Dilitas International Security Brief – 23rd March 2015

March 23, 2015 Dilitas Admin

The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is SEVERE
The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is MODERATE

SEVERE means that a terrorist attack is highly likely;
SUBSTANTIAL means that a terrorist attack is a strong possibility;
MODERATE, means that a terrorist attack is possible, but not likely.

DOMESTIC:

Reported Monday 23rd March 2015 – Thousands of licensed security guards could be working in the UK fraudulently after buying qualifications for cash, a BBC investigation has found. Jobseekers must sit mandatory exams to get a Security Industry Authority card. But undercover researchers found colleges happy to sit or forge exams for untrained students for a fee. With a fraudulently obtained SIA licence, a researcher got a job offer at a power station and an interview to guard Canary Wharf. Keith Vaz MP called it “a major scandal” and “one of the most shocking things I’ve seen in all the years I’ve chaired the Home Affairs Select Committee”.

Nine British medical students and doctors are feared to have travelled to Syria to work in areas controlled by Islamic State militants. The group, all in their late teens or early 20s, had been studying medicine in Sudan. The medics are believed to have entered Syria more than a week ago.

A teenager has been jailed for 22 years for hatching a plot to behead a British soldier inspired by the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby. Brusthom Ziamani, 19, stood impassively in the dock as the sentence was handed down at the Old Bailey. He was arrested in an east London street carrying a 12in knife and a hammer in a rucksack.

A Plaistow woman found to have an al-Qaeda magazine and a bomb-making guide on a memory stick was jailed for 18 months last week. Snaresbrook Crown Court heard how Afsana Kayum’s home was searched in September 2013 by officers from the MPS’s counter terrorism command, SO15 Among the electronic devices seized was a USB stick containing a copy of Inspire magazine, which is published by a branch of al-Qaeda. Also on the drive was a copy of The Lone Mujahedeen Handbook, which contained a practical guide to bomb-making and other violent attacks. Kayum, 22, was arrested in October 2013 but released on bail before being charged that December. She was found guilty following a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court last month.

A British woman arrested by counter-terrorism officers at Luton Airport earlier last week has been charged with an identity document offence. Jamila Henry, 21, was detained at a bus station in Ankara, Turkey, by Turkish police who believe she was trying to get to Syria. Ms Henry was deported and arrested by Met police as she stepped off her flight from Istanbul at Luton Airport.

Reported 17th March 2015 – A 16-year-old boy whose two elder brothers were killed fighting in Syria’s civil war has been barred from travelling abroad. Mr Justice Hayden made the boy a ward of court, which bars him from leaving the jurisdiction of England and Wales. The judge made the ruling in the Family Division of the High Court in London after social services raised fears he could travel to Syria. He said the teenager could not be named. But he said the local authority which had applied for the teenager to be made a ward of court was Brighton and Hove City Council.

Six men have been arrested after a group forced its way into a synagogue in what police have described as an “anti-Semitic” incident. Police said the drunk men had just left a nearby party and tried to get into the synagogue in Stamford Hill, north London, in the early hours of Sunday.

The Times newspaper on 18 March reported that the Henry Jackson think tank has said that the impact of Edward Snowden’s intelligence leaks have ‘devastated’ Britain’s ability to fight terrorism and organised crime. The think tank’s report said the leaks have made terrorist suspects harder to detect, and have also meant that encrypted emails take longer to penetrate. The report also said that terrorist suspects were using human couriers instead of email and mobile phones in what one U.S. intelligence officer was quoted as calling the “most significant” change in terrorist behaviour since the leaks were released in June 2013.

NORTHERN IRELAND AND EIRE:

The widow of a man shot dead along with eight IRA men in Loughgall, is “delighted” that she has been given leave to argue for a fresh inquest. She was told at the High Court in Belfast last week that she can challenge the Secretary of State’s intervention on whether to order new inquests in the case. Anthony Hughes died in May 1987 when he was innocently caught up in what proved to be the largest loss of life suffered by the republican movement during the Troubles. Source Undercover SAS soldiers gunned down eight members of the IRA’s ‘East Tyrone unit’ as they approached an RUC station with a bomb in a hijacked digger.

INTERNATIONAL:

EU
The EU police agency Europol has set up a new team to break people-smuggling gangs who send migrants on perilous voyages across the Mediterranean. The maritime intelligence unit, called “JOT (Joint Operational Team) Mare”, is based at Europol HQ in The Hague.

ISIS

Jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group may have committed genocide and war crimes against the minority Yazidi community in Iraq, the UN says. In a new report, it says IS had “the intent… to destroy the Yazidi as a group.”

A Kurdish military official last week said that he had evidence that Islamic State militants have used chlorine as a chemical weapon against Peshmerga forces three times in northern Iraq. General Aziz Waisi, who said his forces were exposed to the chemical, alleged that the insurgents had used chlorine in a December attack in the Sinjar area and in two others in January west of Mosul.

The top UN envoy in Afghanistan has said there was clear evidence that ISIL has established a foothold in Afghanistan, a view echoed by Russia which urged the Security Council to stop its expansion. Nicholas Haysom said experts had assessed that while ISIL has not managed to develop “firm roots” in the country there was concern that it could offer inspiration to various, disparate splinter groups. Russia’s deputy UN Ambassador said that Moscow was worried about the rise of the terrorist threat in Afghanistan and the broadening of ISIL’s geographical activities.

The Libyan army chief has said that Europe will face infiltration by ISIL militants from Libya if the West fails to support his forces with arms and ammunition. He said ISIL militants will “spread in European countries if (the West) doesn’t offer real help to the Libyan people, especially the Libyan army.” The extremists, he said, “will head with the illegal migrants to Europe, where corruption and destruction will spread just like Libya. But there it will be hard to confront them. We want weapons and ammunition only. We have the men. The army is increasing in number every day,” he added.

SYRIA

More than 20 people have been killed in twin bomb attacks targeting Kurds marking Persian New Year, or Norouz, in north-eastern Syria, activists say. Syrian state TV said the bombs exploded in the al-Mufti district of Hassakeh, a largely Kurdish-controlled city.

The Syrian military says it has shot down a US drone near the city of Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad in north-west Syria. US officials have said they lost contact with a drone but that it is unclear if it was shot down.

Syrian government forces allegedly carried out a suspected gas attack that killed a family of six, including three children, a Syrian human rights watchdog has claimed. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said alleged gas attacks on the north-eastern town of Sarmin also injured dozens more civilians.

LIBYA

Fighting has been raging in Libya between Islamic State (IS) fighters and a militia alliance from the west of the country, near the city of Sirte. A spokesman for militia brigades told the BBC that two of their men had been killed in the clashes.

PAKISTAN

Pakistan has hanged 12 convicts, the largest number of people executed on the same day since the country overturned a ban on executions. The men were terrorists, murderers or guilty of “heinous crimes”, an interior ministry spokesman said. At least 27 convicts have been executed since the moratorium was lifted, most of them militants, Reuters reported.

IRAQ

The tomb of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has been almost completely levelled in fighting near Tikrit. Footage filmed by the AP news agency shows that all that remains standing of the once-lavish mausoleum in the village of al-Awja are some pillars. Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed Shia militia have been battling to drive Islamic State (IS) from Tikrit.

Iraqi intelligence service has described how a violent jihadi cell hid explosives in a Koran box and displayed liquor bottles in their cars to avoid suspicion that they were religious extremists. Trapdoors in floorboards and bottles of alcohol on back seats – Iraq’s intelligence service last week detailed how the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) car bomb cell eluded the police for months. The suspected leader of the group was arrested riding a bicycle in an upmarket neighbourhood, a spokesman for the Iraqi national intelligence service told AFP. He added, “When we first picked up a scent in our hunt for this network, we organised surveillance that lasted six months. Then we set up a task force and arrested all of them in 72 hours”. He stated that 31 people who had been arrested were responsible for 52 attacks in Baghdad in 2014 and 2015.

IRAN

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani says that progress made in nuclear talks means a final deal can be reached. “There is nothing that cannot be resolved,” although some differences still remain, Iranian state media quoted him as saying. US Secretary of State John Kerry also said that “substantial progress” had been made in the talks. Six world powers are negotiating a deal with Iran aimed at limiting its nuclear activity, with a late March deadline.

YEMEN

Reported 22nd March 2015 – Parts of Yemen’s third largest city Taiz have been seized by Shia rebels, reports quoting security officials say. The city’s airport was among the areas seized by Houthi rebels, reports said.

Islamic State (IS) say its militants carried out suicide bombings on two mosques in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, which killed at least 137 people. The attacks are the first claimed by IS – a Sunni group – since it set up a branch in Yemen in November.

Warplanes have targeted the palace used by Yemen’s President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi in the southern city of Aden. Officials said anti-aircraft guns prevented any direct hits on the hilltop compound. But witnesses saw smoke rising from the area afterwards. It is not clear if Mr Hadi was inside, but aides said he was now safe.

The conflict in Yemen could become “protracted in the vein of an Iraq, Syria, Libya combined scenario” the UN’s special envoy has warned. Jamal Benomar was speaking as the Security Council met in New York to express support for ousted President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

TUNISIA

Nineteen people, including 17 foreign tourists, have been killed in a gun attack on the Bardo museum in the Tunisian capital, the PM has said. Italian, Spanish, Polish and German citizens were among those killed, as well as a Tunisian and a police officer, PM Habib Essid said.

Nine people have been arrested in connection with a gun attack in Tunis that saw 23 people killed on Wednesday, including 20 foreign tourists. Tunisia’s presidency said four of those arrested were directly linked to the attack and five had “ties to the cell”. The army will also be deployed to major cities, the presidency added. In another development, Islamic State said it was behind the attack on the Bardo museum, using an audio message to praise two “knights of the caliphate”.

Tunisia’s president has urged Tunisians to unite to fight terrorism, two days after an attack on the Bardo museum in the capital Tunis killed 25 people, mostly foreign tourists.

TURKEY

The jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has renewed a call for his fighters to end their armed struggle in Turkey. In a message read out at a huge rally marking the Kurdish new year, Ocalan called for a congress to decide on abandoning the insurgency. His Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been waging a 30-year armed struggle for Kurdish independence.

AFRICA

At least 70 bodies have been found dumped outside the town of Damasak in north-eastern Nigeria, after it was recaptured from Boko Haram militants. The victims appear to have been killed some time ago, as the bodies were partially mummified by the desert air. Troops from Niger and Chad seized Damasak on Saturday, ending months of control by the Islamist militants.

Reported 17th March 2015 – Nigeria’s military says it has retaken the north-eastern town of Bama from the Islamist military group Boko Haram. A large number of militants were killed and a “mopping up” operation is continuing in the second largest town in Borno state, it said.

Reported 17th March 2015 – Women and children are among dozens of people killed in a dawn raid on a village in central Nigeria. Police say 45 people died in the attack by unidentified gunmen on Egba village in in Benue state. But local politician Audu Sule said 81 villagers had been killed by the attackers, who were all armed with Kalashnikov rifles. Police are hunting the attackers but no arrests have been made yet, state police spokesman Austin Ezeani told AFP news agency.

Sierra Leone’s Vice-President Samuel Sam-Sumana has been sacked for seeking political asylum in a foreign embassy, the president’s office has said. President Ernest Bai Koroma had dismissed him because he had “abandoned” his duties, it added.

