As luck would have it, luck saved NYC's subway commuters

The New York City subway bombing plot was just five days away from being consummated when it was discovered.

The suicide attack, planned to mark last year’s anniversary of the September 11 attacks was to be the biggest plot in the US since 2001.

Previous reports had suggested that the men were under surveillance by the FBI for some time before their planned attacks but sources now say the plot came close to success.

The plot was only foiled when one of the men emailed an al-Qaeda fixer in Pakistan to ask for advice on mixing chemicals, security sources on both sides of the Atlantic have told The Daily Telegraph.

Three men were allegedly planning to strap bombs to themselves and attack the underground with coordinated explosions planned to emulate those on London five years ago.

The lives of hundreds, perhaps thousands of New York subway riders were saved by the faulty memory of a would-be jihadist and his failure to take notes.

The New York investigation began on September 6 2009 when an Afghan-born man brought up in Queen’s, New York also began emailing [the 'fixer'] Sohaib.

Najibullah Zazi was desperate to be reminded of his bomb-making instructions from a visit to Pakistan a year earlier.

He had already bought hydrogen peroxide and other bomb-making chemicals but wanted to know what proportions to use.

Luck is a good ally but a highly capricious one. Better to de-fang the Pakistani jihadi networks -- which may entail forcing their supporters in Pakistan's government and military to cut them off. As messy and difficult as that may be, it is likely a necessary precondition for stopping plots of this type at the source.

UK letter bomber "a confused young man" angry at Government security measures

A British letter bomber, responsible for injuring eight people, was "a confused young man" angry over the development of the British surveillance state.

Cooper had for years harboured a seething resentment over what he perceived as the growing threat to Britain's civil liberties.

The increase in surveillance cameras, anti-terrorist measures and "overbearing" Government control were a constant source of frustration. He had campaigned peacefully against identity cards and the treatment of anti-nuclear protesters, but it was getting him nowhere.

The catalyst for his change in tactics came in 2003 following the decision to hold on record the DNA of his father, Clive, despite his being cleared of an allegation of assault.

Cooper, a confused young man who had difficulty forming social relationships, suddenly had a cause to channel his anger.

The hate rhetoric of the Left, the seething over its impotence in changing security and defense policy, is more than the expression of inchoate rage. It's the seedbed for this type of domestic terrorism. Watch for the "Kos Kidz," the readers of The Daily Kos blogsite, to start falling into this practice in the not-distant future.

Security checkpoints create points of insecurity

Like any evolving system, predators adapt to exploit the very defenses their prey have developed.

Long queues for security and check-in made an "excellent target" for potential bombers, the Tory transport spokesman told MPs.

Julian Brazier, a former SAS soldier, said that jihadists might adopt similar techniques as those seen in Iraq, where civilians were often targeted at checkpoints.

"A bomber can simply walk into a terminal carrying or wheeling a large bomb in a suitcase," he said. "The plain fact is that long, densely packed queues represent a hugely tempting target to terrorists."

This amplifies the point I made in an earlier UFTS post. One successful bombing of a queue or crowd will make the entire system vulnerable to spoof bombs and empty bomb threats: authorities will have to clear the facilities under threat, regardless of how many threats prove hollow. The effect of one bomb will be multiplied many-fold and cripple Western economies.

Summer of (something other than) love

Forty years ago, it was flower power. In 2007, we hope it isn't flour power (chapati flour, that is). US officials are very nervous about the coming summer season, knowing how much al-Qaeda loves its summer avocation of blowing people up.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. counterterror officials are warning of an increased risk of an attack this summer, given al-Qaida's apparent interest in summertime strikes and increased al-Qaida training in the Afghan-Pakistani border region.

On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the editorial board of The Chicago Tribune that he had a "gut feeling" about a new period of increased risk.

He based his assessment on earlier patterns of terrorists in Europe and intelligence he would not disclose.

"Summertime seems to be appealing to them," Chertoff said in his discussion with the newspaper about terrorists. "We worry that they are rebuilding their activities."

Other U.S. counterterrorism officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, shared Chertoff's concern and said that al-Qaida and like-minded groups have been able to plot and train more freely in the tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistani border in recent months. Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding in the rugged region.

One hopes (probably in vain) that the Lal Masjid takedown in Islamabad has opened the door to more counterterrorism operations on the Pakistani side of the Pak-Afghan border.

One also hopes (probably also in vain) that the al-Qaeda cells operating in the USA at present are as inept as the 7/21 bombers in Britain, who couldn't get their recipe right.

Four men who were given sanctuary in Britain after leaving their war-torn countries were yesterday found guilty of a plot that would have killed hundreds of people on the London transport system two years ago.

Muktar Ibrahim, 29, the leader of the suicide gang, was seen by officers on at least four occasions before the bombings, Woolwich Crown Court had heard and was on bail after being arrested on suspicion of extremism.

