Category Archives: Counterterror

12,209 Americans Killed by Americans with Guns in 2015

 

san-bernadino-california.1

December 2, 2015, 19 Americans were killed and 21 wounded in four incidents, one dead, three wounded in Georgia (Atlanta Journal Constitution), two dead in Texas in two incidents (ABC News) and 14 killed and 17 wounded in San Bernardino, California (NPR). In addition, two of the alleged shooters in California were killed and a police officer was wounded in a subsequent shoot-out with police.

As President Obama said, “We have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world.”  (NY Daily News, ABC News, CBS News.)

A total of 12,209 Americans were shot to death in 350 incidents in the USA thus far in 2015, according to Gun Violence Archive. In 2014 the US population was 318.9 million. So the odds are 0.0038285% – 38.285 in a Million or 1 in 26 thousand (26,119.9) that YOU – or I – will be shot to death in America. That’s better that the one in 175 million chance of winning the Powerball Lottery (Ronald Wasserstein, Huffington Post, here).

Americans are 6,700 times more likely of being shot dead than winning Powerball.

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Energy Portfolios, 2 Years 11 Months: Sustainable Energy Up 129.5%, Fossil Fuel DOWN 29.6%

PLPort.1511On Dec. 21, 2012, I put $16 Million imaginary dollars in equal imaginary investments in 16 real energy companies; $8.0 in the Sustainable Energy space and $8.0 in the fossil fuel space. Excluding the value of dividends and transaction costs, but including the bankruptcy or crash of three companies in the sustainable energy space,

As of the close of trading on November 20, 2015:

  • The Fossil Fuel portfolio was worth $5.63 Million, down 29.57% overall, down 10.44% on an annualized basis.
  • The Sustainable Energy portfolio was worth $18.0 Million, up 129.50%, overall and 45.71% on an annualized basis.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 36.15% overall and 10.44% on an annualized basis, from 13,091 on 12/21/12 to close at 17,824 on 10/21/15.
  • The S&P 500 is up 46.10% overall and 16.27% on an annualized basis, from 1,430 on 12/21/12 to close at 2,089 on 10/21/15.

It’s not a war on coal. It’s a paradigm shift.Think about it. We don’t use whale oil or kerosene for street lamps. We did, 100 years ago.

This of course, has geopolitical ramifications. It’s not just carbon dioxide, which is changing the climate and acidifying the oceans. Like Al Queda, Hamas and Hezbollah, ISIS finances its operations with petrodollars. (The difference is that Hamas is supported by Emirates and Kuwait, Hezbollah by Iran, Al Queda by our friends the Saudis, while ISIS has its own oil wells.) Earlier this year NJ’s Honorable Governor Chris Christie, a candidate for President, gave Exxon a $9 Billion gift (which is being challenged in the courts). BP was the beneficiary of the 1953 coup by the US under President Eisenhower and the UK which toppled the democratically elected government led by Prime Minister Mohammed Mossagedgh of Iran and propped up the Shah until the revolution in 1979.  Shell has spent something like $12 Billion in failed attempts to drill the Arctic. BP, Transocean and Halliburton brought us the Deepwater Horizon; Halliburton also profited from the US Led war in Iraq.

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Leave Improvisation to Actors, Comedians, and Musicians – and Develop Coherent Disaster & Risk Policies

Craig Fugate

Craig Fugate

After bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon, April 15, 2013, the FBI and the Boston Police tracked down the alleged terrorists, who in the course of their flight killed a cop at MIT, hijacked a Mercedes, fired and threw bombs at police, and tried to ram the police with the stolen car. Continue reading →

Airstrike Kills Senior Al-Qaida Leader in Yemen – NYTimes.com

Via Airstrike Kills Senior Al-Qaida Leader in Yemen – NYTimes.com.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni officials say an airstrike has killed a top al-Qaida leader who was wanted in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. The airstrike resembled earlier U.S. drone attacks, but the U.S. did not immediately confirm it.

Local official Abu Bakr bin Farid said Fahd al-Quso was killed Sunday along with an aide in an airstrike in the southern Shabwa province. The Yemeni Embassy in Washington confirmed the report.

