Sri Lanka

India


Input: By Ranjit Devraj


Input: NEW DELHI -

NEW DELHI


Input: While India is ready to enter into a "defense cooperation agreement" with Sri Lanka, it is wary of being drawn into any military involvement in the island nation 's two decades-old civil war that has seen violent strife between ethnic Tamils and the Sinhalese majority - leaving over 60,000 dead on both sides.

India

Sri Lanka


Input: And that explains the delay in the signing of a formal defense agreement that was at the heart of Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga 's four-day visit to India recently.

Chandrika Kumaratunga

India


Input: According to Professor S D Muni, South Asia expert at the Jawaharal Nehru University, the two-year peace talks between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are stalemated.

S D Muni

South Asia

Colombo

Jawaharal Nehru University

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

LTTE


Input: For that reason, he said, Kumaratunga 's government was keen to beef up military preparedness with Indian support.

Kumaratunga


Input: "The Sri Lankan government does not want to initiate a conflict but would be interested in deterring the LTTE from starting one.

LTTE


Input: And the Tigers look as if they are on the brink of launching another offensive," Muni told IPS.

Muni

IPS


Input: Colombo held six rounds of talks with the Tigers between September 2002 and March 2003.

Colombo


Input: But last April, the rebels abruptly pulled out of negotiations demanding recognition, first, for the right to self-rule before proceeding any further.


Input: Kumaratunga 's India tour preceded a three-day visit to Sri Lanka by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen in a new bid to revive the peace talks that were supposed to follow a ceasefire that Oslo successfully brokered in February 2002.

Kumaratunga

Jan Petersen

India

Sri Lanka

Oslo


Input: Petersen held discussions with both Kumaratunga and the reclusive LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in the rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi without success, and chief Tamil rebel negotiator Anton Balasingham and Norwegian envoy Erik Solheim held closed-door talks at the international airport late Saturday in an effort to keep the salvage effort on track, diplomatic sources said.

Petersen

Kumaratunga

Velupillai Prabhakaran

Anton Balasingham

Erik Solheim

LTTE

Kilinochchi


Input: But they, too, failed.


Input: Colombo, too, seems to be in an intractable position.

Colombo


Input: According to former Indian army general A S Kalkat, the difficulty for Kumaratunga 's government lay in the fact that the LTTE had become a de jure power in the north and east of the island and was running every aspect of civil administration in the areas within its control.

A S Kalkat

Kumaratunga

LTTE


Input: A veteran of India 's military intervention in the Jaffna peninsula to help implement the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord - which ambitiously provided for the disarming of the formidable LTTE - Kalkat said the new defense deal would essentially be a reiteration of the older one minus its military commitment.

India

Jaffna peninsula

Sri Lanka

LTTE

Kalkat


Input: Kalkat, who currently chairs the independent US-based International Council on Conflict Resolution, said despite the failure of the Indian army to disarm or even subdue the Tigers, India remained the only power capable of influencing the course of the current peace talks.

Kalkat

International Council on Conflict Resolution

India


Input: "The Norwegians mean well but their role is limited to that of honest broker and the LTTE is keenly aware that they do not have the power [unlike India] to underwrite any arrangement," Kalkat told IPS in an interview.

LTTE

IPS

India

Kalkat


Input: In 1987, the Tamil Tigers reluctantly accepted the peace accord under Indian pressure.

Tamil Tigers


Input: Under the accord, a new northeastern provincial council was formed and the Indian army was deployed as peacekeepers in the north and east.


Input: However, differences between India and LTTE soon surfaced and led to clashes between Tiger guerrillas and the Indian peace keeping force.

India

LTTE


Input: About 1,200 Indian soldiers were killed during this phase of the conflict.


Input: India had to pull back its forces from Sri Lanka in 1989 following the election of Ranasinghe Premadasa, a strong critic of Indian mediation.

India

Sri Lanka

Ranasinghe Premadasa


Input: Last June, an international initiative led by Japan to persuade the LTTE to come back to the negotiating table failed despite an aid package offer of US$4.5 billion.

Japan

LTTE


Input: Japan 's special envoy, Yasushi Akashi, who called for tangible progress in the peace process before the money would be released, came back from visits to Colombo and Kilinochchi in early November a frustrated man.

Japan

Colombo

Kilinochchi

Yasushi Akashi


Input: He complained about the "visible lack of progress" and reaching an impasse in talks with both sides.


Input: The Tigers ' chief ideologue, Balasingham, sniffed at the proposal saying that "a solution to the ethnic conflict can not be predetermined by the resolutions or declarations of donor conferences, but has to be negotiated by the parties in conflict without the constraints of external forces."

Balasingham


Input: But there are strong hints in the country that a new Indo-Sri Lanka defense deal could be in the making.

Sri Lanka


Input: And this has already drawn protests from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which was backed by the LTTE in the April general elections held in Sri Lanka.

Tamil National Alliance

TNA

LTTE

Sri Lanka


Input: "Tamils feel that the proposed defense agreement between India and Sri Lanka would encourage Sinhala rulers to prepare for another war abandoning the current peace process," TNA member of parliament P Sithamparanathan was quoted as saying in a statement.

India

Sri Lanka

TNA


Input: She added that recent visits to the island by India 's top military brass including army chief General Nirmal Chander Vij have "caused apprehension among Tamils that preparations are under way for another war in the island".

India

Nirmal Chander Vij


Input: But Kalkat pointed out that India would be ill-advised to be involved again, militarily, with Sri Lanka if only because it still had to consider the sentiments of 45 million ethnic Tamils in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu - separated from Sri Lanka 's Jaffna peninsula by the narrow Palk Straits.

Kalkat

India

Sri Lanka

Tamil Nadu

Sri Lanka

Jaffna peninsula

Palk Straits


Input: Apart from the 1,200 Indian lives lost in 1987, the Indian peacekeeping force was immensely unpopular not only in Tamil Nadu and the Jaffna peninsula but also among the Sinhalese majority who considered it a violation of their country 's sovereignty.

Tamil Nadu

Jaffna peninsula


Input: The best option, now, under the present difficult circumstances is for Colombo to do its own dirty work, although New Delhi can always be counted on to render good neighborly help because of the shared belief that religion, ethnicity and language can not be the basis for secession.

Colombo

New Delhi


Input: In any case, Kalkat puts it succinctly: "There can not be a military option to what is a political situation."

Kalkat


Input: Asia Times Online 16/11/2004

Asia Times Online


Input: + As the implications of the Andaman Islands situation sink in, Indian intelligence has inevitably come under scrutiny.

Andaman Islands


Input: In recent months, its fallibility has become evident.


Input: The inability to foresee in advance the assassination attempt on the pro-India political leader and former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed last August 21 at a political rally in Dhaka, and the recent "coup" by Nepalese King Gyanendra dismissing his government and imposing a virtual absolute monarchy, are glaring examples of intelligence failure. +

Sheikh Hasina Wazed

Gyanendra

Dhaka


Input: Trouble on India 's islands

India


Input: Ramtanu Maitra


Input: In early February, India charged 34 Arakan separatists from Myanmar with hiding in the Landfall Islands, part of the Andaman Islands group (see end note).

India

Myanmar

Landfall Islands

Andaman Islands


Input: These alleged members of the Arakan Army, the military wing of the National Unity Party in Myanmar, have been charged with illegal entry.

Arakan Army

National Unity Party

Myanmar


Input: It is likely, but not certain, that they will be deported to Myanmar.

Myanmar


Input: But the news of the Arakan rebels is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to growing concern in New Delhi over the security of the Andaman Islands.

New Delhi

Andaman Islands


Input: Reports are circulating in the intelligence community that the Andaman Islands are not only thick with Myanmar rebels.

Andaman Islands

Myanmar


Input: It has also become an arms depot of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who operate almost freely in the Andaman Sea.

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

LTTE

Andaman Sea


Input: Information pointing in this direction came to light after the December 26 tsunami, which took a heavy toll on the Andamans.

Andamans


Input: Correspondents who flocked in to cover the tsunami found they also had another story - the miserable security situation surrounding the Indian navy 's Far Eastern Naval Command, now being established along with India 's "blue water navy".

