foxnews:Afghan officials say Taliban commander killed

Afghan officials say Taliban commander killed

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/12/31/grenade-attack-kills-afghan-child-wounds/

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan and coalition troops killed the Taliban "shadow governor" of a northern Afghan province in an overnight raid, local officials said Friday, while NATO said insurgents attacks claimed the lives of two coalition service members.

Once relatively peaceful, security in northern Afghanistan has deteriorated as the Taliban, squeezed by NATO operations focusing on militant strongholds in the south, have expanded their reach to other parts of the country.

NATO said a joint force stormed a compound in the Chahar Dara district of Kunduz province before dawn, killing an insurgent and detaining several suspects in an operation targeting a high-level Taliban leader believed to make roadside bombs and suicide vests. The coalition said it had not yet identified the slain militant.

But district chief Abdul Wahid Omarkhel and the Kunduz governor's spokesman, Mabobullah Sayedi, said the operation killed Maulvi Bahadar, who has been the Taliban's acting shadow governor for Kunduz for several months. They said another four suspects had been arrested. The Taliban have set up so-called shadow governors in many provinces, claiming to be the legitimate authority in the area.

Afghan forces also conducted a separate overnight raid in two compounds in the neighboring province of Tahar, killing a Taliban district chief in a gunfight that also left an Afghan policeman and a border guard dead, said Gen. Shah Jahan Noori, provincial chief of police. Noori identified the slain insurgent as Sheikh Ahmadullah, who he said headed the Taliban in the Khwaja Bahawuddin district and was responsible for organizing roadside bombs and suicide attacks.

Also Friday, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was in the Afghan capital to speak with the Homeland Security officers working with the Afghan government to secure the country's porous borders from militants, as well as weapons and drug smugglers. She was to spend New Year's Eve with U.S. troops and meet with Afghan and U.S. officials in Kabul before heading to Qatar, the U.S. Embassy said.

Meanwhile, Italian military authorities in Rome said an Italian soldier was shot dead while on guard duty at a base in Gulistan in the western province of Farah. NATO said another coalition service member was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan. It did provide further details.

This year has been by far the deadliest for foreign troops in the nearly 10-year war. The latest two deaths brought the total in 2010 to 702 foreign troops killed, compared to 504 last year, previously the bloodiest of the war.

In an end-of-year review of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, the Obama administration cited advances in its push against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, but acknowledged that while Taliban momentum has been stopped or reversed in some areas, "gains remain fragile and reversible."

Despite gains, violence still pervades much of the south. On Friday, insurgents threw hand grenades into two homes in the Zhari district of Kandahar in the Taliban's provincial heartland, killing a child and wounding six civilians, said Kandahar governor spokesman, Zelmai Ayubi.

Zhari, located just outside Kandahar city and the birthplace of the Taliban, was part of the focus of the U.S. surge of 30,000 troops earlier this year. U.S. forces advanced on the district several months ago as part of a crucial strategy aimed at reducing violence in the nearby city by stemming the flow of fighters and weapons.

In September 2006, a Canadian-led force pushed the Taliban out of Zhari and nearby Panjwai in an operation that cost 28 coalition lives. Months later, the Taliban were back.

In Wardak province west of Kabul, NATO said Friday that several insurgents and a child had been killed in fighting during a joint operation with Afghan forces targeting a Taliban logistics officer in a compound the previous day.

The joint force came under fire Thursday from the compound and fired back, killing several insurgents, it said in a statement, without specifying how many.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/12/31/grenade-attack-kills-afghan-child-wounds/#ixzz19jQRbm38

wounds/#ixzz19jQNpkok

cbsnews:Times Square Security High on Holiday Eve Counter-snipers, Road Blocks And Undercovers: Securing New Year's Eve In Times Square

Times Square Security High on Holiday Eve

Counter-snipers, Road Blocks And Undercovers: Securing New Year's Eve In Times Square

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/30/national/main7196904.shtml

(AP) NEW YORK - It's the biggest public party in the country. Nearly a million revelers will cram into the streets of Times Square to watch the ball drop on New Year's Eve.

It's also remarkably crime-free, safe and orderly. In the past decade, there have been few arrests and virtually no major problems funneling people in and out of the confetti-filled streets to ring in the New Year.

That's due mostly to what the partygoers don't notice: Throngs of police and counterterrorism officers blanketing the area, working from a security plan specifically tailored for the event.

Manhole covers are sealed. Counter-snipers are stationed on secret rooftops. Officers carry beeper-sized radiation detectors. Plainclothes officers are stationed in the pens with the crowds, along with a uniformed presence and undercover officers. Bomb-sniffing dogs are on site. Purses are searched.
Checkpoints are set up and perimeters are created using concrete blocks. Passing vehicles are checked for safety. Haz-mat teams are on standby.

NYPD brass tweak the plan every year, using lessons learned from previous scares like the botched Times Square car bombing in May and the attempted bombing of a Christmas tree lighting in Portland, Oregon near Thanksgiving. NYPD counterterrorism chief James Waters mined information on the suicide bombing this month in Stockholm, Sweden.

"Intelligence informs a lot of what we do," Waters said. "Understanding the threat, always the basics, understanding what the threat is against New York, what's the threat against the country, and everything that comes behind that."

People have gathered for a century in Times Square to ring in the New Year, but it hasn't always been a family-friendly affair. In the early 1990s, before the redevelopment of the bowtie collection of streets at Broadway and Seventh Avenue, the area was overrun with crime and home to sex shops and peep shows.

Revelers would gather with plenty of liquor as shopkeepers boarded up their windows with plywood for the night, hoping no one would smash through. Dick Clark broadcast his ABC show from the area, but he did it inside, away from the crowds.

Longtime residents say it was a boozy, drunken mess.

"In the 1990s, the police wouldn't even let us play music on an outdoor sound system," said Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, which runs the event along with Countdown Entertainment. "They were afraid to draw any more people because it was wild."

But Disney, upscale hotels, theme stores and restaurants arrived in the mid-1990s and changed the feel of the area and drew more families and tourists, and with it, a softer crowd.

Increased Police Presence

Police began to ramp up their security effort with worries over millennium threats.

Officers used metal pens to control where the crowd stood keeping a path clear for emergency trucks. And they banned alcohol and backpacks. Uniformed police officers flooded the area. Plainclothes officers roamed the crowds.

After Sept. 11, 2001, "we added a counterterrorism overlay" to New Year's security, said Paul Browne, the NYPD's deputy commissioner for public information. "We have kept changing it based on the needs ever since."

Since the terror attack, there have been at least six foiled plots against the city including the plot by Faisal Shahzad to bomb Times Square with a used car stuffed with a propane-and-gasoline bomb on May 1.

The department has answered with ever-developing tools, like the network of private and police cameras called the Lower and Midtown Manhattan Security initiatives. The department recently added 500 cameras to the subway stops at Times Square, Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station.

The cameras are managed at a command center in lower Manhattan, where a single high-bandwidth fiber optic network connects the cameras to police. It will be used New Year's Eve to help track any suspicious activity.

The department meets months in advance to set rules and share plans with the area restaurants and hotels that host fancy parties, along with the Times Square Alliance. They plot out where TV trucks will be stationed, and the best exit routes in case of an emergency.

Metal pens are set up to hold crowds around 3 p.m. on Dec. 31 and go back as far as Central Park depending on the crowds.
Backpacks are banned. Once you leave your place, you can't return to the same spot. The 20-inch snowstorm that left the streets far from Times Square unplowed will be a memory, either melted or completely plowed by midday Friday. Garages in the area are swept for explosives.

Hotel staff are on alert for anything unusual. Guests at the 2,000-room Marriott Marquis in the heart of Times Square aren't allowed to leave the hotel or enter it after a certain time.
"If they think they are going to just walk outside at 11:30 to see the ball drop, they're wrong," said hotel marketing director Kathy Duffy.

According to Chief Waters, al-Qaida and other terrorist groups weren't known for planning attacks around major holidays that was until Christmas Day last year and a failed attack a U.S.-bound airliner.

