09 Terrorism – Page 93 – Public Intelligence Blog

A 9/11 in Indonesia: JI's planned aviation attack: info Noordin Top's laptop

Countering terrorist ideology: the ideological response unit (Singapore)

Global (Terrorism) Pathfinder (Singapore)

The ICPVTR Terrorism Database – Global Pathfinder – is a one-stop repository for information on the current and emerging terrorist threat. The database focuses on terrorism and political violence in the Asia-Pacific region – comprising of Southeast Asia, North Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and Oceania.

In addition to providing the latest information on terrorist attacks and pronouncements, Global Pathfinder also includes over a hundred terrorist training manuals, counter terrorism legislations and conventions, analytical papers on terrorist ideologies, commentaries on terrorist trends and patterns, transcripts of landmark cases, interviews with terrorists as well as photographs from different conflict zones across the world. Further, Global Pathfinder also has a huge collection of jihadi websites, the contents of which are routinely translated and analysed by our analysts.

The Global Jihad Network: Why and How al–Qaeda UsesComputer Technology to Wage Jihad

One of the main architects of the new al-Qaeda is a man named Abu Musab al-Suri. He put down his vision for the future of jihad in a book entitled Call for Worldwide Islamic Resistance, a one-thousand six-hundred page manifesto published on the Internet in 2004.

…he sought “…to transfer the training to each house of each district in the village of every Muslim….making appropriate training materials available to more than a billion Muslims….

Systems Approach To Terrorism: Countering The Terrorist Training Subsystem

Celebi's thesis focuses on the use of the Internet both in general and in the case of the Kurdish group PKK. The work is strongest in its discussion of what the author calls the training subsystem, and in his explication of that system as involving more than tradecraft and being increasingly based online. This training subsystem is seen as having four core functions:

1. The training subsystem creates, intensifies and sustains the competence, commitment and the skills that the terrorists will apply to reach their goals.

2. The training subsystem not only teaches the ways and means, but also justifies them by means of intensive indoctrination.

3. The training subsystem establishes ties to the group and creates a sense of belonging.

4. The training subsystem enables knowledge to be stored inside the boundaries of the system, and facilitates its passing through generations.

2009/12/212010/09/02

Journal: Update on Combatting Global Terrorism

09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Government, Law Enforcement, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence

Kudos should be given to the UN’s Counter Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) for producing what is perhaps the most comprehensive and frank assessments to date of the international community’s implementation of Security Council Resolution 1373 and the measures adopted to combat international terrorism. Their report was presented to the Security Council by CTED Executive Director Mike Smith on December 16th and provides detailed information on what is actually being done, on the vulnerabilities, and on the technical assistance required. It provides a thematic overview of the laws and actions taken in the areas of enforcement, border control, countering the financing of terrorism, and international cooperation as well as a region by region assessment. Human rights considerations are also addressed. The report should be read closely.

2009/12/21

Journal: Fraudulent Security Device Popular in Iraq

09 Terrorism, Commercial Intelligence, Law Enforcement, Military

Original (3 Nov 09) Full Story Online

Iraq Swears by Bomb Detector U.S. Sees as Useless

The small hand-held wand, with a telescopic antenna on a swivel, is being used at hundreds of checkpoints in Iraq. But the device works “on the same principle as a Ouija board” — the power of suggestion — said a retired United States Air Force officer, Lt. Col. Hal Bidlack, who described the wand as nothing more than an explosives divining rod.

Still, the Iraqi government has purchased more than 1,500 of the devices, known as the ADE 651, at costs from $16,500 to $60,000 each. Nearly every police checkpoint, and many Iraqi military checkpoints, have one of the devices, which are now normally used in place of physical inspections of vehicles.

Schneier on Security: A blog covering security and security technology November 6, 2009

The Doghouse: ADE 651: A divining rod to find explosives in Iraq:

ATSC’s promotional material claims that its device can find guns, ammunition, drugs, truffles, human bodies and even contraband ivory at distances up to a kilometer, underground, through walls, underwater or even from airplanes three miles high. The device works on “electrostatic magnetic ion attraction,” ATSC says.

To detect materials, the operator puts an array of plastic-coated cardboard cards with bar codes into a holder connected to the wand by a cable. “It would be laughable,” Colonel Bidlack said, “except someone down the street from you is counting on this to keep bombs off the streets.”