Indian navy

Far Eastern Naval Command

India


Input: Deteriorating security


Input: Security problems in the Andaman Sea are not new, but they have deteriorated during the past few years, in tandem with a deterioration in the security situation in Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, and particularly in the northeastern Indian states of Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura.

Andaman Sea

Bangladesh

Nepal

Bhutan

Manipur

Nagaland

Tripura


Input: While the Indian army has become rock-solid in the western front, and has developed the capability of withstanding any Pakistani adventure in that sector, it has become highly vulnerable in its eastern sector, where its enemy is not a national army but a multitude of secessionist, terrorist and drug-running militants operating between Southeast Asia and northeastern India through Bangladesh.

Southeast Asia

India

Bangladesh


Input: The Andaman Sea is a major conduit for this traffic, and the 572 large and small islands that constitute the Andaman and Nicobar group are a natural transit base.

Andaman Sea

Andaman

Nicobar


Input: The drugs and arms travel in all directions.


Input: Since the "Sea Tigers" of the LTTE, better known as the Tamil Tigers, are the ones who rule the Andaman Sea: they carry the arms and drugs for their own use and also to deliver to rebels in Aceh and all along the east coast of Africa.

Sea Tigers

LTTE

Tamil Tigers

Andaman Sea


Input: It is old news that the Tamil Tigers have developed a strong network within South Africa.

Tamil Tigers

South Africa


Input: This is not unknown to New Delhi.

New Delhi


Input: A recent report by a journalist from Port Blair, in the Andamans, quoted an unnamed official saying that foreigners from Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have permanently settled in the islands, using fake Indian ration cards, while citizens of Thailand, China, Indonesia and Malaysia have migrated temporarily to plunder the natural resources and leave.

Port Blair

Andamans

Myanmar

Bangladesh

Sri Lanka

Thailand

China

Indonesia

Malaysia


Input: "Port Blair, Havelock Islands, Diglipur, Middle Nicobar, Campbell 's Bay, Neil Islands and Rangott are mostly overrun by foreigners," he said.

Port Blair

Havelock Islands

Diglipur

Middle Nicobar

Campbell 's Bay

Neil Islands

Rangott


Input: An official estimate issued in 2003 suggests there are 50,000 "foreigners" in the Andaman Islands, but unofficial figures are much higher than this.

Andaman Islands


Input: A large number of them are Bangladeshis, who like millions of their countrymen have left their densely populated homeland to settle elsewhere.


Input: As most of them have few technical skills, and the Andamans have little demand for them in any case, they turn to smuggling and other unlawful activities.

Andamans


Input: The presence of the Sea Tigers in the area with guns, cash and drugs makes the situation extremely dangerous.

Sea Tigers


Input: Reports from Port Blair make it evident that New Delhi gets little on-the-ground intelligence, and the Indian Coast Guard is grossly unequipped to deal with the surge of illegal migrants to the islands.

Port Blair

New Delhi

Indian Coast Guard


Input: One unnamed naval officer was quoted saying, "Arms smuggling is a very profitable business in this region."


Input: Considering the islands ' huge strategic importance, it is amazing how lax New Delhi has been.

New Delhi


Input: These islands sit aside the vital sea lanes of the Strait of Malacca, through which 300 tankers and merchant ships pass daily, bringing in oil for the Far East and Southeast Asia.

Strait of Malacca

Southeast Asia


Input: Intelligence lapses


Input: As the implications of the Andaman Islands situation sink in, Indian intelligence has inevitably come under scrutiny.

Andaman Islands


Input: In recent months, its fallibility has become evident.


Input: The inability to foresee in advance the assassination attempt on the pro-India political leader and former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed last August 21 at a political rally in Dhaka, and the recent "coup" by Nepalese King Gyanendra dismissing his government and imposing a virtual absolute monarchy, are glaring examples of intelligence failure.

Sheikh Hasina Wazed

Gyanendra

Dhaka


Input: With growing economic and military power, India will be dependent on smaller nations in the region increasingly to maintain regional security.

India


Input: Unless New Delhi does better in providing security to its own nationals against rebels, secessionists, drug runners and arms traffickers, it will not generate much confidence in the capitals of surrounding nations.

New Delhi


Input: In fact, it would tend to encourage more organized anti-India outfits, such as the Pakistani Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI) and outside-linked Maoists, to exploit these networks and weaken India 's eastern flank.

ISI

India


Input: Indian intelligence 's lackluster performance in dealing with the LTTE is startling.

LTTE


Input: This formidable enemy, which gave the Indian army a black eye in the mid-1980s, has been operating in northeastern India and in the Andaman Sea for a long time.

India

Andaman Sea


Input: In 2001, according to Indian army officials, security forces launched a wide-ranging operation in the 300-some inhabited islands neighboring Andaman and Nicobar, and found huge caches of arms.

Andaman

Nicobar


Input: The arms were said to belong to the LTTE and "other terrorist groups".

LTTE


Input: The search-and-destroy operation was carried out by the Indian government after repeated requests from Colombo.


Input: In addition, LTTE activity in the Andaman Sea is well known to local observers.

LTTE

Andaman Sea


Input: The biggest LTTE maritime disaster was reported in the now-defunct Asiaweek in 2001.

LTTE

Asiaweek


Input: A shipment of weapons, ammunition and explosives, believed to have been purchased from Cambodia and worth several million dollars, left the port of Phuket in Thailand in early February 2001 aboard the freighter Comex-Joux 3.

Cambodia

Phuket

Thailand


Input: As is LTTE standard procedure, the vessel changed its name at sea to Horizon.

LTTE


Input: On its journey across the Bay of Bengal the freighter was tracked by the Indian navy and Orissa-based spy planes of India 's Aviation Research Center; it was intercepted by Indian naval vessels off Sri Lanka 's east coast.

Bay of Bengal

Orissa

India

Sri Lanka

Indian navy

Aviation Research Center


Input: LTTE arms-running

LTTE


Input: In 1997, the Thai navy reported the interception of a 16-meter boat after a chase off the Thai port of Ranong, and the confiscation of two tons of weapons and ammunition.

Thai navy

Ranong


Input: Among the weapons intercepted were two rocket-propelled-grenade launchers, 20 assault rifles, M-79 grenade launchers and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition.


Input: Four persons were arrested, reportedly belonging to the Manipur Revolutionary People 's Front.

Manipur Revolutionary People 's Front


Input: Six crew members were from the Arakan region of Myanmar.

Arakan region

Myanmar


Input: The boat was heading toward Cox 's Bazar in Bangladesh.

Cox 's Bazar

Bangladesh


Input: Until 1995 the LTTE maintained a base at Twante, an island off the coat of Myanmar, west of the Andaman islands.

LTTE

Twante

Myanmar

Andaman islands


Input: Subsequently, Phuket became the LTTE 's main backup base.

Phuket

LTTE


Input: A Sri Lanka-born Tamil with a Norwegian passport was arrested by Thai authorities in 2000 for his links with the LTTE.

Sri Lanka

LTTE


Input: At the time of his arrest, the suspect was allegedly involved in constructing a "submarine" in a shipyard on the island of Sirae near Phuket on the Andaman Sea coast.

Sirae

Phuket

Andaman Sea


Input: Steady buildup


Input: The real threat to the Andaman Islands is the steady building-up of ports and conduits that serve the Tamil Tigers and a host of less-strong militant groups.

Andaman Islands

Tamil Tigers


Input: Over the past decade, Bangladesh has steadily moved into a state of lawlessness.

Bangladesh


Input: A number of extremist groups, under the cover of the Islamist movement, have become active in drug trafficking, gun running and anti-Indian activities.


Input: It is widely acknowledged that the Pakistani ISI has nurtured a number of extremist Islamist groups, such as the Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami, in the port city of Chittagong, and put a number of secessionist rebels from India 's northeast in touch with this terrorist network.

ISI

Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami

Chittagong

India


Input: As a result, north of the Andaman Islands, Bangladeshi coastal areas have become a nest of terrorists involved in the shipment of drugs and arms.

