The Taliban is mounting a public-relations campaign to try to win the hearts and minds of Afghans with their own version of a field manual that urges efforts to limit civilian casualties.
The little book with a blue cover, Rules for Mujahedeen, directs Taliban militants on how to behave while on deployment and how to deal with enemy combatants, treat prisoners of war and interact with civilians.
The manual, which has been given extensive coverage on Al Jazeera’s Arabic service, appears aimed at renewing popular support among Afghans in the face of a U.S.-led offensive against the militants.
The directive also could be an attempt by Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader, to reassert himself as the uncontested chief of an entire flock of Taliban subgroups.
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WASHINGTON — Antiterrorism officials are increasingly concerned about American-bred extremists who travel abroad for terror training and then return home, sometimes quietly recruiting followers over the years.
Federal authorities have issued a bulletin to law enforcement agencies around the country on the heels of the arrest Monday in North Carolina of a man whose devotion to the cause of violent jihad allegedly began 20 years ago.
The internal bulletin – reviewed by The Associated Press – says the FBI and the Homeland Security Department are very worried about the danger posed by little-noticed Americans traveling abroad to learn terrorism techniques, then coming back to the United States, where they may be dormant for long periods of time while they look for followers to recruit for future attacks.
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(Spiegel Online) A recent routine police operation uncovered a possible terror suspect. The development illustrates just how tense the security situation is in Germany, with the government issuing the clearest warnings yet of a possible attack by Islamist terrorists. How much do the country’s security officials know?
The officers were exceedingly polite, waiting for Ali R. to complete his Friday prayers, pack his things and leave the mosque in the western German city of Essen. Only then did they approach the imam and ask him to come with them. They took him to the Büren Prison near the northwestern city of Paderborn, where detainees are held pending deportation. The action was taken in response to a request by the German foreigners registration authority, which had been seeking Ali R., a medical student, since March, because his German residence permit had expired. The officers were not particularly enthusiastic about their mission, which was just another routine police operation. As a result, their search of Ali R., 29, was perfunctory at best.
AFP
An Islamist threatens Germany in a propaganda video for al-Qaida.
But what the officers found when they searched “Sheikh Ali,” as the imam is known, at the end of June turned a routine operation into an investigation that has captured the attention of the authorities.
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(Today’s Zamam) Contrary to widespread expectations, an appeals court in Brussels on Tuesday postponed its final ruling in the retrial of seven members of an outlawed Turkish terrorist organization and offered defense lawyers the opportunity to prepare new defense arguments in line with changes that were made to Belgian penal laws in the course of the protracted trial process.
Setting Oct. 14 as the date for the new hearing, the Belgian court cited certain amendments to Belgian laws as the reason for allowing defense lawyers to prepare new defense arguments at the upcoming hearing, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The suspects, all members of the terrorist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), were acquitted in February 2008 in a highly controversial ruling handed down by an appeals court in Antwerp, which overturned an earlier decision sentencing the suspects to imprisonment. But months later, the Belgian Court of Cassation rejected the acquittal of seven DHKP/C members, paving the way for a retrial. The retrial started in May.
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(LA Times) The men, all but one of whom are U.S. citizens, conspired to wage jihad overseas, according to a federal indictment. The men honed their weapons skills in rural areas of the state, authorities said.
Reporting from Washington — Federal authorities in North Carolina on Monday arrested seven men who they said had trained with high-powered weapons as part of a terrorist conspiracy to wage an Islamic holy war overseas.
The men — including a father who, authorities said, trained in jihad camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and his two sons — sought to provide material support to terrorists and to murder, kidnap, maim and injure people overseas, according to a seven-count federal indictment. The indictment did not allege that the group was plotting attacks on U.S. soil.
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