"We learn from each incident," Waters said. "We will learn from the Sweden incident, we will learn from Oregon. We have learned from Shahzad, and we have learned from all these other incidents, whether it be Zazi or something that happened oversees."

Police also station officers on boats in New York Harbor and send additional uniformed officers to every major transportation hub in the city. They monitor fireworks displays at the Statue of Liberty and Central and Prospect Parks. Officers on horseback patrol Times Square.

As the holiday has become more secure and organized, it has also become more commercial. There was no live music until 2003, when the Times Square Alliance organized a sing-along at midnight to ring in 2004: A three-minute rendition of "Ring My Bell," with Anita Ward.

"That went fine, the world didn't end, there were no riots," Tompkins said. "And we were able to make it a bigger affair." A large outdoor performance space was set up in recent years and the party starts earlier.

After the clock strikes 12 and the glittering, Swarovski crystal ball drops, the crowd disappears quickly. It's like pulling the plug in a bathtub, with nearly a million people fanning out to continue their night.

The sanitation workers start to clean up, and the NYPD starts planning for next year.

foxnews:US Helps Ukraine Send Enriched Uranium to Russia

US Helps Ukraine Send Enriched Uranium to Russia

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/30/helps-ukraine-return-bombs-worth-uranium/#ixzz19iLWC3ep

WASHINGTON -- In a secret operation to secure nuclear material, the United States has helped Ukraine send to Russia enough uranium to build two atomic bombs.

This week's removal of more than 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of highly enriched uranium followed a pledge by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to get rid of all of his country's highly enriched uranium by April 2012. The material will be blended down in Russia, rendering it useless for bomb making.

Details of the operation were provided to The Associated Press by the National Nuclear Safety Administration.

Yanukovych agreed to give up the uranium in a deal announced at a nuclear security summit hosted by President Barack Obama in April. As an incentive, the United States is providing replacement low-enriched uranium that can be used for Ukraine's research reactors.

The summit deal also has the United States building a $25 million "neutron source facility" nuclear research project for Ukraine, the administration said. The facility will be able to produce 50 different types of medical isotopes, using only low-enriched uranium.

The U.S. nuclear administration's chief, Thomas D'Agostino, called the uranium removal operation an important step toward Obama's goal of securing the world's nuclear material within four years. He praised Ukraine for helping ensure its bomb-making material would not fall "into the wrong hands."

Ukraine gave a major boost to arms control in 1994 when it agreed to surrender the nuclear weapons it inherited after the Soviet Union's collapse.

The removal operation completed Thursday involved 21 specially designed casks for the uranium to be flown on five flights from three cities. The operation was delayed for days by ice storms in Ukraine. The U.S. also helped deliver some of the replacement fuel to Ukraine.

"This may have been the most complicated operation NNSA has done in recent years," said Andrew Bieniawski, the U.S. agency's associate deputy administrator for global threat reduction.

The uranium came from three research facilities, in Kiev, Sevastopol and Kharkiv. The U.S. also helped Ukraine remove a slightly larger amount of spent uranium by rail in May. An additional amount of uranium remains in Ukraine, but the U.S. said the material was on track to be removed by the April 2012 deadline.

About 3.5 million pounds (1.6 million kilograms) of highly enriched uranium and 500,000 pounds (226,800 kilograms) of bomb-grade plutonium remain in the world, according to Harvard University's Belfer Center. That material could be used to build as many as 200,000 nuclear weapons, or about 8 1/2 times the world's current stockpile of 23,360 warheads.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/30/helps-ukraine-return-bombs-worth-uranium/#ixzz19iLb1pFa

worth-uranium/#ixzz19iLX9Ilf

foxnews:Palestinian leader wants US backing in UN proposal

Palestinian leader wants US backing in UN proposal

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/12/31/palestinian-leader-wants-backing-proposal/#ixzz19iLHp7cb

JERUSALEM – The Palestinian president said a new attempt by the Palestinians to get the United Nations to condemn Israeli settlements was specifically designed to win U.S. support.

As part of a new emphasis on winning international support for their cause, the Palestinians have drafted a proposal and are lobbying for a Security Council resolution that would declare West Bank settlements illegal and an "obstacle to peace."

The U.S. has said it doesn't support the move, but it remains unclear if it will veto the measure or abstain should the draft come to a vote. Israel says it is an attempt by the Palestinians to avoid negotiations.

Speaking on Thursday to Palestinian expatriates and Arab ambassadors in Brazilia, Brazil, President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian draft used language similar to that used by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has criticized settlements.

"We drafted it using the same words that Secretary Clinton is using and so we don't see why the U.S. would veto it," Abbas said.

Brazil, along with several other South American countries, recently recognized the yet-nonexistent state of Palestine.

With peace talks at an impasse, the Palestinians are increasingly trying to win international recognition of their state, which they hope will put bring more pressure to bear on Israel.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/12/31/palestinian-leader-wants-backing-proposal/#ixzz19iLOX6x3

WashPost:Terrorist watch list: One tip now enough to put name in database, officials say

Terrorist watch list: One tip now enough to put name in database, officials say

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/29/AR2010122901584.html

A year after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials say they have made it easier to add individuals' names to a terrorist watch list and improved the government's ability to thwart an attack in the United States.

The failure to put Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on the watch list last year renewed concerns that the government's system to screen out potential terrorists was flawed. Even though Abdulmutallab's father had told U.S. officials of his son's radicalization in Yemen, government rules dictated that a single-source tip was insufficient to include a person's name on the watch list.

Since then, senior counterterrorism officials say they have altered their criteria so that a single-source tip, as long as it is deemed credible, can lead to a name being placed on the watch list.

The government's master watch list is one of roughly a dozen lists, or databases, used by counterterrorism officials. Officials have periodically adjusted the criteria used to maintain it.

But civil liberties groups argue that the government's new criteria, which went into effect over the summer, have made it even more likely that individuals who pose no threat will be swept up in the nation's security apparatus, leading to potential violations of their privacy and making it difficult for them to travel.

"They are secret lists with no way for people to petition to get off or even to know if they're on," said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.

440,000 on list

Officials insist they have been vigilant about keeping law-abiding people off the master list. The new criteria have led to only modest growth in the list, which stands at 440,000 people, about 5 percent larger than last year. The vast majority are non-U.S. citizens.

"Despite the challenges we face, we have made significant improvements," Michael E. Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said in a speech this month at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "And the result of that is, in my view, that the threat of that most severe, most complicated attack is significantly lower today than it was in 2001."

The master watch list is used to screen people seeking to obtain a visa, cross a U.S. border, or board an airliner in or destined for the United States.

The standard for inclusion on it remains the same as it was before - that a person is "reasonably suspected" to be engaged in terrorism-related activity. But another senior counterterrorism official, who like some others would speak only on the condition of anonymity, said that officials have now "effectively in a broad stroke lowered the bar for inclusion."

Timothy Healy, director of the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center, which maintains the master list, said the new guidelines balance the protection of Americans from terrorist threats with the preservation of civil liberties. He said the watch list today is "more accurate, more agile," providing valuable intelligence to a growing number of partners that include state and local police and foreign governments.

Each day there are 50 to 75 instances in which a law enforcement official or government agent stops someone who a check confirms is on the watch list, a senior official at the Terrorist Screening Center said. Such "positive encounters" can take place at airports, land borders or consular offices, or during traffic stops.

The official recounted an incident two years ago in which a state trooper pulled over a truck driver for a traffic violation.

The driver appeared nervous, was traveling to several states, had three cellphones and plenty of food in his truck, and made several calls during the stop. The trooper was able to confirm through a call to the Terrorist Screening Center that the man was on the watch list. It turned out, the official said, that an FBI case agent had an open al-Qaeda-related investigation on the truck driver.

The names on the watch list are culled from a much larger catch-all database that is housed at the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean and that includes a huge variety of terrorism-related intelligence.