Andaman Islands


Input: A pattern of arrests and seizures indicate that arms are brought by the LTTE from Laos, Cambodia and Thailand into Chittagong, from where they are transported northward by land to Bhutan.

LTTE

Cambodia

Thailand

Chittagong

Bhutan


Input: The route from Kalikhola in Bhutan to Cox 's Bazar passes through northern Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya, and on into Chittagong.

Kalikhola

Bhutan

Cox 's Bazar

Bengal

Assam

Meghalaya

Chittagong


Input: Note


Input: India 's Andaman and Nicobar Islands comprise more than 500 islands lying 1,000 kilometers east of Sri Lanka in the Bay of Bengal.

India

Andaman

Nicobar Islands

Sri Lanka

Bay of Bengal


Input: Stretching 750 kilometers from end to end, they reach from near the coast of Myanmar almost to Sumatra in Indonesia.

Myanmar

Sumatra

Indonesia


Input: The Ten Degree Channel divides the Andamans, which are the larger and more heavily populated northern islands, from the 20 or so Nicobar Islands in the south.

Ten Degree Channel

Andamans

Nicobar Islands


Input: On South Andaman, the most heavily populated island, is Port Blair, which is the capital and the only large town in the entire archipelago.

South Andaman

Port Blair


Input: Travel to the Nicobar Islands is forbidden to non-Indians, and they are also not allowed in some parts of South Andaman Island.

Nicobar Islands

South Andaman


Input: Ramtanu Maitra writes for a number of international journals and is a regular contributor to the Washington-based EIR and the New Delhi-based Indian Defense Review.

Ramtanu Maitra

Washington

New Delhi

EIR

Indian Defense Review


Input: He also writes for Aakrosh, India 's defense-tied quarterly journal.

Aakrosh

India


Input: Zawahiri was associated with a faction of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad known as the Vanguards of Conquest.

Zawahiri

Egyptian Islamic Jihad

Vanguards of Conquest


Input: Zawahiri and the Vanguards of Conquest were seeking to recreate Mohammed 's taking of mecca by a small band through violent attacks on Egyptian leaders.

Zawahiri

Mohammed

Vanguards of Conquest


Input: By 1998, Zawahiri had determined that the Egyptian Islamic Jihad should focus on its struggle against the United States and hold off on further attacks against the Egyptian regime.

Zawahiri

Egyptian Islamic Jihad

United States


Input: A key question is how they acquired the anthrax strain first isolated by the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab in 1980.

Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab


Input: According to senior counter terrorism officials, both here and abroad, among the supporters of these militant islamists were people who blended into society and were available to act when another part of the network requested it.


Input: Al Qaeda, Anthrax and Ayman: Means, Motive, Modus Operandi and Opportunity

Al Qaeda

Ayman


Input: Homeland Security


Input: In early June 2003, a Central Intelligence Agency ("CIA") report publicly disclosed that the reason for Mohammed Atta 's and Zacarias Moussaoui 's inquiries into cropdusters was for the contemplated use in dispersing biological agents such as anthrax.

Central Intelligence Agency

CIA

Mohammed Atta

Zacarias Moussaoui


Input: An early September 2003 Newsweek article included a rumor by a Taliban source that at a meeting in April 2003 Bin Laden was planning an "unbelievable" biological attack, the plans for which had suffered a setback upon the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed ("KSM").

Newsweek

Taliban

Bin Laden

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed

KSM


Input: He had been captured the previous month in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Rawalpindi

Pakistan


Input: In November 2003, a report by a UN Panel of experts concluded that Al Qaeda is determined to use chemical and biological weapons and is restrained only by technical difficulties.

UN

Al Qaeda


Input: In a statement issued June 16, 2004, the 9/11 Commission Staff concluded that "Al Qaeda had an ambitious biological weapons program and was making advances in its ability to produce anthrax prior to September 11.

Al Qaeda


Input: According to Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, al Qaeda ’s ability to conduct an anthrax attack is one of the most immediate threats the United States is likely to face."

George Tenet

al Qaeda

United States


Input: On August 9, 2004, it was announced that in the Spring of 2001, a man named El-Shukrijumah, also known as Jafar the Pilot, who was part of a "second wave," had been casing New York City helicopters.

El-Shukrijumah

Jafar the Pilot

New York City


Input: Photographs from a seized computer disc included the controls and the locks on the door between the passengers and pilot.


Input: In a bulletin, the FBI noted that the surveillance might relate to a plot to disperse a chemical or biological weapon.

FBI


Input: The CIA reportedly has been quietly building a case that the anthrax mailings were an international plot.

CIA


Input: This is old news.


Input: It 's just no longer bureaucratically impolite to openly contest the FBI 's (former) theory about a lone, American scientist.

FBI


Input: Many people have argued that a US-based Al Qaeda operative is behind the earlier Fall 2001 anthrax mailings in the US, and that the mailings served as a threat and warning.

US

US

Al Qaeda


Input: Princeton islamist scholar Bernard Lewis has explained that while islamists may disagree about whether killing innocents is sanctioned by the laws of jihad, extremists like Zawahiri agree that notice must be given before biochemical weapons are used.

Bernard Lewis

Zawahiri


Input: "The Prophet 's guidance," says Michael Scheuer, an al-Qaeda analyst who recently retired from the CIA and once headed its Bin Laden unit, "was always, Before you attack someone, warn them very clearly..." The anthrax mailings followed the pattern of letters they sent in January 1997 to newspaper branches in Washington, D.C. and New York City, as well as symbolic targets.

Michael Scheuer

Bin Laden

CIA

Washington

D.C.

New York City


Input: The letter bombs were sent in connection with the detention of the blind sheik Abdel Rahman and those responsible for the earlier World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

sheik Abdel Rahman

World Trade Center


Input: Handwritten notes and files on a laptop seized upon the capture of KSM, Al Qaeda 's #3, included a feasible anthrax production plan using a spray dryer and addressed the recruitment of necessary expertise.

KSM

Al Qaeda


Input: What your morning paper did not tell you, however, was that the CIA seized a similar disc from Ayman Zawahiri 's right-hand, Ahmed Salama Mabruk, 5 years earlier.

CIA

Ayman Zawahiri

Ahmed Salama Mabruk


Input: The computer disk was confiscated from him during his arrest by the CIA in Azerbaijan and handed over to the Egyptian authorities.

CIA

Azerbaijan


Input: Mabruk, at the time, was the head of Jihad 's military operations.

Mabruk


Input: There is a risk that observers underestimate the time that Al Qaeda has had to make progress in such recruitment and research and development.

Al Qaeda


Input: Some may still think that even in the final stages of the 9/11 plot, Zacarias Moussaoui was going to fly a 5th plane into the Capitol or White House.

Zacarias Moussaoui

Capitol

White House


Input: Others argue that he was to be part of a second wave of airliners directed to targets on the West Coast.


Input: There is an e-mail by Moussaoui, however, dated July 31, 2001 indicating that he sought to take a crop dusting course that was to last up to 6 months.

Moussaoui


Input: In March 2003, Mohammed reportedly said that Moussaoui was not going to be part of 9/11 but was to be part of a "second wave."

Mohammed

Moussaoui


Input: Although Ramzi Binalshibh provided him $14,000 in July, accused September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui told his trial judge that he had an al Qaeda mission that would have come after the terrorist attacks.

Ramzi Binalshibh

Zacarias Moussaoui

al Qaeda


Input: KSM explained that Moussaoui 's inquiries about crop dusters may have been related to the anthrax work being done by US-trained biochemist and Al Qaeda operative, Malaysian Yazid Sufaat.

KSM

Moussaoui

Yazid Sufaat

US

Al Qaeda


Input: Zacarias Moussaoui, never the sharpest tool in the shed and thought by his superiors to be unreliable, has told the judge at his trial in a filing that he wants "anthrax for Jew sympathizer only."

Zacarias Moussaoui


Input: Al Qaeda 's regional operative, Hambali, who was at a key January 2000 meeting and supervised Sufaat, has been captured.

Al Qaeda

Hambali

Sufaat


Input: Hambali reportedly is cooperating to some degree.

Hambali


Input: KSM and Hambali sent al-Hindi (al-Britani), along with Jafar the Pilot, to case NYC targets for a second wave.

