09 Terrorism – Page 89 – Public Intelligence Blog

(1) I've seen some of the surveillance video on CNN; here is a link to more.

(2) Regardless of who ran the operation, sounds like the Hamas guy needed to go;

(3) in addition to surveillance and biometrics, proliferation of commercially-available databases such ChoicePoint creates additional operational challenges.)

Full Story Online

How spy technologies foil old-school political killings

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Peter Finn

Saturday, February 20, 2010; A13

The practice of secretly assassinating purported enemies of the state — an age-old tool of foreign policy — has run up against steadily improving international police collaboration and the global proliferation of surveillance technologies that make it harder for anyone anywhere to surreptitiously conduct a high-profile killing on foreign soil.

In Doha, London and now Dubai, political killers have been caught on film and tracked, provoking unexpected attention and controversy for the organizers. Because of new biometric technologies, the proliferation of cheap video, and sophisticated monitoring of customs points and airports, the skills of those who specialize in the creation of fictional identities have been tested, and sometimes defeated.

The apparent political killing of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh has ricocheted around the world in recent days after his alleged attackers were spotted by a camera above an elevator at the Dubai Al-Bustan Rotana hotel, in the United Arab Emirates. Four suspects, all obvious weight-lifters, were filmed exiting in pairs and heading for Mabhouh's room.

Shortly after the killing, they were again filmed, this time more nervously boarding the same elevator, wearing the same baseball caps. Then they were filmed again, leaving the airport on flights to Europe, Africa and Asia. On Thursday, Interpol issued warrants for 11 suspects after the Dubai police conducted a careful study of their videotaped movements at nearly a dozen locales. Their mug shots had already been flashed on television screens around the world.ed to this report.

2010/02/202010/02/20

Search: how much is al-qaeda worth?

08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Government, Law Enforcement, Military, Mobile

Very cool question. We don't have the answers, but here are a few thoughts.

Who benefits? There is only one beneficiary of Al Qaeda as a virtual actor: the US Military-Industrial-Intelligence-Congressional Complex whose outrageously wasteful funding and excessive (70%) obligations to contractors are bankrupting the US economy, but who cares as long as the corporate gravy train keeps rolling along. The indigenous peoples seeking self-determination, including the long-repressed people of Saudi Arabia and the long-repressed peoples of Palestine, do not benefit from a model that Mahatma Gandhi clearly understood was self-destructive. Non-violence is the only sustainable path to self-determination.

Calculating value. With the above firmly in mind, Al Qaeda's “value” to the sole beneficiary, the MIICC, is a combination of three sums:

1. The sums Al Qaeda and related groups receive from governments, corporations, and individuals interested in sustaining radical Islamic violence against both Muslims and the West.

2. The sums the US and others spend on false flag operations attributed to Al Qaeda (the underpants bomber is probably an Israeli false-flag operation with US consent and colalboration)

3. The sums the MIICC receives from a corrupt Congress that has not done a serious national security baseline evaluation of need since Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA) retired from his post as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

What is Al Gaeda Worth? Our wild-ass but informed guess is $1 trillion a year. That one trillion a year is both positive value (for those that benefit) and negative value (for all the others). With one trillion a year we could have brought the USA into the 21st Century, funded free cell phones for the five billion poor so they could create infinite stabilizing and self-sustaining wealth, and created a prosperous world at peace.

Continue reading “Search: how much is al-qaeda worth?”

2010/02/10

Journal: 9-11 Aerial Photos

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism

2010/02/012010/09/02

Journal: Apocalypse to Viet-Nam–Worth a Look

03 Economy, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, Peace Intelligence

berto small — Berto Jongman Recommends...

Afghanistan: Mullah Omar Ready to End Al Qaida Ties (Video)

Apocalyptic thinking and the signs of the coming apocalypse by sheikh IMran N. Hosein

Book announcement: how enemies become friends

Book Reviews, Books by Ronald Crelinsten by Tim Stevens

Conflict in N Dimensions Excellent blog by Tim Stevens

Cyber-War and Critical Infrastructure I

Cyber-War and Critical Infrastructure II

Cyber-War and Critical Infrastructure III

Cyber-War: The costs of databreaches in US and UK

Islamic thinking on the role of money and islamic banking by sheikh Imran N. Hosein.