TIDE troubles

From its inception in 2005, the database, the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE, was plagued by technical difficulties.

In 2008, the counterterrorism center undertook a multimillion-dollar upgrade to streamline and more fully automate the database so that only one record exists per person, no matter how many aliases that person might have.

Those improvements should reduce errors and free up analysts for more pressing tasks, said Vicki Jo McBee, the counterterrorism center's chief information officer.

The new system will also ease the sharing of fingerprints and iris and facial images of people on the watch list among screening agencies, McBee said. And rather than sending data once a night to the Terrorist Screening Center's watch list, which can take hours, the new system should be able to update the list almost instantly as names are entered, McBee said.

Deployment has not been smooth. TIDE 2, as it is called, failed readiness tests and missed a December launch deadline. But now, McBee said, all tests have been passed and the system will be launched in January.

Meanwhile, the National Counterterrorism Center has developed a 70-person pursuit group to investigate "sleeper" terrorism threats, with four teams examining the regional hotbeds in Africa; in Yemen and the Arabian Gulf; in Pakistan and Europe; and in the United States. A fifth picks up the rest of the world.

"We try to look at the unknowns, the terrorists lurking in the dark that you don't know about, like the Abdulmutallabs of the world," said an official familiar with the group.

The teams, which include analysts from the CIA, FBI, Defense Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, might take a tip about a suspect flying to the United States on a certain route, then study travel records to see whether they can find travelers who match the pattern.

They also mine Internet sites for clues, in "a careful, legal way," the official said. For instance, though analysts had not identified Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born Connecticut man, before his May attempt to blow up a car in Times Square, a pursuit team delineated his network of associates in the United States in part by gleaning details from social networking sites, she said.

Much of the pursuit group's work is filtering out irrelevant information.

"We get a huge kick out of" handing a lead to the FBI, the official said. "But . . . the ruling-out is almost as important as the actual finding of leads."

jpost:Palestinians target settlements in UN resolution

Palestinians target settlements in UN resolution

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=201456

Draft resolution says settlements "major obstacle to peace," calls for continued negotiations; Erekat denies reports PA to seek UNSC recognition of Palestinian state.

A draft resolution prepared by the Palestinian Authority will ask the UN Security Council to declare Israeli settlements illegal and call for a full freeze in their construction.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the draft on Wednesday. It calls settlements a "major obstacle to the achievement of peace." It does not, however, call for sanctions against Israel, and urges both sides to continue negotiations toward a final peace agreement.

The draft resolution reaffirms Palestinian claims that "Israeli settlements established in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including east Jerusalem, are illegal and constitute a major obstacle to the achievement of a just, lasting and comprehensive peace..."

Additionally, the document demands that Israel "immediately and completely ceases all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its legal obligations in this regard..."

It also calls for an "intensification of international and regional diplomatic efforts to support and invigorate the peace process towards the achievement of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East."

With US-backed peace efforts deadlocked for more than three months, the Palestinians are pressing forward with the resolution as part of a broader effort to step up international pressure on Israel.

Earlier Wednesday, Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat denied saying that the Palestinian Authority plans to request that the UN Security Council unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state along 1967 borders, Israel Radio reported.

Erekat said that the Palestinians have no intention of presenting such a proposal in the near future and that the earlier report by Palestinian news agency Ma'an was erroneous.

He explained that the PA plans on demanding that the UN Security Council criticize settlement building in the West Bank.

According to the earlier report, Erekat had said that the PA plan to present a proposal to the UN Security Council on the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. He was also quoted as expressing hope that the US would not attempt to act against the PA's attempts and also called for South Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Australia to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state.

The PA negotiator was speaking at a meeting of Palestinian security officials in the town of Jericho.

Erekat had added that PA President Mahmoud Abbas contacted international and Hamas officials in an effort to prevent an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip.

After Erekat denied the report, a senior official told Israel Radio that the negotiator's remarks prove that the Palestinians are not interested in negotiations but are interested in forcing solutions.

The official said that the US will operate covertly to eliminate settlement criticism from the UN Security Council's agenda. If they do not succeed, it may be possible to veto the proposal or to present a counter-proposal, the official added.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the Palestinian efforts do little to promote peace.

"By choosing unilateralism over direct talks, the Palestinians are declaring that they renounce peace altogether," he said. "The Palestinians are choosing not to renew negotiations and are doing all they can to score minor points. They are trying everything except to talk."

marketplace:Using search to predict the future

Using search to predict the future

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/12/29/tech-report-using-search-to-predict-the-future/

Christopher Ahlberg thinks he has a pretty good shot at predicting the future using information that is online today. Next terrorist attack? Next major economic shift? Next fashion trend? Might all be spelled out already. The CIA and Google both think Ahlberg is on to something. They've invested in his company, Recorded Future.

Ahlberg joins us to describe how Recorded Future does what it does and what it might mean. He says they're constantly pulling information from everything from government reports to news media to Twitter and blogs. They look at where politicians are traveling, where bombs have gone off.

Ahlberg says that the breakthrough is in semantics. The ability to search for the presence of words has, of course, been around for many, many years. But he says his company is able to scan for meaning as well. So it's not just what's being said but what it all means.

Recorded Future has already had some success in predicting things like the bond market. As for big events, Iran getting nuclear weapons for instance, they're not able to point to a date but they are able to point to when the Internet thinks Iran will get a nuclear weapon.

Also in this show, the wonderful/terrible new patent by Amazon that lets you return horrible gifts before you ever receive them

Ignatius:Questions for Gen. Petraeus(new CIA base in Quetta)

Pakistani officials say they have allowed the CIA to open a new base in Quetta.

David Ignatius

Questions for Gen. Petraeus

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/28/AR2010122804001.html

If briefings could win wars, Gen. David Petraeus would already be finished in Afghanistan. Here's what his masterful presentation looked like in Kabul this month - and then some hard questions for him to answer.

The general's aides come in first, carrying six wooden easels as if they're setting up an art display. Next come the charts, four feet tall, displaying an array of information as densely woven as a spider's web. And then into the room sweeps Petraeus, greeting his audience in a manner at once genial and pugnacious.

I've seen Petraeus give many briefings over the years, and it's a bit like watching a magician at work. Even though you've seen the trick before, and you know the patter, you still get mesmerized. He has the ability to make people believe the impossible might be doable, after all. He pulled it off in Iraq, and it's just possible he's on his way again in Afghanistan. But this time it will be a stretch.

The Afghanistan campaign plan, in classic Petraeus fashion, comes at the problem from every direction: It's top-down, in building the Afghan army, and bottom-up, in training tribal militias known as Afghan Local Police. It's about military power, especially the deadly night raids by U.S. Special Operations Forces, and it's also about making governance work in this corrupt and feeble country.

The most interesting chart in Petraeus's recent briefing was one called "Village Stability Operations," which showed how Special Forces teams are securing the remote mountain valleys north of Helmand province. This year, the United States has found local pockets where the village elders resented the Taliban - and sent in the Green Berets to organize local resistance.

The campaign plan is so dispersed that it's easy to miss what's happening. There's no big "battle of Kandahar," for example. Instead, U.S. soldiers are clearing the Taliban-infested belts around the city and establishing scores of little combat outposts with Afghan forces. The idea is to keep expanding these "security bubbles" until the Taliban is driven from the population centers.

Like any war, this one is ultimately about willpower, and America has an advantage in Petraeus, one of the strongest-willed people you could hope to meet. But this winner's psyche is not sufficient. History shows that three variables are crucial in countering an insurgency: a real process of reconciliation, no safe havens for the enemy and a competent host government. None are present in Afghanistan.