KSM

Hambali

al-Hindi

al-Britani

Jafar the Pilot

NYC


Input: It was as part of that surveillance in early 2001 that Jafar the Pilot studied tourist helicopters in the NYC area.

Jafar the Pilot

NYC


Input: Sufaat, according to both KSM and Hambali, did not have the virulent US Army Ames strain that would be used.

Sufaat

KSM

Hambali

US Army


Input: That would require someone who had access to the strain.


Input: But if experience is any guide, nothing would stand in the way of Dr. Ayman Zawahiri 's decade-long quest to weaponize and use anthrax against US targets that was described by one confidante to an Egyptian newspaper reporter.

Ayman Zawahiri

US


Input: The islamist had been released from Egyptian prison and had known Zawahiri well for many years.

Zawahiri


Input: Emails from Zawahiri to Atef in the Spring of 1999 indicate that Ayman was a close student of the USAMRIID anthrax program.

Zawahiri

Atef

Ayman

USAMRIID


Input: He believed that the koran instructed that a jihadist should use the weapons used by the crusader.


Input: "What we know is that he 's always said it was a religious obligation to have the same weapons as their enemies," former CIA OBL unit counter terrorism chief Michael Scheuer has said.

CIA

Michael Scheuer


Input: The Wall Street Journal reported that a computer used by Zawahiri contains a June 1999 memo that "said the program should seek cover and talent in educational institutions, which it said were 'more beneficial to us and allow easy access to specialists, which will greatly benefit us in the first stage, God willing.' ''

Zawahiri


Input: Zawahiri was associated with a faction of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad known as the Vanguards of Conquest.

Zawahiri

Egyptian Islamic Jihad

Vanguards of Conquest


Input: Zawahiri and the Vanguards of Conquest were seeking to recreate Mohammed 's taking of mecca by a small band through violent attacks on Egyptian leaders.

Zawahiri

Mohammed

Vanguards of Conquest


Input: By 1998, Zawahiri had determined that the Egyptian Islamic Jihad should focus on its struggle against the United States and hold off on further attacks against the Egyptian regime.

Zawahiri

Egyptian Islamic Jihad

United States


Input: A key question is how they acquired the anthrax strain first isolated by the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab in 1980.

Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab


Input: According to senior counter terrorism officials, both here and abroad, among the supporters of these militant islamists were people who blended into society and were available to act when another part of the network requested it.


Input: A few days before Christmas 2003, after a renewed audiotape threat by Zawahiri of attacks, to include in the US homeland, the threat level was raised to orange or "high."

Zawahiri

US


Input: After the alert condition had long since returned to yellow, Zawahiri in late February issued another audiotape.

Zawahiri


Input: He urged the President that brigades and brigades would be coming under the banner of jihad carrying death and seeking paradise.


Input: Zawahiri said that the US should expect another 9/11 on US soil.

Zawahiri

US

US


Input: According to some reports, Zawahiri is thought by intelligence to be somewhere near the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Zawahiri

Pakistan

Afghanistan


Input: At one time, some thought he had been spotted in Iran.


Input: Wherever he is, authorities need to focus on the traceable connection between him and those he or Atef recruited.

Atef


Input: In October 2001, did the FBI profilers know of the draft message Khalid Mohammed had on the seized laptop (from 1995) that was signed "Khalid Sheik Bojinka"?

FBI

Khalid Mohammed

Khalid Sheik Bojinka


Input: The letter threatened to use biochemical weapons if the blind sheik was not released.


Input: (Khalid Mohammed 's involvement dates back to Bojinka, as does Hambali 's ).

Khalid Mohammed

Bojinka

Hambali


Input: Use of biochemical weapons as blackmail and threatened retaliation for such detentions was an alternative scenario in the Bojinka planning.

Bojinka


Input: In May 2004, Patrick Hughes, Lieutenant General (Retired), Assistant Secretary for Information Analysis, Homeland Security Department testified before the 9/11 Commission.

Patrick Hughes


Input: He explained that interrogations and other evidence revealed that Al Qaeda wanted to strike the US with a nonconventional weapon, most notably anthrax.

Al Qaeda

US


Input: The same week, the WTC head testified that while they had not received any briefing on the use of planes, they had taken steps to prepare for an attack using anthrax based on intelligence that had been received.

WTC


Input: Al Qaeda has had anthrax, the raw seed product in its unweaponized form, since at least 1997, when it was purchased by Bin Laden through the Moro Islamic Liberation Front ("Moro Front" or "MILF").

Al Qaeda

Moro Islamic Liberation Front

Moro Front

MILF

Bin Laden


Input: Zawahiri, Al Qaeda 's #2, is head of Al Qaeda 's biochemical program.

Zawahiri

Al Qaeda

Al Qaeda


Input: The CIA has known of Zawahiri 's plans to use anthrax for a half decade.

CIA

Zawahiri


Input: The confidante and right-hand man of Dr. Ayman Zawahiri admitted that Zawahiri succeeded in obtaining anthrax and intended to use it against US targets.

Ayman Zawahiri

Zawahiri

US


Input: Another senior Al Qaeda member (a shura or policy-making council member no less) was working for the Egyptian intelligence services and he confirmed the report in a sworn lengthy confession.

Al Qaeda


Input: Even Zawahiri 's attorney in 1999 said that Bin Laden and Zawahiri were likely to resort to the biological and chemical agents they possessed given the extradition pressure senior Al Qaeda leaders faced.

Zawahiri

Bin Laden

Zawahiri

Al Qaeda


Input: A recently released islamist who had been a close associate of Zawahiri said that Zawahiri spent a decade and had made 15 separate attempts to recruit the necessary expertise to weaponize anthrax in Russia and the Middle East.

Zawahiri

Zawahiri

Russia

Middle East


Input: The US Army recipe was not used, and obtaining the unprocessed Ames strain of anthrax used does not warrant the weight given it by some press accounts.

US Army


Input: There was lax control over the distribution of the Ames strain that was used, especially in light of the fact that transfers were not even required to be recorded prior to 1997.


Input: Significantly, the individual who isolated it nearly a quarter century ago (now retired), upon being contacted, does not even report that he necessarily sent the only copy of the strain to Ft. Detrick.

Ft. Detrick


Input: Senator Patrick Leahy at a Congressional hearing in the Spring of 2002 noted that the FBI had collected the Ames strain from 20 sources.

Patrick Leahy

FBI


Input: In Fall 2004, MSNBC, relying on an unnamed FBI spokesperson, reports that the FBI has narrowed the pool of labs known to have had Ames that was a match from 16 to 4 but can not rule out that it was made overseas.

MSNBC

FBI

FBI


Input: Al Qaeda 's anthrax production plans on Khalid Mohammed 's computer did not evidence knowledge of advanced techniques in the most efficient biological weapons.

Al Qaeda

Khalid Mohammed


Input: At least according to the public comments by bioweaponeer experts William Patrick and Kenneth Alibek, under the optimal method, there is no electrostatic charge.

William Patrick

Kenneth Alibek


Input: In the case of the anthrax used in the mailings, there was an electrostatic charge.


Input: Although there was a dominance of single spores and a trillion spore concentration, there were clumps as large as 40 - 100 microns.


Input: (Spores must be no bigger than 5 microns to be inhalable.)


Input: Many point to the trillion spore concentration as extraordinary.


Input: It is far simpler, however, to achieve a trillion spore concentration in the production of a few grams than in industrial processing typical of a state sponsored lab.


Input: The "trillion spore" issue was at the heart of a lot of mistaken theories of the matter concluding that state sponsorship was necessarily indicated.


Input: The reported finding at Dugway undermines the argument of both the "bomb Iraq" crowd and the liberals focused on Dr. Steve Hatfill who object to US biodefense research because they view it as being useful for offensive purposes.

Dugway

Iraq

US

Steve Hatfill


Input: USDA employee Johnelle Bryant first told us, in sensational detail, of Atta 's inquiries about purchasing and retrofitting a cropduster.

USDA

Johnelle Bryant

Atta


Input: Khalid Mohammed then told interrogators that Zacarias Moussaoui 's inquiries about crop dusting may have related to Yazid Sufaat 's anthrax manufacturing plans.

