GWOT Media Summary Dec 23

[RAMESES the Great]

U.S. Joint Forces Command
GWOT Media Summary
Operations Iraqi Freedom/Enduring Freedom/Noble Eagle
Current as of December 23, 2008

 New Developments
 Agencies Prep Obama For 'Tourniquet' On Afghanistan. The Pentagon and U.S. national security officials are transmitting a battery of new information about the Afghanistan war to President-elect Barack Obama's transition team in hopes that the incoming administration will act quickly to prevent U.S. fortunes there from eroding further. The effort underscores a sense of urgency about addressing an increasingly dangerous situation in Afghanistan. Many military leaders think a broad strategic shift is needed to reverse the growing violence and to turn back troubling advances by the Taliban and other extremists. (Los Angeles Times – see attached)
 Obstacle Seen In Bid To Curb Afghan Trade In Narcotics. A drive by the NATO alliance to disrupt Afghanistan's drug trade has been hobbled by new objections from member nations that say their laws do not permit soldiers to carry out such operations, according to senior commanders in Kandahar. The objections are being raised despite an agreement two months ago that the alliance's campaign in Afghanistan would be broadened to include attacks on narcotics facilities, traffickers, middlemen and drug lords whose profits help to finance insurgent groups. (International Herald Tribune/NYT – see attached)
 Afghan President Questions U.S. Troop Plan. President Hamid Karzai pressed America's top military leader Monday on the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and preparations to pour up to 30,000 more forces into the country, reflecting Karzai's concerns over civilian casualties and operations in villages. Karzai asked Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, what kinds of operations the newly deployed troops would carry out and told him that the Afghan government should be consulted about those missions. The Afghan president, stinging from a series of civilian casualties in U.S. military operations in recent years, said he doubts that sending more American forces into Afghan villages will tamp down the insurgency, and he has questioned a U.S. plan to deploy 3,500 U.S. forces in two provinces on Kabul's doorstep next month. (Detroit News/AP)
 U.S. Has Assurances From Iraq On Iranian Rebels: Official. The White House said it received assurances from Baghdad that an Iranian rebel group based in Iraq will not be expelled to a country where they may be persecuted, apparently excluding their return to Iran. The Iraqi government promised Washington in writing that members of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) at a camp north of Baghdad would be treated humanely, White House spokesman Benjamin Chang told AFP. The comments appeared to contradict a vow on Sunday from an Iraqi government delegation to oust the 3,500 PMOI rebels based at Camp Ashraf. The delegation spoke ahead of a trip by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki to Tehran, where the government has long demanded the rebels be transferred to Iran. (Google/AFP)
 UN Extends Protection For Iraqi Assets. In a move sought by Iraq at a critical transition, the Security Council voted unanimously Monday to maintain U.N. protection for billions of dollars of Iraqi assets against seizure by governments, companies or individuals until the end of 2009. Iraq's financial assets, oil shipments and property are currently shielded by a U.N. resolution authorizing the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq. The U.N. mandate expires on Dec. 31 and is being replaced by a new U.S.-Iraq security pact, but the Iraqi government wanted the U.N. protection of its assets to continue so it sought a new resolution. (Cleveland Plain Dealer/AP)

 Military Coverage
 European Countries May Take Detainees. European nations have begun intensive discussions both within and among their governments on whether to resettle detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a significant overture to the incoming Obama administration, according to senior European officials and U.S. diplomats. The willingness to consider accepting prisoners who cannot be returned to their home countries, because of fears they may be tortured there, represents a major change in attitude on the part of European governments. Repeated requests from the Bush administration that European allies accept some Guantanamo Bay detainees received only refusals. (Washington Post – see attached)
 Geren Won't Be Army Secretary In The Obama Administration. Having served in various capacities in the Defense Department since September 2001, Fort Worth native Pete Geren’s days in the Pentagon are numbered. Geren, who has served as Secretary of the Army since the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal unfolded last year, told the Star-Telegram on Monday that he will serve in that position only until his successor is confirmed sometime early next year. President-elect Barack Obama has not yet named a nominee for the position. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
 4 Recruiter Suicides Lead To Army Probe. Four members of the Army's Houston Recruiting Battalion have committed suicide in the past three years - something relatives and others blame on the psychological scars of combat, combined with the pressure-cooker job of trying to sell the war. The Army has 38 recruiting battalions in the United States. Houston's is the only one to report more than one suicide in the past six years. The Army began an investigation after being prodded by Amanda Henderson, the widow of Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Henderson, and Texas Sen. John Cornyn. Cornyn, a Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said he will press for Senate hearings. (CBS News/AP)

