Category: Terrorism

CNN) — Recent arrests have exposed an intricate web of al Qaeda contacts in which the terror network’s operational information flowed among Pakistan, Britain and the United States:
Continue reading “Arrests highlight al Qaeda's info flow”

Militants loyal to top al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have released a video which apparently shows a US citizen being beheaded in Iraq.
The man in the video – which appeared on an Islamist website – says he is from San Francisco.

Zarqawi’s militants have previously released footage of hostage beheadings.

But doubts have been expressed about the footage, which appears to have been heavily edited and may show a dead body being decapitated.

It is unclear if and when the man was taken hostage.

“I am from San Francisco, California,” says the young man in the video, who was dressed in a plain beige T-shirt as he sat on a chair in a dark room with his hands behind his back.

This seems like it will go on and on, no doubt the video and pictures will appear on many websites soon. I think watching one such video is more than enough. There is talk that one of the videos circulating may be a hoax. I have linked to it below.

For those of you who are interested you can watch the Benjamin Vanderford video here.

And if you are feeling particularly brave, watch the Murat Yuce video here.

More goings on in Riyadh, oil prices may never be stable again, so long as this continues.

Also last night Newsnight interviewed the anonymous authour of Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror. Definately worth a look. You can watch it here. (Realplayer)

It appears that one of the Bulgarian hostages has been killed, perhaps beheaded. A video will no doubt become available on the Internet soon, as will graphics pictures, Nick Berg all over again. Here is the BBC report:

Arab satellite television channel al-Jazeera said the captors threatened to kill a second Bulgarian within the next 24 hours.

The Bulgarian government confirmed one of its nationals had been killed.

Al-Jazeera said it received a video of the killing purportedly by the al-Tahid and Jihad Group, but decided not to broadcast the graphic sections.

The video showed one of the Bulgarians – wearing an orange garment similar to those worn by other hostages before they were killed – kneeling in front of three masked men dressed in black.

The Bulgarian authorities had identified the two hostages as Ivaylo Kepov and Georgi Lazov.

The truck drivers were kidnapped while travelling from Bulgaria to Mosul in northern Iraq. They had been due to arrive on 29 June.

Confirmation

“We have confirmation that (the killing) involves one of the two Bulgarian hostages. We do not yet have information about which one of the two it is,” government spokesman Dimitar Tsonev told AFP news agency.

“All Bulgarian institutions have done everything possible. Now all we can do for the next 24 hours is to pray for the life of the second Bulgarian hostage,” he said.

A videotape was broadcast last week showing masked men behind two prisoners, believed to be the Bulgarians, squatting and handcuffed.

Bulgaria sent diplomats to Iraq to try and negotiate the men’s freedom, but had vowed it would not change its policy on sending troops to the country.

It currently has a 485-member battalion in Iraq, which serves alongside Ukrainian troops under Polish command.

Al-Tahid and Jihad Group is believed to be headed by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a suspected ally of Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.

The group has claimed responsibility for the beheading of US businessman Nick Berg and South Korean translator Kim Sun-il.

The BBC reports on the mistaken figures given by President Bush.

The US has more than doubled its estimation of the number of people killed by terrorism last year. The state department said 625 people were killed in 2003, compared with the 307 it claimed in April.

The Bush administration seized on the original report as proof that its “war on terror” was succeeding.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said there had been no attempt to deceive people, and blamed clerical and administrative errors.

A US official said the figure of 625 people killed worldwide was still lower than the previous year’s 725 deaths.

After the tragedies of Nick Berg and Paul Johnson, it appears Kim Sun-il is the latest hostage to be beheaded. His corpse has apparently been found in Iraq. No doubt there will be another deluge of people on the Internet seeking pictures of Kim Sun-il, though it appears his beheading was not recorded.

The deadline has passed, and reports indicate that the US captive has been beheaded in the style of Nick Berg. Shall we also see a video of Johnson’s beheading?

Update: My website has been deluged with people looking for a video of Johnson. 2,500 people so far today. Strangely I rank number one on the Google for ‘islamist website johnson’, higher even, than the BBC.

Ogrish.com are seeking a copy of any video of Paul Johnson. They also have copies of the Nick Berg and Robert Jacob videos.

Update: Ogrish have posted the pictures. I have linked to them –

It is reported that Paul Johnson, the US citizen kidnapped in Saudi Arabia, has been shown on video. He appears blindfolded, giving his name. The video has been shown on CNN apparently.

Update: Indeed it has. It appears now that demands have been made:

A masked man armed with an automatic weapon also spoke on the video, identifying himself as Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, the self-proclaimed military leader of al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. His identity has not been independently verified.

The masked man, speaking on behalf of a group called the Falluja Squadron that claims to have ties to al Qaeda, demanded that Saudi Arabia free al Qaeda prisoners it was holding and that Westerners leave the Arabian Peninsula. If the demands aren’t met within 72 hours, Johnson will be killed, the militant said.

The gunman also claimed that at the time of Johnson’s kidnapping, one of the American’s colleagues was killed. On Saturday, when Johnson went missing in Riyadh, another American, Kenneth Scroggs, was found slain.

Update: It appears Paul Johnson has been beheaded. CNN are saying that three photographs appear on an Islamist website depicting Johnson’s decapitated corpse.

Update: The pictures are available here. I urge extreme caution in viewing these images. They are extremely graphic. There are three pictures. And a picture of the website itself.

Far more than the secular Ba’athist regimes targeted by the Washington neo-cons, the Saudis have turned the face of Islam against the west. The war on Iraq has only provided a rallying cry for al-Qaida supporters. The country that has played by far the greatest role in advancing global Islamist militancy was never listed in Bush’s “axis of evil” speech, and is a major US ally. Indeed George Bush Snr continues openly to lobby for the Saudis and to take a salary from the Carlyle Group, a multi-billion dollar corporation channelling US investment into Saudi Arabia.

The ultimate irony is that Saudi money comes from the west as oil revenues and investment: in the end it is we who are funding the export of Wahhabi intolerance. If the Saudi regime is now crumbling, we have only ourselves to blame.