kamakazi

Terror going strong here in the winter of 2008 and spring 2009:

ABOVE, tube bombers not assisted by these chaps, but they were convicted of another charge. Hostage, we presume beheaded, when Britain did not release mastermind, Abu Qatada (l.); U.S.S.Cole and guy.
BELOW: SWEDEN site of 2002 prevented terror attack; underage flying student kills himself in attack on Bank of America building in Tampa, FLA. Click on picture of young pilot to read of other similar event. Sick and stupid loss of a life...although the latest in Frankfurt (January 2003) ended without event.

U.S. Widens Terror War to Yemen, a Qaeda Bastion
NYTIMES
By ERIC SCHMITT and ROBERT F. WORTH
December 28, 2009

WASHINGTON — In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against Al Qaeda in Yemen.

A year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency sent several of its top field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country, according a former top agency official. At the same time, some of the most secretive Special Operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics, senior military officers said.

The Pentagon is spending more than $70 million over the next 18 months, and using teams of Special Forces, to train and equip Yemeni military, Interior Ministry and coast guard forces, more than doubling previous military aid levels.

As American investigators sought to corroborate the claims of a 23-year-old Nigerian man that Qaeda leaders in Yemen had trained and equipped him to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines jet on Christmas Day, the plot casts a spotlight on the Obama administration’s complicated relationship with Yemen.

The country has long been a refuge for jihadists, in part because Yemen’s government welcomed returning Islamist fighters who had fought in Afghanistan during the 1980s. The Yemen port of Aden was the site of the audacious bombing of the American destroyer Cole in October 2000 by Qaeda militants, which killed 17 sailors.

But Qaeda militants have made much more focused efforts to build a base in Yemen in recent years, drawing recruits from throughout the region and mounting attacks more frequently on foreign embassies and other targets. The White House is seeking to nurture enduring ties with the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and prod him to combat the local Qaeda affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, even as his impoverished country grapples with seemingly intractable internal turmoil.

With fears also growing of a resurgent Islamist extremism in nearby Somalia and East Africa, administration officials and American lawmakers said Yemen could become Al Qaeda’s next operational and training hub, rivaling the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan where the organization’s top leaders operate.

“Yemen now becomes one of the centers of that fight,” said Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut and chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, who visited the country in August. “We have a growing presence there, and we have to, of Special Operations, Green Berets, intelligence,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”

American and Yemeni officials said that a pivotal point in the relationship was reached in late summer after separate secret visits to Yemen by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American regional commander, and John O. Brennan, President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser.

President Saleh agreed to expanded overt and covert assistance in response to growing pressure from the United States and Yemen’s neighbors, notably Saudi Arabia, from which many Qaeda operatives had fled to Yemen, as well as a rising threat against the country’s political inner circle, the officials said.

“Yemen’s security problems won’t just stay in Yemen,” said Christopher Boucek, who studies Yemen as an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “They’re regional problems and they affect Western interests.”

Al Qaeda’s profile in Yemen rose sharply a year ago, when a former Guantánamo Bay detainee from Saudi Arabia, Said Ali al-Shihri, fled to Yemen to join Al Qaeda and appeared in a video posted online. Several other former Guantánamo detainees have also joined the group.

Yemen’s remote areas are notoriously lawless, but the country’s chaos has worsened in the past two years, as the government struggles with an armed rebellion in the northwest and a rising secessionist movement in the south. Yemen is running out of oil, and the government’s dwindling finances have affected its ability to strike at Al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, there have been increasing Yemeni ties to plots against the United States. A Muslim man charged in the June 1 killing of a soldier at a recruiting center in a mall in Little Rock, Ark., had traveled to Yemen, prompting a review by the F.B.I. of other domestic extremists who had visited the country.

A radical cleric in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki, has been linked to numerous terrorism suspects, including Nidal Malik Hasan, the American Army major who faces murder charges in the shooting deaths of 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., in November.

In the latest issue of Sada al-Malahim, the Internet magazine of the Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, the group’s leader, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, praised the use of small bombs — not just big ones — to attack an enemy, in an eerie foreshadowing of Friday’s episode on the plane to Detroit.

Yemen escalated its campaign against Al Qaeda with major airstrikes on Dec. 17 and last Thursday that killed more than 60 militants.

American officials have been coy about the role of the United States in the strikes, saying that they have provided intelligence and “firepower” for the efforts.

Yemen’s foreign minister, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, said Sunday that Yemeni military cooperation with the United States and Saudi Arabia had increased in recent months as fresh intelligence confirmed Al Qaeda’s greater assertiveness in the country.

“There was intelligence that they were targeting the British Embassy and a number of government institutions as well as private schools,” Mr. Qirbi said in a telephone interview. “The second reason is that they have become more vocal, trying to show that they can undertake terrorist activities in an open fashion. So the government had to respond to that.”

The recent airstrikes were planned for two or three months, Mr. Qirbi said, but could not take place until there was fresh intelligence about the location of the Qaeda operatives who were the targets.

He called that intelligence — which included information provided by the United States — “the most important element” in the successful strike on the Qaeda members.

Mr. Qirbi added that although the United States provided Yemen with military hardware, the airstrikes were carried out by the Yemeni military alone.

Although the most important intelligence came from the United States and Saudi Arabia, other countries in the region have increased their financial assistance in recent months to help Yemen, said Mustafa Alani, a security analyst at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. “There was a fear inside and outside Yemen that Al Qaeda was taking new ground, establishing training centers, making some parts of Yemen no-go areas,” Mr. Alani said. The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait in particular provided assistance, he said, because “they feel that sooner or later they will become targets too.”

In the past year, Al Qaeda has killed six intelligence officers in the provinces where it is based, part of an unmistakable campaign by the group to secure its sanctuary there, Mr. Alani said. The intelligence officers were trying to gather information on the group, and to disrupt its growing links with local tribes — a significant part of its strategy, Mr. Alani added.