 Homeland Security
 Fort Dix Five Guilty Of Conspiracy To Kill Soldiers. Five Muslim immigrants from South Jersey were convicted Monday of plotting to kill American soldiers, a crime that prosecutors said demonstrated how Al Qaeda was using the Internet to recruit, train and incite supporters for attacks in the United States and around the world. Jurors at federal district court in Camden deliberated into a sixth day before declaring the men guilty of conspiracy. The jurors, however, acquitted the men of an additional charge of attempted murder. Four of the five men were also convicted of related weapons counts. (Newark Star-Ledger – see attached)

 World Developments
 Pakistani Jets Scramble As India Hardens Tone. In signs of growing regional tension since the Mumbai attacks last month, Pakistan scrambled fighter jets over several of its larger cities Monday, and India's foreign minister told a gathering of Indian diplomats in New Delhi that the country is keeping all its options open to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice. "We have so far acted with utmost restraint," Pranab Mukherjee told the more than 120 envoys from posts around the world. But he added, "We will take all measures necessary as we deem fit to deal with the situation." A senior government official later called Mukherjee's tough talk "an expression of political will that India will not take this lying down." (Washington Post – see attached)
 UK Declares Mugabe Has No Role In Zimbabwe Political Solution. The UK plans to make a fresh attempt next year to persuade the European Union to step up economic sanctions against Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe after it bluntly declared for the first time that he could no longer be part of any political solution to the country's crisis. Mr. Mugabe was an "absolutely impossible obstacle" to achieving a power sharing agreement in Zimbabwe, the government said, echoing U.S. criticisms. Officials said London would seek to extend the list of senior members of the Mugabe regime who were subject to sanctions. Mr. Mugabe has increased his defiance of the outside world, vowing at a conference of the ruling Zanu-PF party that he would never step down, even as conditions in Zimbabwe deteriorated. (London Financial Times)
 Hamas Says Open To New Truce In Gaza. Palestinians in Gaza observed a 24-hour halt to rocket fire against Israel at the request of Egyptian mediators who made efforts to restore a longer truce. Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak invited Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni for talks in Cairo, Livni's office said, after Hamas Islamists said they may consider a new ceasefire if Israel eased a blockade and armed raids on the territory. Livni's talks with Mubarak would take place on Thursday, and cover "security issues" along the Gaza border, a statement from her office said, adding she would hold additional meetings in Egypt, but gave no further details. (Reuters)
 Decapitated Soldiers New Blow To Mexico In Drug War. Mexican President Felipe Calderon vowed on Monday not to back down from the fight against powerful drug cartels who decapitated eight soldiers in the most serious blow to the army in a 2-year-old offensive. Police found the beheaded and tortured bodies tied up in the city of Chilpancingo, about an hour north of Acapulco, during the weekend. The heads were stuffed in a black plastic bag and tossed outside a shopping center with a note saying, "For every one of us you kill, we are going to kill 10," Mexican media reported. An ex-police commander, also without a head, was found with the soldiers. The gruesome attack was the worst against the army since Calderon deployed some 45,000 troops to take on drug gangs after coming to office in 2006. (Reuters)

* AP = Associated Press UPI = United Press International KR = Knight Ridder

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Agencies Prep Obama For 'Tourniquet' On Afghanistan
Los Angeles Times
December 23, 2008

The Pentagon and U.S. national security officials are transmitting a battery of new information about the Afghanistan war to President-elect Barack Obama's transition team in hopes that the incoming administration will act quickly to prevent U.S. fortunes there from eroding further. The effort underscores a sense of urgency about addressing an increasingly dangerous situation in Afghanistan. Many military leaders think a broad strategic shift is needed to reverse the growing violence and to turn back troubling advances by the Taliban and other extremists. Obama's staff is being given detailed information on the findings of separate strategy reviews by the Pentagon and the White House National Security Council. The reviews cover proposals to beef up U.S. force levels, improve coordination among government agencies and overhaul U.S. foreign aid efforts, including to countries such as Pakistan.