Khalid Mohammed

Zacarias Moussaoui

Yazid Sufaat


Input: Although the details of the documents on Mohammed 's computer may (or may not) point to possible difficulties in aerial dispersal, they are fully consistent with the product used in the anthrax mailings.

Mohammed


Input: Al Qaeda had both the means and opportunity.

Al Qaeda


Input: US-trained Malaysian biochemist Yazid Sufaat met with 9/11 plotters and two hijackers in January 2000.

US

Yazid Sufaat


Input: Sufaat was a member of Al Qaeda and a member of Jemaah Islamiah ("JI").

Sufaat

Al Qaeda

Jemaah Islamiah

JI


Input: JI has ties with the Moro Front.

JI

Moro Front


Input: Sufaat used his company called Green Laboratory Medicine to buy items useful to Al Qaeda.

Sufaat

Green Laboratory Medicine

Al Qaeda


Input: (Green symbolizes "Islam" and Prophet Mohammed 's holy war).

Mohammed


Input: Zacarias Moussaoui, who had a crop dusting manual when he was arrested, stayed at Sufaat 's condominium in 2000 when he was trying to arrange for flight lessons in Malaysia.

Zacarias Moussaoui

Sufaat

Malaysia


Input: Yazid Sufaat provided Moussaoui with a letter indicating that he was a marketing representative for Infocus Technologies and allegedly provided him $35,000.

Yazid Sufaat

Moussaoui

Infocus Technologies


Input: The crop dusters were to be part of a "second wave."


Input: After 9/11, Yazid Sufaat traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan to work for the Taliban Medical Brigade and to continue his work with anthrax.

Yazid Sufaat

Afghanistan

Pakistan

Taliban Medical Brigade


Input: As described in US News, a former reporter from the Kabul Times actually may have met Sufaat, without realizing it, while traveling near Kabul in October 2001, perceiving him as Filipino.

US

Kabul

Kabul Times

Sufaat


Input: The fellow was carrying papers from Zawahiri and bragging about his ability to manipulate anthrax.

Zawahiri


Input: Sufaat was arrested in December 2001 upon his return to Malaysia.

Sufaat

Malaysia


Input: Newsweek reported that a "second wave" involving biological attacks had been thwarted upon the arrest of Al Qaeda members who had been intended to provide logistical support.

Newsweek

Al Qaeda


Input: Various doctors, both foreign and American, are associated with Al Qaeda leaders or operatives, to include the doctors Abdul Qadoos Khan, a bacteriologist from Rawalpindi and Aafia Siddiqui, PhD, from Karachi.

Al Qaeda

Abdul Qadoos Khan

Aafia Siddiqui

Rawalpindi

Karachi


Input: Microbiologist Abdul Qadoos Khan was charged along with his son, Ahmed, for harboring the fugitives.

Abdul Qadoos Khan

Ahmed


Input: As of March 28, 2003, he was in a hospital for a cardiac problem and had been granted "pre-arrest bail."


Input: Yet all you read about at the time was the arrest of the son Ahmed Abdul Qadoos, who receives a stipend from the UN for being officially low-IQ due to lead poisoning.

Ahmed Abdul Qadoos

UN


Input: It was Khalid Mohammed who told authorities about Aafia Siddiqui, who has a PhD from Brandeis in neurology.

Khalid Mohammed

Aafia Siddiqui

Brandeis


Input: The Pakistani press reported that she was nabbed in Karachi after being spotted at the airport in late March or early April 2003.

Karachi


Input: If mistaken, how did those reports first come about?


Input: Understandably, Amerithrax is a confidential investigation.


Input: The Pakistan ISI and CIA rarely grant press interviews in connection with an ongoing manhunt.

Pakistan

CIA


Input: The CIA did not even allow the FBI access to KSM for 10 days after his arrest.

CIA

FBI

KSM


Input: As agent Van Harp, then head of the Amerithrax investigation said, the information coming from Khalid Mohammed is classified with the authorities releasing only certain limited information.

Van Harp

Khalid Mohammed


Input: While it 's not easy to separate fact from fiction, Attorney General Ashcroft and Director Mueller have publicly confirmed Aafia is still being sought.

Ashcroft

Mueller

Aafia


Input: They would know.


Input: Her mother Ismat last saw Aafia and her grandchildren before they left in a minicab at the end of March.

Ismat

Aafia


Input: Aafia was on her way with her children to visit and uncle and a friend in Islamabad.

Aafia

Islamabad


Input: According to the Pakistan reports, Aafia Siddiqui was detained after being spotted at Karachi International airport (after she was followed to a relative 's house).

Pakistan

Karachi

Aafia Siddiqui


Input: (Karachi is in the south).

Karachi


Input: The reports say she is suspected of having been a member of Al Qaeda 's "Chemical Wire Group."

Al Qaeda


Input: The family 's lawyer advises me that Aafia did not have enough money to pay for airfare tickets for herself and the kids and called Ismat from the train station.

Aafia

Ismat


Input: That was the last Ismat heard from her.

Ismat


Input: Aafia never reached the uncle 's house.

Aafia


Input: Perhaps something got lost in the translation, but the phrase "Chemical Wire Group" has appeared in all the english Pakistan and India papers.

Pakistan

India


Input: The family 's attorney advises me that Aafia had no knowledge of chemicals (and that would not appear to be her training).

Aafia


Input: There still is a very hot pursuit of the "Atta-level" Floridian, Adnan El Shukrijumah, who Siddiqui is thought to have known and been assisting.

Atta

Adnan El Shukrijumah

Siddiqui


Input: His nickname is "Jafar the Pilot."

Jafar the Pilot


Input: A senior DOJ official reports that Adnan has experience as a commercial pilot.

DOJ

Adnan


Input: He is said by one FBI agent to be "very, very, very" dangerous.

FBI


Input: He allegedly was at one or more meetings in the Summer of 2001 in Pakistan at which KSM and Sufaat were present.

Pakistan

KSM

Sufaat


Input: He may have been seen in Hamilton, Canada -- along with Egyptian al-Maati, who apparently also has received pilot training.

Hamilton

Canada

al-Maati


Input: The United States truly no longer has time for faulty analysis or politically-based preconceptions.

United States


Input: In early June 2003, a CIA report concluded that the reason for Atta 's and Zacarias Moussaoui 's inquiries into cropdusters was in fact for the contemplated use in dispersing biological agents such as anthrax.

CIA

Atta

Zacarias Moussaoui


Input: It has long been known Osama Bin Laden was interested in using cropdusters to disperse biological agents (since the testimony of millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam).

Osama Bin Laden

Ahmed Ressam


Input: The hijacker Ahmed Alhaznawi appears to have contracted cutaneous anthrax in Afghanistan.

Ahmed Alhaznawi

Afghanistan


Input: It is reasonable to credit his statement that he got the lesion after bumping into a suitcase he was carrying at a camp in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan


Input: The lesion is further evidence of Al Qaeda 's anthrax production program at Kandahar.

Al Qaeda

Kandahar


Input: The present evidence relating to Atta 's alleged travel to Prague does not warrant a conclusion that Al Qaeda obtained the Ames strain from Iraq.

Atta

Prague

Iraq

Al Qaeda


Input: Iraq, however, remains a possible source of the Ames.

Iraq


Input: Former Russian bioweaponeer Ken Alibek has said that a key Russian scientist assisted Iraq and that Russia had the Ames strain.

Ken Alibek

Iraq

Russia


Input: (His conclusion may have been based on the fake mobile biolab plans foisted upon the US by the Chalabi associate "Curveball", which Alibek divined to be identical to Russian mobile lab design).

US

Chalabi

Alibek


Input: Zawahiri did travel to Baghdad in 1998 with an entourage to attend the birthday party of Saddam 's son.

Zawahiri

Saddam

Baghdad


Input: The papers found at headquarters of the Mukhabarat, Iraq 's secret police, show that an entourage from Al Qaeda group was sent to the Iraqi capital in March 1998 from Sudan.