So here are a few questions for Petraeus to ponder at year-end. I've collected them from strategists inside and outside the government who hope for success but worry that time is short:

l How can the United States create more incentives for the Afghan government to take control? Is there some way to create a "ratchet effect" so that every time the Afghans muster another 10,000 troops - and we take out a like number - there's a benefit that Afghans can feel?

l How can the United States make "reconciliation and reintegration" move faster? Who can drive the process with the manipulative passion of a Henry Kissinger? (Petraeus could fit that bill.) Should the preconditions for Taliban participation be altered?

l How can the Pakistan angle be squared? Can we involve the Pakistanis more directly in reconciliation efforts? Should we take their advice and negotiate with their friends in the Haqqani network? Can we divert some of the nearly $100 billion annual budget for Afghanistan to buy peace in the tribal areas?

l How can the CIA be used better? The Afghan war began as a CIA paramilitary action. Maybe it should end that way, too. Pakistani officials say they have allowed the CIA to open a new base in Quetta. Can more joint U.S.-Pakistani covert operations be launched in Baluchistan and the tribal areas?

l How can the United States deal better, behind the scenes, with the puzzle of Afghan President Hamid Karzai? Should we squeeze him? Ignore him? Dump him?

Petraeus's campaign plan, to use a simple analogy, is the equivalent of mending a broken, old chair - gluing it back together and holding it in place with a series of clamps. But nobody can say how long the U.S. "clamps" will remain in place, how long it will take the "glue" of transition to dry or how rotten is the Afghan "wood." Those are the uncertain variables that Petraeus must hedge against, even as he keeps pushing for success.

foxnews:Denmark Arrests 5 Suspected of Planning Terror Attack

Denmark Arrests 5 Suspected of Planning Terror Attack

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/12/29/denmark-arrests-suspected-planning-terror-attack/#ixzz19WgWvOHa

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Five men planning to shoot as many people as possible in a building housing the newsroom of a paper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad were arrested Wednesday in an operation that halted an imminent attack, intelligence officials said.

Denmark's intelligence service said it arrested four men in two raids in suburbs of the capital, Copenhagen, and seized an automatic weapon, a silencer and ammunition. Swedish police said they arrested a 37-year-old Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin living in Stockholm.

"An imminent terror attack has been foiled," said Jakob Scharf, head of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, or PET. He described some the suspects as "militant Islamists with relations to international terror networks" and said that more arrests were possible.

PET said it seized a 44-year-old Tunisian, a 29-year-old Lebanese-born man and a 30-year-old who were living in Sweden and had entered Denmark late Tuesday or early Wednesday. The fourth person detained was a 26-year-old Iraqi asylum-seeker living in Copenhagen.

The Danish intelligence service said the group had been planning to enter the building where the Jyllands-Posten daily has its Copenhagen newsdesk and had wanted "to kill as many of the people present as possible." The four men face preliminary charges of attempting to carry out an act of terrorism. They will face a custody hearing Thursday.

Zubair Butt Hussain, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Denmark, called the plan "extremely worrying."

The organization "absolutely condemns any act of terrorism regardless of the motives and motivations that may lie behind," Hussain said.

There have been at least three attacks against either the Danish newspaper or the artist who drew the most contentious of 12 cartoons published by the daily in 2005 as a challenge to perceived self-censorship.

In early 2006, reaction to the drawings sparked violent protests in Muslim countries where demonstrators said the drawings had profoundly insulted Islam. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

Scharf said "there was no need to raise the terror threat alert level" in Denmark.

The men were arrested in Greve, south of Copenhagen, and Herlev, west of the Danish capital.
Danish Justice Minister Lars Barfoed described the plot as "terrifying."

"The group's plan to kill as many as possible is very frightening and is probably the most serious terror attempt in Denmark," he said.

The head of Sweden's security police, Anders Danielsson, said that "it has been possible to avert a serious terror crime in Denmark through efficient and close cooperation between PET and the (Swedish) security police."

Danielsson said the suspects who are residents in Sweden are also being investigated for suspected terror crimes in that country.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/12/29/denmark-arrests-suspected-planning-terror-attack/#ixzz19WgcNPt4

planning-terror-attack/#ixzz19Wga8byZ

foxnews;Army Commander: No Way to Seal Afghanistan-Pakistan Border

Army Commander: No Way to Seal Afghanistan-Pakistan Border

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/28/army-commander-way-seal-afghanistan-pakistan-border/#ixzz19U4dIYNv

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. military commander says it's "naive" to think there's a practical way to seal Afghanistan's vast border with Pakistan and stop all Taliban fighters from slipping through, but troops are having success defending vulnerable towns and fighting insurgents on Afghan soil.

Army Col. Viet Luong said that "to secure the border in the traditional sense" would "take an inordinate amount of resources."

"It's naive to say that we can stop, you know, forces coming through the border -- 261 kilometers is what I have," Luong said in a briefing with reporters.

"To secure the border in the traditional sense, if you're talking about, you know, like -- like what we would do along our own border with Mexico down in the southwestern United States, that -- that's not what we're doing," he said.

Senior U.S. military officials have said they hope the Pakistan military does more to shut down Taliban hideouts. But the U.S. denied reports that American forces are pushing to expand special operations raids inside Pakistan's tribal areas to target militants.

Luong, who oversees troops in a part of eastern Afghanistan, said actions on the border are having some effect on the particularly virulent group of fighters called the Haqqani Network.

"The Haqqani Network is, sort of, on its heels. We have captured and killed many, many of their fighters and mid-level leaders. The senior leadership routinely hides in -- in the tribal areas in Pakistan now for the fear of being captured or killed," he said.

He also noted that the Pakistanis do have hundreds of border checkpoints on their side backed up by dozens of checkpoints on the Afghanistan side which are manned by Afghan border police.

But the commander said any effort to stop Taliban fighters from crossing the border would require far more cooperation from tribes inside Pakistan who provide safe passage.

"I've been focusing my operations on these safe areas and fight them closer to the interior, where they have to train, they have to bed down, they have to stow their caches," he said.

Luong added that as U.S. and NATO forces expand their footprint along the security line, "it's harder and harder for these guys to come and bed down in these villages. I can tell you a couple specific instances where the tribes have told these guys, 'You got to take a move out, and you guys are not welcome here.'"

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/28/army-commander-way-seal-afghanistan-pakistan-border/#ixzz19U4jQOr9

afghanistan-pakistan-border/#ixzz19U4gSEls

nytimes:Obama’s Traveling Team Stays Focused on Terror

Obama’s Traveling Team Stays Focused on Terror

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/29/us/politics/29obama.html?_r=1&hp

KAILUA, Hawaii — President Obama was peeved. It was Christmas 2009 and a Nigerian had been accused of trying to blow up a plane bound for Detroit. Mr. Obama was supposed to have state-of-the-art secure telecommunications capabilities inside his luxury beachfront rental home here. Instead, he was stuck relying on operators to connect him to his top counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan. Once, as he was trying to reach Mr. Brennan, the call dropped.

The president made his displeasure clear. This year, he has Mr. Brennan on speed dial.

The communications upgrade — Mr. Obama now has “more diverse and reliable secure voice capability in his vacation residence, with the best possible quality available,” said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser traveling with him — is just one example of how the memory of the attempted bombing last Christmas Day hangs over the presidential Hawaiian escape. Mr. Obama and his advisers, still smarting over the criticism they received for the seemingly flat-footed response, have gone into overdrive to prepare for what counterterrorism experts say is a heightened threat this holiday season.

In recent weeks, concerns about terrorism in Europe have spiked, with intelligence officials reporting increased chatter about threats. Two weeks ago, the British arrested 12 men in three cities in connection with suspected plots, including a possible attack on the American Embassy in London. There have been arrests in Spain and alarms in Germany over reported threats of an attack. Dutch authorities arrested 12 Somalis last weekend, and American counterterrorism officials are on higher alert in part because of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric whose English-language online broadcasts are inspiring extremists in this country.

Against that backdrop, the White House has made substantive and public relations changes to Mr. Obama’s vacation, adopting what Juan C. Zarate, a counterterrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, calls a strategy of “taking no chances and assuming the worst.”