"Right now there is a sense you need to apply a tourniquet of some kind," said a senior Defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing contacts with the transition team. "You need to control bleeding at the site of the wound, you need to stabilize, and you need to see what you need to do next." After a record number of U.S. deaths in Afghanistan this year, national security officials consider it crucial for the new administration to act soon after taking office. The senior Defense official said Obama would have a limited time period to announce a new strategy for Afghanistan and build up the troop strength. "Over time, it will be harder to put more stuff in," the official said. "You have a window where you can do dramatic things. But the opportunity to do dramatic things reduces over time." During the campaign, Obama said he wanted to intensify the military's focus on Afghanistan, elevating the war to a primary Pentagon effort.

Obama was briefed in person last week by Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on details of war plans. Among other issues, Mullen described the size of the units the Pentagon plans to send to Afghanistan and when they would be sent, Defense officials said. There are 36,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Based on plans already made public, about 20,000 new troops will be headed to Afghanistan in 2009. They include an additional Army brigade announced by President Bush in September and as many as four more brigades under plans endorsed by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who will remain in his post under Obama. One of those units, a 2,800-member aviation combat brigade, was approved last week by Gates and formally announced Monday by military officials. Defense officials said they thought Obama's transition officials were satisfied for now with proposals for force levels.

Many military officials think a short-term troop increase would help, but they believe it should be paired with improved efforts to train local militias, strengthen provincial governments, coordinate U.S. policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, and make better use of U.S. civilian expertise. Others are concerned that the extra troops could strain the military's logistics system. Gates would oppose larger numbers of extra troops as counterproductive, said a senior Pentagon official who also spoke on condition of anonymity. "The secretary believes that 'how much is too much' is a legitimate question," the Pentagon official said. "He does worry about the U.S. footprint getting too large." Too many U.S. troops could weaken the Afghan government's will to build up its armed forces and take more responsibility, Gates is said to believe. "He supports the additional combat brigades and aviation brigade," the official said. "Beyond that, it will start to look less like an Afghan operation and more like an occupation."

Mullen is overseeing the Pentagon strategy review. Army Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, appointed by Bush to coordinate war planning for the White House, is supervising the National Security Council review. A third review is underway, overseen by Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command overseeing forces in the Mideast. Obama will probably be briefed on the conclusions of that review as well. The Mullen and Lute reviews both conclude that any new strategy must examine Pakistan as well as Afghanistan, officials said. Both also discuss ways to increase cooperation between the Defense and State departments. Those are considered noncontroversial recommendations likely to be embraced by Obama, who favors improved cooperation among national security agencies. Mullen met Monday in Islamabad with top Pakistani military officials to urge continued action against militants, especially groups with any connections to last month's attacks in India. It was Mullen's seventh trip to Pakistan.

The security council will brief the Obama transition team on its findings before the end of the year, a senior administration official said. The agency has prepared large volumes of documents covering all aspects of the Afghanistan war, which officials will hand over to the new administration. Lute is a political appointee, but it is possible that the career Army officer could be retained by James L. Jones Jr., the retired Marine Corps general who has been selected by Obama to serve as national security advisor. Lute's security council plan suggests overhauling the aid program to Pakistan to force Islamabad to concentrate more of its forces in counterinsurgency operations on the border with Afghanistan. Lute also advocates continued use of U.S. airstrikes against militant targets in Pakistan, but advises against the use of ground forces, a military official said.

Obstacle Seen In Bid To Curb Afghan Trade In Narcotics
International Herald Tribune/NYT
December 23, 2008

A drive by the NATO alliance to disrupt Afghanistan's drug trade has been hobbled by new objections from member nations that say their laws do not permit soldiers to carry out such operations, according to senior commanders in Kandahar. The objections are being raised despite an agreement two months ago that the alliance's campaign in Afghanistan would be broadened to include attacks on narcotics facilities, traffickers, middlemen and drug lords whose profits help to finance insurgent groups. During a recent visit, General John Craddock, NATO's supreme allied commander, expressed surprise upon learning of what he described as a gap between the decision by alliance defense ministers to authorize aggressive counternarcotics missions and the lack of follow-through because of objections from several of the countries that make up the NATO force in Afghanistan.