Mukhabarat

Al Qaeda

Iraq

Sudan


Input: According to at least some reports, Bin Laden rejected the suggestion of a closer alliance -- preferring to pursue his own concept of jihad.

Bin Laden


Input: Two top Iraqi scientists, code named Charlie and Alpha, are helping the coalition to learn more about Iraqi 's anthrax program, according to Dr. David Kay, head of the Iraq survey group in charge of the hunt for WMD.

Charlie

Alpha

David Kay

Iraqi

Iraq


Input: He has said that the Iraqis made surprising innovations in the milling and drying processes needed to weaponize anthrax.


Input: The media coverage has been seriously confused on the issue of motive and the reason Senators Daschle and Leahy would have been targeted -- tending to simplistically view them as "liberals."

Daschle

Leahy


Input: Zawahiri likely targeted Senators Daschle and Leahy to receive anthrax letters, in addition to various media outlets, because of the appropriations made pursuant to the "Leahy Law" to military and security forces.

Zawahiri

Daschle

Leahy

Leahy


Input: That money has prevented the militant islamists from achieving their goals.


Input: Al Qaeda members and sympathizers feel that the FBI 's involvement in countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Philippines interferes with the sovereignty of those countries.

Al Qaeda

FBI

Egypt

Saudi Arabia

Pakistan

Indonesia

Philippines


Input: According to a post she made on the internet, Aafia Siddiqui expressed the same sentiment in connection with US appropriations sought in exchange for the extradition of WTC 1993 plotter Ramzi Yousef from Pakistan.

Aafia Siddiqui

Ramzi Yousef

US

WTC

Pakistan


Input: Senator Leahy was Chairman of both the Judiciary Committee overseeing the FBI and Appropriations Subcommittee in charge of foreign aid to these countries.

Leahy

FBI


Input: In late September 2001, it was announced that the President was seeking a blanket waiver that would lift all restrictions on aid to military and security units in connection with pursuing the militant islamists.


Input: This extradition and imprisonment of Al Qaeda leaders, along with US support for Israel and the Mubarak government in Egypt, remains foremost in the mind of Dr. Zawahiri.

Al Qaeda

US

Israel

Egypt

Mubarak

Zawahiri


Input: At the height of the development of his biological weapons program, his brother was extradited pursuant to a death sentence in the "Albanian returnees" case (now he faces retrial).


Input: It 's hard to keep up with the stories about billion dollar appropriations, debt forgiveness, and loan guarantees to countries like Egypt and Israel and now even Pakistan.

Egypt

Israel

Pakistan


Input: Those appropriations pale in comparison to the many tens of billions in appropriations relating to the invasion of Iraq.

Iraq


Input: Al Qaeda had a motive in mind.

Al Qaeda


Input: In his Fall 2001 book titled Knights under the Banner of the Prophet, Zawahiri argued that the secular press was telling "lies" about the militant islamists -- to include the suggestion that the militant islamists were somehow the creation of the United States in connection with expelling the Russians from Afghanistan.

Zawahiri

United States

Afghanistan


Input: Zawahiri argued instead that they have been active since the assassination of Anwar Sadat in Egypt because of the Camp David Accord and the resulting peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Zawahiri

Anwar Sadat

Egypt

Egypt

Israel


Input: The anthrax letters were sent on the date of the Camp David Accord and then the date Anwar Sadat was assassinated as if to underscore the point to anyone paying attention.

Anwar Sadat


Input: Most of the "talking heads" on television, however, knew only that Daschle and Leahy were liberal democrats and did not know anything of Al Qaeda beyond what they read in the US newspapers.

Daschle

Leahy

Al Qaeda

US


Input: The FBI 's profile includes a US-based supporter of the militant islamists.

FBI

US


Input: Attorney General Ashcroft explained that an "either-or" approach is not useful.

Ashcroft


Input: The media has tended to overlook the fact that when the FBI uses the word "domestic" the word includes a US-based, highly-educated supporter of the militant islamists.

FBI

US


Input: There is an emerging consensus that anthrax was contained in a letter to AMI, the publisher of the National Enquirer -- in a goofy love letter to Jennifer Lopez enclosing a Star of David and proposing marriage.

AMI

National Enquirer

Jennifer Lopez


Input: A report by the Center for Disease Control of interviews with AMI employees (as well as detailed interviews by author Leonard Cole) supports the conclusion that there were not one, but two, such mailings containing anthrax.

Center for Disease Control

AMI

Leonard Cole


Input: (The letters were to different AMI publications -- one to the National Enquirer and another to The Sun).

AMI

National Enquirer

The Sun


Input: (News assistant Bobby Bender recalls the letter containing the items to have been addressed to The Sun.)

Bobby Bender

The Sun


Input: This tactic of letters is not merely the modus operandi of these militant islamists inspired by Zawahiri, it is their signature.

Zawahiri


Input: The islamists sent letter bombs in January 1997 to newspaper offices in New York City and Washington, D.C..

New York City

Washington

D.C.


Input: They were sent in connection with the earlier bombing of the World Trade Center and the imprisonment of the blind sheik, Sheik Abdel Rahman.

World Trade Center

Sheik Abdel Rahman


Input: The former leader of the Egyptian Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya ("Islamic Group"), he was also a spiritual leader of Al Qaeda.

Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya

Islamic Group

Al Qaeda


Input: The letter bombs were sent in connection with the treatment of the Egyptian islamists imprisoned for the earlier attack on the WTC and a related plot.

WTC


Input: The purpose of the letter bombs -- which resulted in minimal casualty -- was to send a message.


Input: (There initially was an outstanding $2 million reward -- under the rewards for justice program, the reward now is up to $5 million.).


Input: There was no claim of responsibility.


Input: There was no explanation.


Input: Once one had been received, the next ten, mailed on two separate dates, were easily collected.


Input: Sound familiar?


Input: Two bombs were also sent to Leavenworth, where a key WTC 1993 defendant was imprisoned, addressed to "Parole Officer."

Leavenworth

WTC


Input: (The position does not exist).


Input: Abdel Rahman 's son was captured in Quetta, Pakistan in mid-February 2003.

Abdel Rahman

Quetta

Pakistan


Input: That arrest in turn led to the dramatic capture of Khalid Mohammed, Al Qaeda 's #3.

Khalid Mohammed

Al Qaeda


Input: Mohammed allegedly was hiding in the home of the Pakistani bacteriologist Dr. Abdul Qadoos Khan.

Mohammed

Abdul Qadoos Khan


Input: Along with Zawahiri, Abdel Rahman and his two sons have had considerable influence over Bin Laden.

Zawahiri

Abdel Rahman

Bin Laden


Input: He reportedly treated them like sons.


Input: Although while in jail in the early 1980s, Zawahiri caused considerable tension by challenging the blind sheik 's ability to lead a coalition of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Egyptian Islamic Group, Zawahiri and OBL are Rahman 's friends.

Zawahiri

Zawahiri

Rahman

Egyptian Islamic Jihad

Egyptian Islamic Group


Input: The imprisoned WTC 1993 plotter Yousef was KSM 's nephew.

WTC

Yousef

KSM


Input: Thus, the leaders in charge of Al Qaeda 's anthrax production program had a close connection to those imprisoned in connection with the earlier bombing of the World Trade Center.

Al Qaeda

World Trade Center


Input: According to the controversial "Feith memo," which summarized purported intelligence showing an Iraqi/Al Qaeda connection, Osama Bin Laden had asked Iraqi intelligence for technical assistance in sending letter bombs a half year before the Al Hayat letters were sent.

Al Qaeda

Osama Bin Laden

Al Hayat


Input: Just because Al Qaeda likes its truck bombs and the like to be effective does not mean they do not see the value in a deadly missive.

Al Qaeda


Input: As Brian Jenkins once said, "terrorism is theater."

Brian Jenkins


Input: A sender purporting to be islamist sent cyanide in both early 2002 and early 2003 in New Zealand and ingredients of nerve gas in Belgium in 2003.

New Zealand

Belgium


Input: There 's even a chapter titled "Poisonous Letter" in the Al Qaeda manual.

Al Qaeda


Input: The "Federal Eagle" stamp used in the anthrax mailings was a blue-green.