It was no accident that Mr. Brennan called President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen on Christmas Eve; intelligence experts believe the man accused in the bomb plot last Christmas, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, trained in Yemen and obtained explosives there. The White House said Mr. Brennan reminded Mr. Saleh of “the importance of taking forceful action” against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the militant Islamist network.

Mr. Brennan has been in daily contact with senior leaders from the federal agencies responsible for monitoring terror threats, and he talks frequently with British, French and German counterparts, officials said. On Sunday, he convened a conference call with Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary, and other top officials. Mr. Rhodes and Nick Rasmussen, a senior counterterrorism specialist, participated and later briefed the president.

Mr. Rasmussen’s presence in Hawaii is further evidence of the stepped-up response. The director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, who last year faced criticism — unjustly, the White House said — for taking a ski vacation with his young son, stayed in Washington this week. So did Mr. Brennan. Traveling officials, like Thomas E. Donilon, the national security adviser, who is vacationing in Idaho, and his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, in Chicago with family, have access to secure videoconferencing facilities.

“I think what you are seeing is a now-experienced White House which understands that there really is no vacation from the world in which we live,” said Michael Chertoff, who was homeland security secretary to President George W. Bush.

Part of it is presidential image-making, with an eye on politics. David Rothkopf, who advised President Bill Clinton on national security and is now with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said of Mr. Obama, “I think politically he is very aware that, come 2012, one of the Republican tropes will be that he’s not tough enough on security, and I think he sees that as an area of potential exposure.”

So the White House has been taking pains to spotlight its work. Mr. Brennan, who had a standing invitation to address the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, spoke on Dec. 17 about Yemen. He said the Obama team would be monitoring not only Al Qaeda, but also “looking at those smaller scale, sort of low-level types of terrorist attacks that are sometimes more difficult to detect.” He made clear he did not relish the memory of last year.

“I was starting to make dinner last Christmas when I got a call from the White House Situation Room that there was somebody on a plane that was landing for Detroit with a bit of an issue,” Mr. Brennan said.

For any president, staying on top of security threats while traveling is a complicated technological endeavor. Mr. Bush spent most of his vacation time at his ranch in Crawford, Tex. His closest advisers, including his traveling national security expert, stayed in converted trailers on the property. A separate trailer was turned into what is known as a SCIF — a secure, compartmented information facility — that allows for top-secret, classified communications.

As a renter, Mr. Obama cannot install a permanent SCIF; he has a temporary one, as do his advisers in their Waikiki Beach hotel, about a 30-minute drive from here. He would not be the first president to take issue with the quality of his communications outside the White House Situation Room, said Frances Fragos Townsend, who was President Bush’s counterterrorism adviser.

“It’s difficult to have a multiparty teleconference at the top-secret level; every time you add someone, the quality of the sound goes down because of the encryption,” Ms. Townsend said. “If multiple people try to talk, it can sound all garbled. I promise you, a president gets very frustrated very quickly.”

foxnews:U.S. Officials Find Afghan Network Undermining Government, Aiding Taliban

U.S. Officials Find Afghan Network Undermining Government, Aiding Taliban

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/12/29/officials-afghan-network-undermining-government-aiding-taliban/#ixzz19U0KCyYJ

KABUL—U.S. officials in Afghanistan have spent thousands of hours over the past few years charting what they call "Malign Actor Networks"—webs of connections between members of President Hamid Karzai's family, businessmen, corrupt officials, drug traffickers and Taliban commanders.

Using intelligence drawn in part from informants and a powerful wiretapping system, these officials say they have found an economic and political order—underwritten by billions of dollars in aid, reconstruction and logistics funds from the West—that is undermining the Afghan government from within and aiding a Taliban insurgency that is trying to topple it from without.

The officials and their Afghan allies have had less success, however, breaking these bonds.

The futile attempts so far at prosecuting one individual—a banker named Haji Muhammad Rafi Azimi—illustrate the depth the problem.

Mr. Azimi has bribed senior officials, moved money for drug traffickers and kept the Taliban flush with cash, say several current and former Afghan and U.S. officials who described what they say are hours of wiretaps, information provided by informers and financial documents connected with the bank where Mr. Azimi works.

In an interview, Mr. Azimi denied any wrongdoing.

Click here to read more on this story from The Wall Street Journal.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/12/29/officials-afghan-network-undermining-government-aiding-taliban/#ixzz19U0OGH57

weeklystandard:**Gitmo Is Not Al Qaeda's 'Number One Recruitment Tool'

**Gitmo Is Not Al Qaeda's 'Number One Recruitment Tool'

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/gitmo-not-al-qaedas-number-one-recruitment-tool_524997.html?page=1

During a press conference on December 22, President Obama was asked about the difficulties his administration has encountered in trying to close Guantanamo. The president explained (emphasis added):

Obviously, we haven’t gotten it closed. And let me just step back and explain that the reason for wanting to close Guantanamo was because my number one priority is keeping the American people safe. One of the most powerful tools we have to keep the American people safe is not providing al Qaeda and jihadists recruiting tools for fledgling terrorists.

And Guantanamo is probably the number one recruitment tool that is used by these jihadist organizations. And we see it in the websites that they put up. We see it in the messages that they're delivering.

President Obama and his surrogates have made this argument before, but they have provided no real evidence that it is true. In fact, al Qaeda’s top leaders rarely mention Guantanamo in their messages to the West, Muslims and the world at large.

No journalist in attendance had the opportunity to challenge President Obama’s assertion. The president should have been asked: If Guantanamo is such a valuable recruiting tool, then why do al Qaeda’s leaders rarely mention it?

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has reviewed translations of 34 messages and interviews delivered by top al Qaeda leaders operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan (“Al Qaeda Central”), including Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, since January 2009. The translations were published online by the NEFA Foundation. Guantanamo is mentioned in only 3 of the 34 messages. The other 31 messages contain no reference to Guantanamo. And even in the three messages in which al Qaeda mentions the detention facility it is not a prominent theme.

Instead, al Qaeda’s leaders repeatedly focus on a narrative that has dominated their propaganda for the better part of two decades. According to bin Laden, Zawahiri, and other al Qaeda chieftains, there is a Zionist-Crusader conspiracy against Muslims. Relying on this deeply paranoid and conspiratorial worldview, al Qaeda routinely calls upon Muslims to take up arms against Jews and Christians, as well as any Muslims rulers who refuse to fight this imaginary coalition.

This theme forms the backbone of al Qaeda’s messaging – not Guantanamo.

To illustrate this point, consider the results of some basic keyword searches. Guantanamo is mentioned a mere 7 times in the 34 messages we reviewed. (Again, all 7 of those references appear in just 3 of the 34 messages.)

By way of comparison, all of the following keywords are mentioned far more frequently: Israel/Israeli/Israelis (98 mentions), Jew/Jews (129), Zionist(s) (94), Palestine/Palestinian (200), Gaza (131), and Crusader(s) (322). (Note: Zionist is often paired with Crusader in al Qaeda’s rhetoric.)

Naturally, al Qaeda’s leaders also focus on the wars in Afghanistan (333 mentions) and Iraq (157). Pakistan (331), which is home to the jihadist hydra, is featured prominently, too. Al Qaeda has designs on each of these three nations and implores willing recruits to fight America and her allies there. Keywords related to other jihadist hotspots also feature more prominently than Gitmo, including Somalia (67 mentions), Yemen (18) and Chechnya (15).

Simply put, there is no evidence in the 34 messages we reviewed that al Qaeda’s leaders are using Guantanamo as a recruiting tool. Undoubtedly, “Al Qaeda Central” has released other messages during the past two years that are not included in our sample. Some of those messages may refer to Guantanamo. And some of the al Qaeda messages provided by NEFA, which does a remarkable job collecting and translating al Qaeda’s statements and interviews, may be only partial translations of longer texts.

However, the messages we reviewed also surely include most of what al Qaeda’s honchos have said publicly since January 2009. These messages do not support the president’s claim.

A closer look at the 3 out of 34 messages in which “Al Qaeda Central” actually referred to Guantanamo reveals just how weak the president’s argument is. Even in these messages al Qaeda is far more interested in other themes.