As the United States and its allies strive to devise a better strategy to stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan, American policy makers and military officers say it is critical to choke off the drug money that sustains the insurgency, much as they are working with Pakistan to halt the use of its tribal areas as a haven by the Taliban and other antigovernment forces just across the border from Afghanistan. Seven years after the rout of Al Qaeda and the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, disagreements over how aggressively NATO forces should go after the insurgency's chief source of revenue are only the latest hurdle in a campaign that has been troubled by disputes between the United States and some of its allies about what role NATO soldiers should play in a mission cast as "security assistance."

The disagreements also present a major challenge for President-elect Barack Obama as he tries to fulfill a campaign pledge to shift the focus of the American military toward Afghanistan, where the United States remains much more dependent on foreign nations than it does in the Iraq war, which is largely an American conflict. The counternarcotics debate is a reminder of how unwieldy the alliance's military operations can be. United Nations figures show that Afghan insurgents reap at least $100 million a year from the drug trade, although some estimates put the figure at five times as much. In an interview, Craddock said profit from the narcotics trade "buys the bomb makers and the bombs, the bullets and the trigger-pullers that are killing our soldiers and marines and airmen, and we have to stop them."

NATO officials in Brussels declined to list the nations that have opposed widening the alliance mandate to include attacks on drug networks, and no nation has volunteered that it has legal objections. But a number of NATO members have in broad terms described their reluctance publicly, including Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. Their leaders have cited domestic policies that make counternarcotics a law enforcement matter — not a job for their militaries — and expressed concern that domestic lawsuits could be filed if their soldiers carried out attacks to kill noncombatants, even if the victims were involved in the drug industry in Afghanistan. As has been the case in a whole range of combat operations mounted by NATO forces in Afghanistan, each country is allowed to state its reservations and opt out of missions that are viewed as too risky, either politically or militarily. Those "caveats" have been a source of enormous frustration to American commanders.

That system of caveats was never intended to halt NATO operations; missions objectionable to one nation can be taken over by another nation's forces. But commanders say that legal objections to counternarcotics operations have prevented the international mix of troops across poppy-rich regions of southern Afghanistan from carrying out the new responsibilities. The NATO-led mission in Afghanistan has more than 51,000 troops, including 14,000 Americans. In a parallel mission, the United States has deployed 17,000 additional troops for a separate combat, counterterrorism and training operation. During a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Budapest in October, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Craddock successfully lobbied the alliance to give troops operating in Afghanistan official permission to mount attacks on narcotics "facilities and facilitators supporting the insurgency."

General David McKiernan, the senior American commander in Afghanistan, acknowledged that "some of the precise language still needs to be worked out" with allies that objected to taking on counternarcotics missions. In an interview, McKiernan stressed that the goal remained to approve rules of engagement that "give us greater freedom of action to treat narco-figures and facilities as military objectives." Halting the flow of drug money to the insurgency is just one of the challenges facing the Obama administration. Others include the 30 percent increase in insurgent violence over the past year, and the painfully slow growth and continued incompetence of the Afghan police. But Craddock cited bright spots in the mission of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, including a growing number of people from other United States government agencies who are stepping in to help with economic and political development.

He also noted the increasing size and professionalism of the Afghan National Army, which Afghans trust more than they do the office of the presidency. McKiernan was put in charge of both the NATO and American operations this year, in an effort to provide more unity of command over the two missions. During a visit to Afghanistan last weekend, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Pentagon expected to provide 20,000 to 30,000 more troops to McKiernan, with a significant portion of that increase arriving by next summer. Including the debate on how to battle the drug trade, much of the discussion about the way ahead in Afghanistan is similar to policy debates over the past seven years: the need to generate economic growth and build democratic institutions to inspire confidence among Afghans in their government.

Although combat power alone will not defeat the insurgency and its allies in the drug trade in Afghanistan, military analysts say, a problem for years has been that Afghanistan has had too few resources because of the war in Iraq. "What we need are more troops in Afghanistan because we need security, and eventually we will get a strategy," said Roger Carstens, a former Army Special Forces officer who now is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, which has provided a number of its analysts to the Obama transition team at the Pentagon. "If the military cannot secure the population, then political development, economic growth and good government will not take place," Carstens added.