Complete quackery, sold by Cumberland Industries:

Still, the Iraqi government has purchased more than 1,500 of the devices, known as the ADE 651, at costs from $16,500 to $60,000 each. Nearly every police checkpoint, and many Iraqi military checkpoints, have one of the devices, which are now normally used in place of physical inspections of vehicles.

Continue reading “Journal: Fraudulent Security Device Popular in Iraq”

2009/12/192010/01/12

Reference: Walter Dorn on UN Intelligence in Haiti

01 Poverty, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, Academia, Analysis, Articles & Chapters, Civil Society, Ethics, Government, InfoOps (IO), Law Enforcement, Methods & Process, Military, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence, United Nations & NGOs

UPDATE: Superceeded by final published version a tReference: Intelligence-Led Peacekeeping

Phi Beta Iota: Dr. Walter Dorn is one of a tiny handful of truly authoritative academic observers of UN intelligence, a pioneer in his own right, and perhaps the only person who has followed UN intelligence from the Congo in the 1960's to the creation of new capabilities in Haiti and elsewhere in the 21st Century. He is the dean of UN intelligence authors. See also Who’s Who in Peace Intelligence: Walter Dorn.

2009/12/152010/09/02

Event Report: UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy Among Civil Society in Southeast Asia

09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Communities of Practice, Key Players, Methods & Process, Peace Intelligence

Home Page

The Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation and Nahdatul Ulama (NU), with support from the governments of Germany and Sweden, co-hosted a workshop in Jakarta on 18-19 November 2009 to raise awareness of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy among civil society in Southeast Asia and explore the possibilities for greater civil society participation in efforts to implement the global framework in a manner that reflects the local contexts, needs, and prioriti es across the region. Participants in the workshop included representatives from civil society from across Southeast Asia working on an array of issues related to the implementation of the UN Strategy. The workshop aimed to build on the rich contributions of civil society to furthering human security in Southeast Asia and lay the foundations for the development of a civil society network related to the issues covered in the UN Strategy.

Click here to read the meeting summary.

Click here to read the background paper.

Press Coverage (Nine Links):

Continue reading “Event Report: UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy Among Civil Society in Southeast Asia”

2009/12/142009/12/14

Journal: Pakistan-Afghanistan War

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Energy, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence, Strategy

Phi Beta Iota: Zbigniew Brzezinski is doing an enormous amount of damage in his hidden counsel to the White House; if John Hamre replaces Bob Gates in January as has been discussed, this will get worse, not better. Below are a few odds and ends from various contributing editors, consolidated here to avoid beating a dead horse with too many postings. We have not sought to reconcile contradictory points of view, only to honor the importance of listening to diverse points of view. The London Telegraph piece is reproduced in full as it has disappeared from online view.

Chuck Spinney Sends on Religious Fundamentalism and the Rise of the Corporate State on What Is Living and What Is Dead in Social Democracy? on Soldiers’ Complaints of Shoddy Gear Spur Inquiry by House Democrats

Webster Tarpley Sends on Obama's War Against Pakistan on End the War Rally Videos on No Wind of Change After Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

Obama’s West Point speech of December 1 represents far more than the obvious brutal escalation in Afghanistan — it is nothing less than a declaration of all-out war by the United States against Pakistan.

Victor Davis Hansen on Obama’s Wheel of Fortune: The president’s luck has changed — and he doesn’t seem to have noticed

Marcus Aurelius Sends: Special Forces Unite To Destroy Taliban Leaders London Sunday Telegraph December 13, 2009 Pg. 2 By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent

British and US special forces are set to open a new front in southern Afghanistan in a bid to “break the back” of the Taliban insurgency.

Continue reading “Journal: Pakistan-Afghanistan War”

2009/12/122009/12/12

Reference: How Little We Know

09 Terrorism, Analysis, Articles & Chapters, Historic Contributions

This contribution by Dr. Laurie Mylroie is so good we are also cataloging it as a Historic Contribution. See her Wikipedia page as well. The article appeared originally in The American Spectator (October 2006). As much as we disagree with many of her beliefs on this matter, we do agree that our national intelligence community was not up to the task of determining the best available truth across the board. Her two books:

Category: 09 Terrorism

Journal: Resources on Terrorism and Jihad