Input: It was widely published among the militant islamists that martyrs go to paradise "in the hearts of green birds."


Input: In the very interview in which they admitted 9/11, and described the codes used for the four targets for the planes, the masterminds admitted to the Jenny code, the code for representing the date 9/11, and used the symbolism of the "Green Birds."


Input: Osama Bin Laden later invoked the symbolism in his video "The 19 Martyrs."

Osama Bin Laden


Input: A FAQ on the Azzam Publications website explained that "In the Hearts of Green Birds" refers to what is inside.

Azzam Publications


Input: The mailer 's use of "Greendale School" as the return address for the letters to the Senators is also revealing.


Input: A May 2001 letter that Zawahiri sent to Egyptian Islamic Jihad members abroad establish that Zawahiri used "school" as a code word for the Egyptian militant islamists in his correspondence.

Zawahiri

Zawahiri

Egyptian Islamic Jihad


Input: Green symbolizes Islam and was the Prophet Mohammed 's color.

Mohammed


Input: By Greendale School, the anthrax perp was being cute, just as Yazid Sufaat was being cute in naming his lab Green Laboratory Medicine.

Yazid Sufaat

Green Laboratory Medicine


Input: "Dale" means "river valley."


Input: Greendale likely refers to green river valley -- i.e., Cairo 's Egyptian Islamic Jihad or the Islamic Group.

Cairo

Egyptian Islamic Jihad

Islamic Group


Input: The sender probably is announcing that he is of either Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Egyptian Islamic Group or Jihad-al Qaeda, which is actually the full name of the group after the merger of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda.

Egyptian Islamic Jihad

Egyptian Islamic Group

al Qaeda

Egyptian Islamic Jihad

al Qaeda


Input: At the Darunta complex where jihadis trained, recruits would wear green uniforms, except for Friday when they were washed.

Darunta


Input: In a Hadith the Messenger of Allah explains that the souls of the martyrs are in the hearts of green birds that fly wherever they please in the Paradise.


Input: As to opportunity, though seldom reported, there is a wealth of "open source" information about possible Al Qaeda or Egyptian Islamic Jihad or Egyptian Islamic Group in the United States and Canada.

Al Qaeda

Egyptian Islamic Jihad

Egyptian Islamic Group

United States

Canada


Input: The public information mostly relates to those suspected sleepers who have been detained or who are at large and are being sought.


Input: Zawahiri 's mission in the United States in 1995 was to do spadework for terrorism, not fundraising for charitable causes.

Zawahiri

United States


Input: He traveled under an alias and was accompanied by a former US Army sergeant named Ali Mohammed.

US Army

Mohammed


Input: What mosques exactly did they visit and who did they meet?


Input: Whatever your political persuasion, the FBI and CIA deserve our support.

FBI

CIA


Input: We are, after all, in this together.


Input: First, the nature of such an investigation is that we lack sufficient information to second-guess (or even know) what the FBI is doing.

FBI


Input: Media reports are a poor approximation of reality because of the lack of good sources.


Input: Second, hindsight is 20/20.


Input: Third, with the "new age" Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. in charge of the investigation, it is not likely we could do better in striking the appropriate balance between due process and national security.

Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.


Input: Finally, the "Hatfill theory" seems to have been exhausted or at least lost public favor.

Hatfill


Input: The "Hatfill theory" accusing Dr. Stephen Hatfill was always highly dubious.

Hatfill

Stephen Hatfill


Input: The suspicion was founded on many false premises, and there was no reliable publicly known evidence indicating his guilt.


Input: The FBI 's fixation on Hatfill (at least as rumored by some reporters) may have stemmed from a warning by one Senator that careers hung in the balance.

FBI

Hatfill


Input: Leahy 's chief of staff apparently started with the strong predisposition that some right-winger was involved because two liberal democrats had been targeted.

Leahy


Input: The Hatfill theory -- to include ongoing interviews and ongoing 7/24 surveillance by 8 surveillance specialists -- is now the subject of pending civil rights and libel claims of uncertain merit.

Hatfill


Input: A suit against the New York Times and columnist Nicholas Kristof was dismissed in late November 2004.

New York Times

Nicholas Kristof


Input: The judge had agreed to delay the civil rights matter from proceeding until at least October 2004.


Input: The judge, frustrated by the apparent lack of progress, encouraged that the parties reach a negotiated compromise that would permit some limited discovery to proceed (and the judge has directed that the government to file an Answer to the Complaint).


Input: The Hatfill Theory ironically might best be understood as an Al Qaeda theory, with a coincidental Malaysian connection adding to the other circumstances.

Hatfill

Al Qaeda


Input: Given the regrettable leaks that he was under suspicion, it is only fair that the FBI leak with equal enthusiasm the fact that Dr. Hatfill has now been dropped as a suspect if and when that proves to be the case.

FBI

Hatfill


Input: A search of Dr. Ken Berry 's residences likely will prove just about the last gasp of a biodefense insider theory.

Ken Berry


Input: Senior officials have been quoted in the press as saying that the searches were for the purpose of excluding him as much as including him.


Input: In Baghdad the fighting still continues in several areas, mostly in Sadr city and Adhamiya.

Baghdad

Sadr city

Adhamiya


Input: Baghdadis do n't venture much out of their neighbourhoods any more, you never know where you might get stuck.


Input: There has been talk that the night curfew might be implemented again.


Input: My neighbourhood has been surrounded by American troops for three days now, helicopters have been circling over our heads non-stop.


Input: Fedayeen are now visible on the street and they have become bolder than ever.


Input: Yesterday there were tens of them putting road blocks on our street and setting up mortars, they only come out in the open when Americans leave the area, then they start firing mortars indiscriminately and shooting their AK-47's in the air.


Input: They are setting the road blocks at the exact same positions they were during the war last year, which indicates they are the same people.


Input: And there is nothing we can do about it really, people who are suggesting that we go out and fight them are living in dream land.


Input: Even the IP and ICDC have abandoned the neighbourhood, and those are trained and armed, so do n't expect scared civilians to do anything except to hide inside and pray a helicopter or a tank does n't bomb them, and also how are American soldiers going to distinguish the brave and valiant civilians from the Fedayeen?

IP

ICDC


Input: Everyone is apprehensive, there is some talk that April 9th and 10th are going to be bloody days.


Input: Most people have n't gone to work the last few days, although it seems that the rest of Baghdad is 'normal' (if you can define what normal is).

Baghdad


Input: There are rumours about preparations by slum dwellers for another looting spree against banks, governmental and public property similar to the one that took place last April, and I have already overheard youngsters in my neighbourhood joking about it and saying things like "This time we will be the first to loot, we did n't get anything the last time".


Input: Mosques are calling for donating blood, food, and medicine for Fallujah, and several convoys have already headed out for Fallujah, most of them returned later though.

Fallujah

Fallujah


Input: What irritates me is this sudden false 'solidarity' between Sunni and Shi'ite clerics, we all know that they would be glad to get at each other s throats when they have the chance, and Shia clerics were describing Fallujan insurgents as 'Ba'athists', 'Saddamites', 'Wahhabis', and 'terrorists' just a few days ago.


Input: So what happened?


Input: I guess it 's just the old new Arab 'Me against my brother, me and my brother against my cousin, me and my cousin against my enemy', or 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend' thing going on again.


Input: Speaking of Fallujah, we have only Al-Jazeera to rely on for our news from there.

Fallujah

Al-Jazeera


Input: They have sent over their top reporter Ahmed Mansour to the town, and he is spouting all kinds of propaganda hourly reminding me of Al-Sahhaf.

Ahmed Mansour

Al-Sahhaf


Input: "They are targetting ambulances", "American snipers are shooting children and pregnant women", and "They are using cluster bombs against civilians" is all you get to hear from him.


Input: He did once make an unforgivable error when he mentioned that Fallujan militants were shooting at the Marines from the roofs of mosques and houses in Hay Al-Golan, but of course that is okay for Al-Jazeera.

Marines

Al-Jazeera

Hay Al-Golan


Input: Someone who called himself Abu Hafs from the Ibn Al-Khattab Brigades (another new group) was on Al-Jazeera describing the enormous casualties among the Marines and he sweared that American soldiers were mutilating the bodies of dead insurgents.