European Countries May Take Detainees
Washington Post
December 23, 2008

European nations have begun intensive discussions both within and among their governments on whether to resettle detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a significant overture to the incoming Obama administration, according to senior European officials and U.S. diplomats. The willingness to consider accepting prisoners who cannot be returned to their home countries, because of fears they may be tortured there, represents a major change in attitude on the part of European governments. Repeated requests from the Bush administration that European allies accept some Guantanamo Bay detainees received only refusals. The Bush administration "produced the problem," Karsten Voigt, coordinator of German-American cooperation at the German Foreign Ministry, said in a telephone interview. "With Obama, the difference is that he tries to solve it." At least half a dozen countries are considering resettlement, with only Germany and Portugal acknowledging it publicly thus far.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has instructed officials to look into political, legal and logistical aspects of the matter, a ministry spokesman said Monday. A discussion paper on the issue has been circulating among ministries in Berlin for weeks, German officials said. European officials put out tentative feelers to Barack Obama's team to see whether it was willing to discuss the issue, but the incoming administration has rejected holding even informal talks until after the Jan. 20 inauguration, according to European and U.S. officials aware of the outreach. "President-elect Obama has repeatedly said that he intends to close Guantanamo, and he will follow through on those commitments as president. There is one president at a time, and we intend to respect that," said Brooke Anderson, chief national security spokeswoman for the Obama transition team.

The Portuguese government pushed what had been private discussions in Europe into the open this month when Foreign Minister Luís Amado brought up the issue in a letter to his counterparts in other countries. "The time has come for the European Union to step forward," he wrote. "As a matter of principle and coherence, we should send a clear signal of our willingness to help the U.S. government in that regard, namely through the resettlement of detainees. As far as the Portuguese government is concerned, we will be available to participate." Amado said Monday in a phone interview that he plans to raise the issue at a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers in late January. It will also be discussed at an E.U. General Affairs and External Relations Council meeting on Jan. 26, he added. "I believe the new administration will have the conditions to create a new dynamic of cooperation," Amado said. He noted that when he first raised the issue of Guantanamo Bay at a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers about seven months ago, some countries resisted assisting the Bush administration.

"I assume the new administration will have someone on a plane to Europe within minutes of Obama being sworn in," said Sarah E. Mendelson, director of the Human Rights and Security Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the author of a report on closing Guantanamo Bay. European officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because their governments have not yet formulated a public stance on the issue, said they expect the Obama administration to take steps to secure European cooperation, some of which appear to be under serious discussion by the transition team. The Europeans want a clear commitment to close Guantanamo Bay and an acceptance of common legal principles in the fight against terrorism, including those regarding the treatment of suspects, European officials said. A series of meetings between the United States and the European Union on a legal framework for combating terrorism has considerably narrowed differences on the application of human rights law, refugee law and humanitarian law, said Amado and John B. Bellinger III, a legal adviser at the State Department.

The Europeans also want Obama to agree to transfer a small number of detainees to the United States before they attempt to sell a resettlement program to their own citizens. "I believe that will happen," Amado said. One group likely to be settled here is 17 Chinese Uighurs who have been held for years at Guantanamo Bay. The Bush administration has acknowledged that the Uighurs are not enemy combatants, and in October a federal judge ordered them released into the United States. In interagency discussions, the State Department has argued that the Uighurs be brought to the United States to help persuade Europe to resettle other detainees. But a State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the departments of Homeland Security and Justice, as well as White House officials, considered resettlement in the United States a "red-line" issue.

The Justice Department has appealed the judge's order that the Uighurs be released. "Secretary [Condoleezza] Rice and others at State argued for resettlement in the U.S. as a deal-maker," one U.S. official said. "But it's clear this administration is not going to reconsider the issue of resettlement." Guantanamo Bay currently has about 250 prisoners, according to the Pentagon. And some European officials said a number of governments are considering the logistics of resettling a majority of the 60 prisoners already cleared for release by U.S. authorities. The Pentagon has not identified the 60, but a study released by the Brookings Institution last week found that as well as the Chinese Uighurs, the group includes detainees from Yemen, Tunisia, Algeria, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya and the Palestinian territories. The Brookings study found that these prisoners "concentrate at the less dangerous end of the spectrum." The U.S. military no longer holds any European citizens at Guantanamo Bay.

