Incidents mount globally – call for awareness

By SUA Staff – The amount of terror and conflict incidents globally is often reported piecemeal, losing the connective tissue that is important to remember as these events unfold. Here is a summary of the more important items you may have missed, or did not realize are quite connected:

Pakistan

“On this occasion I urge our Mujahid brothers from Karachi and Makran to Khyber that they must pay special attention to targeting American and NATO supply lines,” Farooq said.

This comes from the top al Qaeda leader in Pakistan, just when the United States was able to pay its way to re-open the supply lines supporting our forces in Afghanistan after apologizing to the Pakistanis. On August 10, 2012, the United States lost more treasure of our own at the hands of uniformed Afghans.

A senior U.S. Army soldier was killed along with a couple of majors by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan, and three special forces soldiers were gunned down by an Afghan commander who had won their trust and invited them to dinner.

The suicide bomber struck Wednesday as a group of U.S. military and civilian officials from the 4th brigade, 4th Infantry Division were in Sarkowi in Kunar Province, which is located in eastern Afghanistan. The suicide attacker detonated an explosive vest near the group.

Great Britain

The United States military works hand in hand with British forces and yet a voice from the past, Anjem Choudary has found his megaphone again. He is calling for aggression towards British forces and a higher quest of installing Sharia in the United Kingdom and the United States.

They’ve been called “megaphone jihadists,” radical Muslims who take to the streets of Western cities demanding Islamic sharia law. It’s a rising movement in Europe that also shows signs of growth in America.

Meet Anjem Choudary - Anjem Choudary has been called the face of radical Islam in Great Britain. He holds frequent rallies calling for sharia law to be imposed on the United Kingdom.

Nuclear Threat Assessments

Threat assessments for allies of the United States are mounting as nuclear material is finding passage and being transported by enemies of America where many countries are aiding Iran in the nuclear quest.

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday said the attempted smuggling of nuclear arms-grade uranium in recent years illustrates a continued risk that terrorists could acquire the ingredients for a weapon of mass destruction (see GSN, Aug. 19, 2011).

The department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2011 touts as “largely successful” multilateral programs aimed at locking down chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials around the globe.

However, “the illicit trafficking of these materials persists, including instances involving highly enriched uranium in 2010 and 2011,” according to a chapter titled “The Global Challenge of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Terrorism.”

Lebanon

On a more global scope, we find the former Information Officer for Lebanon has just been arrested transporting explosives likely destined for the Syrian regime.

Lebanese security forces on Thursday arrested Michel Samaha, a former information minister considered close to Syria’s embattled regime, in a case linked to explosives, a senior official said.

His arrest was connected to a seizure of explosives that were to have been used mostly in northern Lebanon, a region of tensions linked to the conflict in neighbouring Syria, the official told AFP.

“The accusations against Samaha are related to explosives, which were going to be placed in several parts of the country, especially the north,” he said on condition of anonymity.

Nigeria – Boko Harem

Boko Harem a faction of al Qaeda, took responsibility for a bombing in Nigeria.

Boko Haram yesterday claimed responsibility for the bombings, as well as in previous attacks in the Northern cities of Sokoto, Kano and Zaria.

In a press statement signed by its General Secretary, Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, JNI noted that during the Ramadan fast, some persons were bent on causing chaos and unrest to Muslims.

“We call on Nigerians to be security conscious, as security is the affairs of all,” the statement said.  “We must as a nation rise above board to nip in the bud these re-occurring upheavals.”

In an email yesterday in which it claimed responsibility for the attacks, Boko Haram spokesman Abu Qaqa denied that his group kills innocent Muslims.

“We only kill government functionaries, security agents, Christians and anyone who pretends to be a Muslim but engage in assisting security agents to arrest us,” he said.  “The fact is the bottom line of our struggle is to set the Muslims free from enslavement. We only kill the unbelievers.”

Iran and Israel

Israel has all but begged the United States to take the nuclear weapons program by Iran seriously and with all the recent delegations by U.S. intelligence officials, it is now confirmed that Iran indeed has a nuclear weapons program near fruition, and that the 2007 assessment was woefully wrong.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday said that a recently disseminated US intelligence report is closer than ever to Israel’s own intelligence estimates on Iran. The latest US estimate, he told Israel Radio, gives much more urgency to stopping Iranian nuclear proliferation.

Its all connected - nothing really happens in a vacuum.

“As far as we know it [the intelligence assessment] brings the American assessment much closer to ours… it makes the Iranian issue even more urgent and [shows it is] less clear and certain that we will know everything in time about their steady progress toward military nuclear capability,” the defense minister told Israel Radio.

The next question is what are the strike plans, if any? The United States in partnership with allies creates war scenarios of all sorts, given countless variables and some have been recently shared by Tom Donilon with Israel with regard to Iran.

The U.S. national security adviser has shared with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the United States’ contingency plans for a possible attack on Iran.

All of these issues arise after two notable events in recent days and weeks that indicate there is much to watch in this theater – and how it connects overall. Israeli tourists were attacked a few weeks ago in Bulgaria by Hezbollah.  Also, in Egypt, the military launched an aggressive air raid on the Sinai killing at least 17.