In a February 17, 2010 message entitled, “The Way to Save the Earth,” Osama bin Laden made an offhand reference to Guantanamo. But it is hardly a prominent feature of the terror master’s message. As bin Laden makes clear in the opening lines, his main concern is climate change.

“This is a message to the whole world about those who cause climate change and its dangers – intentionally or unintentionally – and what we must do,” bin Laden said. Bin Laden blames the “greedy heads of major corporations” and “senior capitalists” who are “characterized by wickedness and hardheartedness” for the supposed deleterious effects of global warming.

Bin Laden does refer to Guantanamo, but it is brief and in the context of a rambling passage. In the surrounding sentences, bin Laden criticizes America for waging war in Iraq for oil, incorrectly claims that America and her allies have “killed, wounded, orphaned, widowed and displaced more than 10 million Iraqis,” and calls President Obama’s acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize “an extreme example of the deception and humiliation of humanity.”

If bin Laden’s February 17th message is evidence that al Qaeda is using Guantanamo as a recruiting tool, then it is also evidence that al Qaeda is using climate change and President Obama’s Nobel to earn new recruits.

The other two messages in our sample that refer to Guantanamo do not fare much better when any amount of scrutiny is applied.

In a message dated September 15, 2010, Ayman al Zawahiri focuses most of his critique on Muslim governments and especially the Pakistani government. There is a single reference to Guantanamo and it is a throwaway line in which Ayman al Zawahiri repeats the myth that America has desecrated the Koran at Gitmo. Referring to NATO, Zawahiri asks rhetorically, “And aren’t they the forces which humiliated the noble Qur’an in Guantanamo, Iraq and elsewhere?” There is no other mention of Guantanamo in the 12-page translation provided by NEFA.

In an August 5, 2009 tape entitled, “The Facts of Jihad and the Lies of the Hypocrites,” Ayman al Zawahiri mentioned Guantanamo five times. The August 5th tape comes closest to validating the president’s theory of jihadist recruitment and yet it still falls way short. Words related to “Iraq” and “Afghanistan” appear more than 70 times each. The words “Israel” and “Israelis” appear 39 times. And the word “Zionist” appears another four times—in the context of the aforementioned imagined American-Zionist conspiracy against the Muslim world. (According to Ayman al-Zawahiri, by the way, Obama is himself a participant in this conspiracy.) And the words “Jew,” “Jewish,” and “Jewishness” appear another 12 times.

Last week, President Obama cited jihadist propaganda as his chief reason for closing Guantanamo. But as the analysis above makes clear, it is not true that Guantanamo is the terror network’s “number one recruitment tool.” Even if it were, al Qaeda would just move on to another pretext for its terror once Gitmo is closed.

There is no good reason for an American president to cite jihadist propaganda in defense of his policy decision. By that standard, if President Obama must close Guantanamo, then he must also withdraw all American forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as move to end the “Zionist-Crusader” conspiracy against Muslims elsewhere around the world.

WIRED:How To: Run Snitches Inside Terrorist Groups

How To: Run Snitches Inside Terrorist Groups

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/12/how-to-run-snitches/#more-37872

Need to penetrate the closed circle of a terrorist cell? Then, it’s time to recruit like terrorists do: Pick out the outcasts and prey on their numerous, numerous anxieties.

In 2005, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service put together a tip sheet for the FBI on how to run sources inside extremist organizations — even though it didn’t appear to have a lot of experience actually recruiting terrorist sources. An ideal source, it noted, was the same for counterterrorists as for terrorists: someone disciplined, capable of keeping secrets, and highly motivated.

Based on its interviews with Guantanamo detainees, NCIS found additional patterns within terrorist organizations. Often, they’re people with low self-esteem who turn to religious extremism after experiencing a crisis. That makes them ripe for savvy agents to exploit.

The best snitches, NCIS argued, have some kind of anxiety about their identities. Western converts to Islam fit the bill, as do Muslims living in or educated in Western countries. That’s true, not just because “there have been a number of successful operations using converts of Western ethnicity” — demonstrating their value to terror groups — but because they’ll feel like they’ve got the most to prove.

But that also means they’ll feel apprehensive about putting their fellow extremists in the cross hairs of law enforcement. Not to worry, NCIS instructs: “That ambivalence is often best managed by developing a strong relationship with the source by activating his core motivation to ’stop the killing’ and bring peace to the world, including the Muslim world.” More irony: Terrorist groups like al-Qaeda recruit their own adherents by stressing the dignity and peace that the Muslim world will enjoy after they kill enough Westerners to lay the Americans low.

Once recruited, a snitch can be expected to repeatedly freak out. “For the source to be successful, he will be making commitments to the target group as he becomes a more trusted brother. The source will feel the pull of the fundamental human need to be valued and validated.”

A good agent has to talk his source through the guilt of betrayal: Let him know “that there is an open line of communication with the Special Agent to discuss this issue.” It doesn’t make any sense to pretend that the source isn’t snitching.

It may seem obvious, but well-adjusted people don’t join terrorist groups. It’s the “anxious,” those with a “need for belonging/affiliation,” those with a “relatively low … level of assertiveness,” with low-self esteem who see themselves as “disorganized and undisciplined … incapable, lackadaisical, and unreliable.” They join terror groups to belong, and suspect they’re not doing the right thing — thereby opening up the door to betraying the organization.

Except that there’s a big absence in the NCIS guidelines: They don’t cite examples of successful terror-cell penetrations. The field guidelines are drawn from NCIS’ interrogations at Guantanamo Bay. Detainees could be more or less compliant than free members of terror cells — they could either be hardened terrorists or people desperate to get their freedom back, or both — but they’re not the same thing. The document has an appendix filled with case studies. But they’re all case studies of al-Qaeda’s successful recruitment.

Then there’s the pop sociology. The document doesn’t take the most nuanced view of Islamic cultures. “Embedded within the Arabic culture is a normative acceptance of conspiracy theories.” Um, OK. “Persons from Middle Eastern and Arabic cultures often prioritize their social image and the harmony of relationships over directness or sincerity.” Whoever wrote that must never have attended a Christmastime family gathering.

The purpose of all of this is to orient the Special Agent in a cultural context, since “without knowing the history embedded in the adversary and source’s mindset, it becomes more difficult to interpret and manage his behavior, motivation, and intentions during the operation.” Uh-oh.

The FBI and the rest of the counterterrorism community haven’t had much trouble finding would-be terrorists inside the United States. It rolled up Najibullah Zazi before Zazi could attack the New York City subway. “Jihad Jane” boasted on the internet about wanting to kill a Swedish cartoonist who drew the Prophet Muhammed as a dog, making her an easy target.

And just last month, it arrested Mohamed Osman Mohamud before he could bomb an Oregon Christmas-tree lighting. The FBI has recently faced accusations of entrapping would-be terrorists by encouraging them to go through on their bomb-filled fantasies — which, at the very least, is another way of recognizing that it’s gotten rather good at finding Americans on the verge of extremism.

WIRED:Docs Detail CIA’s Cold War Hypnosis Push

Docs Detail CIA’s Cold War Hypnosis Push

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/12/cia-hypnosis/

It was an innocent time, the mid-1950s. America wasn’t yet cynical about its geopolitical games in the Cold War. Case in point: In order to maintain its spying edge over the Russkies, the CIA considered the benefits of hypnosis.

Two memos from 1954 and 1955 dredged up by Cryptome show the CIA thinking through post-hypnotic suggestion in extensive, credulous detail. How, for instance, to pass a secret message to a field operative without danger of interception?

Encode it in a messenger’s brain, an undisclosed author wrote in 1954, so he’ll have “no memory whatsoever in the waking state as to the nature and contents of the message.” Even if a Soviet agent gets word of the messenger’s importance, “no amount of third-party tactics” can pry the message loose, “for he simply does not have it in his conscious mind.” Pity the poor waterboarded captive.