Thomas Steg, a German government spokesman, said Monday that the United States will not be able to place any conditions on the handling of transferred detainees if they are accepted in Europe. "One thing is clear: The Americans cannot ask for any special terms -- no other agreements, swaps or other strings attached," he told reporters in Berlin. He also said all 27 members of the European Union will have to discuss the matter. Countries such as Denmark have already signaled that they will not accept any detainees, arguing that they are the sole responsibility of the United States. "Why should they be taken into the much smaller Danish society?" Per Stig Moller, the country's foreign minister, said last month. "None of these prisoners has anything whatsoever to do with Denmark." Some general agreement among E.U. members is required because of the freedom of travel within the union, but that prerequisite is not expected to block a resettlement deal because of the general desire in Europe "to please Obama," as one German official put it in an interview.

The Bush administration shopped lists of detainees to a number of European countries, including late last year when European officials were asked to take 16 of the 17 Uighurs, four Uzbeks, an Egyptian, a Palestinian and a Somali, according to U.S. diplomats and human rights groups. "There was a big push last year," said Bellinger, the State Department legal adviser, who said that the administration has cabled approximately 100 countries seeking help with clearing out Guantanamo Bay. "Some countries were willing to consider it, but as part of a group. But no lead country emerged." A number of civil liberties and human rights groups have also been holding talks with European governments with the quiet approval of the State Department, U.S. officials said. "We have been saying to them that if you want Guantanamo to close, the [Obama] administration cannot do it without European assistance," said Joanne Mariner, terrorism and counterterrorism program director at Human Rights Watch, who has talked with government officials in European capitals. Mariner declined to identify the governments she spoke with, but she said there has been "a clear change in attitude" since Obama was elected. "Before, they said, 'Why should we clean up Bush's mess?' But now they are asking deeper questions about the detainees and how they might integrate them," she said.

Fort Dix Five Guilty Of Conspiracy To Kill Soldiers
Newark Star-Ledger
December 23, 2008

Five Muslim immigrants from South Jersey were convicted Monday of plotting to kill American soldiers, a crime that prosecutors said demonstrated how Al Qaeda was using the Internet to recruit, train and incite supporters for attacks in the United States and around the world. Jurors at federal district court in Camden deliberated into a sixth day before declaring the men guilty of conspiracy. The jurors, however, acquitted the men of an additional charge of attempted murder. Four of the five men were also convicted of related weapons counts. Along with the verdict, the jurors sent U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler a note explaining the serious nature of their deliberations. "The burden imposed on us has been heavy, but we are confident our verdict has been reached fairly and impartially," according to the jurors' note Kugler read aloud in court.

The Fort Dix five include brothers Eljvir, Dritan and Shain Duka, ethnic Albanians who worked at a family roofing business; Mohamad Shnewer, a Jordanian who drove a cab and worked at his family's market in Pennsauken, and Serdar Tatar, a native of Turkey who was an assistant manager at a Philadelphia 7-Eleven. Each faces up to life in prison on the conspiracy charge. Under terrorism laws, prosecutors may seek an enhanced sentence of life without parole. Sentencing was set for April 22 and 23. After the verdict, family members of the five men gave tearful addresses to the assembled media. "This is not justice," said Faten Shnewer, mother of Mohamad Shnewer. "The only reason they put five kids in jail is because they are Muslim." Tatar's sister, Serpil, insisted her brother is innocent and had nothing to do with terrorism. "He was crying for the people who died on Sept. 11," Serpil Tatar said.

The verdicts represented a victory for prosecutors and validation of tactics the FBI has increasingly used nationwide to detect and disrupt suspected terror organizations. They were arrested in May 2007, after a 15-month investigation that ended when two suspects tried to buy automatic weapons from an FBI informant. During an eight-week trial that authorities said showcased homegrown terrorism in the United States, prosecutors argued the defendants, all foreign-born Muslim immigrants, conspired to kill U.S. military members at Fort Dix or another target and sought automatic weapons to carry out the strike. Just the second major terrorism case in New Jersey since the 9/11 attacks, it mirrored investigations in cities from Detroit to Miami to Portland, where agents have used informants to infiltrate alleged terror plots and arrested suspects at the earliest stages of plotting an attack. In some cases, the tactics have spawned questions about if the suspects were truly capable or planning to strike.

