A Nigerian man charged Saturday with attempting to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day was listed in a U.S. terrorism database after his father told State Department officials that he was worried about his son's radical beliefs and extremist connections, officials said. The suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was granted a two-year tourist visa by the U.S. Embassy in London in June 2008 and has traveled to the United States at least twice before, officials said. His name was added to a catch-all terrorism-related database last month, when his father reported concerns about his son's "radicalization and associations" to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, a senior administration official said.
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN
Elite U.S. Force Expanding Hunt in Afghanistan - Eric Schmitt, New York Times. Secretive branches of the military’s Special Operations forces have increased counterterrorism missions against some of the most lethal groups in Afghanistan and, because of their success, plan an even bigger expansion next year, according to American commanders. The commandos, from the Army’s Delta Force and the Navy’s classified Seals units, have had success weakening the network of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the strongest Taliban warrior in eastern Afghanistan, the officers said. Mr. Haqqani’s group has used its bases in neighboring Pakistan to carry out deadly strikes in and around Kabul, the Afghan capital. Guided by intercepted cellphone communications, the American commandos have also killed some important Taliban operatives in Marja, the most fearsome Taliban stronghold in Helmand Province in the south, the officers said. Marine commanders say they believe that there are some 1,000 fighters holed up in the town. Although President Obama and his top aides have not publicly discussed these highly classified missions as part of the administration’s revamped strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, the counterterrorism operations are expected to increase, along with the deployment of 30,000 more American forces in the next year. The increased counterterrorism operations over the past three or four months reflect growth in every part of the Afghanistan campaign, including conventional forces securing the population, other troops training and partnering with Afghan security forces, and more civilians to complement and capitalize on security gains.
Taliban Commander Killed in Mosque Shootout - Voice of America. NATO says a heavily armed Taliban commander has been killed in a shootout at a mosque in eastern Afghanistan. NATO officials say international and Afghan forces went Saturday to a compound in Wardak province to look for the commander, who fled to a nearby mosque as troops approached. Security forces surrounded the mosque and ordered him to surrender. But he refused to do so and opened fire as the shootout started. Officials say the Taliban commander was armed with grenades and rounds of ammunition. He was wanted for buying weapons and components for explosive devices, and for helping plan attacks. NATO also says a U.S. soldier died Friday from a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan. In the Afghan capital, Kabul, a rocket landed Saturday near the Afghan Defense ministry. It was unclear if there were casualties.
Pakistani Officials: 5 Killed in US Drone Strike - Voice of America. Pakistani security officials say five people have been killed in a U.S. drone (unmanned aircraft) attack on a suspected militant target in Pakistan's northwest tribal region. The officials say missiles hit a house Saturday in the North Waziristan tribal district near Afghanistan. They say two people were wounded. It is not clear if the casualties were militants. Many Taliban gunmen and other militants battling U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan are based in North Waziristan. In the southern port city of Karachi, police say at least 19 people were wounded Saturday in an explosion near a group of Shi'ite Muslims taking part in a procession for the Islamic holy month of Muharram. There were conflicting reports as to the cause of the blast, with some saying it was a car bomb, and others saying it was caused by a firecracker. Pakistan is mostly Sunni, and extremists from the two sects have often clashed in the country.
Suspected U.S. Airstrike Kills 3 in Northwest Pakistan - Rasool Dawar, Washington Post. A suspected U.S. missile strike killed three people Saturday in a northwest Pakistani tribal region where insurgent groups focused on fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan are concentrated, two Pakistani intelligence officials said. The missile strike apparently was the latest in a lengthy campaign of such attacks by the United States, which rarely discusses the covert program but has said in the past that it has taken out several top al-Qaeda operatives. Pakistan publicly opposes the strikes but is thought to secretly assist in the operations. Saturday's strike occurred in the Babar Raghzai area of North Waziristan and also wounded two people, the officials said. The identities of the dead were not available. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the news media on the record. The area targeted is used by militants from two major factions that are battling U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan - the network of Afghan insurgent leader Siraj Haqqani and the militants of warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur.
