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Francis Report 9-28 Dave Francis The weather is getting worse, and the US is beginning to be seen as weak. The mood over here is not good. The lack of US response is not seen as kindness to the innocents, or as careful premeditation. It is seen as weakness, brought on by being too rich, too spoiled, too pampered. You may remember that on the schoolyard, being seen as weak was a dangerous thing. The same thing applies. To some degree, perception is reality, and if the US doesn’t do something, it is going to give heart to those fence sitters in Pakistan, Algeria, and other countries that have a large population disposed toward Islamic fundamentalist terror. The US needs to do something, and if it waits much longer, things get more difficult simply because of the forces of nature. The snow is already falling in the Khyber Pass, where 10 foot snow drifts are common. By the way, an anniversary was just celebrated. Former Afghan leader Najibullah, who was put into power by the Soviets was castrated exactly five years ago. Afterwards, his body was drug behind a truck, then hung from a lamppost by the Taliban regime. That’s the enemy folks. No kid gloves this time, ok? It is beginning to be a bit more understandable the clampdown of transport into the affected regions, as you can tell by the lead item in the ‘Whispers’ section today. FSB (Russian Security Forces) are busy with anti-terror operations. Whispers In news from over here, the Russian security forces this morning confiscated an airplane with nine tons of explosives coming from Vienna, heading for Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is just north of Tajikistan, which is just north of Afghanistan. It is also a very vital place for the battle against terrorism, as it is the last of the Asian republics where there are still a lot of Russian police presence. The Russians still use Kazakhstan as a launch site for their space program, and it had been used previously as their nuclear testing grounds. The Islamic radicals have long been making inroads there, and the area is becoming more lawless by the hour. Anything you want, you can buy from the Russian mafia there. From girls to guns, tanks to terrorists for hire, it is increasingly available in Kazakhstan. It was in Kazakhstan that bin Ladins people had reportedly been making a deal to buy uranium, at a price of 1.5 million dollars. As to the Russian mafia, they may have a lot of Islamic terrorists involved in their ranks, but a lot of them are just plain gangsters, in it for the buck. A good indication of their thoughts on the current crisis is the fact that they have virtually all abandoned Baghdad. Normally, you can find these guys, with their Rolex’s, Mercedes, and bad haircuts hanging out at different business offices and hotels, but not now. They have all gone to Turkey, Moscow, or for that matter, New York to watch and see what happens. Iraq is hunkering down, and the mood is grim. No joyous dancing like you saw on the news from Palestine here. These people know what it is to have bombs falling like rain, and they are scared. Six Iraqis were arrested hiding in a shipping container that was delivered to Suffolk Air Field, an American Air Force facility in England. Suffolk has in the past been associated with some of the more elite military units in Europe. The six were taken out of the container and are being held at Lakenheath on immigration and terrorist charges. The driver of the truck, a German, is also being held. There are a lot of German/English connections in this whole thing. This Atta cell was formed in Hamburg, and apparently England was a stomping ground for this crowd for a while. In other European anti-terror moves, Spain has arrested 6 people and France 7 for planning terrorist attacks. One suspect escaped from France, but was picked up in London. 23 year old Kamel Daoudi was one of three people arrested by Scotland Yard and MI5. Daoudi is an expert in explosives, and a key figure to Al Qaeda. He is suspected of having constructed a bomb that was to be flown by helicopter into the American embassy in Paris. Daoudi is a member of Tafkir wal Hijra, which means ‘Anathema and Exile’, which has been under surveillance by European security organs for some time. 35 people from this group have been arrested in different countries, ranging from Amsterdam to Yemen. The embassy attack was discovered after Djamel Begal, a French national, with Algerian roots, was detained in Dubai while returning from a trip to Europe from Afghanistan in July. He was carrying a falsified passport. He admitted under interrogation, (I don’t want to imagine being interrogated in Dubai…) to having spent a year in religious and military training for the jihad. He was trained at a camp run by bin Ladin associate, Abu Zubayda. Begal was a courier for three different cells of terrorists operating in Europe. He couriered information, cash, and documents for the groups. With information provided by Begal, police raided a site in The Netherlands and confiscated 220 lbs of sulfur and 13 gallons of acetone. Fake passports, along with plans of the Paris embassy were also seized. In Spain, six terrorists were arrested from a group called “Salafist Group for Call and Combat”, one of the groups the US has identified as a terrorist organizations with assets to be frozen. The six, Mohammed Boualem Khnouni, Madjid Sahouane, Yasin Seddiki, Hakim Zerzour, Hocine Khouni, and Mohammed Belaziz were arrested along with a cache of false documents and tools to forge airline tickets. This was a major blow to al Qaeda’s ability to produce documents for it’s members. These six worked directly for a criminal mastermind of al Qaeda named Essid Sami ben Khemais, also known as ‘Sabre’, who was in charge of a large part of bin Ladin’s network. Salman Rushdie, long hated and searched for by Islamic extremists says on September the 3rd, the US government gave him orders that he was not allowed to fly on any commercial aircraft in North America unless the airline he was going on was willing to take costly measures to step up security. He says the US government was aware that some sort of attack by terrorists on US airplanes was imminent, and that was what caused the ban. If this is true, I would like to know the FBI’s reasoning for warning him, and not us. Iran arrested 10 and beat several more in Teheran as they tried to peacefully demonstrate in sympathy of the attack victims. Plainclothesed Iranian policemen arrested, chased, and beat the people with batons. China makes arrests in Xingjaing province. Recognizing the powderkeg that nobody else is talking about, China sent in troops to try to control the unstable autonomous republic of Xingjaing. 60 million muslims live in the area, which borders the troubled region of Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrzgstan, and has recently been a fertile recruiting ground for bin Ladin. The area, just north of Nepal, is extremely remote, and a large portion of the residents don’t even speak the Chinese language. The source of the money laundering may have been found. Nauru, an island nation in the Pacific specializing in offshore banking, with more than 400 offshore banks registered has been discovered to host more than 100 banks that are of mideast origin, all with the same p.o. box. DJF |