 

Taliban escape tunnel effective and also profitable

We missed this account of the May 2011 Kandahar jailbreak, which has some details which, we think, should be sobering to anyone who writes off the Taliban as adversaries. They’ve demonstrated that they can learn, adapt, improvise and coordinate complicated projects involving many people without being stopped by an informant, eavesdropping of any type, or other counter-intelligence techniques. From  Taliban tunnel jailbreak account reveals initial setbacks/Tunnellers veered off course before emerging in Kandahar prison cell and leading 500 prisoners to escape, published in The Guardian (UK) on 16 May, by reporting from Kabul.

Taliban tunnellers who burrowed into Kandahar’s main jail in April dug a superfluous 120 metres after veering off course, according to an account of the prison break published by the insurgent group. The escape of nearly 500 Taliban prisoners without a shot being fired was a spectacular coup for the group. But the version of events that appeared last week in al-Somood, an Arabic magazine published by the Taliban, revealed the setback after the tunnel, which was supposed to enter the wing of the prison housing political prisoners, veered off to the right, “reaching a village close to the prison”. The problem was rectified after insurgents “downloaded the prison map from the internet”. and used “earth measurement tools” to dig 100m back to where they needed to be, according to a translation published on the website of Alex Strick van Linschoten, a researcher who studies the Taliban. The tunnellers had difficulties ensuring they emerged in the right cell in the political prisoners’ wing of Sarposa jail. They were assisted by one of a few inmates who were in on the plot. He found excuses to bang loudly on his cell floor to guide the tunnellers. All inmates except two conspirators were corralled into a Qur’an recitation session in order to keep secret that the tunnellers had successfully pushed a test blade through the floor. With the Arab world an important source of funds for insurgents, the articles go out of their way to demonstrate the remarkable cunning and organisational skills of a small group who pulled off a feat that David Petraeus, commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, conceded was a “setback” to improving security in the south. Just two weeks after their escape, many former prisoners took part in a two-day assault on government buildings in Kandahar . The article said the mission cost $20,000 (£12,000), with the bill offset by a business enterprise. Tunnelling began from a building outside the prison walls that the Taliban turned into a cement workshop, which employed workers and produced building materials. Work began on the tunnel only after the cement workers had finished work for the day, and cement blocks produced during the five-month operation were sold “making much profit”. The Taliban made more money from the earth excavated by the tunnellers, which they drove out of the compound in trucks and sold in a nearby market, the article said. The magazine carried an interview with Muhammad Idris, a 23-year-old escapee, who described being told of the escape attempt just hours before it happened, and the moment when tunnellers burst through the prison’s concrete floor using metal poles and car jacks. Taliban commanders did not allow prisoners to carry luggage in order to prevent delays, and anyone with more than about $65 in cash had their extra money redistributed to other prisoners. The process of getting all the prisoners through the main tunnel, as well as a secondary spur that led to a detention area, was eased by a telephone wire that ran through the tunnel and allowed commanders to talk to one another. Weapons were brought so “state spies” in the political wing could be dealt with. “The decision was made if such spies were to cause trouble or attempt telling the prison guards we would kill them by these arms and knives,” Idris said.The articles revealed that the Taliban customised conventional wheelbarrows by attaching wheels from children’s bicycles bought in a local market, which they then dragged through the tunnel with ropes. The finished structure boasted a ventilation tube and 45 electric lights.

(Emphasis added)

See also

NATO: Taliban prison attack, “isolated incident”

 

'major drug tunnel' under Mexico border; how drug prohibition creates opportunities for terrorists

Assuming – for argument’s sake – law enforcement finds all of these tunnels eventually – each completed tunnel which is found presumably is a conduit for some amount of contraband; further, tunnels are only one capital-intensive way of moving profitable loads of banned goods (submersible and small submarines being another example). How  does it make economic sense to build a tunnel which will, eventually and inevitably be discovered, wasting the capital investment? Because the illegality of the drugs creates artificially high prices, generating sufficient revenues to build tunnels, bribe government officials, and buy submarines.