Reported 18th March 2015 – Four people have been killed in an attack in north-east Kenya, officials say. Security sources said a group of hooded men threw a grenade at a small shop in the town of Wajir, about 100 km (60 miles) from the Somali border. Local police said the shop caught fire, burning the bodies of the victims beyond recognition. The attack is the fourth in five days in Kenya’s remote and restive north-east region.

The US defence department has confirmed that it has killed an al-Shabab leader, Adan Garar. The Pentagon says the militant was hit by a drone equipped with Hellfire missiles in southern Somalia a week last Friday.

BURMA

A New Zealander and two Burmese men have been found guilty of insulting religion in Myanmar over a poster promoting a drinks event depicting Buddha with headphones. Philip Blackwood, who managed the VGastro Bar in Yangon, was arrested in December along with bar owner Tun Thurein and colleague Htut Ko Ko Lwin.

SERBIA

Last week, Serbian police arrested seven men accused of taking part in the slaughter of over 1,000 Muslims at a warehouse on the outskirts of Srebrenica. The seven are among the first to be arrested by Serbia for carrying out the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, Serbian and Bosnian prosecutors say.

RUSSIA

European Union leaders have agreed to keep sanctions on Russia in place until the end of this year at the earliest. The sanctions, imposed because of Russia’s alleged military intervention in Ukraine, are now linked to “complete implementation” of a ceasefire deal.

On the anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged the harm caused by Western sanctions. He said the measures, imposed on individuals and key economic sectors, were “not fatal, but naturally damage our ongoing work,” Interfax reported.

SWEDEN

Two men have been killed and up to 15 injured in a shooting in a restaurant in the south-western Swedish city of Gothenburg, police say. They say automatic weapons – believed to be Kalashnikov assault rifles – were used in the attack late on Wednesday. The men who died were between 20 and 25, police said.

NETHERLANDS

A Chechen woman living in the Netherlands has taken her two young children against their father’s will to join Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria, Dutch prosecutors say. The mother, a boy aged eight and a seven-year-old girl are believed to have travelled using false passports.

GERMANY

Dozens of people were hurt and some 350 people arrested as anti-austerity demonstrators clashed with police in the German city of Frankfurt, last week. Police cars were set alight and stones were thrown in a protest against the opening of a new base for the European Central Bank (ECB). Violence broke out close to the city’s Alte Oper concert hall hours before the ECB building’s official opening.

SPAIN

A convicted killer is among 10 of Britain’s most wanted fugitives believed to be on the run in Spain. The National Crime Agency (NCA) has released the names of the most wanted, whose crimes range from rape to child abuse and drug trafficking. The list was published in Madrid as part of Operation Captura. It includes ex-soldier Shane Walford who was jailed in 2010 for the manslaughter of an off-duty fireman while on leave from the army.

CANADA

A Canadian court has convicted two terror suspects over a plot to attack a train from New York to Toronto. Raed Jaser, a Canadian resident of Palestinian descent, and Tunisian migrant Chiheb Esseghaier were arrested in 2013 after an undercover operation.

USA

The US military has called for “vigilance” after an online threat was allegedly made by Islamic State (IS) to about 100 of its personnel. A list of names and addresses was posted on a website linked to the group alongside a call for them to be killed. The Pentagon said the threat was unverified and would be investigated.

Reported 21st March 2015 – US security staff shot a knife-wielding man three times at New Orleans international airport after he tried to storm a checkpoint, officials say. They say the man, named as Richard White, 62, attacked an airport security worker with wasp spray before striking another on the arm with a large knife.

Reported 22nd March 2015 – A man who was shot by police as he tried to storm a checkpoint at New Orleans international airport on Friday has died from his wounds, police say. Richard White, 63, allegedly struck a security worker with a large knife after attacking another with spray.

Last week, a plane en route to Denver, Colorado, was been forced to return to Washington DC after a man caused a disturbance onboard. Passengers had to tackle the man as he charged the cockpit claiming to have a bomb, according to local media reports. Airport police took the man – who has not been named – into custody late last Monday, and later to a local hospital.

Early last week, A US millionaire who was recorded in private appearing to confess to three killings has been charged with murder in Los Angeles. Robert Durst was filming a documentary about his connections to three deaths when he remarked off camera he had “killed them all”. Prosecutors charged the former property tycoon with murdering his friend Susan Berman. He may face the death penalty.

The White House says it is deeply concerned at what it called the “divisive rhetoric” in the Israeli election, which ended in a surprise win for Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. During campaigning, Mr Netanyahu said he would not allow the creation of a Palestinian state if re-elected.

Last week, the US Secret Service said it is conducting further tests on an envelope posted to the White House which may contain cyanide. Tests at a post screening facility were found to have traces of the poison.

A US Air Force veteran accused of trying to join Islamic State has appeared in court in New York and denied all charges. Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh, a 47-year-old former aircraft mechanic from New Jersey, spoke only to repeat his name to the judge.

One person is dead and at least five have been shot at multiple locations in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona.

Police have arrested a gunman – who has not been named – after a manhunt in Mesa lasting several hours. Multiple locations across the city were in lockdown as police from several nearby communities converged on the city to help with the search.

One month to the day before the April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon bombings, someone used Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s laptop computer to read a seven-page article titled ‘Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom’ in the al-Qaeda magazine, ‘Inspire’. The laptop was also used to read ‘Join the Caravan’, an appeal to Muslims to rise up written Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, a slain founding member of al-Qaeda nicknamed the ‘Father of Global Jihad’.’ The supervisor of the FBI’s Boston Cyber Squad who is a computer forensics expert, testified in court in the continuing case against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

The U.S. has omitted Iran and Hezbollah from its list of terror threats, according to an annual security assessment published by the Times of Israel the week. The unclassified report, titled ‘Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community’ was presented to the U.S. Senate by James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence on February 26. The report has excluded Iran and Hezbollah from its list of terror threats to U.S. interests, after both had been included as threats in previous years. In a 2014 report the National Intelligence director said that Iran and Hezbollah continue to directly threaten the interests of U.S. allies. The report claimed that Hezbollah had increased its “global terrorist activity.” In the latest report, the terrorism section focuses exclusively on the rise of militant groups like ISIS and The Nusra Front.

CYBER ISSUES:

Britain’s spies have told businesses to consider stripping employees of company smart phones and memory sticks to protect themselves from cyber-attacks, The Telegraph can disclose. Advice issued by GCHQ, the government’s listening post, and other departments warns firms that staff are the “weakest link in the security chain” and protective action must be taken. Companies have been told staff should only use trusted Wi-Fi networks – effectively ruling out using laptops in coffee shops like Starbucks without special protections – and constantly update internet browsers. They were also warned disgruntled employees may attempt to “steal or physically deface” computers or become vulnerable to blackmail if secrets about their personal lives become known. The warnings were contained in ‘10 Steps to Cyber Security’ guidance issued by CESG – the Information Security arm of GCHQ – in conjunction with the Cabinet Office, Business Department and Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure.

The Chinese government, seeking to steal valuable secrets, has hacked into the computers at every major American company, according to the nation’s former spy director. Mike McConnell, who served as director of national intelligence under President George W. Bush, made the comments during a speech at the University of Missouri two weeks ago. “The Chinese have penetrated every major corporation of any consequence in the United States and taken information,” he said.
“We’ve never, ever not found Chinese malware.”

The FBI considers Evgeniy Bogachev one of the world’s most prolific and brilliant cyber criminals, slapping his photos on “Wanted” fliers posted online. The Russian would be an ideal target for prosecution — if only the Justice Department could find him. Unable to bring him into custody in the 10 months since his indictment, the government has turned to a time-honoured technique long used for more conventional crime: putting a bounty on Bogachev’s head. It’s too soon to say whether the $3 million reward for information leading to his arrest — the first of its kind offered under a special State Department programme — will ever pay off. But federal officials say they intend to use the strategy in additional cyber cases involving international hackers whose whereabouts are either unknown to the U.S. government or who are holed up in nations that have little or no diplomatic relations with the United States.

South Korea’s government accused North Korea last week of carrying out cyber-attacks last December on its nuclear power plant operator, describing them as a provocation which threatened people’s lives and safety. “We condemn North Korea’s persistent cyber-terror targeting our country and the international community,” the unification ministry said after investigators concluded the North was behind the attacks. “It’s a clear provocation against our security,” the ministry said in a statement, accusing Pyongyang of “taking the life and safety of our
people as a hostage”. Tensions between the neighbours are running high after the South this month held joint military drills with the United States, which the North has condemned as provocative rehearsals for invasion.

AND FINALLY

About 300 people have been arrested in the Indian state of Bihar, authorities say, after reports emerged of blatant cheating in school exams. Parents and friends of students were photographed climbing school walls to pass on answers. Many of those arrested were parents. At least 750 students have been expelled. An estimated 1.4m students are taking their school leaving exams in Bihar alone – tests seen as crucial for their chances of a successful career.

SIGNIFICANT ANNIVERSARIES:

24 March 1986 U.S. retaliation against Libyan aggression during naval exercise in Gulf of Sirte
27 March 2001 Abdelmajid Dahoumane arrested for role in plot to attack Los Angeles International Airport on 31 December 1999
29 March 2010 Some 40 killed and 60 wounded as two female [Chechen] suicide bombers attack two Metro stations in Moscow.
29 March 2015 British Summer Time begins – clock in the UK go forward 1 hour
29 March 2015 Christian festival – Palm Sunday
30 March 1979 British MP, Airey Neave, killed by under vehicle bomb as he drove out of the Palace of Westminster. Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility.