But the counterintelligence benefits of hypnosis are even greater.

Picture this course of action, the memo’s author proposes: Hypnotize a group of “loyal Americans” to the point of inducing a “split personality.” Outwardly, they’d appear to be “ardent Communists,” who will “associate with the Communists and learn all the plans of the organization.” Every month, CIA agents will contact them, induce a counter-hypnosis, and these Manchurian Candidates will spill. (Meanwhile, Communist Party meetings on the Lower East Side of Manhattan were open to the public.) While admittedly “more complicated and more difficult,” the agency’s hypno-enthusiast wrote, “I assure you, it will work.”

That’s the level of assurance the memos’ authors provided. A 1955 follow-up openly sneered at the “cautious pessimism” and “congealed pig-headedness” of “academic experts in hypnotism,” waving it away with a pitch to dabble in hypnosis “in a way no laboratory worker could possibly prove.” Indeed, the memo concludes, the CIA had already made some headway: Narcotics were iffy choices for inducing intelligence-useful trances, but on the whole, “drug-assisted hypnosis is essential in CIA work.”

The agency’s mind-control experts gave up some helpful tips, according to the 1955 memo. It’s easier “to hypnotize large numbers of people” than individuals” — alas, there’s no useful elaboration on that point — and in no circumstance can the hypnotizer fail to get a subject to snap out of his trance.

Still, responsible mind-control advocates could scarcely avoid presenting the potential drawbacks of their own courses of action. Since there’s no rigorous scientific way of determining “what limits ‘belief’ may be changed by hypnosis,” that means a “double-think Orwellian world of hypnosis, while unlikely, is not utterly fantastic.”

As it turns out, successful mind control could get out of hand rapidly. Who would have thought?

The CIA’s aborted experiments in hypnosis are long-documented. (There was a pretty good National Geographic Channel exploration of them not long ago.) Its impulses to master the human mind led to the mass LSD tests called MK-ULTRA, which became the subject of acrimonious congressional inquiries.

And three years ago, the CIA’s document dump of its so-called “Crown Jewels” of decades-old secrets went into further detail about its hypnotism fetish.

But in case you find yourself unmoved by the disclosures, consider that you have no foolproof way to determine that you aren’t yourself the subject of mental conditioning.

One of the many benefits of hypnosis, the 1955 memo notes, is a resistance to Commie brainwashing. “Hypnosis may be able on the one hand to pre-condition a subject against the pressure” of enemy influence, it asserts, “or after the fact to help undo the damage.” How do you know they haven’t gotten to you, too?

Check out the full memos:

CIA Hypnotism 1954

foxnews:Indiana Grandmother, a Muslim Convert, Being Investigated for Possible Terror Link

Indiana Grandmother, a Muslim Convert, Being Investigated for Possible Terror Link

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/12/28/indiana-grandmother-muslim-convert-investigated-possible-terror-link/#ixzz19R6FExYq

A 46-year-old Indiana grandmother is under investigation for her possible ties to suspected and convicted international terrorists, FoxNews.com has learned.

Muslim-convert Kathie Smith, 46, a U.S. citizen living in Indianapolis who has blogged about her granddaughter, last year married a suspected German jihadist, and has been flying back and forth between the U.S. and Germany as recently as two weeks ago.

A pro-jihadist video featuring Smith and her husband – alongside photos of members of the Islamic Jihad Union charged with plotting failed terror attacks against U.S. targets in Germany -- is being investigated by the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center. The center is a counterterror intelligence clearinghouse staffed by law enforcement officers from local and federal agencies, including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.

“Certainly, it’s being looked at and evaluated by Indiana State Police, which runs Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center, ” Indiana Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Emily Norcross told FoxNews.com, adding that the video would be passed along to appropriate law enforcement for further investigation.

FBI spokeswoman Jenny Shearer said: “As you’re aware, FBI and DOJ policy precludes us from confirming or denying the existence of an investigation.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Washington office did not respond to a request for comment.

Interpol, which helps government law enforcement agencies track crime suspects around the world, declined to comment, citing policy.

The FBI also did not respond to an e-mail from FoxNews.com asking why Smith is not on the federal government’s no-fly list. Smith, meanwhile, said she believes her name is on some kind of government “watch list.”

In lengthy e-mail exchanges with FoxNews.com, Smith claimed that she has been repeatedly subjected to hours-long interrogations by Homeland Security every time she travels. She said her luggage has been subjected to bomb residue tests, and that officials asked her numerous detailed questions about her husband. She also claims DHS officials on more than one occasion escorted her onto a departing airplane.

DHS did not respond to FoxNews.com’s request for comment on Smith’s allegations.

Smith — who now calls herself Zubaida — added that she and her husband were met and interrogated by German police while in a taxi in October 2009.

German police, however, said they were not currently investigating an American woman, but declined to say whether they were aware of Smith.

In lengthy e-mail exchanges with FoxNews.com, Smith alternatively defended her online postings, denied being anti-American, called the Sept. 11 attacks an inside job, the U.S. a terrorist organization and praised the American-born radical Muslim cleric Anwar al Awlaki -- architect, trainer and inspiration for many of the recent terrorist attacks attempted or committed against the U.S. President Obama last April approved Awlaki's inclusion on the CIA's targeted killing list.

In one e-mail to FoxNews.com, Smith wrote:

“If your neighbor was being attacked by a perpetrator, would you just stand there and say, 'Oh I will let someone come who has a gun to help them'? No, you would rush to their defense. And use any type of "weapon" to help that person... this is what I am doing. I am defending the defenseless. I am defending my home and family and their right to safety. No matter who it is at my door. These are the rights the Constitution gives me. The very right this Communistic government is trying to take away from me and the rest of the Americans.”

In the nearly six-minute video under investigation, Smith and her husband, known online as Salahudin Ibn Ja'far, 28, appear posing and hugging and holding weapons interspersed with photos of known and suspected terrorists and assorted jihadist propaganda, like an Awlaki sermon album cover.

There also are photos of German Taliban Mujahideen -- German nationals who have formed their own splinter group within the Taliban -- and mug shots of members of the Saarland cell of Islamic Jihad Union charged with plotting failed terror attacks against U.S. targets in Germany, including a 2007 plot to bomb the U.S. Air Force base at Ramstein.

Smith said of the Ramstein plotters featured in her video:

“The so-called 'jihadists' you have mentioned are actually personal friends of my husband from childhood. In the video he was expressing his love and gratitude to his friends, who have died fighting for freedom. Just like any other American or European citizen who displays pictures of soldiers who have died on their videos. There is no difference in gratitude and love. It is just that your government has deemed these noble men as 'terrorists' because they are not on the same side. Least us not forget the Mujahideen who fought the Russians for the U.S. They were deemed 'heroes' and lead by Osama Bin Laden at that time, and now because the government says so... they are "terrorists.””

(In a no-longer-active Facebook profile, Smith's husband, Salahudin, listed his current city as Saarbrucken, the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany.)

In addition to being close childhood friends of convicted terrorists, Salahudin has posted content from the German Taliban’s media outfit and the Islamic Jihad Union on forums and social networking sites. He's also written in support of his “noble leaders” -- bin Laden, Awlaki, the Sept. 11 hijackers and other terrorist leaders.

Salahudin appeared to maintain forums devoted to hosting Awlaki’s sermons. Earlier this month he uploaded videos to his since-deleted YouTube account that included German muhajideen training at jihadist camps in Pakistan, and another featuring the widow of a German Taliban jihadist directing the wives of jihadists to fulfill their obligations while their husbands are off fighting.

In other English-language posts, he suggests he himself has trained in these same jihadist camps.

On Facebook, he is "friends" with the notorious Al Qaeda English-language online magazine Inspire, thought to be principally authored by American-turned-Muslim radical Samir Khan. Salahudin also has used his online posts to call for the deaths of U.S. citizens, military and government leaders, and recently joined in on another user’s thinly veiled threats against Condoleezza Rice, according to postings discovered by FoxNews.com and screen shots provided by the Jawa Report, a watchdog blog that has been following the online activities of Smith and her husband.