A methodical terrorist who could make a deal with a drug smuggler could easily piggy-back a load of weapons, explosives or personnel. NB: the September 11th attacks were conducted by 19 people who, as far as we know, acquired whatever weapons they needed within the United States. If we want to shut down the narco gangsters, and plug these holes in our border security, we’re going to have to take the profit out of it. That means, we think, decriminalizing, regulating, and taxing illegal drugs. In the meantime, courtesy of the BBC, the latest border tunnel:

US officials say they have uncovered a major drug-smuggling tunnel under the border with Mexico and seized an estimated 14 tons of marijuana. Customs officials said the tunnel linked warehouses in Tijuana, Mexico, and Otay Mesa, in California. Pictures of the tunnel showed wooden supports and electric cables indicative of lighting and ventilation systems. Dozens of such tunnels have been found in recent years as US police have cracked down on overland smuggling. More than 30 have been discovered this year, Mexican authorities said, according to AFP news agency. The tunnels are also used to smuggle illegal migrants into the US. Nine or 10 tons of marijuana was found on the US side of the tunnel while Mexican police seized five tons on their end, said Derek Benner, a special agent with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The tunnel was estimated at 400 yards (365m) in length but it was not clear how deep or wide it was. Other tunnels found by US police have included tracks, lights and ventilation systems.

US police find ‘major drug tunnel’ under Mexico border  (via BBC)

 

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"US court case reveals CIA rendition details" – BBC

The BBC reports that litigation between a charter company and an aviation company involving a fee dispute has led to new details of rendition flights. US court case reveals CIA rendition details summarizes the new details and previous disclosures from other sources, including leaked documents and reports from human rights organizations.

Some of the details noted by the BBC:

  • Airport invoices and other commercial records provide a paper trail for the movements of some terrorism suspects allegedly held in secret CIA prisons, along with government operatives who flew to the scenes of their detention.
  • The records include flight itineraries coordinated with the arrest of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and the suspected transport of other detainees.
  • The private jets were given US state department transit letters providing diplomatic cover for their flights.
  • The private business jets sometimes landed several times during a single mission, and in at least one case cost the US government as much as $300,000 for one flight.
  • The crew of one of the jets involved made expenses claims for items such as $20 sandwiches and $40 wine bottles, court documents published by the Guardian show.

There’s more in this excellent piece; we haven’t yet seen any coverage in other English-language outlets, but hope to. Any readers having seen other relevant reports are encouraged to share them in comments.

BBC News – Iran embassy SAS commander John McAleese dies

 

 

Ex-SAS soldier John McAleese, who led the raid that ended the 1980 siege at Iran’s embassy in London, has died.

Mr McAleese, who was in his early 60s, died on Friday in Thessaloniki, Greece, the Foreign Office said.

The former sergeant led the team which blew out the building’s windows and rescued 24 hostages from gunmen.

His daughter said he had been reunited with his son, a soldier killed in Afghanistan. “Two great heroes taking their place in heaven,” she said.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “We are aware of the death of John McAleese, a hero who served his country bravely and professionally in a military career that spanned many years.

“Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.”

Millions of television viewers watched Mr McAleese and his team, dressed in black, storm the embassy on 5 May 1980 to end the six-day siege within 15 minutes of entering.

Six Iranian separatists took over the embassy and demanded the release of 91 political prisoners held in Iran as well as an aircraft to take them and 26 hostages out of the UK.

Then Home Secretary William Whitelaw ordered the SAS attack after the gunmen shot dead Iranian press attaché Abbas Lavasani and dumped his body outside the building.

During the SAS operation, five of the gunmen and one of the remaining hostages were killed.

BBC presenter

Hayley, 28, said her father – who went on to present the BBC programme SAS: Are You Tough Enough? – never got over the death of his son Serjeant Paul McAleese, 29, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2009 as he went to help a fatally injured colleague.

via BBC News – Iran embassy SAS commander John McAleese dies.

Taliban attack shows increasing sophistication

The BBC has  reported that a Taliban attack on a British compound in Kabul has killed at least a dozen people.  Attack on British Council compound in Kabul kills 12 .  What’s particularly disturbing is the coordinated nature of the attack, which involved at least three elements:  one force which staged a diversionary attack nearby, a suicide car bomb  attack which breached the compound perimeter wall, and a third force of armed attackers, which entered through the breach created by the car bomb.