Brainwashed Boy Bomber Flees Taliban - Daud Khattak and Nicola Smith, The Times. Usman Ghani was a 14-year-old schoolboy when he was forcibly removed from his family and trained as a Taliban suicide bomber. His story - revealed in the week that yet another blast brought the death toll to more than 500 in barely two months - reflects the tragic tales of many young Pakistanis brainwashed by the Taliban to bring terror to the country’s cities. Living in the remote town of Khar, in the Bajaur tribal agency of northwest Pakistan, Ghani was an easy target for the Taliban militants who control the area with their potent mixture of arms and fundamentalist beliefs. His father Lal Zaman, a blacksmith, had been caught selling hashish, a crime punishable by death under the Taliban’s harsh code. Zaman was given a cruel choice: to hand over his eldest son or be executed. Ghani was forced to pay for the “sins” of his father. Militants took him and he was driven, blindfolded, to the Taliban-infested Bandai area of Bajaur, where he learnt his fate. “Three leaders said because my father was guilty of selling hashish, as a punishment I would have to carry out a suicide attack or be slaughtered,” he said. “When I refused, they tied me down with a rope and started beating me. Eventually I said I was ready to carry out an attack just to make them stop.” Ghani was subjected to months of indoctrination. He was imprisoned with two other teenage boys and forced to listen to militant sermons every night. “They told us that a suicide attack is the direct path to paradise, where beautiful women and all the happiness of life are waiting for you,” he said. “They said we were lucky to have been chosen by God for this noble purpose.”
IRAQ
Violence in Iraq as Shi'ite Muslims Mark Ashura - Voice of America. Iraqi police say a roadside bombing in Baghdad Saturday killed at least two people who were taking part in a Shi'ite Muslim religious procession. The attack, in the New Baghdad district, also wounded eight others. Iraqi authorities have boosted security measures as hundreds of thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims flock to Iraq's holy shrine city of Karbala for the solemn Ashura holiday. Worshipers travel to the shrine each year to mourn the seventh-century killing of the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Several pilgrims were killed earlier this week in a spate of attacks targeting worshipers. On Friday, a roadside bomb blast killed at least six Shi'ites in the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City. Other attacks this week in the city of Mosul targeted the Christian minority as they celebrated Christmas.
String of Assassination Attempts Kills 4 in Baghdad and Anbar Province in Iraq - Michael Hastings, Washington Post. A string of assassination attempts in Baghdad and in the Sunni areas west of the capital over the past two days has killed four people, including a member of a Sunni political party and a prominent tribal leader, police officials said. Mohammed Mehdi, a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, was killed Saturday evening by a magnetic device known as a sticky bomb near the group's headquarters in Baghdad, a party official said. Earlier in the day, tribal sheik Mahmoud Hussein al-Obeidi was killed in the town of Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, when a sticky bomb blew up his car, which was parked outside his home, according to Capt. Hassan al-Timimee of the Fallujah police. Obeidi, who was a supporter of the Iraqi Accordance Front, a Sunni coalition, was the latest political leader to be killed in a series of apparent attempts to discourage participation in national elections scheduled for March 7. Obeidi had no bodyguards with him because he was on his way to morning prayers, Timimee said. In Fallujah, a city in Anbar province about 35 miles west of Baghdad, a bomb detonated Saturday in front of the house of Maj. Ghazi Dura, commander of an Iraqi police counterterrorism unit in the province. The attack injured Dura and killed his son, according to police officials. On Friday night, Saad al-Mashhadani, a university professor in Fallujah, was critically wounded in an attack that killed his brother and wounded two of his security guards.
IRAN
Iranian Security Forces Clash With Hundreds of Protesters in Tehran - Edward Yeranian, Voice of America. Eyewitnesses are reporting that crowds clashed with Iranian security forces in parts of Tehran and several provincial cities, Saturday. Police reportedly swung batons at protesters, smashing car-windows and fired teargas and pepper spray to try and disperse crowds. Bitter clashes broke out in the Iranian capital Tehran Saturday between thousands of protesters and security forces, intensifying and spreading to more locations as the day wore on. Several opposition websites reported that both the government's stalwart Revolutionary Guard and volunteer Basij militia were out in force, confronting demonstrators in multiple locations across the capital, using teargas, water cannons, and pepper spray to disperse them. Other reports say that that undercover Basij militiamen wielding poles and batons smashed car windows and attacked motorists that were honking their horns in support of demonstrators. One woman eyewitness told Radio Farda that Revolutionary Guard members were man-handling protesters chanting slogans against the regime. She says that [the clashes] took place in particular around Pol Chobi and Vali Asr Square. She says that she saw demonstrators dressed in black for today's fast [on the ninth day of the month of Moharram] who were being pulled and grabbed by Revolutionary Guardsmen. Around the university, she says that she saw another group of demonstrators who had gathered near Fakhr Razi Ave. and were chanting "down with the dictator." She adds that the government forces rushed quickly [on their motorbikes] gunning their engines to go wherever there was a protest.