The airstrikes of the past two weeks have been successful but have come at a price, Yemeni officials said. “They have been hit hard, but they have not yet been disabled,” said one high-ranking Yemeni official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic issues involved. “The problem is that the involvement of the United States creates sympathy for Al Qaeda. The cooperation is necessary — but there is no doubt that it has an effect for the common man. He sympathizes with Al Qaeda.”

As if to reaffirm that message, Al Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate released a statement to Internet sites on Sunday that put strong emphasis on the American role in the recent raids, deriding the Yemeni government for claiming responsibility.

Page last updated at 15:54 GMT, Friday, 1 January 2010

Jet bomb suspect's journey 'began in Ghana'

Nigeria says the suspect spent very little time at Lagos airport

The Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a transatlantic airline on Christmas Day began his journey in Ghana, the Nigerian authorities say.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab spent just half an hour at the airport in Lagos before transferring to an Amsterdam flight, the information minister said.

It had been assumed the 23-year-old began his journey in Nigeria.

But Ghana has disputed Nigeria's timings, saying Mr Abdulmutallab's stop-over was at least three hours.

A senior Ghanaian government official told the BBC that the suspect bought a one-way ticket to Lagos from Accra that would have given him more than three hours at the airport.

He accused the Nigerians of attempting to "pass the buck" as the search for security lapses continues, the BBC's West Africa Correspondent Caspar Leighton reports from Accra.

Nigeria's Information Minister Dora Akunyili earlier told the BBC that it was now known Mr Abdulmutallab had boarded a Virgin Nigeria plane from Accra to Nigeria, arriving at Lagos' Murtala Muhammed airport on 24 December.

His passport was scanned on entry into Nigeria at 2008 (1908GMT), and again, as he boarded the flight to Amsterdam, at 2035, she said.

Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili

Dora Akunyili has defended Nigeria's security procedures

"He was able to connect that fast because he was not checking in any luggage," she said.

From Amsterdam, the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 - with 278 passengers and 11 crew aboard - went on to the US city of Detroit.

Some 20 minutes before landing at the city's Metropolitan Airport, on the afternoon of Christmas Day, Mr Abdulmutallab was spotted by flight crew and passengers trying to ignite explosives strapped to his leg, investigators say.

The explosives failed to detonate, although it is thought they may have caused a small fire which burned the suspect's leg.

He is now in US custody.

Body scanners

The incident has led to a worldwide re-think about security procedures.

UMAR FAROUK ABDULMUTALLAB

Son of a wealthy Nigerian businessman

Attended a British school in Togo

Studied mechanical engineering at University College London

Spent time in Dubai, Yemen and Egypt

US President Barack Obama is reading reports received about the security lapses that led to the near-disaster in Detroit, and intends to meet security chiefs on Tuesday to discuss new measures.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced on Friday he had ordered a review of existing security measures, and would "move quickly" to enhance airport security.

Full-body scanners would be among the new technologies considered, he said.

The Dutch authorities announced earlier this week that body scanners would be used on all passengers flying from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport to the US.

Shebab 'help'

The incident has also thrown the spotlight on Yemen, where Mr Abdulmutallab was living in the months leading up to the attack.

It is feared the troubled country is becoming a major training centre for militants, with several hundred al-Qaeda members believed to be operating there.

In recent weeks, Yemen has launched major operations against al-Qaeda with US backing, but has warned that it needs more Western support to tackle the threat.

Britain's prime minister has called a summit in London to discuss radicalisation in Yemen.

Mr Brown's office said the 28 January event had support from Washington and the European Union, and Mr Brown aimed to attract Saudi Arabia and Gulf states.

Somalia's hardline Shabab group - which controls large swathes of Somalia, including much of the capital Mogadishu - said on Friday it would send fighters to help fellow militants in Yemen.

"We tell our Muslim brothers in Yemen that we will cross the water between us and reach your place to assist you fight the enemy of Allah," said Shebab's Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansour.

Page last updated at 17:24 GMT, Wednesday, 30 December 2009

US aware 'Nigerian' prepared for terror attack

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has been charged over the incident

The US was aware that "a Nigerian" in Yemen was being prepared for a terrorist attack - weeks before an attempted bombing on a US plane.

ABC News and the New York Times say there was intelligence to this effect, but its source is unclear.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab flew from Lagos to Amsterdam before changing planes for a flight to Detroit on which he allegedly tried to detonate a bomb.

The Netherlands is to introduce body scanners on US flights within weeks.

Dutch Interior Minister Guusje Ter Horst said Mr Abdulmutallab did not raise any concerns as he passed through Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport to board the flight.

She said the airport would be able to use body scanners on all flights to the US from the airport in three weeks. Nigerian authorities also said they would start using the machines next year.

Obama denounces lapses

Ms Ter Horst said that though the US had previously not wanted the scanners to be used because of privacy concerns, Washington had now agreed that "all possible measures will be used on flights to the US".

"It is not exaggerating to say the world has escaped a disaster," she said.

US FLIGHT ADVICE

Only one item of hand luggage, including items bought airside

BA and Virgin Atlantic not charging to check in extra hand luggage

Check in wrapped presents

Passengers subject to "pat-down" searches before boarding, on top of usual security checks

Customers to remain seated during final hour of flight

No access to hand luggage and a ban on leaving possessions or blankets on laps during this hour

US President Barack Obama has acknowledged unacceptable security failures.

He said a systemic failure allowed Mr Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, to fly to the US on 25 December despite family members warning officials in November that he had extremist views.

The source of the intelligence about "a Nigerian" in Yemen was reported as coming from the Yemeni government or from US intercept intelligence, which can refer to intercepted e-mail and phone calls.

Mr Obama said he wanted to know why a warning weeks ago from Mr Abdulmutallab's father did not lead to the accused being placed on a no-fly list.

"We need to learn from this episode and act quickly to fix flaws in the system," Mr Obama said.

Some passengers and crew tackled Mr Abdulmutallab in his seat about 20 minutes before landing in Detroit as he allegedly tried to detonate explosives in his underwear.

Initial investigations found he had used the explosive PETN and a syringe filled with liquid.