1 April 2015 All Fools Day (UK and US)
2 April 1998 In the Irish Republic, a 990lb VBIED is discovered at Dublin ferry port bound for England. The device was made safe. Real IRA blamed.
2 April 1986 Attempted sabotage of TWA flight 840. Four people killed, nine injured.
2 April, 1982 Argentina invades the Falkland Islands, precipitating war with Britain
April campaign across the USA
3 April 2015 Christian festival – Good Friday
4 April 1986: La Belle discothèque bombed in Germany killing three. Libya implicated in the attack.
April 4 1979 Execution by hanging of former Pakistan President Bhutto
4 April 2015 Pesach (Passover)
5 April 2015 Christian festival – Easter Day
April 5, 1988 Hezbollah hijack a Kuwaiti B747 aircraft, an incident that lasted 16 days.
6 April 2015 UK Public Holiday – Easter Monday
April 6, 2001 Algerian Ahmed Ressam is convicted of the New Years Day plot to bomb Los Angeles airport.
April 6, 1994 Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi killed when their aircraft was believed shot down by a missile. Start of Rwanda civil war.
April 7, 1998 Rocket attack on the Athens branch of the U.S. Citibank
April 10, 1998 Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement signed
April 10, 1992 Massive Provisional IRA truck bomb functions outside the City of London’s Baltic Exchange killing 3 people and causing immense damage.
April 11, 1968 Founding day of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command
April 12, 1997 Police in Sarajevo thwart an attempt to kill the Pope.
April 12, 2000 HM Queen presents the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) with the George Cross, the highest civilian award for bravery.
April 14, 2005 In the UK, Kamel Bourgass is jailed for 17 years for plotting to spread Ricin. He was already serving life for the murder of a police officer during a police raid on his Manchester apartment in 2003.
April 15, 2013 Three killed, 264 wounded when bombs explode at Boston Marathon; Djokhar Tsarnaev arrested, Tamerian Tsarnaev killed in manhunt
April 15, 1986 U.S. fighter planes from USAF Lakenheath attack targets in Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. Libya threats to retaliate against US and UK.
April 16, 1988 Assassination in Tunis of PLO Leader Abu Jihad by Israeli Agents
April 17, 1984 Murder of woman police officer, Yvonne Fletcher, outside Libyan Peoples Bureau in St. James Square, London.
April 17, 1961 An invasion force of Cuban exiles lands at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs to try to overthrow Fidel Castro.
April 18, 1983 Hezbollah mounts a massive VBIED attack on the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon killing 63 people and wounding more than 100.
April 18, 2010 Abu Ayyub al-Masri and ‘Umar al-Baghdadi, the leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq, are killed in Coalition raid in Baghdad
April 19, 1993 End of the siege at the Branch Davidian Cult in Waco, Texas.
April 19, 1995 Massive VBIED attack on the Federal building in Oklahoma kills 167 people. McVeigh later executed for this crime June 2001.
April 20, 2014 Easter Day – Christian
April 20, 1870 Birth Date of Hitler (occasional rallies by extreme Right Wing groups)
April 20, 1998 Germany’s Red Army Faction announces its disbandment
April 21, 1926 Birthday of HM Queen Elizabeth ll. Gun salutes in Hyde Park
April 21, 1997 End of 126-day siege at Japanese Ambassador’s residence in Peru.
April 22, 2002 Al-Qaeda attack on a Tunisia synagogue in Djerba kills 19 people
April 24, 1915 Anniversary of Armenian genocide in Turkey.
April 24, 1916 Start of the Easter Rising in Dublin.
April 24, 1968 Founding of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command.
April 24, 1993 A massive Provisional IRA truck bomb at Bishopsgate, City of London, kills one person and injures 35 others.
April 24, 1996: Large Provisional IRA Semtex bomb under Hammersmith Bridge fails to function properly.
April 25, 2011 Easter Monday
April 25, 1997: To date, the last Provisional IRA attack on mainland UK prior to their current ceasefire. A bomb attack on an electricity pylon next to M6 in Walsall.
April 25, 1980 Failed U.S. military hostage rescue mission to free 53 U.S. hostages held in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
April 26, 1986 Chernobyl Disaster
April 27, 1984 End of Libyan Embassy siege in London
April 28, 2011 Bomb kills 15 in Marrakech cafe frequented by Westerners in first major attack in country since May 2003; government blames AQIM but group denies responsibility
April 29, 1992 Rioting in Los Angeles following verdict in Rodney King case
April 30, 1975 The war in Vietnam ends as Saigon surrenders to the Vietcong.
April 30, 1973 President Nixon takes responsibility for the Watergate scandal but denies any personal involvement
April 30, 1980 Iranian Embassy siege in London – ended on May 5th in a resolution by 22 Special Air Service Regiment

Dilitas INternational Security Brief 15th March 2015

March 16, 2015 Dilitas Admin

The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is SEVERE
The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is MODERATE

SEVERE means that a terrorist attack is highly likely;
SUBSTANTIAL means that a terrorist attack is a strong possibility;
MODERATE, means that a terrorist attack is possible, but not likely.

DOMESTIC:

Three British teenagers who were stopped from travelling to Syria from Turkey and arrested have been released on bail, Scotland Yard says. Two boys aged 17 from north-west London and a man aged 19 were flown back to the UK on Saturday night, the Met said. They were arrested on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts and have been bailed pending further inquiries.

A man has been arrested for allegedly helping three British schoolgirls cross into Syria, Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said. The man is said to work for the intelligence agency of a country which is part of the coalition against Islamic State (IS) militants. It is believed Shamima Begum, Amira Abase, both 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, left the UK last month to join IS. It is not known what country the arrested man is from. Mr Cavusoglu said the man was not a national of the country he was working for, nor is he from the US or an EU member state. A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are aware that an arrest has been made by the Turkish National Police and that the Metropolitan Police have informed the families of the three girls.

A former British soldier has told the BBC he plans to go to Syria and fight Islamic State (IS) militants to help make it a “better place” to live. The unnamed man, who wants to train Kurdish fighters, said the “vile” extremists were “terrorising” people.

The head of Nato has said he expects Britain to “show leadership” over the alliance’s defence spending target. At a summit in Wales last year, Nato members committed to spending 2% of national income on defence annually. David Cameron has refused to confirm if a government led by him after May’s election would still meet this target. After meeting the prime minister last Friday in London, Nato’s Jens Stoltenberg said he expected all allies to “fulfil” the spending pledge.

Around 700 jihadists considered dangerous by UK authorities have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight for Islamic State, with around 300 returning to the UK, according to media reports. This is a rise on the 500 and 250 figures previously reported.

A group of British Muslims have issued a public statement accusing the government of “criminalising Islam” and trying to silence “legitimate critique and dissent,” and decrying what it describes as “the ongoing demonisation of Muslims in Britain [and] their values, as well as prominent scholars, speakers, and organisations.” The statement also criticises “the public targeting of Muslims through endless ‘anti-terror’ laws,” and says that the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act “threatens to create a ‘McCarthyite’ witch-hunt against Muslims.” Signatories of the statement include Moazzam Begg, director of outreach for Cage, the organisation that came under fire last week after it sought to explain the radicalization of ISIS killer Mohammed Emwazi. Members of the Islamist organisation, Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in several countries including Germany, have also signed the statement.

The Independent carried further coverage of comments made by one of the Queen’s chaplains, Reverend Canon Gavin Ashenden, in which he claimed that the Koran has “over 100 verses inviting people to violence” which Christianity “doesn’t have.” He claimed that the passages in the Koran “tell you to kill your enemies” and to “strike off the heads” of “those who disbelieve.” Rev Ashenden was responding to Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s claim earlier last week that young people are turning to jihad because mainstream religions are not “exciting” enough.

Airlines which fly suspected terrorists out of the country in breach of a Home Office order will be hit with fines of up to £50,000 under new laws to come into force within weeks. The penalties would be applied to any carrier which breaches a government ‘no fly’ instruction and allows a jihadist to travel on their planes. Smaller fines of up to £10,000 could be applied where airlines fail to hand over detailed information about its passengers and crew.

The Home Office is planning a “more assertive” stance against extremism, with a series of measures including penalties for benefit claimants who do not learn English and making visa applicants commit themselves to “British values”. According to a copy of a new counter- extremism strategy leaked to the Sunday Telegraph, people with radical views would also be banned from working unsupervised with children under the proposals, which are intended to address not so much terrorism, but the spread of extremist thinking that eventually leads to some people turning to violence.

NORTHERN IRELAND AND EIRE:

No content

INTERNATIONAL:

ISIS

Reported Monday 9th March 2015 – Islamic State (IS) militants are said to have kidnapped nine foreign oil workers in a raid in Libya, when they reportedly beheaded eight guards. Four Filipinos, an Austrian, a Bangladeshi, a Czech and a Ghanaian were taken with an unidentified ninth foreigner, Austrian officials say. The foreign ministry in Vienna said IS had attacked the al-Ghani oil field. A Libyan army spokesman told the BBC the field 700km (440 miles) south-east of Tripoli had been attacked on Friday. One oil worker died of a heart attack after seeing the beheadings, he added.

Islamic State released a new video last Tuesday, appearing to show a young boy shooting an alleged Israeli spy in the head. The victim, Muhammad Said Ismail Musallam 19, an Israeli-Arab from East Jerusalem, is shown wearing an orange prison suit, kneeling in front of the boy, who appears to be no more than 12 years old, and a man standing by his side.

Iraqi government forces have retaken a large part of north-eastern Tikrit as they battle IS militants to recapture the city, security officials say. Soldiers and Shia militiamen have reportedly raised the Iraqi flag at a hospital in the Qadisiya district, two-thirds of which is under their control.

Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces, backed by US air strikes, have launched an offensive against Islamic State (IS) militants in oil-rich Kirkuk province. The Peshmerga reportedly began advancing along a frontline south-west of the provincial capital last Monday.

Islamic State (IS) has accepted a pledge of allegiance from Nigeria’s militant group Boko Haram, according to an audio message. In the tape, which has not been verified, an IS spokesman says the aim of establishing a caliphate has now been expanded to West Africa. Last week, Boko Haram posted a message saying it wanted to join ranks with IS.

Iraqi officials have shown the BBC footage which they say proves Islamic State militants are using chlorine gas in roadside bomb attacks. The videos show bomb disposal teams carrying out controlled explosions, which send plumes of orange smoke into the air. The bombs contain small concentrations of a chemical agent and in open ground are unlikely to be lethal. Experts say they are designed to create fear rather than harm. There have been multiple reports that IS has been deploying chlorine gas since late last year, and Iraqi officials say their footage confirms its use. A member of an Iraqi Bomb Disposal Team said troops have defused dozens of devices containing chlorine as part of the offensive against the militants.

SAUDI ARABIA

The US embassy in the Saudi capital Riyadh has cancelled all consular services for yesterday and today due to “heightened security concerns”. In a statement, the embassy said consular services in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhahran would not be available. It urged US citizens to take extra precautions when travelling in Saudi Arabia and to keep a low profile. On Friday, the embassy warned that Western oil workers could be the target of militant attacks.

A senior member of the Saudi royal family has warned that a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme could prompt other regional states to develop atomic fuel.

PAKISTAN

Two bomb blasts have killed at least 10 people near two churches in a Christian neighbourhood of the Pakistani city of Lahore, yesterday, local officials say. At least 50 people were reportedly hurt in the explosions at the Catholic church and Christ Church in the city’s Youhanabad area. Violent protests erupted after the blasts, with large crowds already in the area to attend Sunday mass.

Pakistan is to resume executions for all death penalty offences, months after a moratorium was partially lifted to allow executions of terror convicts. All condemned prisoners who have exhausted the appeals process and whose pleas for clemency are rejected now face execution, officials say.

Indian officials have called on the Pakistani government not to release the man suspected of masterminding the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008. They were responding to a High Court ruling in Islamabad, which overturned the detention of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.

IRAN

The son of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been imprisoned by a court in Tehran. State media said Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani had been convicted of security offences and financial crimes.

AFRICA

Women and children are among dozens of people killed in a dawn raid on a village in central Nigeria. Police say 45 people died in the attack by unidentified gunman on Egba village in in Benue state.

The South African government is concerned its nationals may be working as mercenaries in Nigeria in the war against the Boko Haram militant group. Nigerian government spokesman Mike Omeri said that foreigners were just training troops in the use of new weapons.

RUSSIA

Vladimir Putin has admitted for the first time that the plan to annex Crimea was ordered weeks before the referendum on self-determination.

One of two suspects charged with the murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, Zaur Dadayev, confessed under duress, a member of Russia’s Human Rights Council says. Andrei Babushkin, who visited Mr Dadayev on Tuesday, says he saw “numerous wounds” on his body, suggesting he had been tortured. The suspect himself said he was tied up for two days with a bag over his head.