Tehran Protesters Defy Ban and Clash With Police - Nazila Fathi, New York Times. Police officers and militia forces clashed with demonstrators in central Tehran all day Saturday and then again in northern Tehran in the evening, where the government forces shut down a speech by former President Mohammad Khatami, a reformist leader. The demonstrators, who defied an official ban and turned a Shiite ceremony into a protest, underlined the government’s inability to suppress the opposition despite the use of violence. Protests have continued since a disputed presidential election in June, and a large one is anticipated on Sunday, the culmination of the Shiite holiday of Ashura. Witnesses and an opposition Web site said the police and Basij militiamen beat and arrested protesters in central Tehran. The police fired tear gas at protesters in three central squares - Imam Hussein, Enghelab and Ferdowsi - the opposition Web site Jaras reported. The militia forces attacked protesters with batons and chains, the Web site said. Government forces also attacked cars whose drivers had honked in support of the protesters, and smashed their windows. Many vehicles’ license plates were taken away.
Iranians Mark the Shiite Holiday Ashura with Mass Unrest in Tehran - Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post. Iran's opposition is gearing up for a potentially large demonstration against the government on Sunday to coincide with the climax of a major Shiite religious commemoration. The Rah-e Sabz Web site, a mouthpiece of the grass-roots opposition movement, called for nationwide protests around noon in the capital, which on Saturday was the scene of several clashes between anti-government protesters and riot police. "Today was only a test to show our readiness," read a statement on the Web site, which also denounced the government's use of violence during the present period of mourning for a Shiite saint. "Tomorrow we will come out following the invitations of the social network Green Path Of Hope movement." The demonstrations started after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection in June and show no sign of winding down. Pro-government forces, however, appear determined to stamp out the protests, which they say are illegal and abetted by foreign enemies.
Iranian Security Forces Mass in Tehran; Clashes Reported - Chip Cummins, Wall Street Journal. Clashes between opposition protesters and Iranian authorities erupted Sunday, despite a heavy deployment early in the day of police and other security forces, according to opposition websites. Police had positioned themselves throughout central Tehran, concentrating around possible rallying points along a major central thoroughfare, Azadi St., between Imman Hossein and Enqelab Squares, according to opposition websites. The street and squares have been sites of big antigovernment demonstrations in the past. Despite the heavy police presence, large groups of demonstrators managed to congregate in parts of the city, according to opposition websites and videos posted to the Internet. The Associated Press reported isolated clashes between protesters and security forces midday Sunday, including police firing warning shots in the air and beating protesters. The AP cited eyewitnesses and the opposition website Rah e-Sabz. It was impossible to verify those accounts. Iranian authorities have forbidden press coverage of unauthorized demonstrations. Ashura, a 10-day commemoration of a revered Shiite martyr, ends Sunday. Opposition forces have called on supporters to pour into the streets to demonstrate against the regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who won contested presidential elections in June. Opposition supporters have demonstrated off-and-on for at least six months. More recently, antigovernment protests have veered toward increasingly bold calls for the end of the Islamic Republic itself.
Iranian Protesters Clash With Police - Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times. Fiery clashes have erupted between police and Iranian protesters this morning on the day of an important religious commemoration that coincides with the significant seventh day of mourning following the death of the country's leading dissident cleric. Witnesses described trash fires burning on Taleghani Street and running street battles between plainclothes and uniformed security officers and demonstrators, some throwing stones. Motorists plying nearby streets are leaning on their horns with drivers and other passengers showing "V" signs with their fingers despite the heavy presence of police deployed around main squares. Passengers on buses could also be heard chanting slogans. "Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein!" they chanted in support of opposition figurehead Mir Hossein Mousavi. Despite a heavy crackdown, the protest movement that emerged from Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election has grown more daring, with those who want an abolition of the Islamic Republic increasingly vocal. Protesters had vowed to turn today's annual Ashura commemoration marking the 7th century martyrdom of Imam Hossein into an anti-government demonstration.