London was saved only by Ibrahim's lack of basic arithmetic. A scribbled note found at the bomb factory showed that Ibrahim, who had failed maths GCSE, had wrongly calculated the ratio of ingredients, rendering the bombs harmless.

Despite having a criminal record, he was given British citizenship even as he plotted the potentially murderous attacks.

And certanly one hopes -- perhaps with a bit more realism -- that the police in the USA are currently doing a better job of tracking suspected terror cells than the British were doing prior to the 7/21 plot, even after the successful 7/7 bombings.

The fact that they came so close to causing carnage when they had been known to the police will raise fresh questions over the value of the intelligence available to the security services and whether it was properly acted upon.

In January and August 2003 Ibrahim was seen with Mohammed on police surveillance video at Finsbury Park Mosque, where Omar and Osman also attended regularly.

In May 2004, police watched all four bombers on a camping trip at a farm in Langdale in the Lake District running up and down carrying rucksacks. In October the same year, Ibrahim was arrested by police for breach of the peace while handing out extremist literature in Oxford Street.

He jumped bail and a letter was sent to his flat saying: "Come to us before we come to you."

In December, Ibrahim was stopped by Special Branch officers at Heathrow airport before boarding a flight to Pakistan. They found his luggage included cold weather clothing, a sleeping bag and a video camera along with £2,000 in cash. One of his companions had £2,200, a military first aid kit and a manual on how to deal with ballistic injuries.

A Port Stop Request form recording the incident was filled in but the three men were allowed to go on their way.

Ibrahim flew to Pakistan, where he is said to have learned his bomb-making skills alongside Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shezhad Tanweer.

And, of course, closing the circle, San Francisco certainly has to be on the short list of potential targets for al-Qaeda in the USA. Not only is it the city whose mores are most likely to offend Muslim funadmentalist values, but its political leadership is all but dismissive of the threat of Islamofascist terror.

'Spooky' how some jihadist doctors threatened terrorist acts -- and then other jihadist doctors did them

'Spooky'? A jihadist claiming to represent a cell of 45 doctors posts a threat to commit terrorist acts in the USA, and the only way the authorities can describe the parallel to the London and Glasgow attacks is 'spooky'?

Anti-terrorist police found details of the discussions on a jihadi site run by one of a three-strong “cyber-terrorist” gang.

They were discovered at the home of Younis Tsouli, 23, Woolwich Crown Court in south east London heard.

One message, thought to have been sent on February 12 2005, read: 'We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America.

“The first target which will be penetrated by nine brothers is the naval base which gives shelter to the ship Kennedy.”

This is thought to have been a reference to the USS John F Kennedy, which is often at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida.

The message discussed targets at the base, adding: 'These are clubs for naked women which are opposite the First and Third units.”

It also referred to using six Chevrolet GT vehicles and three fishing boats and blowing up petrol tanks with rocket propelled grenades.

Tsouli replied to the message by saying “He needs the recipe for making car bombs,” and a “recipe” was supplied by one contributor, including gas cylinders as one ingredient.

Investigators have found no link between the Tsouli chat room and the group of doctors and medics currently in custody over attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.

However, sources said it was “definitely spooky” that the use of doctors for terrorist purposes was being discussed in jihadi terrorist circles up to three years ago.

What's 'spooky' is that this discovery didn't prompt British authorities to tighten their scrutiny of Muslim physicians in Britain two years ago. The jihadists have a track record of doing the things they brag about planning. Shouldn’t the authorities have learned long since to take these kinds of threats seriously?

Every little bit helps

Some good news from Pakistan.

The eight-member gang led by former fighters of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group was based in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, a senior police official said.

They used to collect materials and volunteers from the central province of Punjab, the official said, requesting anonymity.

The suspects were arrested in Punjab over the past few days.

The police are crowing.

"During the interrogation they confessed to having carried out a series of suicide bombings and bomb blasts against foreign forces in Afghanistan over the past several years,'' he said.

He identified the gang leaders as Mufti Saghir Ahmed, a veteran of the 1980s war against invading Soviet troops in Afghanistan, and wanted militant Mohammad Safeer.

Both are members of the Jaish group, he said.

Safeer was wanted over an attack on a church in the Pakistani town of Taxila in 2003.

"The suspects were preparing remote-controlled devices for the Taliban in Afghanistan,'' the official said.

"It's a major breakthrough in the fight against terrorism and reflects Pakistan's strong commitment to fight militancy,'' a senior security official said.

But the question remains: if these suspects were known, wanted men, why weren't they stopped last year, or the year before, or the year before that? Who else is doing the same thing in Pakistan and yet won't be stopped this year, or next year, or the year after? I still get the feeling that Pakistan is trying to placate both sides, rather than treating Islamic fundamentalism as an existential threat.

"Then I felt the bomb."

An account given by a six-year-old Afghan boy named Juma describes how he was forced to wear a bomb vest by the Taliban and told to blow up Americans.