CRIMEA

Crimea’s prime minister has told the BBC the peninsula has returned to its historical Russian homeland and will never again be part of Ukraine. Sergei Aksyonov said the annexation of the peninsula by Russia one year ago had been a “democratic act”. In a pre-recorded interview which aired yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had been ready to put nuclear weapons on standby at the time.

NORTH KOREA

North Korea has fired seven ground-to-air missiles into the sea, South Korea’s defence ministry says. It comes on the last day of an annual US-South Korea military exercise. Leader Kim Jong-un was present during the launch on Thursday off the eastern coast, a ministry spokesman from the South said.

AUSTRALIA

The Islamic State (IS) suicide attack allegedly carried out by Australian Jake Bilardi achieved nothing, an Iraqi military spokesman said. IS propaganda claimed on Thursday that the Melbourne teenager died in a suicide attack on Ramadi in Iraq. But General Tahssin Ibrahim told broadcaster ABC that his suicide was worthless.

Two Australian brothers have been intercepted at Sydney airport, amid concerns that the extremist terror group is recruiting young people as cannon fodder. The boys, aged 16 and 17, attempted to fly to an unidentified ‘conflict zone’ in the Middle East late last week. But the brothers, from south-west Sydney, had become radicalized jihadists over the Internet and officials said their parents were “as shocked as any of us would be” when they were told their children planned to join the violent terrorist group. Source A Melbourne schoolboy who travelled to the Middle East to fight with Islamic State (IS) has reportedly died in a suicide attack in Iraq. Jake Bilardi, an 18-year-old Muslim convert, left Australia last year and flew via Turkey to Iraq. An image emerged last week purportedly showing him behind the wheel of a white van with the caption “may God accept him”. The Australian government said it had not been able to confirm the reports.

Australian police are stopping hundreds of people every day at airports in an attempt to prevent would-be jihadists leaving the country. A new counter-terror unit conducted nearly 76,000 “real-time” stops – more than 400 per day – at eight airports between August and February. The screenings are not random. Counter-terror police are targeting potentially suspicious travellers.

SPAIN

Spanish police say they have arrested eight suspected members of a jihadist cell in dawn raids across the country. Six men and two women are believed to have been recruiting volunteers to fight for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, and encouraging attacks in Spain. The arrests took place in Barcelona and Girona in the north-east, and Avila and Ciudad Real in central Spain. More than 20 suspected Islamic militants have been detained in the country so far this year.

FRANCE

France has opened an inquiry into a video purporting to show the killing by Islamic State (IS) of an Israeli Arab, which shows a French-speaking militant. The militant speaks in the video as a child seems to shoot the victim, whose family deny he was an Israeli spy. French officials say the militant is probably Sabri Essid, a half-brother of Mohammed Merah, the Islamist who shot dead seven people in France in 2012.

As many as 10,000 Europeans could be waging jihad in Iraq and Syria by the end of this year, the French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, warned last weekend, a three-fold increase on current numbers. “There are 3,000 Europeans in Iraq and Syria today. When you do a projection for the months to come, there could be 5,000 before summer and 10,000 before the end of the year,” Valls told French television channel iTele. “Do you realize the threat that this represents?” he asked. He said there were around 1,400 people who were either already in these conflict zones, who had come back from there or who were planning to go.

GERMANY

About 2,000 people have attended the funeral march for a German woman who died fighting Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria. Waving flags and banners, they escorted the body of Ivana Hoffmann, 19, through the city of Duisburg to the cemetery where she was buried.

COLOMBIA

Colombia is to halt bombing raids against left-wing Farc rebels for a month, President Juan Manuel Santos says, in a further sign of progress in the country’s peace process. Mr Santos said the move was in recognition of the fact a unilateral ceasefire declared by Farc was holding.

Reported 12th March 2015 – An explosive device has injured five police officers and two other people in the Colombian capital Bogota in the early hours. The device, which was packed with shrapnel, went off as a police convoy was driving through the southern neighbourhood of Quiroga. It is not yet clear who may be behind the attack.

CANADA

Reuters are reporting that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, using an undercover operative, have thwarted a plot by a Pakistani man to attack the U.S. Consulate and other buildings in the financial district of Toronto. The suspect, a 33-year-old permanent resident in the country who came to Canada as a student in 2004, claims to have had a personal relationship with the late al- Qaeda guru, Anwar al-Awlaki, and is now an ISIS supporter. The RCMP has not made any official statements about how “imminent” the planned attack was, but the suspect allegedly received some form of military training during a trip to Libya.

USA

US President Barack Obama says there is “no excuse” for criminal acts in Ferguson, Missouri, one night after two police officers at a protest were shot. He said the protesters had “legitimate grievances” but described the shooters as “criminals” who should be arrested. Wednesday’s shootings happened during a demonstration after it was announced the Ferguson Police Chief would resign.

A letter sent by the US Congress to Iran “interferes” in ongoing nuclear talks, the White House has said. The five-paragraph letter, signed by 47 Republican senators, reminds Iran that any deal is just an executive agreement unless it gets congressional approval.

A senior US diplomat has warned of a “dangerous” gulf emerging between US and European defence spending. Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, has appealed to European governments to spend more.

The NSA’s mass surveillance programme violates US laws on freedom of speech, alleges a lawsuit begun by the Wikimedia Foundation. The legal action has been filed against the spy agency and the US Department of Justice. The legal action, co-signed by eight other organisations, seeks to end the NSA’s large-scale surveillance efforts.

FBI Director James Comey has said that the radicalisation of Americans by ISIL and other groups, particularly through sophisticated use of social media, is a top concern for the FBI. Speaking at an appropriations subcommittee budget hearing, Comey cited the group’s continuing efforts to recruit Americans to join it in Syria and Iraq, then have them return to the U.S. to commit acts of terrorism. “ISIL’s widespread reach through the Internet and social media is most concerning as the group has proven dangerously competent at employing such tools for its nefarious strategy,” he warned.

Two Pakistani-born brothers have pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges in Miami. Raees Alam Qazi, 22, and Sheheryar Alam Qazi, 32, are accused of a plot to detonate a bomb in New York City to avenge the deaths of people killed by drone attacks in Afghanistan. The two are naturalized U.S. citizens who were living at the time of their arrest in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Sentencing has been set for 5 June.

US officials have ended a search for seven marines and four soldiers believed to have been killed in a helicopter crash in Florida. “The decision to suspend is always difficult,” Layne Carter, search and rescue coordinator, said on Thursday. The helicopter crashed near Pensacola during a training exercise from Eglin Air Base.

A man accused of plotting to attack the U.S. Capitol called a television station from jail and said if he hadn’t been arrested he would have gone to Washington and shot President Obama in the head. WXIX-TV in Cincinnati said Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, called the station from the Kentucky jail where he’s being held, confessed to being a supporter of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and said he planned to kill government officials in retaliation for U.S. strikes on the militant organisation.

The US Secret Service is investigating two senior agents after a car crash at the White House. A spokesman for the Secret Service said the collision happened during the evening on 4 March. The Washington Post reported the agents drove the car into a security barricade after a night of drinking and partying. The crash is the latest in a series of embarrassing incidents involving the agency charged with protecting President Barack Obama.

CYBER ISSUES:

A British man has been arrested in connection with an alleged cyber-attack on the U.S. Department of Defence (DoD). The suspected hacker, 23, was arrested by officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) in Sutton Coldfield, in the West Midlands, on suspicion of offences linked to data stolen from a messaging service used by DoD employees worldwide. Contact details for around 800 people, including name, title, email addresses and phone numbers, were obtained in the attack last June, the NCA said.

A Pakistani cyber security firm with close ties to Islamabad has been found stealing information from Indian government and defence establishments, according to a two-year investigation by a U.S.-based IT security firm. The Pakistani company targeted Indian establishments using leased U.S. hosting services, the U.S. security firm, FireEye said, the findings revealing that India remains a vulnerable target for cyber-attacks.

Plans for a new Europe-wide counter-terrorism unit are being presented to European ministers. The Internet Referral Unit would be part of law enforcement agency Europol and would seek to remove jihadist content from the Internet. EU policy makers want to pool member states’ resources to deal with the “sheer volume” of such material. The Paris terror attacks had pushed the item up the EU’s agenda, said a senior official. “The Internet is a major facilitator for radicalisation to terrorism. Addressing this matter poses a number of different challenges,” a briefing document detailing the plans says. It adds: “The sheer volume of Internet content promoting terrorism and extremism requires pooling of resources and a close cooperation with
the industry.”

SIGNIFICANT ANNIVERSARIES:

16 March 1988 Murder of Kurdish villagers at Halabja by Iraqi troops using chemical weapons
16 March 1984 William Buckley, a U.S. national, kidnapped and killed by Hezbollah
17 March 1992 Car bomb at Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires kills 28, injures 220
17 March 1968 Grosvenor Square massed riots directed against the U.S. Embassy during an anti-Vietnam war rally
17 March 1968 Grosvenor Square massed riots directed against the U.S. Embassy during an anti-Vietnam war rally.
17 March 2015 St Patrick’s Day
19 March 2007 Suicide bomber attacks U.S. convoy in Afghanistan killing 2 officials. Taliban claimed responsibility.
19 March 1982 Argentinean actions result in the start of the Falklands War – 1982
20 March 2003 Invasion of Iraq by US/British troops to remove Saddam Hussein
20 March 1995 Sarin Nerve gas attack on Tokyo subway kills 12 and sickens 5,000.
21 March 2015 Nowruz – Afghanistan/Iran New Year
21 March 1985 Founding day of E.R.N.K. (political wing of the Kurdish PKK)
24 March 1986 U.S. retaliation against Libyan aggression during naval exercise in Gulf of Sirte
27 March 2001 Abdelmajid Dahoumane arrested for role in plot to attack Los Angeles International Airport on 31 December 1999
29 March 2010 Some 40 killed and 60 wounded as two female [Chechen] suicide bombers attack two Metro stations in Moscow.
29 March 2015 British Summer Time begins – clock in the UK go forward 1 hour
29 Marh 2015 Christian festival – Palm Sunday
30 March 1979 British MP, Airey Neave, killed by under vehicle bomb as he drove out of the Palace of Westminster. Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility.

The Corporate Copper?

March 11, 2015 Dilitas Admin

The Corporate Copper

At the weekend I read a book entitled War PLC by Stephen Armstrong, which is sub-titled The Rise of the New Corporate Mercenary. The book is an excellent read and I recommend it to you.

The book chronology begins in the early 1950’s and follows the changing political landscape in the Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Africa. This rapidly changing political and military tableau and decline of the British Empire plus its withering colonial influence, culminates in President Nasser nationalising the Suez canal.

The following debacle of deploying British troops into this theatre, in which the Para’s made their last operational drop into a battle zone, and the resulting embarrassment for the British Government and particularly the pro-invasion ex- ministers and back benchers in the Conservative government, resulted in the start of the modern mercenary or corporate soldier.

