Strategy Page, 21 Nov 09: The CIA has produced a new batch of TV ads for recruiting Arab and Iranian-Americans. Especially those with a good knowledge of the languages and cultures of the old country. Such recruiting has been a tricky business, because we are war with an entity that identifies itself via culture and religion; not nationality.
A polyglot nation like the United States has citizens, and non-citizens, from all parts of the world. This creates opportunities (for recruiting intelligence operatives) and dangers (spies in our midst) in wartime. And we are at war, with over a dozen Islamic terrorist attacks within the U.S. so far this year. All but one of those attacks was aborted before anyone (but a few terrorists) were hurt. Intelligence operatives who understand Islam and Arabic were instrumental in detecting and neutralizing these attacks.
The war on terror is basically a struggle against an Islamic radical movement that believes the world should be one big Islamic dictatorship, run by Moslem clergy. This appeals to many Moslems, no matter where they live. Thus there have been dozens of terrorist attacks in Europe and North America (most of them aborted before they could be carried out) by Moslem living there.
This is more of a problem in Europe, where there are far more Moslems, and a more hostile (to migrants) atmosphere that produces more angry Moslems willing to kill for the cause of Global Islamic Domination. But even in the United States, there are many Moslems who believe there is a war going on between Moslems and infidels (non-Moslems), and violence is needed to safeguard Moslems.
This has caused a certain amount of tension within the Moslem communities in Europe and North America. Many Moslems feel like they are not trusted by their fellow citizens, because their loyalty to their new country is doubted. This is an understandable feeling in wartime. To get a better feeling for how this actually works out, consider what happened in past wars. . . . . . .
AP, 20 Nov 09: Italian police on Saturday arrested two Pakistani men accused of providing logistical support for last year’s terror attacks in Mumbai, officials said. The two, father and son, were arrested in an early morning raid in Brescia, police in the northern Italian city said.
The suspects managed a money transfer agency and helped fund the Nov. 26 attacks, police said in a statement. The day before the attacks they transferred money to activate an Internet phone account that was used by the attackers and their accomplices, said Stefano Fonzi, the head of anti-terror police in Brescia. . . . .
2 linked to Mumbai terror attacks arrested in Italy (CNN)
. . . .The attacks on India’s largest city lasted four days. The attackers targeted several sites in Mumbai, taking over several hotels and a Jewish center. The attacks left 160 people dead.
On November 25, 2008, the day before the attacks in Mumbai, the two men arrested allegedly transferred $229 that was used to activate Internet phone lines used by the suspects.
Two others connected with the longstanding money transfer agency in Brescia also were arrested for other illegal activity, Fonzi told CNN. Police are looking for a fifth man.
Italian police started their investigation the following month after being alerted by Indian authorities and the FBI that funds had been transferred from Italy, Fonzi said.
Authorities suspected the agency after money was transferred under the Muslim name of a man who had never entered Italy, a police statement said.
Indian police have said 10 Pakistanis were involved in the deadly assault, nine of whom were killed in the carnage.
The lone surviving suspect has linked the coordinated shooting and bombing incidents to the leader of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a militant group that is banned in India.
Deseret News, 20 Nov 09: At times when he was running for his life, only a few steps ahead of the Soviet KGB, Mike Ramsdell always considered himself a “farm boy from Bear River City, Utah.”
Ramsdell spoke Friday at the Utah Farm Bureau Federation at the Davis Convention Center about the most harrowing ordeal of his life, which he also described in his book, “A Train to Potevka.”
Ramsdell could acquire foreign languages easily and after an undergraduate degree at Utah State University and graduate studies at the University of Utah, he began to work for the U.S. State Department as an intelligence officer during the Cold War.
As the Cold War was winding down, the United States dispatched Ramsdell and other spies based at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to Siberia to detain a former Soviet legislator whom the U.S. government wanted for alleged embezzlement, he said
As Ramsdell and his spy colleagues were closing in on the former legislator, their cover was blown. Ramsdell’s colleagues flew back to Moscow, but Ramsdell, because he had better language skills, remained in the area to “sanitize” the apartments they had rented in the area. He was to destroy all documents “so that if the Soviet secret police or the KGB came in to those apartments, they would not be able to tie (together) anything about who we were or what we were doing,” he said.
