Al Qaeda Calls For Home-made Bomb Attacks in West

The leader of al Qaeda’s wing in the Arabian Peninsula called on militants to attack airports and trains in the West and said they could easily make bombs from household materials, the group’s Internet magazine said.

The Islamist group has been trying to secure small victories to maintain its feared image after its leaders’ threats to carry out large-scale attacks on Western targets have been discounted as words without deeds, analysts say.

Abu Basir Nasser al-Wahayshi, in an article in the e-magazine Sada al-Malahem, also urged militants to assault secular media figures and columnists who promote the policies of rulers in the world’s top oil exporting region.

“You do not need to exert great effort or spend a lot of money to make 10 grams of explosives, more or less. Do not spend a long time searching for materials as they already exist in your mother’s kitchen,” Wahayshi wrote in the article, posted on an Islamist website on Sunday.

“Make them (bombs) in the shape of a bomb you hurl, or detonate through a timer or a remote detonater or a martyrdom-seeker belt or any electrical appliance.”

Wahayshi said bombers should attack countries involved in wars in Muslim countries as well as government figures and security bodies in the Middle East.

via Al Qaeda calls for home-made bomb attacks in West | Reuters.

Osama bin Laden To Provide A ‘Present’ to Muslims

A website often used by al Qaeda supporters said on Thursday it would soon carry a “present” to Muslims from Osama bin Laden on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan. The Islamist website gave no further details, but messages by the al Qaeda leader have usually appeared within about 48 hours of being announced on the Internet.

In his latest message in June, bin Laden said U.S. President Barack Obama had planted the seeds of “revenge and hatred” toward the United States in the Muslim world.

Bin Laden’s remarks were issued just before a major speech by Obama who said he sought a “new beginning” between the United States and the Muslim world.

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Zawahiri To Obama:You Are Not Welcome in Egypt

Al Qaeda No. 2, Ayman Zawahiri said in a new audiotape today that President Obama is not welcome in Egypt. Commenting on Obama’s upcoming visit to Cairo, Zawahiri said that President Obama’s message to the Muslim World has already been delivered.

“Obama’s message to the Muslim World was delivered when he visited the Wailing wall, with the Jewish skullcap on his head…when he performed the Jewish prayers despite claiming that he is Christian,” Zawahiri said, reminding his audience of Obama’s pledge before the AIPAC conference to make Jerusalem the undivided capital of Israel.

The al Qaeda deputy chief accused Obama of approving the “Zionist aggression on Gaza,” of sending more troops to Afghanistan and continuing to bomb tribal areas of Pakistan, and of leading the “brutal campaign” against Muslims in the Swat valley. He said the Obama administration’s message to the Muslim world can be seen in the continued use of secret prisons and the breach of the Geneva conventions regarding terror detainees.

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New York Terror Plot Broken Up

The FBI busted a homegrown terror cell late Wednesday night as the men sneaked around a Jewish temple in Riverdale planting what they thought was packages of C-4 explosives, sources told the Daily News.

The four African American men, three of whom were said to be jailhouse converts to Islam, also allegedly had what they believed was a working Stinger missile in their car.

Officials said they hoped to shoot down a plane at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh in Orange County.

Sources said the four men were arrested after a year-long investigation that began when an informant connected to a mosque in Newburgh said he knew men who wanted to buy explosives.

FBI agents posing as militants sold them what they thought was 30 pounds of C-4 and a plane-downing Stinger missile.

The weaponry was all phony.

The men were arrested as they planted fake bombs in front of the Riverdale Temple in the Bronx and under cars parked in front of the synagogue.

They also allegedly planned to blow up a nearby Jewish Community Center.

Witnesses said an NYPD vehicle blocked a black SUV outside the temple and then officers broke in the windows and handcuffed the four men inside the car.

All four men were US-born.

Arrested was alleged ringleader James Cromitie of Newburgh, the son of an Afghan immigrant and his African American wife.

Cromitie served a long stretch in prison in the past.

Alleged henchment David Williams, Onta Williams and Leguerre Payen were busted with him.