The Fort Dix probe began in January 2006 when an electronics store clerk in South Jersey gave police a copy of a customer's videotape that showed the men firing rifles and shouting Islamic battle cries. FBI agents and two paid cooperators then spent 15 months shadowing the suspects, recording their conversations and examining their computers. The evidence indicated that the men gathered weekly at a Palmyra mosque and regularly watched and discussed Al Qaeda videos extolling jihads and depicting deadly attacks against U.S. forces. In January 2006 and February 2007, they rented a house in the Pocono Mountains, where investigators said they trained for an attack by riding horses, shooting weapons at a rifle range and playing war games with paintball. Prosecutors conceded the men had not settled on a target or a timetable for their strike, but called them "radical Islamists" with a shared goal: a jihad to kill American troops. They played for jurors hidden videos of the lead defendant, Shnewer, traveling with an FBI informant to Fort Dix, Dover Air Force Base and other sites in August 2006.

"This is exactly what we are looking for," Shnewer told the informant, Mahmoud Omar, as they passed the Burlington County base, a staging point for troops headed to Iraq. "You hit four, five or six Humvees and light the whole place (up) and retreat completely without any losses." In other conversations, Shnewer proposed commandeering a gasoline tanker for a suicide mission at a military installation or firing a rocket into the Philadelphia Naval Base around the time of the annual Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia. Agents enlisted a second informant to ingratiate himself with three other suspects, brothers Dritan, Shain and Eljvir Duka of Cherry Hill, like him ethnic Albanians who snuck in the country. They planted that informant at a Dunkin Donuts in Cinnaminson where the brothers gathered each Friday after mosque services. Prosecutors said the fifth defendant, Serdar Tatar, whose father owned a pizzeria that delivered to Fort Dix, aided the plot by giving the informant a map of the base interior.

Defense attorneys insisted there was no conspiracy. They portrayed Shnewer, a Jordanian and the only naturalized U.S. citizen among the defendants, as a pathetic loner, encouraged and emboldened by an FBI informant who showered him with attention and advice like an older brother. They acknowledged Shnewer talked a lot and collected jihadist videos - particularly after meeting the informant -- but said he speaking without the knowledge or approval of the others. They noted that none of the suspects besides Shnewer were recorded discussing plans or targets. At times, they expressed support for Muslim fighters overseas and contemplated joining them or sending money, but also seemed reluctant. "We just talk, we know," Shain Duka said during one recorded conversation. And they pointed out that Tatar reported to Philadelphia police officer that Omar had been pressing him for a map.

Attorneys spent eight days of cross-examination trying to challenge the credibility and motives of the informants. They noted for jurors that Omar had a history of bank fraud and was paid nearly $240,000 for his work on the case, while the second informant, Besnik Bakalli, was wanted for a shooting in Albania and awaiting deportation when agents plucked him from a Pennsylvania jail. But prosecutors said the attacks against the informants were desperate ploys to distract jurors from the core evidence: hours of recorded conversations in which the defendants spoke admiringly of Al Qaeda and Taliban forces, showed disdain for American troops and a desire to act. Eljvir Duka declared he wanted to "train sniper" and wondered how far he would have to stand from the White House to shoot the president. Tatar ultimately gave the informant the map, and then lied to agents about it. "I'm in, honestly, I'm in," he told the informant.

Dritan Duka, at 30 the oldest of the brothers and a father of five, told the informant in March 2007 they could "do a lot of damage" and that he was ready "to start something." When someone asked if he meant joining a jihad overseas, Duka replied: "No, I say here. Hit them here." Two months later, he and his brother Shain were arrested attempting to buy four M-16 automatic rifles and three AK-47 semiautomatic weapons in a gun buy arranged by the FBI. The others were picked up that night. In addition to the terror conspiracy, authorities indicted them on charges of illegal weapons possession. The Dukas are illegal immigrants; Tatar is a legal permanent resident. Also arrested with them in May 2007 was a sixth suspect, an ethnic Albanian named Agron Abdullahu, whom authorities said provided guns but wasn't part of the terror conspiracy. Abdullahu pleaded guilty later that year to weapons charges and was sentenced to 20 months in prison. The trial unfolded under heavy security. Officials closed car lanes around the Camden courthouse and visitors to the trial had to pass through two security stations. Inside the proceedings, as many as 10 deputy U.S. Marshals ringed the courtroom each day, and jurors spent each night of deliberations sequestered at a nearby hotel.