The Dutch interior minister described the bomb as professionally made but executed in an "amateurish" way.

She said Mr Abdulmutallab had passed through standard security checks, including a metal detector and a hand baggage scan, without raising suspicions.

Nigerian airports 'safe'

Mr Abdulmutallab has reportedly told investigators that he trained in Yemen with al-Qaeda.

He was living in Yemen from August to early December, the foreign ministry said, according to an earlier report from the official Saba news agency.

He had a visa to study Arabic at an institute in the capital, Sanaa.

The CIA became aware of Mr Abdulmutallab in November when his father, who had lost contact with him, visited the US embassy to seek help in finding him.

Meanwhile, Nigeria has rejected suggestions that its airport security was lax in allowing Mr Abdulmutallab to begin his journey from Lagos.

Information Minister Dora Akunyili told the BBC: "We are not disorganised and our airports are very safe."

Ms Akunyili said CCTV footage from Lagos airport showed Mr Abdulmutallab from check-in through to boarding the plane.

Lagos airport security has been tightened since the incident.

Civil Aviation Authority head Harold Demuren said the Nigerian airports authority had begun the process of acquiring full body scanners and would start using them at all international airports.

Somali arrest

It also emerged on Wednesday that a Somali man had tried to board a commercial flight from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in November, carrying powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe - materials that resembled those used by Mr Abdulmutallab.

The plane was due to fly to the northern Somali city of Hargeisa, then to Djibouti and Dubai.

The African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia confirmed that the man was arrested before boarding the 13 November flight. He is in custody in Mogadishu.

US officials have learned about the Somali case and are investigating any possible links with the attempted attack in Detroit, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Somalia's UN-backed government is fighting an Islamist insurgency and only controls a small part of Mogadishu, including the area around the airport.

There are daily flights to neighbouring countries such as Djibouti and Kenya.

More Questions on Why Terror Suspect Was Not Stopped
NYTIMES
By ERIC LIPTON and SCOTT SHANE
December 28, 2009

WASHINGTON — When a prominent Nigerian banker and former government official phoned the American Embassy in Abuja in October with a warning that his son had developed radical views, had disappeared and might have traveled to Yemen, embassy officials did not revoke the young man’s visa to enter the United States, which was good until June 2010.

Instead, officials said Sunday, they marked the file of the son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, for a full investigation should he ever reapply for a visa. And when they passed the information on to Washington, Mr. Abdulmutallab’s name was added to 550,000 others with some alleged terrorist connections — but not to the no-fly list. That meant no flags were raised when he used cash to buy a ticket to the United States and boarded a plane, checking no bags.

Now that Mr. Abdulmutallab is charged with trying to blow up a transcontinental airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day, some members of Congress are urgently questioning why, eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks, security measures still cannot keep makeshift bombs off airliners.

On Sunday, as criticism mounted that security lapses had led to a brush with disaster, President Obama ordered a review of the two major planks of the aviation security system — the creation of watch lists and the use of detection equipment at airport checkpoints.

At the same time, a jittery air travel system coped with a new scare. On the same flight that Mr. Abdulmutallab took on Friday — Northwest 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit — an ailing Nigerian man who spent a long time in the restroom inadvertently set off a security alert. It turned out to be a false alarm.

Officials in several countries, meanwhile, worked to retrace Mr. Abdulmutallab’s path and to look for security holes. In Nigeria, officials said he arrived in Lagos on Christmas Eve, just hours before departing for Amsterdam. American officials were tracking his travels to Yemen, and Scotland Yard investigators were checking on his connections in London, where he studied from 2005 to 2008 at University College London and was president of the Islamic Society.

Obama administration officials scrambled to portray the episode, in which passengers and flight attendants subdued Mr. Abdulmutallab and doused the fire he had started, as a test that the air safety system passed.

“The system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days,” Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security secretary said, in an interview on “This Week” on ABC. Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, used nearly the same language on “Face the Nation” on CBS, saying that “in many ways, this system has worked.”

But counterterrorism experts and members of Congress were hardly willing to praise what they said was a security system that had proved to be not nimble enough to respond to the ever-creative techniques devised by would-be terrorists.

Congressional leaders said the tip from Mr. Abdulmutallab’s father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, should have resulted in closer scrutiny of the suspect before he boarded the plane in Amsterdam. Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, the ranking minority member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said that his visa should have been revoked, or that he at least should have been given a physical pat-down or a full-body scan.

“This individual should not have been missed,” Ms. Collins said in an interview on Sunday. “Clearly, there should have been a red flag next to his name.”

The episode has renewed a debate that has quietly continued since the 2001 attacks over the proper balance between security and privacy. The government has spent the last several years cutting the size of the watch list, after repeated criticism that too many people were being questioned at border crossings or checkpoints. Now it may be asked to expand it again.

“You are second-guessed one day and criticized on another,” said one Transportation Security Administration official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Privacy advocates, for example, have tried to stop or at least slow the introduction of advanced checkpoint screening devices that use so-called millimeter waves to create an image of a passenger’s body, so officers can see under clothing to determine if a weapon or explosive has been hidden. Security officers, in a private area, review the images, which are not stored. Legislation is pending in the House that would prohibit the use of this equipment for routine passenger screening.

To date, only 40 of these machines have been installed at 19 airports across the United States — meaning only a tiny fraction of passengers pass through them. Amsterdam’s airport has 15 of these machines — more than just about any airport in the world — but an official there said Sunday that they were prohibited from using them on passengers bound for the United States, for a reason she did not explain.

Michael Chertoff, former secretary of homeland security, and Kip Hawley, who ran the Transportation Security Administration until January, said the new body-scanning machines were a critical tool that should quickly be installed in more airports nationwide.

For now, American aviation officials have mandated that airports across the world do physical pat-downs of passengers on flights headed to the United States, a practice that in the past has also raised privacy objections.

“I understand people have issue with privacy,” Mr. Hawley said Sunday. “But that is a tradeoff, and what happened on the plane just highlights what the stakes are.”