Abu Hafs

Al-Khattab Brigades

Al-Jazeera

Marines


Input: Over 300 Iraqis are reported dead and 500 wounded in Fallujah alone.

Fallujah


Input: Al-Iraqiyah tv said that ICDC were controlling Ramadi.

Al-Iraqiyah

ICDC

Ramadi


Input: Azzaman newspaper mentioned an announcement signed by Abdul Aziz bin Muqrin, an Al-Qaeda operative in Saudi Arabia on an Islamic website 'the voice of Jihad', in which he stated that "although mutilating dead bodies is not originally permitted in Islam, but in this case it is allowed if Muslims use it against infidels to deter them from committing criminal actions".

Azzaman

Al-Qaeda

Abdul Aziz bin Muqrin

Saudi Arabia


Input: He added that "America does not understand anything except the language of force and retaliation, they were kicked out of Somalia in humiliation after that soldier was dragged in Mogadishu for the whole world to see", and that "the day will come when the dead bodies of Americans and Jews would be dragged, defiled, and stepped on in the Arabian peninsula together with their agents and supporters".

America

Somalia

Mogadishu


Input: One week to elections day and the general atmosphere in the capital is eerie, yet strikingly familiar.


Input: I suspect the streets of Baghdad will look as if a war is looming this week.

Baghdad


Input: There is no doubt that many Iraqis regard the date of 30 January as a day of renewed hope, one they have been awaiting all their lives, but at the same time, many others are already dreading it.


Input: The interim government has promised security measures that would reduce the violence on the day of elections, but I fail to see how they will be able to protect all 5,000 (or so) balloting centres.


Input: Many voting centres have already been successfully attacked or destroyed in many areas.


Input: Now that the picture is clear, the two main competing lists seem to be the United Iraqi Coalition list and Allawi 's Al-Iraqiya list.

United Iraqi Coalition

Al-Iraqiya

Allawi


Input: Ayad Allawi, and other ministers running on his list, have quite expectedly used their governmental positions in campaigning.

Ayad Allawi


Input: One minister reportedly handed out 100 dollar 'gifts' to journalists attending a press conference for Allawi, a practice that brings back bad memories to many Iraqis.

Allawi


Input: Sheikh Naji Al-Abbudi, a spokesman for Sistani, affirmed the claims that the Grand Ayatollah is backing the United Iraqi Coalition list.

Sheikh Naji Al-Abbudi

Sistani

United Iraqi Coalition


Input: Indeed, Sistani 's agents all over the country have been quite active in educating Iraqi Shia on the merits of elections, which has led to the assassination of at least two of them.

Sistani


Input: Al-Abbudi stated that "His Emminence" decided to openly support the list because "others" (obviously a reference to Allawi) have been abusing official state positions and media outlets in their campaigning.

Al-Abbudi

Allawi


Input: Again there is no official written statement from Sistani 's office confirming this allegation, which I think is intentional.

Sistani


Input: Ahmed Al-Chalabi and defense minister Hazim Al-Sha'lan have been engaging in shrill public attacks over the media.

Ahmed Al-Chalabi

Hazim Al-Sha'lan


Input: Chalabi describing Sha'lan as a "Ba'athist" and a "former double agent for Saddam and the CIA", while Sha'lan dismisses Chalabi as a "thief" and an "Iranian stooge who longs for his own origins by defending Iran".

Chalabi

Sha'lan

Saddam

Sha'lan

Chalabi

CIA


Input: One remark made by Sha'lan on Al-Arabiya TV, that he could n't say more about Chalabi because he would embarrass himself and the viewers almost made me roll on the floor.

Sha'lan

Chalabi

Al-Arabiya TV


Input: It was an extremely amusing episode, watching Chalabi looking smug and amused, contrasted with Sha'lan, all serious and barely keeping himself from swearing.

Chalabi

Sha'lan


Input: Fistfights, please.


Input: Hazim Al-Sha'lan, by the way, is the son of the late Sheikh of Al-Khaza'il in Diwaniya and has the potential to replace former information minister, M.S. Al-Sahaf, in his nonsensical media statements, which can be passed as jokes.

Hazim Al-Sha'lan

M.S. Al-Sahaf

Al-Khaza'il

Diwaniya


Input: The main Kurdish coalition list (PUK and KDP) is barely mentioned outside the Kurdish region.

PUK

KDP


Input: Even there, many Kurds look and act as if they are going to grab the chance to vote them out of power.


Input: I doubt that will be the outcome though.


Input: Many Iraqis, including conservative and religious Iraqis, are surprisingly rooting for the Iraqi Communist party, probably in an attempt to counter the influence of Islamists in the forthcoming National Assembly.

Iraqi Communist party

National Assembly


Input: The Communist party has the largest number of registered party members in the country and can be considered as the oldest popular political party in Iraq.

Communist party

Iraq


Input: Its support base is much larger than what it seems.


Input: Several candidates were assassinated and targeted these last two weeks, others have been forced under threats to withdraw and to follow the example of the Islamic party.


Input: Sectarian tensions are at their highest since April, 2004, with Sunni insurgents now openly attacking Husseiniyas and Shia mosques.


Input: I had an interesting conversation with a middle-aged taxi driver who used to live in Fallujah and is now at relatives in Amiriya, Baghdad.

Fallujah

Amiriya

Baghdad


Input: After asking me which tribe I belong to (thus assessing my sectarian background) he started hurling abuses at the Shia, calling them Persians, Majoos (fire worshippers), rabid dogs and a handful of other descriptions that I ca n't mention here.


Input: He described Allawi 's face as that of a f*ed horse and he dismissed the whole government as a band of thieves and traitors.

Allawi


Input: I did n't argue with him but I asked him what he believed would be a viable solution to this mess.


Input: He said that resistance was the only commonsense solution.


Input: First driving out the Americans, then fighting the Shia back into submission (as in 1991).


Input: Sunni Iraqis contend that elections are impossible to hold under occupation.


Input: Leaving aside the fact that this views conflicts with other historical examples in the region, Sunnis have never offered an alternative choice, which eventually leads one to guess that the opinion held by the Fallujan taxi driver above is precisely what they are planning to implement.


Input: I had another conversation some months ago with a retired Ba'athist old-timer who claimed that Ba'athists have the means to stage a third coup d'etat and return to power within 10 hours of an American withdrawal.


Input: On sensing my incredulity to his statement he asserted that Ba'athist cells exist in all parts of the country and that they do have a central command, even though many have formed seperate cells (often under Islamic labels) with their own leaderships.


Input: He said that they have the training and the funding as well as the support of neighbouring and regional governments.


Input: I concur that Ba'athists and former security forces are capable of immediately controlling at least 5 out of 18 governorates, along with the capital, if Americans are to be removed from the picture entirely.


Input: But I also see that as a fatal misconception, which is doing Sunnis harm, because I do n't believe the US is going anywhere so soon.

US


Input: Any government that assumes power after the elections also realises this, so not even Sistani is going to call the US to withdraw its troops, despite what he is saying now, not until they are ensured the insurgency is out of the picture, or that they have an alternative foreign power (in this case Iran) to back them up.

Sistani

US


Input: The only hope now is that, following the elections, the National Assembly would offer the hand of peace and reconciliation to the dissenting parties.

National Assembly


Input: I would suggest going for tribal Sheikhs rather than clerics, since they have the upper hand in their areas and can effectively root out any Ba'athists in their midst in return for a promise of sharing power and authority.


Input: Many of these Sheikhs have been disenfranchised and abused over the last two years.


Input: Very recently, US forces in Al-Anbar made a terrible blunder by accidentally killing Abdul-Razaq Inad Al-Gu'ud, Sheikh of the Al-Bu Nimr clan from the powerful Dulaym tribe.

US

Al-Anbar

Abdul-Razaq Inad Al-Gu'ud

Al-Bu Nimr


Input: Al-Gu'ud had favoured elections and was in good terms with the government.

Al-Gu'ud


Input: The Gu'ud family even accepted to be offered the seat of Al-Anbar governor some months back.

Gu'ud

Al-Anbar