Morocco – Active Terrorist Cell Broken Up

Moroccan police have dismantled a terrorist network that was “active in several towns” of the north African kingdom, the state security service announced on Tuesday.The network included six members who “were planning to commit terrorist acts inside the national territory,” the security service said in a statement, without saying when the arrests took place.

“Within the framework of efforts by security forces to combat terrorism and extremism, these services dismantled a terrorist network of six people imbued with Takfirist ideology…,” the statement said.Takfiris are a tiny minority of Muslims in Morocco, but they believe that society and its leaders have turned away from the narrow path of what they see as true Islam.

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Libyas Gaddafi Urges Jihad Against Switzerland

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi called on Thursday for a “jihad” or armed struggle against Switzerland, saying it was an infidel state that was destroying mosques.

“Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against (the Prophet) Mohammad, God and the Koran,” Gaddafi said during a meeting in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi to mark the Prophet's birthday.

“The masses of Muslims must go to all airports in the Islamic world and prevent any Swiss plane landing, to all harbors and prevent any Swiss ships docking, inspect all shops and markets to stop any Swiss goods being sold,” Gaddafi said.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry said it had no comment on Gaddafi's remarks.

via Libya’s Gaddafi urges jihad against Switzerland | Reuters.

Eight Charged In U.S. for Somali War Recruiting

Authorities unsealed terrorism-related charges Monday against eight defendants they said recruited young Somali-American men to return to their homeland to fight for an Islamist militant group.

The charges said men were recruited in Minneapolis mosques to fight for al-Shabaab, which the United States accuses of being al Qaeda’s proxy in the Horn of Africa nation.

In all, authorities have charged 14 people with recruiting, training or financing travel for young Somali immigrants in Minneapolis, which is home to some 50,000 Somalis.

About 20 young men, all but one of Somali descent, have left the Minneapolis area since September 2007 to train with and fight for al-Shabaab, authorities said.

U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones said all were recruited to fight in Somalia, and there was no indication any had been directed to come back to the United States to launch attacks on U.S. soil.

“The sad reality is that the vibrant Somali community here in Minneapolis has lost many of its sons to fighting in Somalia,” Jones said.

“These young men have been recruited to fight in a foreign war by individuals and groups using violence against government troops and civilians,” he said.

via Source.

Egyptian Forces In Sinai On High Alert For Hezbollah Terror

Egyptian forces in the Sinai Peninsula have been put on high alert in recent days following the arrest of a Hezbollah spy network operating on Egyptian soil, reported the Cairo-based Egyptian newspaper Almasry Alyoum. Egyptian officials fear other Hezbollah-linked activists are still at large and operating in Sinai, and may try to carry out terrorist attacks on Egyptian territory.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak commented on the arrests for the first time during a telephone conversation with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora yesterday, telling the pro-Western politician that Egypt will not allow foreign factions to undermine its sovereignty. He added that the Egyptian justice system will deal with the groups that Hezbollah ran inside Egypt.

The verbal blows and counterattacks between Egypt and Hezbollah escalated yesterday, with the al-Gomhouria newspaper calling Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, a “monkey sheikh” in its main editorial. The editorial, written by editor Mohamed Ali Ibrahim, covered the front page and carried the headline “A criminal who knows no repentance” over a picture of Nasrallah. “I say to you what every Egyptian knows, that you are an Iranian party,” Ibrahim wrote. “Are there instructions from Iran to drag Egypt into a conflict?”

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Somali Pirates Seize Italian-flagged Tugboat, 16 crew

Pirates captured an Italian-flagged tugboat with 16 crew including 10 Italians on Saturday, in the latest hijacking in the busy Gulf of Aden.

The tugboat, with enough fuel and food on board to last a month, was believed to be heading toward the Somali coast, the head of the Italian company that owns the boat told Reuters.

“I’ve entered into contact with the families (of the crew),” Claudio Bartolotti, head of Ravenna-based Micoperi Srl, said, adding there were also five Romanians and one Croatian on board.