So far, an additional 150 full-body imaging machines have been ordered, but nationwide there are approximately 2,200 checkpoint screening lanes.

One subject of the administration’s security review will be the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or Tide, the extensive collection of data on more than 500,000 people into which the warning from Mr. Abdulmutallab’s father’s was entered.

A law enforcement official said it was not unusual that a one-time comment from a relative would not place a person on the far smaller no-fly list, which has only 4,000 names, or the so-called selectee list of 14,000 names of people who are subjected to more thorough searches at checkpoints.

The point of the Tide database, the official said, is to make sure even the most minor suspicious details are recorded so that they can be connected to new data in the future.

“The information goes in there, and it’s available to all the agencies,” the official said. “The point is to marry up data from different sources over time that may indicate an individual might be a terrorist.”

The debate over watch lists and screening will be shaped in part by the still-emerging details about Mr. Abdulmutallab, his radicalization, his alleged training in Yemen and the bombing attempt. On Sunday, officials were still examining his claim that he received help from a bomb expert in Yemen associated with Al Qaeda. Mr. Abdulmutallab was moved on Sunday from a University of Michigan hospital and transferred to a federal prison in Milan, Mich.

Mr. Mutallab, the suspect’s father, was scheduled to make a public statement on Monday after talking to Nigerian security officials in Abuja. A cousin of Mr. Abdulmutallab, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to offend the family, said in an interview on Sunday that there was no sign of radicalism in Mr. Abdulmutallab while he was growing up in Nigeria, though he was devout.

“We understand that he met some people who influenced him while in London,” where Mr. Abdulmutallab studied engineering, the cousin said. “He left London and went to Yemen where, we suspect, he mixed up with the people that put him up to this whole business.”

He added: “I think his father is embarrassed by the whole thing, because that was not the way he brought the boy up. All of us are shocked by it.”

Court Clears 3 Men of Plotting 2005 London Bombings
NYTIMES
By REUTERS
Filed at 7:20 a.m. ET
April 28, 2009

LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) - Three Britons were cleared on Tuesday of helping to plot the deadly London suicide bombings in July 2005 in the first prosecution over the British capital's worst peacetime attack which killed 52 people.

Mohammed Shakil, Sadeer Saleem and Waheed Ali were accused of scouting London for possible targets with two of the four young British Muslims who detonated homemade devices in coordinated attacks on three underground trains and a bus.

Prosecutors said the three men were friends of the bombers, Mohammed Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Jermaine Lindsay and Hasib Hussain. The men attended the same Mosque and gym in the tightly-knit town of Beeston, northern England, prosecutors said. Although they were not directly involved in making the bombs or carrying out the attacks, detectives believed the men had helped plan the attacks.

A jury last year failed to reach a verdict against the men, and on Tuesday, Ali, 25, Shakil, 32, and Saleem, 28, were found not guilty of conspiracy to cause explosions at a retrial at London's Kingston Crown Court, the Press Association reported.

But Ali and Shakil were convicted of a second charge of conspiracy to attend a place used for terrorist training. Prosecutors said they were planning to go to a camp in Pakistan when police arrested them in March 2007.

The court heard that the investigation into the bombings -- the largest ever carried out by London police -- discovered links between the men in mobile phone records, fingerprints connecting them to the bomb-factory in Beeston, family videos and surveillance.

TOURIST ATTRACTIONS

Detectives found that about seven months before the bombings, Shakil, Saleem and Ali spent two days in London with Hussain and Lindsay, visiting tourist attractions such as the London Eye, the Natural History Museum and the London Aquarium. They also visited locations similar to ones attacked on 7/7 and detectives said the trip, the key element of the prosecution case, was part of preparations for attacks on the capital.

But the defendants argued the trip was to allow Ali to visit his sister and take in some tourist attractions. The court also heard how in November 2004, Khan, the ringleader of the 7/7 plot, recorded a farewell video for his baby daughter in 2004 before heading off on a mission to Afghanistan where he expected to die, prosecutors said. In the footage, he introduced two of the bombers and Ali as his daughter's "uncles".

Police have always maintained that the 7/7 bombers had assistance from other people with links to al Qaeda as they would not have had the technical expertise to construct the hydrogen peroxide-based bombs themselves.

"We are very confident that it was appropriate to bring this case and there was a strong case to bring," said one senior detective, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Al Qaeda Says It Executed Briton
NYTIMES
By ALAN COWELL and SOUAD MEKHENNET
June 4, 2009

LONDON — An Al Qaeda affiliate in North Africa said on Wednesday that it had killed a Briton it abducted in Mali last January.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said there was “strong reason to believe” that the captive had been executed. He called the killing “barbaric.”

The Briton, identified as Edwin Dyer, was taken hostage on January 22 along with a Swiss citizen and two other tourists in Niger, close to the border with Mali, but was held in Mali.

The group, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, had demanded the release of Abu Qatada, a Jordanian-born Palestinian cleric held in Britain whom a Spanish judge has called the leading Al Qaeda lieutenant in Europe. Britain has said he is a “significant international terrorist” but he has denied belonging to Al Qaeda.

On Wednesday, the group announced on an Islamist Web site that it killed the Briton on May 31, one day after the expiration of its second deadline for its demand to be met.

The password-protected Web site, called Al Falojah, carried a two-page message in Arabic saying the British authorities had been given time to negotiate Mr. Dyer’s release but had shown indifference to his fate.

“The British captive was killed so that he, and with him the British state, may taste a tiny portion of what innocent Muslims taste every day at the hands of the Crusader and Jewish coalition to the east and to the west of the world,” the statement said. It did not say how or where Mr. Dyer was killed.

In a statement, Prime Minister Brown said: “This tragedy reinforces our commitment to confront terrorism. It strengthens our determination never to concede to the demands of terrorists, nor to pay ransoms.”

“I want those who would use terror against British citizens to know beyond doubt that we and our allies will pursue them relentlessly, and that they will meet the justice they deserve.”

The BBC said Britain had refused to pay a ransom.