This genesis began in the fashionable area of Mayfair in London, when second world war warriors such as Lt. Col Neil McClean late of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), Julian Amery, dyed-in-the-wool Conservative minister, and Lt. Col David Stirling gathered together. They began a number of activities to try and halt the downward slide of British influence, particularly in the Middle East and Africa. Add to this mix, a young aristocrat called John Aspinall at his Claremenot Club and Sir Alex Douglas-Home, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

Following a meeting of this group at White’s private members club, they persuaded the then Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, to revive an ancient military tradition by recruiting teams of mercenaries, without even letting his cabinet know. This was the nascence of the modern mercenary forces.

The 1960’s, the 70”s and the 80’s saw the use of mercenaries across the more unruly section of the globe. In many situations, the British Govt had a loose hand on this irregular military tiller. In others, it was the oil companies, despots, etc. Most mercenary units were deemed an unseemly bunch that nobody really wanted to have anything to do with. The darkest moment of this situation was, perhaps, the wars in the Congo’s, where British mercenaries fought and many were subsequently hanged.

In 1993 a company called Executive Outcomes (EO) was formed in London by Tony Buckingham, Simon Mann and a South African called Eeben Barlow. These names maybe familiar to some of you.

Executive Outcomes was like an iceberg breaking the surface of the crust that had hidden the mercenary soldiers and operators since the 1950”s. EO was a modern corporation with a mission, “to provide highly professional & confidential military advisory service to legitimate governments”.

The next ten years saw EO, its successor Sandline and a range of other privately military companies expand exponentially. By 2004 theses companies were embedded at the heart of western forces and the occupation of Iraq, providing corporate military operators working along side their government counterparts.

This got me thinking, especially as the reports of yet another unwanted and unauthorised visitor had trotted onto the roof of Westminster and the parents of three girls who slopped of to Syria were blaming the police. I then considered the start of the police in 1839 and its development over the last 170 years into what is now, a shadow of its former self.

Many of the existing police forces began as small forces that were either a city police or the county police, which, as time marched on, these smaller forces were consumed by the larger county forces.

The position of the police was and, hopefully, still is sacrosanct in British society. They were the bastions of maintaining order, patrolling the streets and thoroughfares, preventing crime and arresting offenders. The last 20 years has seen this level of service delivery almost disappear.

Sporting events are now expected to provide their own stewards, private areas both in the corporate and educational areas are expected to provide and manage their own security, which they pay for. The situation has now reached the point where organisers of public demonstrations must either pay for police attendance or organise their own security to “police” the event.

Throughout this period, there has been a dramatic rise in the private security industry, particularly manned guarding. This has been supported by the development of the Security Industry Authority, which is charged with setting, delivering & maintaining the standards and legitimacy of the industry and those working in it.

In comparing the demise of the British Empire and the attempt by those old guard to revive or secure its fortunes, from which developed the modern day corporate soldier, I began to wonder if we had unwittingly been witnessing the same re-structuring and genesis with policing in the UK.

The police in the UK are a former shadow of their former selves. The reasons for this are many and varied, not least of which is too much political interference, little or no funding, poor quality fiscal and operational management, etc., etc.

Combine with this, the movement to devolve political control and funding away from central government down to the larger cities within the UK.

So, what if we were to take the idea of the corporate soldier and create the Corporate Copper, with one or two slight variations.

What if, for instance, Birmingham was allowed to design its own police force, based on its own needs and remove itself from the control of ACPO and a national policing strategy.

Birmingham would define the budget for their force and, having designed the budget, they appoint a CEO, with a solid and successful commercial background to manage the budget.

They then appoint a Chief Constable, who has a good solid background in policing, preventing crime and getting villains off the street. This appointment does not have to be made from the existing plethora of senior police officers, but from those individuals who are present in the security world, and who knows how to run a police force operationally and efficiently and, effectively.

The CEO would have total responsibility to run the police cost-effectively and profitably. An experienced and competent CEO should do this with ease. It is what he has spent his working life doing. He does not need to know how to run a police force. That is not his job.

The Chief Constable would have total responsibility to run the police force efficiently and effectively, drive crime down and get criminals arrested and convicted. He would define the procedures by which his force runs and which are agreed by the council. He can remove pointless paperwork and do the job the police were designed to do. Prevent crime and arrest offenders.

An experienced Copper should do this with ease. It is what he has spent his working life learning to do. He does not need to know how to run a commercial organisation. That is not his job.

If you can add to this, the removal of the Crown Prosecution Service from the system, then you are on the road to returning an effective criminal justice system that serves the needs of the people, back to the people.

The CEO briefs to the head of the council on funds and profitability.

The Chief Constable briefs to the head of the council on operational effectiveness and results.

Part of this proposal must be the immediate removal of the Police & Crime Commissioner, a pointless and hugely expensive drain on police funds. The removal of all political interference is also essential and, thereby, the police get the freedom to do what a police force used to do.

I am sure there are many who would scoff at this idea and say it would never happen and could never work.

There would have been many to scoff at the idea of the corporate soldier.

Dilitas Weekly International Security Brief

March 11, 2015 Dilitas Admin

The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is SEVERE
The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is MODERATE

SEVERE means that a terrorist attack is highly likely;
SUBSTANTIAL means that a terrorist attack is a strong possibility;
MODERATE, means that a terrorist attack is possible, but not likely.

DOMESTIC:

A chemistry teacher who was poised to travel to Syria to fight with the group that became widely known as Islamic State has been jailed for six years. Jamshed Javeed, from Manchester, was “determined to fight jihad” despite pleas from his family not to, Woolwich Crown Court heard. Javeed, 30, who admitted terror offences, claimed in court he wanted to go to support ordinary Syrians. He was arrested in December 2013 hours before he was set to leave the UK.

A former detective who investigated a plot to blow up a Manchester shopping centre said lives were put at risk by a failure to prosecute in the UK. Retired Det Ch Insp Allan Donoghue said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was wrong not to charge Abid Naseer with planning a terrorist attack. Naseer, 28, was found guilty by a US court on Wednesday of being part of a trans-Atlantic al-Qaeda conspiracy.

A former Royal Marine has become the first Briton to be killed while fighting alongside Kurdish forces against Islamic State in Syria, a Kurdish militia has told the BBC. The Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) named him as Konstandinos Erik Scurfield, from Barnsley.

A London-based web designer who is accused of training for terrorism and working as a propagandist for al-Qaeda, is facing a possible life sentence in a U.S. prison after being extradited to New York, prosecutors announced last week. Minh Quang Pham is charged with possessing and using an AK-47 rifle “in furtherance of crimes of violence”, receiving military-style training and providing support to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen-based branch of the terrorist network. Pham, a 32-year-old Vietnamese citizen, boasted that he had “travelled to Yemen in order to join AQAP, and to wage jihad on behalf of AQAP”, according to U.S. authorities in New York. He is also accused of helping to produce Inspire, al-Qaeda’s English-language magazine. Prosecutors have said the alleged 2013 Boston Marathon bombers may have learned how toconstruct explosives from the publication.

Counter-terrorism police investigating large-scale fraud linked to extremists travelling to Syria have arrested three men in London on suspicion of money laundering. The arrests are linked to reports of vulnerable victims being “cold called” by a suspect impersonating a police officer, who informs them their bank account has been compromised, New Scotland Yard said. Victims are then tricked into transferring money to an account under the control of the suspects. Two men were arrested at addresses in west and east London. It later emerged a third man was arrested in west London. One elderly man lost approximately £150,000 as a result of the fraud.

MI5 has set up a “lone wolf” terror unit as part of one of the biggest operational shake-ups in the organisation’s history, it can be disclosed. The security agency has already foiled one attack that was in “the advanced stages of planning” using a new program to “manage individuals judged to present a risk of carrying out violent acts of terrorism alone, or in small groups”. The Government said that MI5 has now changed the way that new intelligence leads are processed; developed new ways to identify potential terrorists acting alone and now has better communication channels with the police. MI5 has set up ‘Project Danube’, a program for “managing the level of risk posed by low-level subjects of interest”, according to a report. It comes amid fears that hundreds of extremists linked to Islamic State, like Mohammed Emwazi, known as “Jihadi John”, have not been properly monitored by the police and security services.

Further coverage of news that the secret services are now monitoring 3,000 extremists living in Britain who they fear could become future ‘Jihadi Johns’. Senior sources inside Whitehall said that security officials are concerned about ISIL’s high profile and its use of social media to recruit young men. The officials also stated that the would-be terrorists are becoming harder to track because use of the Internet means they are less likely to be members of known groups. Instead, youngsters who are radicalised online are more likely to carry out unpredictable attacks on home soil, and the risk of these attacks is increasing, the director of the Royal United Services Institute has said.

Information obtained using torture was used to help foil an al-Qaeda plot to bring down two planes, it has been claimed. British authorities intercepted a bomb at East Midlands Airport after being ‘tipped off’ by Saudi Arabian security forces, reportedly following the interrogation by torture of an al-Qaeda operative. The claim comes as former MI5 head, Sir John Sawers, said torture does produce ‘useful information’ and can be ‘effective in the short term.’ A major security alert was launched after plastic explosives concealed inside inkjet printer cartridges were discovered on two cargo planes travelling from Yemen to the U.S. in October 2010. It is believed the bombs were designed to go off mid-air and bring the huge planes down over the U.S.

The UK and Russia will continue to have a “prickly relationship” with no clear change in Vladimir Putin’s intentions in Ukraine, the foreign secretary says. Philip Hammond said Moscow had chosen to enter a “strategic competition” with the West rather than being an ally.

There will be no “further cuts to our regular armed forces” under David Cameron’s leadership, the foreign secretary has said. But Philip Hammond said there were “very difficult decisions” on deficit reduction to come after the election. The government is under pressure to commit to meeting Nato’s target of spending at least 2% of GDP on defence beyond 2016.

Every police force in England and Wales is preparing for major budget cuts over the next five years. Forces are facing a 5% cut in government funding in 2015/16 and more cuts after the general election. Some forces are planning to reduce officer numbers to help them operate on smaller budgets.

NORTHERN IRELAND AND EIRE:

A controlled explosion has been carried out on an incendiary bomb found in the grounds of Ballycastle police station in County Antrim. A second device has been declared a hoax. They were found in the grounds of the station on the Ramoan Road last Thursday morning.

INTERNATIONAL:

ISIS

Islamic State militants have destroyed ruins at the ancient city of Hatra, Iraqi officials say. A tourism and antiquities ministry official said the extent of the damage at the Unesco world heritage site was unclear, but he had received reports that it had been demolished. Hatra was founded in the days of the Parthian Empire over 2,000 years ago.

Archaeologists and officials have expressed outrage about the bulldozing of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud by Islamic State militants in Iraq. IS began demolishing the site, which was founded in the 13th Century BC, on Thursday, according to Iraqi officials. The head of the UN’s cultural agency condemned the “systematic” destruction in Iraq as a “war crime”. IS, which controls large areas of Iraq and Syria, says shrines and statues are “false idols” that have to be smashed. “They are erasing our history,” said Iraqi archaeologist Lamia al-Gailani.

IRAQ

Fierce clashes are taking place around the Iraqi city of Tikrit, as soldiers and militiamen attack Islamic State positions in the centre, officials say. Battles were reported in the suburb of al-Dour, the western al-Zuhur district, the northern area of Qadisiya, and near the Teaching Hospital in the south. But the government advance has been slowed by roadside bombs planted by IS.