Reporters Attacked in Crackdown by Iran Militia - Jon Swain, The Times. Iran was braced for more violent clashes today as opposition demonstrators planned further mass rallies, which are expected to lead to fresh confrontations between protesters and security forces. Tension was running high at rallies yesterday in which soldiers of the elite Revolutionary Guard and the paramilitary Basiji used tear gas and pepper spray and fired warning shots into the air to disperse demonstrators chanting anti-government slogans in three areas of central Tehran. They also smashed the windows of cars that were hooting in protest. The reports by opposition websites could not be independently verified because foreign journalists are banned from covering opposition rallies. But one eyewitness said opposition supporters had gathered in groups along one of the capital’s main streets, with the police out in force to keep them apart. The opposition Jaras website claimed security forces had attacked a building housing Isna, an Iranian news agency, where it said some demonstrators had sought shelter during the clashes. An eyewitness said at least two people were injured when police chased after protesters into the building. “They fractured the skull of one Isna person and badly beat up another employee,” the witness said. Isna’s news service appeared to be working normally and it later issued a report on the incident, saying one of its reporters had been injured without specifying who was to blame.
THE LONG WAR
Attempted Terrorist Attack on Airliner Sparks New Concerns About al-Qaida - Jeff Seldin, Voice of America. The White House is calling a small explosion aboard an international flight bound for Detroit "an attempted act of terrorism." Counterintelligence officials say a Nigerian engineering student tried to blow the plane up shortly before it landed. Senior U.S. lawmakers are now expressing concerns about possible links between the attack and the al-Qaida terrorist network. Passengers on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit say just as the plane was getting ready to land there was a loud pop, and then panic. "We heard a loud pop and a bit of smoke and then some flames, and then yelling and screaming," said one passenger. "The lady shouted 'what are you doing, what are you doing?' said another. "And then we looked back. There were some fumes and some flames." "It was scary," said a third passenger. "It was a loud firecracker that went off, and there was a fire in the plane." Within seconds, some passengers sprang into action. "There was one guy who sat on the other side, on the right side of the wing," said a passenger who witnessed the heroic act. "This was on the left side of the wing. He jumped over all the other people and he took care of it, so the fire went out." Officials have identified the suspect as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab - a 23-year-old from Nigeria - whose name appears on a U.S. intelligence watch list. They say Mutallab suffered severe burns when he tried to use a liquid to ignite powder strapped to his legs and blow up the aircraft. New York Congressman Peter King, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, was briefed by intelligence officials shortly after the plane landed. "Well, some definite facts. One is that he has al-Qaida connections. Secondly, that it was a fairly sophisticated device." Mutallab, an engineering student who studied in Britain, told investigators he was acting on instructions from al-Qaida and got the explosive materials in Yemen. Those claims have yet to be confirmed. But Congressman King says there is plenty of reason to worry.
Plane Suspect Listed in Terror Database after Father Alerted U.S. Officials - Dan Eggen, Karen DeYoung and Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post. A Nigerian man charged Saturday with attempting to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day was listed in a U.S. terrorism database after his father told State Department officials that he was worried about his son's radical beliefs and extremist connections, officials said. The suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was granted a two-year tourist visa by the U.S. Embassy in London in June 2008 and has traveled to the United States at least twice before, officials said. His name was added to a catch-all terrorism-related database last month, when his father reported concerns about his son's "radicalization and associations" to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, a senior administration official said. Abdulmutallab, 23, was subdued by passengers and crew members on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Friday after he ignited an explosive device that set his pants leg and part of the airplane, which was preparing to land in Detroit, on fire. The incident marks the latest apparent attempt by terrorists to bring down a U.S. aircraft through the use of an improvised weapon and set in motion a series of urgent security measures that disrupted global air travel during the frenetic holiday weekend.
Officials Point to Suspect’s Claim of Qaeda Ties in Yemen - Eric Schmitt and Eric Lipton, New York Times. Federal authorities on Saturday charged a 23-year-old Nigerian man with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day, and officials said the suspect told them he had obtained explosive chemicals and a syringe that were sewn into his underwear from a bomb expert in Yemen associated with Al Qaeda. The authorities have not independently corroborated the Yemen connection claimed by the man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was burned in his failed attempt to bring down the airliner and is in a hospital in Michigan. But a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said on Saturday that the suspect’s account was “plausible,” and that he saw “no reason to discount it.” Mr. Abdulmutallab’s name was not unknown to American authorities. His father, a prominent Nigerian banker, recently told officials at the United States Embassy in Nigeria that he was concerned about his son’s increasingly extremist religious views. As a result of his father’s warning, federal authorities in Washington opened an investigative file and Mr. Abdulmutallab’s name ended up in the American intelligence community’s central repository of information on known or suspected international terrorists.