Sources said the three were jailhouse converts to Islam.

“This shows the real risks we face from homegrown terror and jailhouse converts, and the need for constant vigilance,” said Rep. Pete King R-NY.

The four alleged terrorists are expected to be arraigned Thursday in White Plains federal court.

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Al-Qaeda Terrorist Prisoners Plotted To Escape In Hijacked Helicopter – UK

Al-Qaeda terrorists in a British jail were caught planning to escape in a hijacked helicopter.

Accomplices on the outside were to hire the helicopter for “business” then force the pilot to land in prison at gunpoint.

Nine Muslim inmates plotted to kidnap the jail imam during prayers with weapons hidden in the prison mosque.

According to the plan they would then move to a sports field using the imam as a shield and be picked up by the helicopter.

Wardens at Full Sutton prison in Yorkshire, acting on a tip-off, went to the plotters’ cells hours before the escape attempt was due to start.

The nine, including convicted terrorists, will now be transferred to other jails.

A source told the Sun: “This would have been one of the most damaging escapes ever. The intelligence was very strong and from a good source. It had to be acted on immediately.

“It involved some of the most dangerous al-Qaeda terrorists in jail, all of whom are a massive threat. It had been planned for months and the use of a helicopter shows it was sophisticated.”

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Osama bin Laden Plotting New Attacks

Osama bin Laden and the core al-Qaida leadership are plotting new attacks against the United States and its allies from safe havens
in Pakistan, a senior US official warned Thursday.

Officials have said President Barack Obama’s new Afghan-Pakistan strategy will focus on destroying safe havens for terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Read more

U.S. Zeros In On Chitral Pakistan In Hunt For bin Laden

Where’s Osama? Try Chitral, once a trekkers’ paradise in Pakistan that has been sealed off to outsiders and is now regularly buzzed by American spy drones.

The U.S. won’t say it officially, but an exhaustive Daily News investigation finds the world’s biggest manhunt for the monster who murdered nearly 3,000 people on 9/11 has zeroed in on Chitral’s stunning peaks and deep valleys.

Six U.S. and foreign officials confirmed to The News that northwestern Pakistan’s impenetrable Hindu Kush mountains – which boast some of the world’s tallest climbs – in the Chitral region have been eyed as Bin Laden’s hideout since 2006 by Osama hunters aiming for the big kill.

A lengthy review of evidence, including recent Predator fly-bys, Bin Laden’s tapes since 9/11 and interviews with three dozen experts on Al Qaeda, Pakistan and special operations, point to these vast mountains as the terror chief’s most likely haven.

Captured Al Qaeda leaders have given up as his hideout. “Debriefings of Al Qaeda leaders arrested confirmed this,” said Rohan Gunaratna, author of “Inside Al Qaeda.”

Two senior foreign officials said the nearby town of Kalam also is suspect.

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Osama Bin Laden Releases New Audio Message

Osama bin Laden says in a new audio message that Israel attacked Gaza because of the “great and swift decline in America’s influence,” CBS News reports.

“Israelis are in a rush to get rid of their enemies in Gaza, and replace them with [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas and his administration, in order for him to protect their backs,” the network quotes bin Laden as saying. “They thus carried out this horrific butchery before the end of Bush’s term in office before the American weakness shows even more.”

Bin Laden, the head of al-Qaeda, has been in hiding since the United States invaded Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The network says it downloaded the unauthenticated 22-minute-long message from an Islamist website.

The Associated Press says bin Laden criticized governments in the region for keeping Arabs from fighting to “liberate Palestine.”

“There is only one strong way to bring the return of Al-Aqsa and Palestine, and that is jihad in the path of God,” the terrorist leader says, according to AP. “The duty is to urge people to jihad and to enlist the youth into jihad brigades.”

“Muslim nation, you are capable of defeating the Zionist entity with your popular capabilities and your great hidden strength — without the support of [Arab] leaders and despite the fact that most of [the leaders] stand in the barracks of the Crusader-Zionist alliance,” he says.

via Source – USATODAY.com.