Britain is seeking to deport Abu Qatada to Jordan, but a British judge has ruled that he would not face a fair trial there. Abu Qatada, whose real name is Omar Mahmoud Othman, has been convicted in Jordan of terrorism offenses in his absence and faces a life sentence.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of two Canadian diplomats and four European tourists in the past five months. The two diplomats and two of the tourists were freed in Mali in April, Reuters reported.

Last month, Algerian media reported the group was demanding $14 million to release Mr. Dyer and the Swiss national.

Mr. Dyer had been working in Austria and spoke fluent German, according to British news reports. He was in West Africa on a tour organized by a German travel operator and was abducted after attending a cultural festival at Anderamboukane in Mali.

At first it was believed that the abductors were Tuareg rebels, who have regularly clashed with Mali’s army, but in February the Al Qaeda affiliate claimed responsibility.

In mid-April, Mr. Dyer’s captors issued an initial demand for the release of Abu Qatada within 20 days. The deadline was then extended by 15 days to May 30, British news reports said.

British Islamic Cleric Returned to Jail
NYTIMES
By JOHN F. BURNS
December 2, 2008

LONDON — A panel of immigration judges ordered the immediate return to prison on Tuesday of a radical Islamic preacher known as Abu Qatada, dubbed by Britain’s tabloid newspapers as “Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe.”

The judges accepted warnings from the Home Office, Britain’s interior ministry, that the cleric, a 47-year-old Jordanian of Palestinian origin, might attempt to flee if he were allowed to remain on the bail granted to him five months ago.

The ruling by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission was the latest development in a legal battle that goes back to 1993, when the preacher, whose real name is Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman, arrived in Britain on a forged United Arab Emirates passport. He won asylum for himself and his family nine months later, but attracted the attention of the counterterrorism police about seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by Al Qaeda in New York and Washington.

Courts have been told that tapes of his sermons in British mosques were found in a Hamburg flat used by some of the Sept. 11 hijackers. In February 2001, Mr. Othman was questioned by police on suspicion of links to radical Islamist cells in Germany. The courts have been told that officers found 170,000 pounds in cash, the equivalent then of about $300,000, with about $1,500 of it in an envelope labeled “for the mujahideen in Chechnya.” He was not arrested, but became on Britain’s most-wanted men when he went on the run after Sept. 11, seeking to evade arrest under new antiterror laws.

In October 2002, he was tracked down to a house in south London, setting off his battle to avoid deportation. With British courts reluctant to order deportations to countries that practice torture, the government reached an agreement with Jordan that included a commitment not to mistreat Mr. Othman. But the courts ruled that the commitment was not a sufficient guarantee of Mr. Othman’s rights, and ordered him freed on bail pending further court hearings in June.

The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, issued a statement after Tuesday’s court ruling welcoming his return to jail. “I’m pleased the court has agreed that Qatada should have his bail revoked,” she said. “He poses a significant threat to our national security and I am pleased that he will be detained pending his deportation, which I’m working hard to secure.”

5 January, 2003, I-BBC:
Frankfurt hijacker arrested; Police clear the streets as the plane circles

The pilot who caused panic in Frankfurt when he hijacked a light aircraft and flew it over the city has been arrested and is being questioned by German authorities.

The plane landed in Frankfurt airport after more than two dramatic hours during which the pilot, whom police described as mentally disturbed,
threatened to smash the aircraft into the European Central Bank. Thousands of people were evacuated from tall buildings or ordered by police to take shelter underground as the plane swooped erratically round the city.

The plane was followed by a police helicopter and German Tornado fighter jets, and at one point came within about 30 metres of the ECB headquarters. The motive for the hijacking remains unclear, though some reports say the pilot was demanding to speak to the brother of a female
astronaut who perished in the US Challenger space disaster in the 1980s.

German television reports said the man had told authorities he wished to commemorate the astronauts' deaths. He did not say why he wished to target the ECB.

Identity unknown

The light aircraft was stolen at gunpoint from the Babenhausen airport in southern Hessen at 1455 local time (1355 GMT). The pilot made
contact with ground control in Frankfurt and spoke to several German news channels, though his identity is not yet known. As a precaution
German police evacuated the whole financial district and the railway station. The city's airport - one of the busiest in Europe - was also closed.
Bridges across the River Main were sealed off, as were several main roads.

Security questions

Onlookers said that the incident brought back frightening memories of the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, in which more than 3,000 people died. BBC correspondent Katya Adler said that the incident will cause serious questions to be asked over the state of security in Germany's cities, which was stepped up following the 11 September attacks.

She adds that Frankfurt had been considered particularly at risk because of its many tall buildings. There have been similar incidents in the past few months involving light aircraft. In January last year a 15-year-old American boy, Charles Bishop, flew a stolen single-engine Cessna into the 20th floor of a skyscraper in Tampa, Florida, killing himself and slightly damaging the building.

And in April last year an Swiss-based man thought to have financial difficulties crashed a small Piper aircraft crashed into the famous Pirelli skyscraper in Milan, Italy, killing two women and himself.

MORE ON SWEDISH INCIDENT...
By Peter Andersson
Reuters

STOCKHOLM (Aug. 31) - A Swedish man of Tunisian origin, arrested on suspicion he was about to hijack a plane, was planning to crash the aircraft into a U.S. Embassy in Europe, Swedish intelligence and police sources said on Saturday.

A top police official said the man had taken flying lessons in the United States -- adding to fears of copycat attacks as the first anniversary of the September 11 suicide attacks on the New York and Washington approaches.

However, intelligence sources and police were at odds over the incident, which began when a gun was found in the man's hand luggage as he boarded a flight to Britain from Vasteras, west of Stockholm. One police official flatly denied the embassy plan.

A highly-placed intelligence source said police were hunting four more men, including an explosives expert, who were believed to have worked on the plan with the suspect, aged 29.

''We know for sure that the plan was to crash the plane into a U.S. Embassy in Europe,'' the source told Reuters.

The report was certain to unnerve Western governments who have already ordered extra security precautions ahead of the September 11 attacks -- carried out by hijackers who had learned to fly the aircraft in courses in the United States.