Authorities Probe Possible Al Qaeda Ties to Foiled Plane Attack - Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times. U.S. counter-terrorism officials on Saturday were looking at possible connections between Al Qaeda-linked militants in Yemen and a 23-year-old Nigerian man charged with attempting to destroy a Northwest Airlines plane on its final approach to Detroit Metropolitan airport. According to a criminal complaint and FBI affidavit, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab carried a destructive device aboard Flight 253 on Christmas Day in what authorities said was an attempted terrorist attack that could have killed all 290 people aboard. In filing charges Saturday, the Justice Department alleged that Abdulmutallab had a device containing the explosive PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, attached to his body. The court documents also said that FBI agents had recovered what appeared to be the remnants of a syringe, believed to be part of the device, from the vicinity of the suspect's seat. "Had this alleged plot to destroy an airplane been successful, scores of innocent people would have been killed or injured," Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said in announcing the charges. "We will continue to investigate this matter vigorously, and we will use all measures available to our government to ensure that anyone responsible for this attempted attack is brought to justice."
Nigerian Charged in Northwest Bomb Attempt - Evan Perez, Jay Solomon, Neal E. Boudette and Andy Pasztor, Wall Street Journal. U.S. prosecutors Saturday charged a 23-year-old Nigerian man with attempting to carry out a Christmas Day terrorist bombing on a Northwest Airlines flight, amid questions about whether U.S. officials missed warnings about the suspect before he boarded the Detroit-bound flight armed with an explosive device. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was charged in a federal criminal complaint with placing a destructive device on Flight 253. Passengers said the suspect apparently set off a device strapped to his body as the plane was approaching the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, causing a small fire that was quickly put out by passengers and crew. The suspect claimed connections with al Qaeda, officials said, but the formal charges don't mention the terrorist network. A U.S. official said that Nigerian banker Umaru Mutallab, the father of the accused man, warned officials at the American embassy in Lagos, Nigeria that he feared his son had been "radicalized" during trips outside the West African country. Mr. Mutallab's concerns about his son weren't specific, nor did they point to any imminent threat against the U.S., according to the official. But the State Department did share the father's views with officials from the U.S. government's intelligence and counterterrorism bureaus, according to the official. "The father contacted us and expressed concerns about the radicalization of his son," said the U.S. official. "This information was then shared across the inter-agency." The official said he was still confirming the exact date of when Mr. Mutallab contacted the U.S. embassy, but believed it was recently.
Officials: Terror Suspect May Have Ties to al-Qaeda Network in Yemen - Michael D. Shear, Spencer S. Hsu and Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post. Federal officials have strongly suggested to lawmakers that the Nigerian man who attempted to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight has connections to the al Qaeda terrorist network in Yemen, according to a senior member of Congress in the House. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence, said Saturday that a federal official has briefed lawmakers about "strong suggestions of a Yemen-al Qaeda connection and an intent to blow up the plane over U.S. airspace." Harman said that while intelligence on Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab did not result in putting him on a "no fly" list, the process by which terrorism-related information is vetted and shared among government databases must be tightened, without an overreaction that threatens civil liberties or overwhelms counter terrorism officials with irrelevant information. The possible connection to Yemen comes just days after the Yemeni government - with the support of the United States - launched a major attack against the leaders of the terrorist network in their country known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Airline Bomber Was Barred From Britain - David Leppard and Chris Gourlay, The Times. The son of a prominent Nigerian banker, who allegedly attempted to blow up a transatlantic flight over America, was barred from returning to Britain earlier this year. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, graduated from a university in London last year but his visa request was refused in May when he attempted to apply for a new course at a bogus college. Abdulmutallab, described as a devout Muslim, attempted to ignite an explosive device on a plane from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day after shouting about Afghanistan.Bomb materials had apparently been sewn into his underwear, an authoritative American report said. The incident led to increased security at UK airports and delays of up to five hours for passengers in Britain yesterday. For the past two years Abdulmutallab has been on a United States watchlist for people known to have extremist links, but he was not prevented from flying to America. UK officials indicated that he had passed across MI5’s radar but was not deemed sufficiently threatening to warrant surveillance. Abdulmutallab began his journey in Nigeria and then changed planes in Amsterdam. Peter King, a Republican congressman, claimed he did not go through full-body image screening at either airport. All airlines flying to America have now imposed heightened security, including “pat-down” checks for all passengers and a hand luggage check at the gate.