Bartolotti denied reports the 75-metre-long tugboat was U.S.-owned, saying his company had recently purchased it.

NATO alliance officials on a warship in the region had previously described the boat as U.S.-owned, Italian-flagged.

Andrew Mwangura, of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, said the tugboat’s crew were believed to be unharmed.

He said the tugboat was towing two barges at the time of capture but there were no details about their cargo.

“This incident shows the pirates are becoming more daring and violent,” Mwangura told Reuters by phone.

via Reuters AlertNet – Pirates seize Italian-flagged tugboat, 16 crew.

American Al Qaeda In Somalia Hold Press Conference

Two young Americans who left their homes to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Somalia held a rare “press conference” in Southern Somalia on Monday, saying they want to be killed “for the sake of God,” according to a U.S. law enforcement official and a video posted on a Somali news Web site.

For several months the FBI has been investigating at least 20 Somali-American men from the Minneapolis area and elsewhere in the United States who traveled to war-torn Somalia to join the terrorist group al-Shabaab, which has been warring with the moderate Somali government since 2006.

Last month, a source familiar with the FBI investigation told FOX News that “several” of the men had returned to the United States, while others “are still there [in Somalia].” Today is the first time any of these men have spoken publicly.

“We came from the U.S. with a good life and a good education, but we came to fight alongside our brothers of al-Shabaab … to be killed for the sake of God,” one man said in the video, as translated by Omar Jamal, the executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minn.

In the video, two men, identifying themselves as Abu-Muslim and Abu Yaxye, say they are “Somali youth” from the United States who are now stationed near the city of Kismayo, more than 300 miles southwest of Mogadishu, according to Jamal. The men say they are talking to media for the first time so others can learn why they joined al-Shabaab, he said.

A spokesman from the FBI Field Office in Minneapolis, E.K. Wilson, said he is “aware of the video,” which was posted on the Web site dowladnimo.com. He said the video was first brought to his office’s attention early Sunday.

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FBI Concerned Young Men Being Recruited For Terrorism

Sources told KING 5 News that Seattle FBI agents are now working on a nationwide terrorism investigation.

The FBI has confirmed some cases of young men traveling to the East African nation of Somalia to join al Qaeda-sponsored groups there.

One of the cases they’re looking at includes a man killed in fighting in Somalia last year – an American citizen from Seattle. Read more

Is the Economic Crisis a Security Threat

Could the deepening global recession boost the flagging efforts of Osama bin Laden to challenge the established global order? Probably not. But the signs are there that, as President Barack Obama’s intelligence chief Admiral Dennis Blair warned last week, the economic crisis may be the source of the primary threat to global security right now. Security experts note that the economic downturn is already creating social unrest and political instability in some strategic hot spots around the world, and they warn that a prolonged slump could undermine U.S. and Western security interests.
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Blair, addressing the Senate Intelligence Committee on Feb. 12, prioritized the global recession as America’s “primary near-term security concern” and warned that the threat level would increase as the slump endures. “The longer it takes for the recovery to begin, the greater the likelihood of serious damage to U.S. strategic interests,” Blair warned, emphasizing the danger of political instability in countries allied with Washington. “Economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they persist over a one-to-two-year period.” (See pictures of the global food crisis.)

Part of the strategic challenge posed by the downturn lies in the realm of the economy itself. Emerging powers such as China or India could take the opportunity presented by U.S. economic weakness to extend their own influence in regions traditionally dominated by the U.S. China, in particular, has already established itself as a major player in Latin America and Africa, and it is investing heavily in extractive industries across the globe right now, procuring energy supplies — most recently in new oil deals inked with Russia, Venezuela and Brazil — and other natural resources for its industrial economy.

Read Full Article – TIME.

Ethiopia Warns of Imminent Terror Attack

“There is proven evidence that a plot to undertake a terrorist attack in Ethiopia exists at this very moment,” the National Anti-terrorism Taskforce warned in a statement received by AFP here.

“We urge the public to remain vigilant and cooperate with security officials in foiling this imminent attack,” it added. Read more