Now for a little good news... It seems that a major plot was disrupted by Drone attacks in Pakistan. I realize that this is not a victory in the war, just a small victory in a small battle... I hope that we can read about more victory against the terrorists who plot to destroy the West and the Jewish nation.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/Alarm-in-Europe-over-26/11-type-plot/articleshow/6654745.cmsLONDON: Intelligence agencies have issued a high alert, warning that a jihadi plot — allegedly scripted in Pakistan — to carry out 26/11-type commando attacks on big cities in Britain, France and Germany was being given finishing touches.
It's also learnt that an unprecedented series of at least 20 drone attacks this month in tribal areas of Pakistan may have nipped the conspiracy in the bud.
British sources say they have been worried about a Mumbai-type attack in Europe for some time and specified that the scheme was being hatched in Pakistan. Jonathan Evans, head of MI5, in a speech earlier this month, spoke about persisting terror threats to Britain. He also claimed that 50% of such threats had links to Pakistan.
While the raid on Mumbai was carried out by the Lashkar-e-Taiba, with active help and support of the Pakistani army or ISI, MI5 and MI6 (UK's internal and external intelligence wings) were yet to point a finger at any particular organization for the latest conspiracy.
The Guardian newspaper reported that after 26/11, western intelligence gained access to computers seized from LeT, which listed potential targets outside the Indian subcontinent for similar strikes, including Europe.
In Paris, the police on Tuesday evacuated and closed off the Eiffel Tower for a second time in as many weeks after an anonymous caller telephoned firefighters, claiming it was going to be bombed. Bomb experts combed the 324 metre tower and found nothing. Tourists were allowed in two hours after the tower was vacated.
Details dribbling out from such intelligence agencies suggest squads of jihadi commandos planned to indiscriminately attack symbolic buildings like the Eiffel Tower in Paris and either kill people or take hostages, the way they did in Mumbai.
The present threat is said to be credible but not specific; and, when detected, it was possibly weeks rather than days away from being implemented. The threat level in Britain is currently severe (an incident highly likely), a notch below the highest alarm of critical which means an outrage is imminent. In the assessment of British experts, the stratagy had advanced from an aspirational to an actual planning stage.
A combined US, UK, French and German operation reportedly unearthed the plot. Security personnel would, in fact, have preferred to keep the matter under wraps, but information leaked out in Washington on Tuesday night, with the US media getting hold of this.
When questioned, US officials refused to comment on developments. However, an official told a wire service, "It shouldn't surprise anyone that links between plots and those who are orchestrating them lead to decisive American action (inside Pakistan)."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/world/europe/30intel.htmlEuropeans Play Down Reports of New Qaeda Threats
By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: September 29, 2010PARIS — Al Qaeda and related groups are plotting new attacks on Western European capitals, European officials said on Wednesday, but they had no actionable intelligence suggesting either the timing or specific locations.
French and German officials on Wednesday played down reports of a significant new threat from the main Qaeda group hiding in Pakistan, saying that any plot appeared to be in the planning stages. One Western official familiar with the intelligence said that this plot involved small teams of gunmen equipped with small arms who hoped to mount commando-style raids in Western European capitals, which are considered softer targets than the United States.
In Britain, security officials noted that the terrorist threat alert remained “severe,” as it has been for months, indicating that an attack is considered “highly likely.”
But a senior French official said that France was on high alert because of another threat: from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which is linked to, but operates separately from, Al Qaeda itself.
The French official, who is also familiar with the intelligence from Washington and allies, said, “We have had intelligence exchanges with our American partners over the past few weeks regarding potential threats, but there was nothing along the lines of major plots in all these capitals, not with any specificity or substance behind them.”
The official said, “Our problem is North Africa; it’s AQIM, and it’s unrelated to Pakistan.”
The German government said in a statement from the Interior Ministry that it was aware of Al Qaeda’s “long term” aim to attack Western targets, but “at present there are no concrete pointers to imminent attacks on Germany stemming from this.”
Alarm bells went off in Western Europe overnight, especially in Britain, after reports that American intelligence was warning its allies of simultaneous plots against European capitals, with armed men shooting civilians and taking hostages.
In Washington, a senior American official said that different plots were “in varying stages of maturity” and were “at a worrisome level,” involving either Westerners trained by Al Qaeda in Pakistan or pre-existing Qaeda cells in Europe that rely on guidance or money from Pakistan.
France is already on its second-highest state of alert. There has been a string of nine bomb alerts in September, which have twice meant the evacuation of the Eiffel Tower and two nearby subway stations.
But the threat from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb stems from a separate stream of intelligence, the senior French officials said. Tensions have been high generally since the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, and on Sept. 15, five French citizens, along with two African colleagues, were kidnapped by the Qaeda-linked group in a uranium-mining region of [censored], in central Africa, where they were working for French companies. The French believe the hostages are alive and being held in northwestern Mali.
The French Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bernard Valero, said Wednesday that “information transmitted by American authorities, particularly on the terror threat in Europe, have been analyzed, cross-checked and, if the need arises, they are taken into account in our national evaluation of the threat.”
A German official told the Reuters news agency that the reports might have been set off in part by the interrogation of a German of Afghan origin captured in Afghanistan in July. The German, said by the German media to be named Ahmed Sidiqi, 36, from Hamburg, had traveled to Waziristan and received firearms and explosives training. He told American interrogators in Afghanistan about plans for attacks by small armed groups in European cities, a senior European official said.
Some of the potential attackers may already be in Europe, Mr. Sidiqi said, according to the official, and Mr. Sidiqi mentioned the Haqqani network in Pakistan as involved in the plot. The network is allied with the Taliban and has been a target of some recent drone attacks in Pakistan.
Another French official speculated that the leak of Washington’s concerns about attacks in Europe from Pakistani Al Qaeda and the Taliban was also meant to justify the increasing drone attacks on targets inside Pakistan, to press Pakistan to use ground troops more aggressively in the tribal areas and even to prepare the ground for using American ground forces, covert or otherwise, inside Pakistan. Many in Washington believe that the answer to stability in Afghanistan lies in a more aggressive offensive against Al Qaeda and Taliban militants sheltering in Pakistan.
Topic: European Terror Plot Foiled - Who Did It? Guess? (Read 564 times)