Passengers’ Quick Action Halted Attack - Scott Shane and Eric Lipton, New York Times. Despite the billions spent since 2001 on intelligence and counterterrorism programs, sophisticated airport scanners and elaborate watch lists, it was something simpler that averted disaster on a Christmas Day flight to Detroit: alert and courageous passengers and crew members. During 19 hours of travel, aboard two flights across three continents, law enforcement officials said, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab bided his time. Then, just as Northwest Flight 253 finally began its final approach to Detroit around noon on Friday, he tried to ignite the incendiary powder mixture he had taped to his leg, they said. There were popping sounds, smoke and a commotion as passengers cried out in alarm and tried to see what was happening. One woman shouted, “What are you doing?” and another called out, “Fire!” And then history repeated itself. Just as occurred before Christmas in 2001, when Richard C. Reid tried to ignite plastic explosives hidden in his shoe on a trans-Atlantic flight, fellow passengers jumped on Mr. Abdulmutallab, restraining the 23-year-old Nigerian. Jasper Schuringa, a Dutch film director seated in the same row as Mr. Abdulmutallab but on the other side of the aircraft, saw what looked like an object on fire in the suspect’s lap and “freaked,” he told CNN.
Flight Security Stiffened After Failed Plot - Audrey Hudson, Washington Times. The Department of Homeland Security has instituted a surge of federal air marshals to protect all flights into the U.S. and imposed tight new flight restrictions in the wake of a failed Christmas Day terrorist attack. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, has been charged by the FBI with attempting to destroy an aircraft and placing a destructive device on the plane. The bomb failed to fully ignite as the aircraft prepared to land in Detroit. According to one Homeland Security official, the explosive substance used for the bomb was PETN, a peroxide-based material that was supposed to bring down several airliners over U.S. soil in another attack that failed to launch, from Britain in August 2006.In 2001, initial testing on the material found in the shoes of Richard Reid - the so-called "Shoe Bomber," who is serving a life sentence in a Colorado prison - "indicated the presence of PETN, a material used to make the explosive Semtex that was detonated by Libyan terrorists to bring down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in the late 1980s," U.S. officials told the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. "These types of explosives do have a high failure rate; the problem is when they do explode, it's a very powerful bomb," the Homeland Security official said. "And where he was sitting - right next to the bulkhead and fuel tanks - if he had been successful, that would have been it for everyone on board."
Americans in Pakistan Face More Questions - Zahid Hussain, Wall Street Journal. A court Friday gave police 10 more days to interrogate five detained Americans on suspicion they were planning attacks on military installations in Pakistan. Police officials said the men - all from the Washington, D.C., area - might have targeted a Pakistani airbase. The Americans were shackled and under tight security for their appearance before a magistrate in Sargodha in eastern Pakistan. Usman Anwar, the police chief, said investigators told the court they needed more time to question the men and to establish criminal charges. Mr. Anwar said the men had maps of the Sargodha airbase, as well as information about a nearby water reservoir, which raised suspicion they were planning a terror attack. The men had rented a house near the airbase. He said the police wanted to determine any connections between the men and Pakistani militant groups. The Americans are suspected of offering to help carry out terrorist attacks. The five men could be charged under Pakistan's anti-terrorism laws, another police official said. The men have been interrogated by a Pakistani joint investigation team and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
UNITED STATES
Pentagon Reviewing Strategic Information Operations - Walter Pincus, Washington Post. Trying to counter information-savvy enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military has rapidly spent nearly $1 billion in the past three years on strategic communications. Paid-for news articles, billboards, radio and television programs, and even polls and focus groups have been sponsored by the U.S. Central Command, which has raised its spending for information operations programs from $40 million in 2008 to $110 million in 2009 to a requested $244 million in 2010. But when Congress asked this year what the Defense Department across the services and commands proposed spending for strategic communications - or information operations as it is often called - in the fiscal 2010 budget, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates found that no one could say because there was no central coordination. The first answer came back at $1 billion, but that was later changed to $626 million. As a result, Gates has multiple studies underway to get a firmer grip over the individual military services' plans for strategic communications next year, according to Pentagon officials.
