Times of London, 11 March 2010: A British Airways computer expert charged with terror offences planned to take advantage of a strike by BA staff to become a temporary member of the cabin crew, a court heard today. Rajib Karim, 30, from Newcastle upon Tyne, faces three charges under counter terrorism legislation. He is accused of two counts of planning suicide bombings and his own martyrdom. It is alleged that Mr Karim came to Britain, obtained a passport and secured a job at the airline as part of the conspiracy.
Prosecutor Colin Gibbs told City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court that the charge sheet alleges he shared information about his work, including security measures, and offered to take advantage of planned strikes by BA staff to join the airline’s cabin crew. . . . .
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 163–Dying to Kill Us: Understanding the Mindset of Suicide Operations
The Muslim Brotherhood in the United States (pdf)
By Steven Merley
Center on Islam, Democracy, and the Future of the Muslim World
HUDSON INSTITUTE
Synopsis
The leadership of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood (MB, or Ikhwan) has said that its goal was and is jihad aimed at destroying the U.S. from within. The Brotherhood leadership has also said that the means of achieving this goal is to establish Islamic organizations in the U.S. under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood. Since the early 1960s, the Brotherhood has constructed an elaborate covert organizational infrastructure on which was built a set of public or “front” organizations. The current U.S. Brotherhood leadership has attempted to deny this history, both claiming that it is not accurate and at the same time that saying that it represents an older form of thought inside the Brotherhood. An examination of public and private Brotherhood documents, however, indicates that this history is both accurate and that the Brotherhood has taken no action to demonstrate change in its mode of thought and/or activity. . . .
. . . . The MB has been establishing its organizational base in the U.S for over forty-five years. An examination of relevant documents, some of which became available only recently, makes it possible for the first time to construct a coherent timeline of how the U.S. Brotherhood has created a wide range of covert and public organizations designed to achieve its purposes. . . . These documents reveal that, throughout its history, the U.S. MB has been comprised of a covert infrastructure upon which was built a series of public organizations, sometimes referred to by the Brotherhood as “fronts.” . . . .
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 361–The Global Jihadist Threat Doctrine
AP, 11 March 2010: . . . .The massacre was Europe’s worst Islamic terror attack. The attackers targeted the Madrid commuter train network with 10 shrapnel-filled bombs concealed in backpacks during the morning rush hour of March 11, 2004. Twenty-eight people, mainly from North Africa, went on trial in 2007 and 21 of them were convicted of taking part in the attacks. . . .
Spain marks Madrid train bombings – six years on (EuroNews, 11 March 2010)
It was no ordinary journey to work for many in Madrid today. Thoughts turned to the rush-hour bombings exactly six years ago that killed nearly 200 people and injured almost 2,000 more. Some paid tribute by carrying flowers onto the Spanish capital’s commuter rail system where packed trains exploded on March 11th 2004. The anniversary of the al-Qaeda inspired attacks was also being marked in parliament and at other formal ceremonies to remember those who died. . . .
Joint act pays homage to Madrid bombing victims (EITB, 11 March 2010)
Acts of commemoration are being held throughout the EU on Thursday as part of the European Day for Victims of Terrorism, held every year on 11th March since 2005. Politicians in Spain laid a wreath of flowers at a plaque in the capital, marking the start of ceremonies to mark the sixth anniversary of the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 and injured 1,800 commuters when ten explosives planted by Muslim extremists went off on four commuter trains. Madrid regional government President Esperanza Aguirre placed the flowers in Puerta del Sol square at 9am, accompanied by regional leaders of the country’s main political parties. . . . .
Spiegel Online, 11 March 2010: Fifty years after Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann’s arrest by the Israeli Mossad in Argentina, basic details about his 15 years as a fugitive remain a government secret. The files kept by Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, remain classified today — allegedly for reasons of national security. A German journalist is now suing in a federal court for the release of the files.
Fifty years have passed since Adolf Eichmann’s arrest, but the German foreign intelligence agency, the BND, is still hoping to prevent the release of files detailing his post-war movements. A Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig is currently examining almost 4,500 pages of secret documents on Eichmann, a leading architect of Hitler’s plans to murder Europe’s Jews. The court is soon expected to rule whether the BND’s justifications for concealing the files are still applicable and in line with the country’s freedom of information laws. . . .
. . . .According to paperwork filed with the court, the BND maintains that secrecy is necessary because much of the information contained in the files was provided by an unnamed “foreign intelligence service.” If the information were released, the BND argues, it would deter other nations from sharing intelligence with Germany in the future. “It would adversely affect future cooperations between foreign intelligence services and German security agencies,” the agency’s lawyers argue.
The fact that the files are classified has prompted considerable speculation over the origins of the intelligence. The BND has clarified that the intelligence did not come from an American source, and it is widely assumed that it came from Israel’s Mossad, whose agents captured Eichmann in Buenos Aires in 1960. He was subsequently brought to trial in Israel, where he was convicted and hanged. . . . .
Daily Telegraph, 12 March 2010: “Large scale” electronic attacks by foreign intelligence services have sucessfully compromised the security of many large British companies, according to a Government agency. In evidence to a Parliamentary committee, The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, a Government agency, said that Government-backed hackers from China and Russia were behind a large proportion of the operations. Their aim is to steal government, defence and technology information. Most large firms have been targeted and, in ”many cases”, the attacks have been successful. Islamist terrorists are also behind attacks via the internet. Although their efforts are more limited, they are on the increase. The scale of the attacks was disclosed in the annual report of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC). . . . .