A military operation to retake the Iraqi city of Tikrit from Islamic State (IS) has caused about 28,000 people to flee their homes, the UN says. Those displaced are headed towards the city of Samarra, the UN said, but many families are stranded at checkpoints.

Iraqi forces have pushed Islamic State (IS) fighters out of the western town of al-Baghdadi, the US military says. The town, which was taken over by IS last month, is about 8km (5 miles) from a base housing hundreds of US troops who are training Iraqi soldiers.

IRAN

Iran has rejected as “excessive and illogical” a demand by US President Barack Obama that it freeze sensitive nuclear activity for at least 10 years. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was quoted saying Mr Obama spoke in “unacceptable and threatening” terms.

LIBYA

Islamist militants are reported to have seized two oil fields in central Libya, as rival groups fight for control of the country. Forces guarding the Bahi and Mabruk sites retreated after running out of ammunition. It is not clear which group seized the oil fields.

SYRIA

Fierce clashes are taking place in the Syrian city of Aleppo, near the Air Force Intelligence facility attacked by rebels last Wednesday, activists say. A security source was quoted as saying that government forces had launched an assault on rebel positions in the west of the city on Thursday morning.

The military chief of Syria’s al-Nusra Front militant group has been killed in an air strike, the jihadist group has said on social media. Three other leaders were killed along with Abu Homam al-Shami, it says. Syria’s state-run news agency said the army had targeted Nusra leaders as they met in northern Idlib province, the Associated Press reported.

The military chief of Syria’s al-Nusra Front has been killed in an air strike, according to social media accounts linked to the jihadist group. The online sources claim three other leaders died along with Abu Homam al-Shami.

ISRAEL

A Palestinian has rammed his car into a group of Israeli pedestrians in Jerusalem, injuring four policewomen and another bystander, police say. It happened on the seam of East and West Jerusalem, close to the site of a series of similar attacks last year.

TURKEY

A Tajik opposition leader has been shot dead by an unknown attacker in the Turkish city of Istanbul, Tajik opposition sources have said. Umarali Kuvatov had been living in exile in Turkey and was killed by a shot to the head late on Thursday.

AFRICA

Nigerian militant group Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS), according to an audio statement. The message, which has not been verified, was posted on Boko Haram’s Twitter account and is believed to be by the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau.

Suspected Boko Haram militants have killed at least 45 people in a village in Borno state, north-east Nigeria, witnesses have said. The gunmen who stormed Njaba targeted men and boys before setting the village on fire, survivors added. The raid happened early last Tuesday but was not reported immediately because of the remoteness of the area.

Leading Burundian dissident Hussein Radjabu has escaped from a prison where he was serving a 13-year term for plotting against the state. Mr Radjabu, a former head of the governing party, reportedly escaped with three prison officers. He was widely regarded as Burundi’s most powerful man until his arrest in 2007, amid a rumoured rift with President Pierre Nkurunziza.

A prominent constitutional lawyer has died after being shot outside a cafe in the Mozambican capital, Maputo. Gilles Cistac, of French origin, was a central figure in a sensitive debate about autonomy for Mozambique’s provinces and decentralising power.

Five Kano Pillars players have been shot by gunmen in an attack on the club’s entourage as they travelled to Owerri for the start of the new Nigerian Premier League season.

A former taxi driver from Virginia who was recently placed on the FBI’s list of most-wanted terrorists has been captured in Somalia, a U.S. law enforcement official said earlier last week. The official told The Associated Press that Liban Mohamed, 29, is in Somali custody. The official would not describe what efforts would be made to bring Mohamed to the United States for trial. […] Mohamed is charged with providing material support to al-Qaeda and the Somali-based group al- Shabaab, and is one of about 30 people on the FBI’s most-wanted list for terrorists. He was placed on the list about a month ago. Details of the charges against him remain under seal, but the FBI said it considered Mohamed’s arrest a priority because of his knowledge of the nation’s capital and
its landmarks.

Abuse and exploitation in areas under government control in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo are almost as bad as they were under rebel control, British charity Oxfam says. Villagers interviewed for an Oxfam report complained of abuses including extortion, forced labour, illegal taxation and arbitrary arrests.
Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete has vowed to end the killings of albinos, which he said had brought shame on the East African nation. “I’m shocked and saddened at the sudden upsurge in these macabre killings,” he is quoted as saying in a TV address.

Four people have been sentenced to death in Tanzania after being found guilty of murdering an albino woman. The four had killed the woman in 2008 because they believed her body parts had special powers, according to the judge in north-western town of Geita.

Tanzanian police have arrested 32 witchdoctors in the north-western Geita region as part of efforts to halt the killings of albinos.

A woman who was beaten to death in northern Nigeria on suspicion of being a suicide bomber was in fact mentally ill and not involved in terrorism, according to police and her family. Thabita Haruna, 33, was attacked by a mob a week last Sunday after she refused to be screened at a marketplace in Bauchi.

UKRAINE

The EU’s foreign policy chief has called for international efforts to make a fragile ceasefire for eastern Ukraine stick. Speaking ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers, Federica Mogherini insisted implementation of the Mink peace deal was “the way forward”. This comes after senior figures in the US Congress called for Washington to send lethal defence weapons to Ukraine.

A suspected methane gas blast at a coal mine in a rebel-held region of eastern Ukraine has killed at least 33 people and trapped approximately 30, officials say. At least 14 miners were also injured at the Zasyadko mine, which saw Ukraine’s worst mine disaster nearly eight years ago when 101 were killed.

RUSSIA

A court in Moscow has charged two men in connection with the murder of Russian opposition activist Boris Nemtsov. The two, named as Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadayev, are of Chechen origin, according to Russian media reports.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has called for an end to “shameful” political killings in Russia, after the shooting of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov just outside the Kremlin walls. He said the most serious attention should be paid to high-profile crimes.

CYPRUS

A bomb exploded at the main entrance of a first-floor house owned by a 29-year-old man from Limassol early on Tuesday. Police said the bomb, which was a high-powered improvised explosive device, went off at around 2.30am. The entrance to the house was damaged extensively and windows of nearby homes were shattered. Limassol CID is investigating.

SOUTH KOREA

A militant Korean nationalist has slashed the face of the US ambassador to South Korea at a breakfast meeting in Seoul, but the envoy was not seriously hurt. Mark Lippert, 42, was also cut on his left hand, with blood spattered over the breakfast table. Security officers subdued the attacker, one pinning him down with a shoe on his neck, until he was arrested. North Korea has described the attack as “just punishment for US warmongers”.

South Korean police say they are seeking charges of attempted murder against a man who slashed the US ambassador to Seoul. Ambassador Mark Lippert is recovering in hospital after Kim Ki-jong attacked him with a knife on Thursday.

NORTH KOREA

A pastor from a Canadian church has been detained by North Korea, Canada has confirmed to his family and church. Reverend Hyeon Soo Lim, 60, was a regular traveller to North Korea where his church said he was engaged in humanitarian work. He has not been heard from since he arrived at the end of January.

JAPAN

Five people have died in a stabbing attack in the western Japanese city of Sumoto, local media report. A 40-year-old unemployed man was arrested for allegedly attacking the victims at a farmstead early this morning, according to police.

BANGLADESH

Customs officials in Bangladesh have seized gold worth around $1.7m (£1.1m) from the hand luggage of a North Korean diplomat. Son Young-nam, first secretary at the North Korean embassy in Dhaka, landed in the city on a flight from Singapore on Thursday night.

INDONESIA

Two Australian men convicted of leading the Bali Nine drug smuggling ring have been moved to the Indonesian island where they are due to be executed. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are among a group of foreigners expected to face a firing squad in the coming days.

TAIWAN

A Taiwanese court has sentenced a man to death for killing four people and injuring 22 others in a knife attack in the Taipei underground last May. Cheng Chieh used a long fruit knife to stab fellow passengers during a Metro ride, before others overpowered him. The 21-year-old pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder charges.

MALI

Five people have been killed in a machine-gun and grenade attack on a nightclub in Mali’s capital, Bamako. A BBC correspondent at the scene says a French national was shot dead at La Terrasse bar. Two Malian men were killed as the gunmen fled the scene. A Belgian man died when a grenade was thrown at his car in a nearby street. A third European died in hospital. Witnesses say the attackers shouted “God is Great” in Arabic (“Allahu Akbar”).

A rocket attack on a United Nations base in northern Mali has killed a peacekeeper and two civilians. The peacekeeper died when about 30 rockets struck the base in the desert town of Kidal, said the UN mission.

NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand is conducting mass surveillance over its Pacific neighbours, reports citing documents leaked by US whistleblower Edward Snowden say. Calls, emails and social media messages were being collected from Pacific nations, the New Zealand Herald said. The data was shared with other members of the “Five Eyes” network – the US, Australia, Britain and Canada.

ITALY

The head of Vatican security said Islamic State militants have threatened the Vatican, but there are no indications of any planned attack. “There are not only the threats of the Islamic State, but also the risk of action by individuals, which is more dangerous because it is unpredictable,” he said in an interview for the March edition of Polizia Moderna, the monthly magazine of the Italian state police. For months, there have been rumours of threats against the Vatican or Pope Francis by the Islamic State militants who are attacking Christians, other religious minorities and Muslims they do not agree with in Syria and Iraq. […] The commander of the Vatican police force said, “The threat exists. That is what has emerged in meetings with my Italian and foreign colleagues. But the existence of a threat is one thing and planning an attack is another. At this time, we have not been informed of any plans to attack the Vatican or the Holy Father.”

FRANCE

Ten more drones have been spotted flying over Paris and reports say police are searching for four men after a chase in the east of the city. The latest drones were seen hovering near the Eiffel Tower and several other areas further away from the centre. Some 60 drones have been sighted since October, over nuclear installations and central Paris, the government says.

GERMANY

Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) is dealing with what media have described as its own “Watergate” scandal, after taps were removed from its unfinished new Berlin headquarters. The removal happened on Tuesday and left large parts of the building flooded, police say. An investigation has begun into the theft, but police have so far found no signs of a break-in. The incident is seen as embarrassing for the BND, as well as expensive.

COLOMBIA

Colombian officials have detained the captain of a Chinese ship bound for Cuba for illegally carrying explosives and other arms. The ship was stopped over the weekend in the Caribbean port of Cartagena, the attorney general’s office said. About 100 tonnes of gunpowder, almost three million detonators and some 3,000 cannon shells were found on board the Da Dan Xia, officials said. But according to the ship’s records, it was carrying grain products.

Colombia’s government and Farc rebels have agreed to work together to remove landmines in rural areas of the country where they have fought since the 1960s. The announcement was made in Cuba, where both sides have been engaged in peace talks for more than two years.

BRAZIL

A judge in Brazil has been suspended from a high-profile case against Eike Batista, a tycoon who is accused of insider trading, officials say. Flavio Roberto de Souza was deemed unfit to continue because he was caught driving home in Mr Batista’s Porsche.

BOLIVIA

Bolivia’s former top policeman who had previously been in charge of its counter-narcotics force is being held on suspicion of illicit enrichment and links to the drugs trade. Gen Oscar Nina led Bolivia’s national police force from 2010 until 2011. His wife, daughter and son were also arrested and have been charged with illicit enrichment.