Juma said that sometime last month Taliban fighters forced him to wear a vest they said would spray out flowers when he touched a button. He said they told him that when he saw American soldiers, "throw your body at them."

The militants cornered Juma in a Taliban-controlled district in southern Afghanistan's Ghazni province. Their target was an impoverished youngster being raised by an older sister - but also one who proved too street-smart for their plan.

"When they first put the vest on my body I didn't know what to think, but then I felt the bomb," Juma told The Associated Press as he ate lamb and rice after being introduced to the elders at this joint U.S.-Afghan base in Ghazni. "After I figured out it was a bomb, I went to the Afghan soldiers for help."

While Juma's story could not be independently verified, local government leaders backed his account and the U.S. and NATO military missions said they believed his story.

Abdul Rahim Deciwal, the chief administrator for Juma's village of Athul, brought the boy and an older brother, Dad Gul, to a weekend meeting between Afghan elders and U.S. Army Col. Martin P. Schweitzer.

Schweitzer called the Taliban's attempt "a cowardly act."

As Deciwal told Juma's story, 20 Afghan elders repeatedly clicked their tongues in sadness and disapproval. When the boy and his brother were brought in, several of the turban-wearing men welled up, wiping their eyes with handkerchiefs.

"If anybody has a heart, then how can you control yourself (before) these kids?" Deciwal said in broken English.

Wallets quickly opened, and the boys were handed $60 in American and Afghan currency - a good chunk of money in a country where teachers and police earn $70 a month.

But the Taliban is indignant that anyone would accuse them of such a thing.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, denied the militant group uses child fighters, saying it has hundreds of adults ready for suicide missions.

"We don't need to use a child," Ahmadi told the AP by satellite phone. "It's against Islamic law, it's against humanitarian law. This is just propaganda against the Taliban."

However, a gory Taliban video that surfaced in April showed militants instructing a boy of about 12 as he beheaded an alleged traitor with a large knife. U.N. officials condemned the act as a war crime.

How on Earth could reasonable people suspect the Taliban of violating either Islamic law or humanitarian law? Oh, I forgot -- it's because they're evil murderers.

Sadly, we'll now find out if the UNIFIL commander is right

The operating environment for UNIFIL in southern Lebanon has become dramatically "non-permissive."

At least five Spanish UN peacekeepers were killed and three others wounded in an attack on a UNIFIL patrol in southern Lebanon on Sunday afternoon.

The incident took place near Al-Hijam, south of Marj Ayoun, on the eastern part of the border with Israel. UNIFIL forces were on route to the site of the attack to investigate.

A senior Lebanese official in Beirut said a mine may have caused the explosion. But another security official based in southern Lebanon said the explosion was caused by a bomb that was placed on the side of the main road where the UNIFIL APC was travelling.

The attack late Sunday afternoon was the first ever against UNIFIL forces in the region.

No organization claimed responsibility for the attack, but forces affiliated with al-Qaida were cited as the possible initiators of the attack, an analyst speaking on Israel Radio said moments after the explosion.

Previously, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post, the UNIFIL commander was quite confident about his command's effectiveness.

'In my area of operations there is no open hostile activity, and we also do not see a rearmament happening,' he said. 'We are physically patrolling every corner of southern Lebanon, and if there were a bunker [system], we would have found it'
- Maj.-Gen. Claudio Graziano

Forgive the pun in poor taste, but it looks like that assessment has been blown all to Hell. Forgive the silly pun, but Gen. Graziano has a rocky road ahead.

Gen. Graziano also told the Post that his soldiers are willing to put their lives on the line in the cause of peace.

As a testament to the way Graziano envisions his mission, perhaps, are his remarks that his men believe strongly enough in their mission of preventing hostilities in southern Lebanon that they are willing to sacrifice their lives on Israel's behalf.

"Our job is to defend peace, and it is a value-based job for soldiers," he explained. "There are people who will offer their lives for higher values like peace, security and stability."

Sadly, we will now find out whether his assessment of his troops' commitment is correct, or whether their home countries will pull them out to put their safety ahead of the peace, security and stability they are supposed to maintain.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

Iran's President has some important news for the rest of the world!

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday extolled what he described as Iran's self-sufficiency in producing army equipment and said Iran was so powerful now, no other country would dare launch a military strike against it.

"We have passed our point of vulnerability," Ahmadinejad told state television during a visit to an Iranian defensive equipment exhibition. "This means nobody would dare stage a military assault against our nation."

Ahmadinejad said possible adversaries were aware of Tehran's defense capabilities and said that Iranian national unity was also a key factor as to why no other country would attack Iran.

Where have we heard that before? Oh, yeah:

"The Ruhr will not be subjected to a single bomb. If an enemy bomber reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Hermann Goering: you can call me Meier!" - Reich Marshal Hermann Goering

Given his propensity to surreal flights of fancy, I propose that, if an enemy bomber reaches (say) Natanz, we should be able to call Iran's President "Aronofsky."