But a source in Sweden's Sapo security police said Sapo had been instructed by the government to play the incident down at a politically sensitive time, two weeks before an election.

POLICE DENIAL

Margareta Linderoth, a Sapo official responsible for several departments including the one handling international terrorism, denied that police believed the arrested man was planning to attack an embassy or that four more men were being sought.

''I have never heard that the man has planned to do what you say he has,'' she told Reuters. ''We are not looking for four other men.''

Linderoth told Swedish radio that the suspect had taken flying lessons in the United States but had not completed his training. It was possible he had qualified since then, she said.

Another Sapo source told Reuters the security police were working on the theory that the group were planning to crash at least one plane, and possibly more, into a U.S. Embassy. They did not know which embassy had been targeted.

Swedish police do not believe the arrested man or anyone he was working with were part of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida group, blamed by Washington for the September 11 attacks. Instead they believe a copycat attack was being planned.

''There is nothing to suggest that this is al-Qaida,'' one Sapo security police source told Reuters. ''It's more likely that they are some kind of 'wannabes'.''

The suspect was moved to a high security prison and was expected to be charged on Monday with hijacking or illegal possession of a firearm. The tabloid newspaper Expressen said it was a 6.5 mm pistol, loaded with three or four rounds.

Police said they were investigating the man's background for any possible links to militant groups.

CIA AND MI5 INVESTIGATING?

The military intelligence and Sapo sources said two officers from the U.S. intelligence service CIA and two from Britain's MI5 counter-espionage service had flown to Sweden from Britain, though this was also officially denied by Linderoth.

One Sapo security police source told Reuters that such involvement by foreign security services had become standard practice since September 11, noting that ''a whole army of people'' from the CIA had been working in Germany, where several of the people involved in the September 11 attacks were based.

But Linderoth said: ''Yesterday you said British terrorist experts were being flown to Sweden. That is completely wrong. This is a case belonging to the local police in Vasteras. We are helping them, but no British terrorist experts are coming here.''

Expressen said the suspect had become a devout Muslim in recent years, regularly visiting a mosque in Stockholm. It quoted his friends as saying he had often spoken of fighting for Islam but was not a member of any organization.

Passengers on the plane, operated by the Irish budget airline Ryanair, included people traveling to an Islamic conference in the English city of Birmingham.

A Sapo source said they had been questioned but had no connection with the suspect.

Abu Khadeejah, one of the organizers of the Islamic conference in Birmingham, said on Friday that neither he nor other conference officials knew the arrested man.

Police spokesman Ulf Palm said police had until midday on Monday to apply to a magistrate to detain the suspect further.

Officials said the suspect had previous convictions for theft and assault, and a Sapo source told Reuters one of these was for an attack on a U.S. embassy Marine guard in 1999.

Swedish politicians have refrained from commenting on the incident in the run-up to the general election on September 15.

None of Sweden's mainstream parties favors policies limiting immigration or tightening rules on existing immigrants, but a violent crime by a Swede of Arab origin could be seized upon by small anti-immigrant parties in the run-up to the vote.

Friday, 30 August, 2002, 11:10 GMT 12:10 UK
'It can't get more scary than this' ...Most passengers say the incident was handled well
Passengers aboard a plane that became the target of an alleged hijack attempt have praised the vigilance of the airport team who dealt with the incident. A man was caught allegedly trying to board their Ryanair flight from Stockholm to Stansted carrying a gun.

One of the passengers turned to the seat next to him and told his daughter: "It can't get more scary than this." But he and others said they were relieved that security checks had averted any potential incident.

"We were surrounded by guys with guns and dogs," another of the 189 passengers told BBC News. "They took one guy away and we could see they had a gun in a bag," she recalled. "The guy had a hood over his head and he was handcuffed. "It was incredible - frightening." But that was not the end of the passengers' ordeal.

"They kept us in a holding pen and released us one by one to check our baggage - to say that it was ours," the passenger continued. "And then when we came through into the departure lounge they photographed us with our passports held to our faces."

But most of the people on the plane have applauded the way it was handled. "It was scary - but handled very well," said one. "But then of course you think what could have happened." Swedish social worker Elin Dermeborg, 27, was on her way to visit a friend in the UK for a planned shopping trip. "We all got on the plane then the crew came around and said, 'We have got a group of people on the flight we don't feel secure with.'

"There was a group of about 20 Somalians, some were wearing Muslim clothing, and they said they were on their way to an Islamic summit meeting in the UK. "Everyone had to get off the plane and one of the Somalians, a guy wearing a red T-shirt, was arrested by the police.

Flown in

"The Somalians were all taken away to be questioned." "We had to wait while police searched the airplane and the airport with dogs and special equipment." She said another crew was flown in from the UK and eventually all passengers got back on board and took off.

"Everyone was very calm, no one panicked or refused to get on the second flight," Ms Dermeborg said. "We were all very tired by that stage."

Officials: Teen pilot took drug linked to suicide
9:21 AM EST,January 9, 2002
By Pat Leisner, The Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. -- Charles Bishop, who killed himself by crashing a small plane into a skyscraper on Saturday, had been prescribed an acne medication whose links to suicide and depression have been the subject of federal inquiries, law enforcement officials said.

Bishop, a freshman at East Lake High School, stole an airplane from a flight school at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport and crashed it into the 28th floor of the Bank of America Plaza in downtown Tampa, Fla.

A prescription for Accutane, used to treat severe acne, was found at Bishop's home, Pinellas County Sheriff's Maj. Sam Lynn said. "We don't know if he was taking it, how long," Tampa police spokeswoman Katie Hughes said. Toxicology tests that will determine if any drugs were in Bishop's system will be completed in about two weeks, said Lee Miller, an associate medical examiner with the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office.

Calls to Bishop's family were not returned Tuesday.

The Food and Drug Administration says 147 people taking Accutane, which affects the body's central nervous system, either committed suicide or were hospitalized for suicide attempts from 1982 to May 2000.