While Ramsdell sanitized an apartment, a Russian mobster protecting the former legislator found him. They got into a fight, and Ramsdell barely escaped the area by train to a “safe house” the U.S. maintained for spies in Siberia. . . . .
IDF, 20 Nov 09: A special panel appointed by the Heritage Branch of the Intelligence Corps, conducted a survey about the different aspects in one of the boldest operations in the history of the IDF.
The Heritage Branch of the Intelligence Corps that was created about two years ago, together with the Head of the Education Department of the Corps, initiated a project code named “Coffee Heritage”, where the present generation of the Corps met with the people who worked behind the scenes in one of the most famous and successful operation in the history of the IDF and the State of Israel.
Hundreds of soldiers and officers from classified units of the Intelligence Corps arrived last week to the Command College to listen to first hand recounts of the preparations and brilliant achievements of Operation Entebbe (also known as the Yonatan Operation, the Entebbe Raid or the Operation Thunderbolt).
The operation planning began after an Air France plane was hijacked and taken to the Entebbe Airport in Uganda by terrorist groups, the Revolutionary Cells and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, from the 28th of June to the 3rd of July 1976. . . . . . .
Ynet, 20 Nov 09: For the first time in some three years, Israel arrested five senior Palestinian Authority officers Friday morning near Salfit in the West Bank. The defense establishment confirmed the number of Palestinian officers arrested, but did not reveal additional details about the circumstances of their arrest. According to the Palestinians, talks are being held between the PA and Israel in efforts to secure their release.
All five of those detained are officers in the Palestinian General Intelligence Service, and include Salfit region intelligence commander, Mohammad Abdel Hamid. The IDF also issued the Palestinians with a demand for the arrest of an additional officer who was not apprehended.
A Palestinian security source in Salfit estimated that the arrests were apparently made on the backdrop of an investigation currently being carried out by the General Intelligence Service against a man suspected of collaborating with Israel. . . .
US, Israeli officials keep mum on PA intel arrests (Ma’an News Agency)
Israeli forces detained six Palestinians from Nablus and Salfit overnight including the commander and four officers of the Palestinian Authority Intelligence Services.
High-level negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli officials have been ongoing since dawn in an effort to have the men released, with American officials entering the debate shortly after 11am local time, expressing “concern” over the Israeli actions, reportedly approved by Israeli government officials before the raids took place, Palestinian security sources said.
Officials said the “next few hours” will determine whether or not the situation will escalate.
The first detention took place during a raid on Aqraba village south of Nablus at 2am Friday, with Israeli forces breaking into the home of PA Intelligence Services Commander Muhammad Abdul Hameed Bani Fadel, 45. The commander’s home was ransacked and he was detained by Israeli troops. He was taken to an unknown destination for questioning.
Israeli forces then went to the homes of four of the PA intelligence officers In the villages of Bruqin, southwest of Salfit and Deir Istiya north of the town, and detained:
First Lieutenant Bader Mahmud Mustafa Sabra, 37
First Lieutenant Rami Hatem Khater, 30
First Lieutenant Abdul Hameed Muhammad Abdul Hameed Al-Khatib, 29
First Lieutenant Zaid Ahmad Mahmud Abu Zaid, 32
Mayor of Salfit Munir Al-Abushy said Israeli forces also demanded a fifth officer turn himself over into Israeli custody after they raided the home of First Lieutenant Ibrahim Abdul Dayem, but did not find him in the building.
Al-Abushy said he considered the Israeli forces’ act to be a “clear message to the PA especially during the current political crisis with Israel.” He further noted that the particular officers detained were the “finest in Salfit,” and mentioned they were working on “anti-political crimes.”
The homes of two civilians in Bethlehem were also raided early Friday morning, although the invasions appear to be unconnected with the high-level detentions. Among the raided homes in Bethlehem were those of Khader Jaber and Ahmad Al-Siury.
Later in the day Israeli media reported confirmation from the Israeli “defense establishment” of the detention of the five officers, but gave no details as to why the move was made. An Israeli military spokesperson, however, refused to comment on the issue.
Sources at the American consulate would not confirm US involvement in the issue.