The Egyptian military says it has launched missile strikes from helicopters against suspected Islamist militants in the Sinai peninsula.

Military spokesmen said the initial operation had been a “success” and that it was ongoing.

Twenty people were killed in the village of Touma, according to military officials in Sinai, while the Sheikh Zuwaid area to the west was also hit.

On Sunday, militants killed 16 Egyptian border guards in the area.

After that attack – the deadliest and most brazen against Egyptian troops in this border region for decades – Israeli forces said they killed some of the militants who broke through into Israel.

Latin America and Canada

Closer to home, SUA has warned officials and the public several times of the integration of Iran’s militant agenda in Latin America. There Tehran is getting huge cooperation from Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia.

The foiled terrorist plot, with its Latin American connections, focused new attention on what had until then been a largely overlooked political phenomenon: the intrusion of the Islamic Republic of Iran into the Western Hemisphere. An examination of Tehran’s behavioral pattern in the region over the past several years reveals four distinct strategic objectives: loosening the U.S.-led international noose to prevent it from building nuclear weapons; obtaining vital resources for its nuclear project; creating informal networks for influence projection and sanctions evasion; and establishing a terror infrastructure that could target the U.S. homeland.

One must also consider deep ties to Iran and the Mullahs to our north, were Iranians, loyal to the regime, are working through Canada and the embassy that essentially surround the United States.

As a tight network of Iranian terrorists expands as a “fifth column” In Canada, there have been calls to shut down the Iranian embassy there.

Iranian Canadian activists Shadi Paveh and Shabnam Assadollahi have translated an interview with Hamid Mohammadi, an Iranian official working as Cultural Counselor to the Embassy in Canada; as released by Fox News, this alarming article reveals that Iran has been using its embassy in Canada to mobilize loyalists of Islamic Republic to infiltrate the Canadian Government and, some terrorism experts worry, attack the United States.

The interview makes known Iran’s call for all Iranian-Canadians to “resist being melted into the dominant Canadian culture,” to aspire to “occupy high-level key positions…. be of service to our beloved Iran.”

Russia/Iran/Syria

While the civil war rages in Syria and the threat of chemical and biological weapons remain in the hands of the regime; it is clear that Iran, with its proxies, are launching an aggressive air and ground game. A pattern cannot be established yet, except to say, expect the unexpected. It would be prudent as well to watch Russia, as Vladimir Putin does have an agenda to fulfill in protecting their interests and existing bases, as additional bases are getting first time leases.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky has labeled calls by US senators demanding Barack Obama directly support the Syrian opposition “absolutely unacceptable,” saying his party would demand a Russian response.

In an op-ed piece that appeared this week in The Washington Post, three influential senators called on the Obama administration to “directly and openly provide robust assistance to the armed opposition, including weapons, intelligence and training.”

Senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham employed rather loose logic when they argued that by sitting on the sidelines of the Syrian battle, “we are jeopardizing both our national security interests and our moral standing in the world.”

The leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) and its parliamentary faction, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, described the article as a call for “violently toppling the current government in Syria, which included the use of aviation and other US assets.”

“If President Obama…follows the advice of Congress and acknowledges the need for armed support for the Syrian insurgents, the situation will become irreversible,” he said, as quoted by the LDPR press service.

Saudi Arabia

There is also much concern about Saudi Arabia, because multiple sources are confirming the assassination of Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

“Though not yet announced by the Saudi authorities, the death of Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has been confirmed to Voltaire Network by unofficial sources.

Prince Bandar had just been appointed head of Saudi intelligence on July 24: a promotion which was interpreted as a reward for having organized the attack in Damascus on July 18. The Saudi services, with logistical support from the CIA, had managed to blow up the headquarters of the Syrian National Security during a Crisis Cell meeting: Generals Assef Chaoukat, Daoud Rajha and Hassan Tourkmani were killed instantly. General Amin Hicham Ikhtiar died soon after from his wounds. This operation, called “Damascus Volcano” was the signal for the attack on the capital by a swarm of mercenaries, mainly coming from Jordan.

Prince Bandar was himself the target of a bomb attack on July 26, and subsequently succumbed to his injuries.”

However, there has been little mentioned since and many say he is still alive, yet there is still no official word either way. Saudi Arabia is indeed worried about Iran and the transformation in the Middle East, so much so that an invitation has been extended to many Middle East leaders including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an emergency summit on August 15-16, 2012.

In summary, there is a clarion call for situational awareness globally as the march to the edge of a new and global conflict is afoot. The question is what is the timing and where does it begin? This video from Hezbollah may offer a clue.

This is certainly not a complete or comprehensive guideline to all locations of terror attacks in the recent past or in the very near future – the next 15 or 20 weeks, but the message is clear, that being an alert sentinel is a must and all must be cognizant of what looms.

As recently as this week, the White House, the National Security Council, the State Department and Treasury applied more sanctions on Syria and Hezbollah in hopes that it only slows down the massacres in Syria while it has been proven that sanctions only result in more waivers being issued as well as feeding black market sales with evidence pointing to Iran as the centrifuges continue to spin.

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