The Quiet Wisdom of Apolitical Adm. Mike Mullen - David Ignatius, Washington Post opinion. This was another year of the vanishing center in America. Despite the election of a president who promised to govern across party and racial lines, partisan division seemed to engulf nearly every important institution and topic - with one notable exception, and that was the U.S. military. So at year's end, I want to examine the person who came to symbolize the military's apolitical unity, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A year from now, I'd love to be able to say there are more Mullens in our national life and fewer Rush Limbaughs. Mullen managed the military's transition from George W. Bush to Barack Obama, from surging in Iraq to withdrawing U.S. troops. He worked with the new president while Obama painstakingly made the decision to escalate in Afghanistan. Through it all, Mullen managed to remain out of the limelight most of the time, which is where a military leader ought to be. Mullen isn't a flashy operator. He botches his syntax, and he doesn't always finish his sentences. A friend of Mullen's likens him to the actor Walter Matthau - a big man with a meaty face; fit, but slightly rumpled; at once wry and grandfatherly.
AFRICA
Growing Disenchantment Threatens Nigeria's Peace Process - Gilbert da Costa, Voice of America. Nigeria's fragile truce with rebels in the oil-rich Niger Delta appears to be under serious threat. Former militants are protesting the non-payment of allowances and militants have blown up an oil pipeline in a "warning strike" over delays in peace talks. More than 8,000 Nigerian armed youths gave up their weapons and embraced an amnesty offered by the government in a bid to end years of conflict in the oil-producing Niger Delta. But hopes for peace are fading because of delays in implementing the peace process following President Umaru Yar'Adua's hospitalization in Saudi Arabia in November. Mr.Yar'Adua's absence has caused negotiations to stall. It has also delayed funding for the project. A human rights activist in the Niger Delta, Omo Irabor, says the long absence of Mr.Yar'Adua has ended any prospect of achieving peace under the amnesty program. "The president is sick, the country is sick," he said. "And the Niger Delta amnesty is just not sick but is doomed and failed. Let us for example loot at Delta and Bayelsa states. Do you know that people who go there and collect money are not people who were militants? You can imagine the type of people Nigerians are. So definitely amnesty or no amnesty, the purpose of the federal government has failed and doomed for ever." Nigeria's main rebel group said last week it attacked an oil pipeline operated by Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron, ending a two-month truce. Hundreds of former militants have staged protests over the non-payment of their allowances. Still, not everyone is pessimistic. Edward Oformeh, a lawyer in Warri, the main oil city in Delta state, remains hopeful about the chances of forging a lasting peace in the delta.
AMERICAS
Mexico Weighs Options as Lawlessness Continues to Grip Ciudad Juarez - William Booth and Steve Fainaru, Washington Post. Senior Mexican officials have begun a sweeping review of the military's two-year occupation of this dangerous border city, concluding that the U.S.-backed deployment of thousands of soldiers against drug traffickers has failed to control the violence and crime, according to officials in both countries. The multi-agency review, which has not been made public, represents a "serious reassessment" of President Felipe Calderón's anti-narcotics strategy and reflects growing alarm that Juarez, across from El Paso, has descended into lawlessness, U.S. officials familiar with the process said. The war on Mexico's powerful drug cartels has been the defining policy of Calderón's administration, involving unprecedented cooperation with American political and law enforcement authorities. Failure in a high-profile battleground such as Ciudad Juarez would represent a major defeat for Calderón and for U.S. officials determined to curb the multibillion dollar flow of drugs across the border. Calderón declared Juarez the "tip of the spear" in the fight against the ultra-violent drug cartels, and it is here that the Mexican president has most militarized the fight. Calderón sent 10,000 soldiers and federal agents into the city of 1.3 million to bolster the local police and replace corrupt or incompetent elements. This month, for the first time in Mexico, the government distributed German-made assault rifles that fire up to 750 rounds a minute to hundreds of newly trained municipal police officers, also the first to receive urban combat training by the army.