His Facebook "friends" make up a who’s who of terror groups, many of which his wife is also associated with online. He and Smith have been kicked off of Facebook repeatedly over the past month, but both continue to open up new accounts and remain on the social networking site today.

On Facebook, Smith "likes" Awlaki, has belonged to a Facebook group called “Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb to answer your questions,” referring to the North African branch of Al Qaeda. Smith also is Facebook "friends" with pages claiming to be the terrorist groups Al Shabaab and Ansar al Jundullah, in addition to "friends" Sheikh Faisal and Youself al-Khatb, the reported spiritual leader and co-founder of Revolution Muslim, respectively. Her “Likes” and “Groups” are visible to the public; a friend request from this reporter to Smith was not accepted.

A Facebook Page provided by Jawa Report shows that Smith warned her husband via Facebook post not to accept FoxNews.com’s friend request either.

On her MySpace page, currently available for viewing via Google cache, Smith wrote: “As salamu alaikum akhi.. it is time for Jihad and it is now Fard ayn for ALL Muslims whether their in the United Snakes or else where...Insha'Allah!!!!”

Smith has lauded Awlaki, celebrated the deaths of U.S. soldiers -- who she called “terrorists” -- at the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and applauded another user’s posting of a rendering of the two planes hitting the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001.

And while she has repeatedly called for jihad against the West, Smith told FoxNews.com: “I am exercising my right, as an American citizen to freedom of speech, religion, and the right to bare arms. I have the right in America to say what ever I want. That is what makes America so great, right?”

But a paid government consultant aware of Smith’s movements said there’s concern that Smith could follow the path of Colleen LaRose, a suburban Philadelphian dubbed “Jihad Jane,” who pleaded not guilty in March to conspiracy charges involving a plot to kill a Swedish artist and providing material support to terrorists.

“As we saw in the case earlier this year with the arrests of "Jihad Janes" Colleen LaRose and [co-conspirator] Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, Kathie Smith has been exhibiting classic signs of extremism possibly transitioning into violence," the consultant told FoxNews.com, asking not to be identified due to the sensitive nature of his work. "Her online postings on Facebook have been increasingly promoted acts of terrorism and statements by terrorist leaders, such as Anwar Al-Aulaqi,” the contractor said.

“When her husband released the video earlier this month of the two of them holding weapons and included standard jihad imagery, such as pictures of German jihadists that have left to join terrorist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan or have been arrested for plotting terror attacks, we were concerned that they might be escalating to an attack themselves,” the consultant said.

To that concern, Smith replied by e-mail to FoxNews.com:

“I live a simple life, a life where I fear Allah first and try hard to do what is right for mankind. I am not some "horribly misguided, or brainwashed" individual. I have lived a long life and have seen many things. And I will always stand up for what is right, no matter who is trying to say the contrary.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/12/28/indiana-grandmother-muslim-convert-investigated-possible-terror-link/#ixzz19R6J5PLG

WashPost:Britain charges 9, says U.S. Embassy was terror target

Britain charges 9, says U.S. Embassy was terror target

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/27/AR2010122701045.html

LONDON - Nine of the 12 men arrested last week in Britain on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack against targets including the U.S. Embassy were charged Monday with conspiracy to set off explosions and testing potential bombs.

A U.S. State Department spokesman confirmed Monday that the U.S. Embassy in London was on the list of potential targets. "Our folks in London are aware of this, are working quite closely with British authorities, and appreciate the high level of cooperation that we have with them," said department spokesman Mark Toner. He added that embassy officials were taking "suitable security precautions."

Another potential target was the London Stock Exchange, the BBC reported.

The charges added to worries in Europe over reported preparations for a terrorist strike during the holiday season. Public concern was triggered by a warning in October from U.S. intelligence agencies, and further heightened by a string of recent terrorism-related incidents in European cities. Some incidents were linked to Islamic militants, while others were allegedly the work of European anti-government radicals.

Adding to the jitters, police in Rome said they had defused an explosive parcel Monday outside the Greek Embassy - the third such incident in a week. On Thursday, an Italian anarchist group said it was responsible for parcel bombs that exploded at the Chilean and Swiss embassies in Rome, injuring two staff members. Italian police said the Greek Embassy bomb was similar to the earlier devices.

In the Netherlands on Friday, 12 men of Somali origin were detained in Rotterdam on suspicion of plotting terrorism-related offenses. Five were released without charge, and seven were detained for further investigation.

Earlier this month, a Swedish man of Iraqi origin blew himself up on a busy shopping street in Stockholm, slightly injuring several passersby.

Against that background, British police said, they moved quickly to prevent the British plot from getting off the ground.

"I have today advised the police that nine men should be charged with conspiracy to cause explosions and with engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism with the intention of either committing acts of terrorism, or assisting another to commit such acts," Sue Hemming, head of the Crown Prosecution Service counterterrorism division, said in a statement.

The suspects - two from London, three from the Welsh capital of Cardiff and four from Stoke-on-Trent, a town in central England - continued to be held in custody after a hearing in a London court Monday. They are next scheduled to appear in court Jan. 14.

The suspects, some of whom were said to be of Bangladeshi origin, were accused of plotting an explosion "of a nature likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property in the United Kingdom," between Oct. 1 and Nov. 20, the West Midlands police said in a statement.

Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 20, the day of the arrests, the suspects were preparing for acts of terrorism, "researching, discussing, carrying out reconnaissance on, and agreeing [to] potential targets," the statement said.

British media reports said the suspects, ages 19 to 28, were targeting British landmarks, including the Houses of Parliament, and reported that the plot was related to al-Qaeda.

foxnews:China moving toward deploying anti-carrier missile

China moving toward deploying anti-carrier missile

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/12/28/china-moving-deploying-anti-carrier-missile/?test=latestnews

BEIJING – China is moving closer to deploying a ballistic missile designed to sink an aircraft carrier, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command said in newspaper interview published Tuesday.

Adm. Robert Willard told Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper that he believed the Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile program had achieved "initial operational capability," meaning that a workable design had been settled on and was being further developed.

Known among defense analysts as a "carrier killer," the Dong Feng 21D missile would be a game-changer in the Asian security environment, where U.S. Navy aircraft carrier battle groups have ruled the waves since the end of World War II.

The DF 21D's uniqueness is in its ability to hit a powerfully defended moving target with pinpoint precision — a capability U.S. naval planners are scrambling to deal with.

The system's component parts have likely been designed and tested, but U.S. sources have not detected an over-water test to see how well it can target a moving ship, Willard said.

Years of tests

are probably still needed before the missile can be fully deployed, he said. The system requires state-of-the-art guidance systems, and some experts believe it will take China a decade or so to field a reliable threat.

The missile is considered a key component of China's strategy of denying U.S. planes and ships access to waters off its coast. The strategy includes overlapping layers of air defense systems, naval assets such as submarines, and advanced ballistic missile systems — all woven together with a network of satellites.

At its most capable, the DF 21D could be launched from land with enough accuracy to penetrate the defenses of even the most advanced moving aircraft carrier at a distance of more than 900 miles (1,500 kilometers).

That could seriously weaken Washington's ability to intervene in any potential conflict over Taiwan or North Korea, as well as deny U.S. ships safe access to international waters near China's 11,200-mile (18,000-kilometer) -long coastline.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu on Tuesday referred questions about Willard's comments to military departments, but reiterated China's insistence that its expanding military threatens no one.

"I can say that China pursues a defensive national policy. ... We pose no threat to other countries. We will always be a force in safeguarding regional peace and stability," Jiang told reporters at a regularly scheduled news conference.

While China's Defense Ministry never comments on new weapons before they become operational, the DF 21D — which would travel at 10 times the speed of sound and carry conventional payloads — has been much discussed by military buffs online.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/12/28/china-moving-deploying-anti-carrier-missile/#ixzz19P0EznQr

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