An estimated 12 million patients have used Accutane since it was first marketed as an acne drug in 1982. A congressional investigation into the possible suicide link is being spearheaded by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Michigan, whose 17-year-old son committed suicide while taking the drug.

There has been no conclusive evidence that the drug causes depression or suicide, and the manufacturer maintains that it is safe. But the FDA is concerned that the depression of a few patients eased when they quit Accutane and came back the next time they took the drug.

In another development Tuesday, Hughes said the FBI has found no evidence worth pursuing on the computer hard drives taken from the homes of Bishop and his grandmother.

Bishop had no history of psychological problems and had never tried to commit suicide before. His family, teachers, friends and flight instructors describe him as intelligent and friendly -- and not likely to take his own life.

"People who commit suicide don't usually talk about what they want to do in the future," Favreau said. "He talked all the time about being an airline pilot. He wanted to fly 747s."

The two teen-agers used to message each other by computer almost every day. But Favreau, 15, said his friend had recently seemed to brush him off, ignoring his messages.

Favreau also said that in spite of the note found in Bishop's pocket, the teen-age pilot "hated bin Laden." He said Bishop had expressed sympathy for the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks in a class paper.

"I think he wrote the note to get publicity so people would know who he was when he died," Favreau said. "And they do."

Police: Florida teen who crashed plane not a terrorist
By Vickie Chachere, Associated Press Writer
January 7, 2002, 1:45 PM EST
TAMPA, Fla. -- The 15-year-old who crashed a small plane into a skyscraper had no known terrorist ties despite a note he wrote expressing
sympathy for Osama bin Laden, authorities say. "He expressed support for what happened on 9-11, including support for bin Laden," Police Chief Bennie Holder said. "Charles Bishop was a troubled young man -- he acted alone without help from anyone else." Bishop deliberately flew the single-engine Cessna 172R into the 42-story Bank of America Plaza in downtown Tampa on Saturday night, Holder said Sunday. Bishop was the only fatality. A short, handwritten note found amid the wreckage detailed Bishop's sentiments but didn't shed light on why he chose that building, investigators said.

Grief counselors were sent to Bishop's high school today but as of midmorning no students had turned out talk about his suicide, said Ron Stone, a spokesman for Pinellas County School District. The school was closed to reporters.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Butch Wilson said it appears Bishop had full control of the plane after he stole it from the Clearwater flight school where he was taking lessons. No one in the building was injured. The building reopened today, except for two law offices that got hit directly. Holder said there is no indication Bishop targeted the building or "had any intention of harming anyone else."

In Palm Harbor, police unrolled yellow crime scene tape Sunday outside the apartment complex where Bishop lived with his mother, while detectives and FBI agents interviewed family members. Neighbors said the boy kept to himself, and investigators for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said he spent much time alone in his room. Investigators seized computers from the home. Investigators said Bishop had no history of mental problems and did not appear to be using illegal drugs.

In a phone interview from Florida, Bishop's grandmother, Karen Johnson, told the Boston Herald: "He was a wonderful kid, an honor student. He was
a great son and a wonderful grandson."

Tampa Mayor Dick Greco told the St. Petersburg Times that Bishop hinted of something calamitous the day of the flight. "If something happens to me, don't let any of my enemies come to my funeral," the mayor said Bishop told his grandmother after she dropped him off for his lesson. Bishop also recently told certain classmates to watch the news, Greco said.

Jim Sewell, a regional director for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said that statement is considered a rumor but is being investigated.

The suicide note, a few paragraphs handwritten on plain white paper, was not addressed to anyone, police said. Bishop also did not mention his
family in it, nor did he say goodbye to anyone, police said.

Bishop's grandmother had taken him to the National Aviation Academy flight school at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport for a 5 p.m. flying lesson on Saturday, authorities said.

He took off without waiting for an instructor who was supposed to accompany him. At 15, Bishop was a year too young to fly solo and two years too young to earn a pilot's license.

Wilson said the plane was airborne for nine to 12 minutes, briefly flying through airspace over MacDill Air Force Base. The base houses Central Command, which is directing the war in Afghanistan. Air Force Lt. Col. Rich McClain said the base was notified when the aircraft was about three miles away. It entered base airspace, descended slightly and left one minute later without making any threatening moves, he said.

A Coast Guard helicopter caught up to Bishop over Tampa after he had traveled about 20 miles, and the crew signaled for him to land. Pilots said he ignored them, then crashed the plane.

As a precaution, two F-15 fighter jets were scrambled from Homestead Air Reserve Base, 200 miles away, but they arrived after the crash, said Capt. Kirstin Reimann at the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

The head of the Tampa air traffic controllers union told the St. Petersburg Times that the plane passed just 1,000 feet above a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 that had taken off moments earlier from Tampa International. Tampa controllers warned the jetliner's pilots and they quickly slowed their climb, said Joe Formoso, the head of the controllers union.

"It was only by the grace of God that the Southwest pilots saw it," Formoso told the newspaper.

Investigators said it did not appear that any regulations were violated in leaving Bishop alone with the plane and its keys. The flight school canceled its regular operations Sunday.

News of the note police found stunned Bishop's algebra teacher, Rayette Bouldrick, who described him as a bright, disciplined student who was well-liked by his classmates. "I'm floored, totally floored," said Bouldrick. "He always had a smile. He was always pleasant and respectful."

Teen Pilot Kept to Himself

By PAT LEISNER
.c The Associated Press

PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) - The high school freshman who stole a small airplane and crashed it into a high-rise building Saturday was a quiet boy who kept to himself and bartered for his flight lessons by cleaning airplanes.

Flight school officials said Charles J. Bishop, 15, was well versed in the operations at National Aviation Academy, where he had been taking lessons since March 2001.

Bishop was presumed dead in the crash, authorities said Saturday night.

He was a year shy of being able to fly alone and two years too young to earn a pilot's license. It's not unusual though, for 15-year-olds to take flight lessons, said flight school attorney Michael Cronin.