Pakistani Jets Scramble As India Hardens Tone
Washington Post
December 23, 2008

In signs of growing regional tension since the Mumbai attacks last month, Pakistan scrambled fighter jets over several of its larger cities Monday, and India's foreign minister told a gathering of Indian diplomats in New Delhi that the country is keeping all its options open to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice. "We have so far acted with utmost restraint," Pranab Mukherjee told the more than 120 envoys from posts around the world, according to news reports. But he added, "We will take all measures necessary as we deem fit to deal with the situation." A senior government official later called Mukherjee's tough talk "an expression of political will that India will not take this lying down." He added that the option of "precision airstrikes" on terrorist training camps in Pakistan would remain on the table if Islamabad did not act effectively against groups fomenting terrorism against India.

Pakistan has denied involvement in the Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 170 people and wounded more than 230. On Monday, Pakistan put its air force on high alert, with several fighter jets conducting exercises over the capital, Islamabad, as well as Rawalpindi, Lahore and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Offices of newspapers and television channels were inundated with calls from people asking whether the exercises, which caused delays in some civilian flights, were a response to airstrikes by India. A Pakistani air force spokesman, Commodore Humayun Viqar, said in a statement, "In view of the current environment, PAF has enhanced its vigilance." The air force's action coincided with the arrival in Islamabad of the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, who met with Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, and the head of its Inter-Services Intelligence agency, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

Mullen thanked both men for their efforts, and the efforts of the Pakistani government, to arrest members of the outlawed Islamist group Lashkar-i-Taiba and other extremist organizations suspected of involvement in the Mumbai attacks, according to his spokesman, Navy Capt. John Kirby. Mullen also reportedly urged them to support judicial efforts to prosecute the cases fully and transparently. A Pakistani official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Kiyani told Mullen that Pakistan was trying its best to defuse tension with India. "We want peace with India, but any aggression will be matched by a befitting response," the official quoted Kiyani as saying. An Indian official in New Delhi said that the three-day meeting of diplomats had been scheduled before the attacks occurred but that it provided an opportunity for India to work out a diplomatic strategy for pressuring Islamabad to act against terrorist groups.

"Unfortunately, Pakistan's response so far has demonstrated their earlier tendency to resort to a policy of denial and to seek to deflect and shift the blame and responsibility," Mukherjee told the envoys in his opening address. "We have highlighted that the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan has to be dismantled permanently," he added. Pakistan's government has offered to help in the investigation into the Mumbai attacks but has said that India has not shared any hard evidence about the alleged involvement of Pakistani citizens. On Monday, however, India's Ministry of External Affairs handed over to Pakistan's acting high commissioner in New Delhi a letter that it said was written by the only surviving Mumbai gunman, Ajmal Amir Kasab, who was captured by Indian police. "In his letter addressed to the Pakistan High Commission, Kasab has stated that he and the other terrorists killed in the attack were from Pakistan and has sought a meeting with the Pakistan High Commission," according to a written statement from the ministry.

In a background briefing, a senior government official said India is tired of the conflicting signals from Pakistan. "We hear different voices from different places in Pakistan. Every day, different stories are floated. First we heard that Masood Azhar is arrested, then they say they do not know where he is," he said, referring to one of the fugitives India has demanded that Pakistan hand over. "If Lashkar-i-Taiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa have been proscribed, then why is their Web site active and operational?" the official added. An Interpol team also reached Mumbai on Monday. The team has begun seeking information about Kasab and the unclaimed bodies of the nine other gunmen, thought to be of Pakistani origin, who died in the three-day Mumbai siege. India and Pakistan, longtime nuclear rivals, have fought three wars since the British partitioned the Indian subcontinent in 1947, creating both independent nations. An attack on India's Parliament in 2001 that India blamed on a Pakistan-based Islamist militant group brought the two nations to the brink of war.