MEXICO

Omar Trevino Morales, leader of the notorious Zetas drugs cartel in Mexico, has been captured by security forces. He was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday in the city of Monterrey in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, police said.

CANADA

The gunman who shot dead a Canadian soldier and tried to storm parliament last year was protesting against Canada’s military role overseas. In a video newly released by police and made by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shortly before the attacks, he cites Iraq and Afghanistan. He said he wanted to show that Canadian soldiers were “not even safe in your own land”.

In Canada, the lawyer for one of two men accused of plotting to derail a passenger train between Canada and the U.S. says his client was never actually interested in carrying out terrorist activities. He said that Raed Jaser was really only ever interested in extracting money from his co-accused and undercover FBI agent who joined their alleged plan. Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier face several terror-related charges in the alleged plot to derail a Via Rail train travelling from New York to Toronto.

USA

Leading Republicans and Democrats have urged President Barack Obama to provide lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine in its fight against pro-Russian rebels. In a letter, House Speaker John Boehner and other lawmakers said Russia’s actions in Ukraine were a “grotesque violation of international law”.

The US will continue to keep an eye on “destabilising” acts by Iran, despite moves towards a nuclear deal, Secretary of State John Kerry has said. Mr Kerry made the comments on a visit to the Saudi capital Riyadh, where he sought to ease concerns among Gulf nations about the talks.

A Cardinal in the U.S. has compared Islamic State to the IRA, saying militants terrorising the Middle East are a distortion of “genuine” Islam, just as the Irish Republican Army was a “perversion” of Catholicism. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, drew the parallel in an interview with CNN. […] Cardinal Dolan’s views are in line with President Barack Obama, who last month said religion was not responsible for terrorism and radical groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State had warped Islam into twisted ideologies.

Reported 4th March 2015 – The trial of the man accused of planting bombs close to the finish line of the Boston Marathon two years ago gets under way in the city shortly. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, denies more than 30 counts of using a weapon of mass destruction. Three people, including an eight-year-old boy, were killed after two pressure cooker bombs packed with nails, ball bearings and other shrapnel detonated.

The defence team for the alleged Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, made a stunning admission at the beginning of his trial on 4 March saying, “It was him … We’re all going to come face to face with unbearable grief, loss and pain caused by a series of senseless, horribly misguided acts carried out by two brothers, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother, 19-year- old Dzhokhar,” the defense attorney told the court. “We do not and will not at any point in this case sidestep or attempt to sidestep Dzhokhar’s responsibility for his actions. We think the question of ‘why’ is important.” She said it was that facet, the motive behind the deadly bombing, where the defence disagrees with the prosecution.

A Pakistani man was found guilty on 4 March in federal court in Brooklyn of a failed al-Qaeda bomb plot after a New York trial that featured spies in disguise, evidence from the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound and the defendant’s questioning of an admitted co-conspirator. No date was set for sentencing. Abid Naseer was first arrested in 2009 in Britain on charges that he was part of a terror cell plotting to blow up a shopping mall in Manchester, England. The charges were dropped after a British court found there was insufficient evidence, but U.S. prosecutors later named him in an indictment that alleged a broader conspiracy that included a failed plot to attack the New York City subway. After his re-arrest and extradition to the United States in 2013, Naseer pleaded not guilty to providing and conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaeda and conspiring to use a destructive device.

A California man accused of trying to travel to Syria to join ISIL was indicted last week, charged with attempting to support terror and other counts. Adam Dandach, 21, of Orange, California, was arrested last July and initially charged in a complaint of making false statements on a passport application with plans to fly from Orange County’s John Wayne Airport to Istanbul, Turkey, and eventually reach Syria, the FBI said.

CYBER ISSUES:

US prosecutors have charged two Vietnamese and a Canadian for their roles in what they claim is one of the biggest data breaches in US history. It’s alleged that they stole nearly a billion email addresses by hacking into eight email service providers. They used the data to spam tens of millions of people and sell them fake products, netting over $2m (£1.3m).

Major security vulnerabilities in the Federal Aviation Administration’s information systems are putting air traffic control programs, along with plane passengers, at risk, two U.S. senators said in a letter to the transportation secretary last week. “These vulnerabilities have potential to compromise the safety and efficiency of the national airspace system, which the traveling public relies on each and every day,” Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, and Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, wrote to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

A month after detecting a data breach, Anthem, a Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) federal employee benefit provider, either does not know or won’t comment publicly on how many federal employee plan members are affected by the hack. Over the past week, Anthem has disclosed more details on the extent of a December 2014 database compromise that allowed unidentified attackers to view sensitive personal information. The incident is now known to have affected current members of Anthem’s own federal benefits BCBS plan, which includes 1.3 million individuals, according to the company’s website.

SIGNIFICANT ANNIVERSARIES:

9 March 1994 Provisional IRA launched improvised mortars at Heathrow Airport with further attacks taking place on 11 and 13 March.
9 March 2015 Commonwealth Day
11 March 2004 Ten bombs explode on morning rush hour trains in Madrid killing 200
15 March 2015 Mothering Sunday – UK only
16 March 1988 Murder of Kurdish villagers at Halabja by Iraqi troops using chemical weapons
16 March 1984 William Buckley, a U.S. national, kidnapped and killed by Hezbollah
17 March 1992 Car bomb at Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires kills 28, injures 220
17 March 1968 Grosvenor Square massed riots directed against the U.S. Embassy during an anti-Vietnam war rally
17 March 1968 Grosvenor Square massed riots directed against the U.S. Embassy during an anti-Vietnam war rally.
17 March 2015 St Patrick’s Day
19 March 2007 Suicide bomber attacks U.S. convoy in Afghanistan killing 2 officials. Taliban claimed responsibility.
19 March 1982 Argentinean actions result in the start of the Falklands War – 1982
20 March 2003 Invasion of Iraq by US/British troops to remove Saddam Hussein
20 March 1995 Sarin Nerve gas attack on Tokyo subway kills 12 and sickens 5,000.
21 March 2015 Nowruz – Afghanistan/Iran New Year
21 March 1985 Founding day of E.R.N.K. (political wing of the Kurdish PKK)
24 March 1986 U.S. retaliation against Libyan aggression during naval exercise in Gulf of Sirte
27 March 2001 Abdelmajid Dahoumane arrested for role in plot to attack Los Angeles International Airport on 31 December 1999
29 March 2010 Some 40 killed and 60 wounded as two female [Chechen] suicide bombers attack two Metro stations in Moscow.
29 March 2015 British Summer Time begins – clock in the UK go forward 1 hour
29 Marh 2015 Christian festival – Palm Sunday
30 March 1979 British MP, Airey Neave, killed by under vehicle bomb as he drove out of the Palace of Westminster. Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility.

Dilitas Weekly Security Brief

March 11, 2015 Dilitas Admin

The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is SEVERE
The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is MODERATE

SEVERE means that a terrorist attack is highly likely;
SUBSTANTIAL means that a terrorist attack is a strong possibility;
MODERATE, means that a terrorist attack is possible, but not likely.

DOMESTIC:

Reported 26th February 2015 – The masked Islamic State militant known as “Jihadi John”, who has been pictured in the videos of the beheadings of Western hostages, has been named. He is Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born British man in his mid-20s from west London, who was previously known to British security services. British police declined to comment, citing ongoing investigations.

The world knows him as “Jihadi John,” the masked man with a British accent who has beheaded several hostages held by the Islamic State and who taunts audiences in videos circulated widely online. But his real name, according to friends and others familiar with his case, is Mohammed Emwazi, a Briton from a well-to-do family who grew up in West London and graduated from college with a degree in computer programming. He is believed to have traveled to Syria around 2012 and to have later joined the Islamic State, the group whose barbarity he has come to symbolize. “I have no doubt that Mohammed is Jihadi John,” said one of Emwazi’s close friends who identified him in an interview with The Washington Post. “He was like a brother to me. . . . I am sure it is him.”

Russia has become a danger to Britain and the country must be prepared to take steps to defend itself and its allies, the former head of MI6 says. Sir John Sawers, who recently retired after five years as chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Russia poses a “state to state threat”.

A 22-year-old man was arrested 25 February by anti-terrorism officers in north London on suspicion of funding individuals fighting in Syria. A police spokesman said he was taken to a central London police station, where he remains in custody. Officers were reported as searching two addresses in north London. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said, “The investigation is in relation to the alleged funding of individuals engaged in the Syrian conflict. Enquiries are continuing.”

The most secretive criminal case since the Second World War resumed at the Old Bailey last week with a new jury being sworn in to hear terrorism allegations against Erol Incedal. The 26-year-old London law student faces a retrial after a jury failed to reach a verdict last year on a charge of preparing to commit acts of terrorism.

A man accused of planning a Mumbai-style terror attack in the UK had the address of a property owned by Tony Blair, the Old Bailey has heard. The retrial of Erol Incedal, from London, heard how police had found the address on a piece of paper in a glasses case in his car. He denies intending to commit a terrorist act and is being retried after jurors failed to agree on a verdict at a trial last year.

Britain’s nuclear plants are at risk from a terrorist strike by unmanned drone aircraft. Such an attack could kill tens of thousands of people, a Government adviser has warned. But the authorities are “burying their heads in the sand,” according to John Large. His call for an urgent security overhaul comes as figures showed that nuclear power plants suffered 37 security breaches last year […] Islamic State terrorists have already recruited chemical weapons specialists and counterterrorism experts say they are intent on building a “dirty bomb”. […] Large, who has advised the French government after a growing number of mysterious unmanned flights over that country’s nuclear plants, said drones also pose a risk to the UK’s 16 operational reactors.

The committee monitoring the security services has been taken in by the “glamour” of spying and is failing to do its job, its founder has said. Conservative MP David Davis said the Intelligence and Security Committee had been “captured by the agencies they are supposed to be overseeing”.

A British-based Nepalese army officer ordered the torture of two suspected rebels during the country’s civil war, the Old Bailey has heard. Lt Col Kumar Lama, 47, who now lives in St Leonard’s, East Sussex, was in charge of a barracks in Nepal at the height of the conflict in April 2005. He is accused of ordering the torture of Janak Raut and Karam Hussain, who were believed to be Maoist Communists.

Seven British men who died in the 2013 Algerian hostage crisis were “unlawfully killed”, the judge in an inquest into their deaths has recorded. The inquest heard “unnecessary and unintentional” delays meant government intelligence about terror plots to kidnap British workers in Algeria was not passed on before the armed siege. On 16 January 2013, gunmen linked to al-Qaeda attacked the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria, taking staff hostage. In all, 40 staff and 29 militants died.

Bogus Islamic charity collectors are targeting moderate UK Muslims to fund criminal and terrorist activities, it is feared. They are using intimidation to raise money allegedly for charities helping victims of the Syrian civil war and are “abusing” Muslims who refuse to donate. Police and counter terror authorities have warned that the unregistered Islamic charities are operating door to door collections and have even solicited drivers when they stop at traffic lights. Muslims who refuse to hand over cash are accused of not supporting their communities or of being “ supporters of the Israelis.”