Bishop apparently had no disciplinary problems and neighbors in Palm Harbor, a middle-class community about 25 miles west of Tampa, said he didn't stand out.

``He rode my bus to school. He sat in the front row. He always had sunglasses on for some reason,'' said David Ontiveros, a 14-year-old neighbor in the apartment complex where Bishop lived with his mother, Julia. ``He never talked to anybody.''

``I've seen him a lot,'' said Vorasit Kagswast, a 13-year-old neighbor. ``I would skateboard past him as he walked his dog. He seems like a nice kid.''

Authorities said Bishop stole a four-seat 2000 model Cessna 172R from National Aviation Academy just minutes before he was to take a flight lesson. He crashed the plane into the 28th floor of the Bank of America building in downtown Tampa.

Investigators said it was too soon to know if the crash was intentional.

Clayton Snare, principal at East Lake High School in Palm Harbor, said Bishop never had any disciplinary problems in his short time at the high school, which has 2,200 students.

Snare said Bishop was one of about 450 freshmen and remained largely unknown to administrators.

``I did not know him and I've been in conversation with my five assistant principals and they did not know him either,'' Snare said.

Bishop was not involved in any clubs or student organizations. He was taking one honors language arts course, Snare said.

Snare said he was not aware of Bishop's interest in flight or his flight training.

``We really didn't know him,'' Snare said. ``My thoughts and prayers go out to the family.''

Students have been off for 2 1/2 weeks for the holidays and are due to resume classes on Monday. Snare said the school would provide trauma counselors for students and staff when classes resume.

``I couldn't believe it,'' said neighbor Anna Kagswast. ``Why would he want to do that? What's the motive? It's sad.''

AP-NY-01-06-02 0010EST

From the BBC online...link to other terror items post September 11, 2001...
Probe into teenager's flight of death; the tail section was left dangling from the building.
Investigators in the United States are looking into why a teenager took off in a light aircraft without authorisation and crashed it into a skyscraper. Several US Government agencies are looking into the incident which resulted in the death of the 15-year-old pilot and saw a gaping hole left in the side of the Bank of America building in Tampa, Florida.

The Florida teenager who crashed a light aircraft into a skyscraper was sympathetic towards Osama Bin Laden, police officials say. According to a note found in the wreckage of the Cessna plane, Charles Bishop "expressed sympathy toward Osama bin Laden and the events of 11 September".

He "clearly stated he had acted alone without any help from anyone else," said Tampa Police Chief Bennie Holder.

Charles Bishop, a ninth-grade student from Palm Harbor, had turned up for a scheduled flying lesson at St Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport on Saturday afternoon, a Tampa police spokeswoman said.

"His flight instructor told him to go and prepare for the flight, but he just took off," the spokeswoman, Kate Hughes, told reporters.

Two US military F-15 fighter aircraft and a US Coast Guard helicopter were scrambled to intercept the Cessna plane. Concern was heightened when it flew into restricted airspace over the US Central Command base, from where the war in Afghanistan is being directed.

The plane eventually flew into the 28th and 29th floors of the 42-storey Bank of America building, despite being intercepted by the helicopter.

Coast Guard Lieutenant Charlotte Pittman told American television that the helicopter pilot had been in visual contact with Bishop and tried to lead him to a safe landing at a nearby airport, but the teenager appeared to pay no attention.

"It's hard to speculate about what the pilot was thinking, but it looks like he flew into the building intentionally," said Coast Guard Lieutenant Patrick Bacher, the helicopter's co-pilot. "He seemed to head right for it (the building)."

Despite the similarities with the 11 September terror attacks on New York and Washington, terrorism has so far been ruled out.

Although Bishop was a student pilot, he had been taking flying lessons since March and was not seen as a complete novice.

"He knew enough about flying," the Tampa police spokeswoman said. "Whether it was intentional or accidental, we don't know for sure."

Two more crashes

No fire was reported, but the crash severely damaged the offices of the law firm Schumaker, Loop and Kendrick. Because of the weekend, the building was largely deserted and no-one inside was injured. Crews pulled the wreckage into the building early on Sunday and were attempting to
recover the 15-year-old's body.

Two other small plane pilots were also killed on Saturday in separate crashes in the western United States, according to aviation officials.

Palestinian justice report from the BBC (its choice of photograph)...

Tuesday, 5 February, 2002, 13:34 GMT
Defendants killed in Palestinian court

Collaborator executions often draw large crowds Hundreds of Palestinians have burst into a courtroom in the West Bank town of Jenin and killed three defendants, two of whom had been sentenced to death moments earlier.

Witnesses said that as the angry crowd besieged the heavily guarded building, gunmen managed to get hold of the defendants. They then beat and shot dead the three men, who had been convicted of killing a Palestinian security official, Osama Qmeil, last week. He had been linked to the murder of alleged collaborators with Israel.

A security official told the Associated Press news agency that the defendants were killed in the court's bathroom, where police had tried to hide them after about 500 people stormed in. Gunmen pushed their way into the bathroom, fired dozens of bullets at the three men and then dragged their bodies into the street.

Retribution

Correspondents say Mr Qmeil's murder and the subsequent killing of the three men appear to be part of a cycle of revenge attacks carried out by the relatives of the dead. Witnesses said the crowd had heard incorrectly that all three had only been given prison sentences, instead of just one,
heightening their anger. The killings also form part of a history of retribution within the Qmeil clan that spans many years, AP reported.

In all, six members of the clan - thought to be collaborators with Israel - were killed between 1988 and 1990 by gunmen led by Mr Qmeil. The three defendants were all members of his clan. They had told the judge they killed him in revenge for the murder of their six relatives during the first Palestinian intifida, or uprising, against Israeli occupation. They said they felt the Palestinian security services were weak and they expected to get away with killing Mr Qmeil.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Jerusalem says revenge attacks are not uncommon in Palestinian society, but attempts to keep law and order are being hindered by Israeli military attacks on Palestinian institutions. The trial was taking place in the chamber of commerce because all of Jenin's security installations have been destroyed by Israeli air strikes.