Gunmen have stormed the British Council office in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing at least 12 people and taking over the compound for hours.  A suicide car bomb destroyed the compound wall and a number of heavily armed men forced their way inside.  After several hours of gunfire and blasts, the UK’s ambassador in Kabul said all the gunmen had been killed.   The Taliban said the attack marked the anniversary of Afghanistan’s independence from the UK in 1919.   There has been some confusion about the number of people killed in the Kabul attacks.

At least eight Afghan policemen and a New Zealand special forces soldier were killed, officials from both countries said. Three security guards also died, the Afghan interior ministry told the BBC.   UK Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the “cowardly attack”, saying he had spoken to New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to thank him for the role the country’s special forces had played in defending the compound.

PhotoBlog has an outstanding set of images taken immediately after the attack.  

Here’s additional detail from the BBC report:

Friday’s strike was a three-phase attack, intelligence sources told the BBC. First, a suicide attacker detonated his explosive vest at a square in western Kabul where police were guarding a key intersection shortly after 05:30 (01:30 GMT). Ten minutes later, a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle outside the front gate of the British Council, destroying a wall, which allowed the attackers into the compound.  A number of Afghan policemen were feared to have been buried in the rubble.
As the area was evacuated, local shopkeepers said as many as nine insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns and AK-47s started firing as they ran towards the British Council building.  Afghan and Nepalese guards fought the attackers until help arrived in the form of Afghan commandos and New Zealand special forces.  A lone injured gunman managed to hold out in an area protected by armoured doors and glass before was he killed eight hours after the attack began, Afghan intelligence officials said.

Several aspects of this attack are worth noting.

  • The coordination and sophistication of the attacks suggest  substantial training – and possibly sophisticated facilities, such as live-fire ranges (shooting houses).
  • If the Taliban are increasing the sophistication and variety of their attacks and techniques, we’re going to have up our game as well – but by being smarter, more flexible and make as many allies as possible.
  • The increased sophistication of the attacks – using diversions – suggests the use of some sort of communications equipment perhaps mobile phones – which might provide investigative and intelligence leads.
  • The use of a car bomb not merely as an end in itself, but to breach a perimeter, underscores the difficulty of defending a static position against a sophisticated attack by skilled attackers.

Terrorism Training Casts Pall Over Muslim Employee : NPR

If terrorism can make Americans afraid of each other, they’ve advanced their agenda both by bring divisive, and also by diverting attention from real threats. From Dina Temple-Raston, NPR national security correspondent, on NPR’s Morning Edition. Audio available later today.  Excerpted from NPR’s Terrorism Training Casts Pall Over Muslim Employee

In the first of two stories on counterterrorism training, NPR reports on one training session that turned a state employee into a suspect.

The man at the center of this story is a 59-year-old Jordanian-American named Omar al-Omari. He looks very much like the college professor that he is — all tweed jacket, button-down shirt, thick round glasses, drinking coffee. We met at a coffee shop near downtown Columbus, Ohio, where he laid out a series of events that ended with him being accused of having links to terrorism.

“Actually I was out of town, out of state, attending a conference and on my way back to Columbus,” Omari said, “and I received a call from one of the attendees of this conference in which I was told my name was used repeatedly during the training. Apparently I was labeled as a suspect. They personalized the attacks. There was a promise to dig into my background and basically as an Arab-Muslim American — they thought I’m a suspect.”

via Terrorism Training Casts Pall Over Muslim Employee : NPR.

Unfortunately, there’s no happy ending. And Professor Omari had been a leading consultant to the Bureau and other law enforcement agencies in communicating with American Muslims.