Peace after war New study

Terror Risk High as Obama Ponders Afghan Fiasco (November Prediction of Christmas Day False Flag Operation by Christopher Bollyn) November 18, 2009 The risk of another false-flag terror attack like the terror atrocities of 9-11 is currently very high. This is not a prediction but a warning based on my analysis of 9-11 and the predicament that the U.S. and NATO find themselves in as they try to “pacify” occupied Afghanistan, a nation of fighting men who have always resisted foreign occupiers since Alexander the Great conquered the region and built Kandahar (Alexandria) in 330 B.C.

Terror: New study of the WODC (Scientific Research and Documentation Center of the Ministry of Justice) on Dutch jihadists. For the first time reserachers had access to twelve police investigative files on cases in the periode 2001-2005. An English summary can be found on pages 166-171.

Terror: Remarks on terrorist financing

Vietnam new study on role of CIA

2010/01/282010/01/28

Journal: National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) Goes from Dumb to Dumber

09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Analysis, Government, Methods & Process

Full Story Online

Director: NCTC has analyst shortage
The National Counterterrorism Center does not have enough analysts to comb through the thousands of pieces of terrorism-related information it receives every day, even though a plan to cut millions of dollars from its budget has been reversed, NCTC Director Michael Leiter told House lawmakers on Wednesday.

. . . . . . .

Each day, the NCTC receives more than 5,000 pieces of terrorist-related information and reviews 5,000 names of suspected terrorists, Leiter said.

aa nctc boss — From Clerk to CT Boss (Bio)

Phi Beta Iota: The guy in charge of NCTC is a lawyer–his greatest achievements have been as a clerk for a Justice and as a staffer for the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB). Who are we kidding here? The NCTC is a monstrous travesty with 80 disconnected databases and too many contractors. NCTC needs four things: A DNI with proper authorities who can down-size any agency that does not join a SINGLE automated database ingesting at machine speed (which can have pointers to the others); a leader who actually knows something about intelligence, not a Friend of Whomevers (FoW as in Bow Wow); and the return of Paul Strassmann to unscrew what is clearly an information technology cesspool. As for John Brennan, who created this mess in the first place, he's holding forth at the White House, working for a President that has no idea that all these guys are really do not know what they are doing! So much for heads will roll–the only person being rolled is the Presiden–and the Republic he represents.

And by the way, we still think this is probably an Israeli false flag, with or without a wink and a nod from the secret side of the US Government. Where is the guy with the video camera? Remember how the Israeli's sent a video crew (well in advance) to cover 9-11? This matter has not been properly investigated, and giving a lawyer more clerks is NOT going to change the fact that US intelligence is in free-fall.

2010/01/262010/09/02

Journal: Home-Grown Terrorism in USA

08 Immigration, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Government, Law Enforcement

aa real instistitute — Full Review Online

The Homegrown Terrorist Threat to the US Homeland (ARI)

Lorenzo Vidino

ARI 171/2009 – 18/12/2009

EXTRACT 1: All these plots are very diverse in their origin, degree of sophistication and characteristics of the individuals involved. Yet they all contribute to paint the picture of the complex and rapidly changing reality of terrorism of Islamist inspiration in the US. Moreover, they smash or, at least, severely undermine an assumption that has been widely held by policymakers and analysts over the last 15 years. The common wisdom, in fact, has traditionally been that American Muslims, unlike their European counterparts, were virtually immune to radicalisation.

EXTRACT 2: The wave of arrests of the last months of 2009 has contributed to shedding light on a reality that is significantly more nuanced, showing that radicalisation affects some small segments of the American Muslim population exactly like it affects some fringe pockets of the Muslim population of each European country. Evidence supporting this view has been available for a long time, as the cases of American Muslims joining radical Islamist groups date back to the 1970s.[12] According to data collected by the NYU Center on Law and Security, for example, more than 500 individuals have been convicted by the American authorities for terrorism-related charges since 9/11.[13] Most of them are US citizens or long-time US residents who underwent radicalisation inside the US.

Phi Beta Iota: Recommended by Contributing Editor Berto Jongman.