Brazil Aims to Prevent Land Grabs in Amazon - Alexei Barrionuevo, New York Times. Raimundo Teixeira de Souza came to this sweltering Amazon outpost 15 years ago, looking for land. He bought 20 acres, he said, but more powerful farmers, who roam this Wild West territory with rifles strapped to their backs, forced him to sell much of it for a pittance. Then someone shot and killed Mr. de Souza’s 23-year-old stepson in the middle of a village road two years ago, residents said. No one has been arrested. In fact, the new police chief has no record that the crime was even investigated by his predecessor. It is hardly surprising, the chief said, considering that he has only four investigators to cover an area of rampant land-grabbing and deforestation the size of Austria. “We are being massacred,” said Mr. de Souza, 44, who leads the local residents’ association. “We just want to work and raise our children.” It has been this way for decades, residents say. Throughout this huge stretch of the Amazon, the state has been virtually nonexistent, whether in the form of police officers or clear records of land ownership, giving way to a brazen culture of illegal land seizures, often at the tip of a gun barrel. But using a new law, Brazil’s government is trying to impose order on this often lawless territory, and in the process, possibly nip away at a broader global concern: deforestation and the threat of climate change that comes with it.
ASIA PACIFIC
U.S. Missionary Illegally Marches Into North Korea - Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times. An American missionary carrying a letter for the North Korean dictator crossed illegally into the reclusive country to try bring international attention to the North Korean suffering, South Korean activists said Saturday. “I am an American citizen,” Robert Park, 28, said as he crossed the frozen river separating China from North Korea on Friday, according to Jo Sung-rae, head of Pax Koreana, a conservative civic group based in Seoul. “I am coming here to deliver God’s love. God loves you.” By early Sunday, there was no word of his fate from North Korea. Before heading to China last week to make the journey, Mr. Park said he was determined to become a “martyr” for the tens of thousands of people said to be incarcerated in North Korea’s infamous concentration camps, Mr. Jo said. In a videotaped message he made before the trip, Mr. Park said he wanted to be arrested and had no intention of leaving North Korea voluntarily until it shuts down its camps. He also said he did not want President Obama to “buy his freedom.”
MIDDLE EAST
Israeli Forces Kill 6 Palestinians - Robert Berger, Voice of America. Six Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the deadliest violence in months. Dozens of jeeps carrying masked Israeli commandos rolled into the West Bank town of Nablus before dawn and surrounded the homes of three Palestinian gunmen. After a standoff, troops stormed inside and killed the wanted men. The army said they were known militants who carried out a roadside ambush that killed a Jewish settler on Thursday. Palestinian officials said they were members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of the Fatah movement headed by western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Al-Aqsa Brigades carried out many deadly attacks on Israelis during the second Palestinian uprising that erupted in 2000. But the group has been largely inactive since 2005, when Mr. Abbas was elected on a platform of reaching a negotiated peace with Israel. Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeineh condemned the Israeli raid. "The policy of assassination, the policy of escalation from the Israeli side is ruining every chance of peace," he said. Thousands of Palestinians attended the funeral of the gunmen in Nablus. The Al-Aqsa Brigade threatened revenge, raising the specter of an escalation of violence.
Israeli Military Kills 6 Palestinians - Ethan Bronner, New York Times. The Israeli military killed six Palestinians on Saturday, three in the West Bank whom it accused of killing a Jewish settler and three in Gaza who it said were crawling along the border wall planning an attack. It was the deadliest day in the conflict in nearly a year. Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, called it “a sad day for Palestinians and their National Authority” and condemned the West Bank operation as an “assassination” and “an attempt to target the state of security and stability that the Palestinian Authority has been able to achieve.” Maj. Peter Lerner, spokesman for Israel’s Central Command, which controls the West Bank, said that its forces had spent the past two days looking for the killers of the settler, Rabbi Meir Hai, a 45-year-old teacher and father of seven, who was shot dead on Thursday as he drove near his home in the settlement of Shavei Shomron. The information gathered, he said, led them to three men in the city of Nablus early Saturday. Troops in jeeps descended on their homes and in each case, he said, the suspect was asked to give himself up. None did so, and all were shot dead. All three, he added, had been involved in anti-Israel violence in the past through activities in the Aksa Martyrs Brigade, a militia associated with the Fatah movement led by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.
Blast Rocks Hezbollah Neighborhood Near Beirut - Voice of America. Lebanese officials say a blast has shaken a Hezbollah neighborhood south of Beirut, killing at least one person and seriously wounding another. The state-run news agency said three bombs placed under the car of a Hamas official exploded Saturday in the Haret Hreik area. But Lebanese security officials told reporters the cause of the blast has not yet been determined. The Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah, which controls the area, sealed off the streets and prevented journalists from getting close to the scene.