Reform Material Support Laws for Terrorists – NYTimes.com

DID former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Tom Ridge, a former homeland security secretary, and Frances Townsend, a former national security adviser, all commit a federal crime last month in Paris when they spoke in support of the Mujahedeen Khalq at a conference organized by the Iranian opposition group’s advocates? Free speech, right? Not necessarily.The problem is that the United States government has labeled the Mujahedeen Khalq a “foreign terrorist organization,” making it a crime to provide it, directly or indirectly, with any material support. And, according to the Justice Department under Mr. Mukasey himself, as well as under the current attorney general, Eric Holder, material support includes not only cash and other tangible aid, but also speech coordinated with a “foreign terrorist organization” for its benefit. It is therefore a felony, the government has argued, to file an amicus brief on behalf of a “terrorist” group, to engage in public advocacy to challenge a group’s “terrorist” designation or even to encourage peaceful avenues for redress of grievances.Don’t get me wrong. I believe Mr. Mukasey and his compatriots had every right to say what they did. Indeed, I argued just that in the Supreme Court, on behalf of the Los Angeles-based Humanitarian Law Project, which fought for more than a decade in American courts for its right to teach the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Turkey how to bring human rights claims before the United Nations, and to assist them in peace overtures to the Turkish government.But in June, the Supreme Court ruled against us, stating that all such speech could be prohibited, because it might indirectly support the group’s terrorist activity. Chief Justice John Roberts reasoned that a terrorist group might use human rights advocacy training to file harassing claims, that it might use peacemaking assistance as a cover while re-arming itself, and that such speech could contribute to the group’s “legitimacy,” and thus increase its ability to obtain support elsewhere that could be turned to terrorist ends. Under the court’s decision, former President Jimmy Carter’s election monitoring team could be prosecuted for meeting with and advising Hezbollah during the 2009 Lebanese elections.The government has similarly argued that providing legitimate humanitarian aid to victims of war or natural disasters is a crime if provided to or coordinated with a group labeled as a “foreign terrorist organization” — even if there is no other way to get the aid to the region in need. Yet The Times recently reported that the Treasury Department, under a provision ostensibly intended for humanitarian aid, was secretly granting licenses to American businesses to sell billions of dollars worth of food and goods to the very countries we have blockaded for their support of terrorism. Some of the “humanitarian aid” exempted? Cigarettes, popcorn and chewing gum.Under current law, it seems, the right to make profits is more sacrosanct than the right to petition for peace, and the need to placate American businesses more compelling than the need to provide food and shelter to earthquake victims and war refugees.Congress should reform the laws governing material support of terrorism. It should make clear that speech advocating only lawful, nonviolent activities — as Michael Mukasey and Rudolph Giuliani did in Paris — is not a crime. The First Amendment protects even speech advocating criminal activity, unless it is intended and likely to incite imminent lawless conduct. The risk that speech advocating peace and human rights would further terrorism is so remote that it cannot outweigh the indispensable value of protecting dissent.At the same time, Congress also needs to reform the humanitarian aid exemption. It should state clearly that corporate interests in making profits from cigarettes are not sufficient to warrant exemptions from sanctions on state sponsors of terrorism. But Congress should also protect the provision of legitimate humanitarian aid — food, water, medical aid and shelter — in response to wars or natural disasters. Genuine humanitarian aid and free speech can and should be preserved without undermining our interests in security.

via Reform Material Support Laws for Terrorists – NYTimes.com.

Financial Cryptography: over 30K EU identity stolen per year

Financial Cryptography reports that

A classified Dutch government report has revealed that criminals stole 341,956 passports, identity cards, visa stickers and drivers’ licences from European government facilities since 2000.

Financial Cryptography,  citing 341,956 blank EU travel documents in criminal hands on  NRC Handelsblad (in English).

In other words, not only government intelligence services have access to false identity documents. See our earlier coverage of this issue: Hamas claims Israel assassinated commander in Dubai – Wikinews, the free news source




Obama and The People Fight Terrorism

President Barack Obama

In response to the Christmas Day attempted terror attack, President Obama’s actions and former Vice President Cheney’s comments highlight the differences between the two administrations: The Bush Administration was famous for not being “Reality Based” (NY Times). The Obama Administration investigates first, thinks, and ACTS(Reuters), while accepting responsibility for any failures.  “Ultimately, the buck stops with me,” Obama said. “As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people.” (CS Monitor)

On 12/29/9, President Obama said it was a systemic failure (Christian Science Monitor). On 1/3/10, he said the attack was planned in Yemen (NY Times). We also know he approved US counter-terror strikes in Yemen, which occurred on 12/24/09 (NPR /  NYTimes) and which killed Al Queda Terrorists. Continue reading →