A former Syrian doctor who was discovered with a hoard of explosive ingredients and instructions on how to make bombs was not a terrorist but a “Walter Mitty character”, the Edinburgh High Court has heard. Faris al-Khori, 62, had chemicals, ball bearings, bolts and nuts and a bag of toxic beans that could have been used to produce the poison Ricin at two properties in Edinburgh. He also had a small quantity of a highly-volatile explosive which the Forensic Explosives Laboratory refused to take delivery of because it was so dangerous. The haul was found by accident after firefighters attended a 999 call over a fire in a rubbish chute on the 11th floor of a tower block in the Muirhouse area of the Scottish capital.

NORTHERN IRELAND AND EIRE:

A former soldier has pleaded guilty to having improvised explosive devices at his County Antrim home. John Rankin, 52, admitted having a nail bomb and six blast bombs between 1 January, 2013 and 24 January, 2014. Earlier this month, he pleaded guilty to possessing three blank firing automatic pistols. He has been released on bail to be sentenced on 18 March. While no details about the case against Rankin were heard at Belfast Crown Court on 20 February, a previous court hearing was told that police searched his home after a parcel containing three pistols was intercepted in England.

Officials say a Northern Ireland man has suffered serious wounds when a booby-trapped bomb exploded as he removed a sign bearing threats from an Irish Republican Army faction. The Irish nationalist Sinn Féin party says the man may lose an eye after a blast (25 Feb) near Crossmaglen, a Northern Ireland border town long known as a power base for the outlawed IRA

INTERNATIONAL:

ISIS

Islamic State has acquired a cache of deadly chemical weapons in Libya which pose a significant threat to European security, a British expert has warned. According to Middle East reports, the terror group has unconfirmed quantities of Sarin and mustard gas after defeating government forces in southern and central Libya. A former British Army officer told The Mail on Sunday that the weapons remain dangerous, even though they are likely to be ten years old, and in a degraded state. He said that he based his warning on President Assad’s use of one tonne of Sarin in Ghouta, Syria, in August 2013, which killed as many as 1,000 people.

Islamic militant sect, ISIS, which has been rampaging across the north and west of Iraq since last month, has been demolishing sacred sites such as shrines and mosques around the historic northern city of Mosul in Nineveh province. Photographs from the area posted online under the banner “Demolishing shrines and idols in the state of Nineveh” depicted mosques being turned into piles of rubble – explosives deployed against Shiite buildings – and bulldozers flattening the shrines. At least four shrines to Sunni Arab or Sufi figures have been destroyed by the bulldozers, according to AFP. The structures had been built around graves of Muslim saints. Six Shiite mosques have also been destroyed using explosives.

The Mediterranean could see a return of Somalia-style piracy from fighters loyal to ISIS, experts have warned last week. A report by the Italian Ministry of Defence said that ISIS had already taken control of Libyan ports and boats and, “could repeat the scenario that has dominated the maritime region between Somalia and Aden for the last ten years”. It added, “Speed boats could attack fishing boats, cruise ships, small merchant ships, as well as coast guards in this case more to capture prisoners to exhibit in orange jumpsuits.” A Rear Admiral warned that ISIS pirates would pose a greater danger to shipping and yachting than the Somalis because they are more sufficiently armed.

IRAQ

Iraq has launched a military operation to recapture Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit from Islamic State (IS), Iraqi TV says. Local media reported that forces were attacking the city, backed by airstrikes from Iraqi fighter jets.

AFGHANISTAN

A suicide attack on a Turkish embassy vehicle in Kabul has killed at least one person, Afghan officials say. The bomber rammed a vehicle carrying explosives into the car in the Afghan capital’s diplomatic quarter, killing a Turkish soldier. The bomber also died. The Taliban later said it carried out the attack, with a spokesman saying the target was “a convoy of US troops”.

PAKISTAN

Pakistan’s mobile phone users must provide their fingerprints for a national identity database or lose their ability to make and receive calls as part of new counter-terrorism measures. Amid growing concerns about the use of illegal and untraceable SIM cards by terrorist cells, phone users who refuse to provide their fingerprints and other biometric information risk having their phone accounts switched off on April 15. Pakistani source state that mobile phone subscribers has grown from about 5 million in 2003 to about 136 million today.

AFRICA

Hundreds of boys in South Sudan have been kidnapped and forced to become child soldiers, the United Nations children’s agency says. The figure is a big increase on the 89 child abductions reported by Unicef last month. Their latest statement blamed a militia group allied to the government.

Four Thai nationals seized from a fishing vessel by Somali pirates nearly five years ago have been released, the UN and local officials have said. It is believed that they spent longer in captivity than any other victims of Somali piracy.

A girl as young as eight is believed to be responsible for a bomb attack on a Nigerian market in which five were killed and dozens injured as defeated Boko Haram militants flee the region. The attack took place at a security check outside a market in the northeast Nigerian town of Potiskum. It’s the third incident this year in which children have been used to carry out attacks in Nigeria. A witness told Reuters that the girl, strapped with explosives, “let the bomb off, killing herself and five others, while many were injured”.

An American missionary in Nigeria has been kidnapped in what authorities call a “purely criminal” act. The Kogi state Police Commissioner said that five men kidnapped the woman from her workplace and are demanding a ransom of 60 million Naira ($301,500). Kogi state is located away from the areas where Boko Haram operates, making it likely that the kidnapping is not related to terrorism. But there is also the possibility that an offshoot group could sell her on to another group.

Two suicide bombers who carried out an attack at a Mogadishu hotel popular with ministers and officials were Dutch nationals, Somali intelligence sources have said. They believe both suicide bombers – a man and a woman – were Dutch-Somali citizens who infiltrated the Central Hotel close to the Presidential palace ahead of the attack, which killed 25 people on 20 February. The woman “worked part time in the hotel for up to four months”, according to an intelligence report seen by AFP.

A mob beat a woman to death in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Bauchi in the belief that she was a suicide bomber, police and witnesses say. The woman – said to be a teenager – was attacked when she refused to be screened at the entrance to a market. No explosives were found on her.

RUSSIA

Reported Saturday 28th February 2015 – A leading Russian opposition politician, former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, has been shot dead in Moscow, Russian officials say. An unidentified attacker in a car shot Mr Nemtsov four times in the back as he crossed a bridge in view of the Kremlin, police say. He died hours after appealing for support for a march on Sunday in Moscow against the war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned the murder, the Kremlin says. President Putin has assumed “personal control” of the investigation into the killing, said his spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Russia has signed an agreement with Cyprus to give Russian navy ships access to Cypriot ports. Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed the deal after talks with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades. The deal comes as tensions between Russia and Western countries over the Ukrainian conflict continue. President Putin said that other countries should not be concerned and that the port’s main use would be for counter-terrorism and anti-piracy.

CZECH REPUBLIC

A gunman opened fire at a restaurant in the eastern town of Uhersky Brod, killing eight people before shooting himself dead, officials say. The man burst into the Druzba restaurant and started “shooting indiscriminately”, mayor Patrik Kuncar said. Police described it as the worst mass shooting incident on record. Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said it was not a terrorist attack. Some 20 people were thought to have been in the restaurant at the time. A waitress who was shot in the chest by the gunman is in a serious condition in hospital. The suspect has been described as a local man in his 60s.

FRANCE

French authorities have been left puzzled by sightings of at least five unexplained drones flying over Paris. The first drone was spotted in the skies above the US embassy in the early hours of Tuesday morning, a security source said. Others were later seen over the Eiffel Tower and the Place de la Concorde. Their appearance marked the latest in a series of unexplained drone sightings across France. A security source said there have “never been so many drones appearing in one night”.

Three Al-Jazeera journalists have been arrested for the alleged illegal flying of a drone in Paris after being spotted by police in the Bois de Boulogne area. A spokesman for prosecutors said there was “no relationship for the moment” between the arrests and mysterious drone flights over the city at night.

BANGLADESH

Attackers in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka have hacked to death a US-Bangladeshi blogger whose writings on religion angered Islamist hardliners. Avijit Roy, an atheist who advocated secularism, was attacked as he walked back from a book fair with his wife, who was also hurt in the attack. No-one has been arrested but police say they are investigating a local Islamist group that praised the killing.

NORTH KOREA

A North Korea shipping company has been renaming and reflagging its vessels so it can evade an arms embargo, a UN report has said. North Korea is subject to strict sanctions because of its nuclear weapons programme.

North Korea fired two short-range missiles into the sea as annual US-South Korea military exercises got under way, officials in Seoul say. The two missiles, with a range of 490km (305 miles), were fired from the western city of Nampo into the sea east of the Korean peninsula, the South Korean military said. The drills, involving tens of thousands of troops, always anger Pyongyang.

THAILAND

The parents of a former Thai princess have been detained under the lese majeste law, the strict defamation rules that protect the royal family. Srirasmi Suwadee’s parents confessed that they had misused royal connections to have their former neighbour jailed on a bogus fraud charge 12 years ago. Ms Srirasmi, who is divorced from Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, has now seen nine relatives arrested.

AUSTRALIA

Up to 40 Australian women have taken part in terror attacks or are supporting militant groups, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has said. She told parliament an increasing number of women were going to Syria and Iraq to join husbands fighting with Islamic State (IS) or marry a militant. Dozens of Australian nationals are thought to have joined IS. Australian officials are worried about the effect of returnees, and on those who support them, on domestic security.

FRANCE

Eight men have been jailed over a double heist on the Harry Winston store in Paris that netted watches and jewels worth more than $100m (£65m). The sentences ranged from nine months to the 15-year term given to the man believed to be the mastermind, Douadi Yahiaoui, nicknamed “Doudou”.

ARGENTINA

Argentina’s Congress has approved a bill to scrap the country’s intelligence agency. The Intelligence Secretariat will be replaced with a new federal agency that will be accountable to Congress.

COLOMBIA

Reported 28th February 2015 – The former head of Colombia’s secret police, Maria del Pilar Hurtado, has been found guilty of spying on politicians, judges and journalists. The Supreme Court said Hurtado’s sentence would be announced in 15 days.

MEXICO

Mexican police have captured the country’s most wanted drug lord, Servando “La Tuta” Gomez. Mr Gomez, leader of the Knights Templar drug cartel, was arrested in Morelia in Michoacan state without a shot fired.

USA

A one-time al-Qaeda chieftain and aide of Osama bin Laden was found guilty last week of conspiring to kill Americans in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. Khaled al- Fawwaz was convicted on four counts of conspiracy by an anonymous Manhattan federal court jury for his role in the attacks that killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans. He led an al- Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in the early 1990s and later served as bin Laden’s spokesman in London.New York juries have convicted five other people in the embassy attacks. Al-Fawwaz had been scheduled to stand trial with a co-defendant, Abu Anas al-Libi, but he died last month after a long illness.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has questioned the judgement of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu over his stance on Iran’s nuclear programme. Mr Netanyahu has criticised the US and others for “giving up” on trying to stop Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. The Israeli PM “may not be correct”, Mr Kerry said after attending the latest Iran nuclear Argentina’s Congress has approved a bill to scrap the country’s intelligence agency.

The head of the US Army says he is “very concerned” about the impact of spending cuts on the UK’s armed forces. Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno voiced his reservations about the falling proportion of the UK’s national wealth being spent on the military. He warned it could see British units operating within US ranks, rather than divisions working alongside each other.

The FBI has arrested three foreign nationals living in Brooklyn who agents say sought to join the Islamic State. Two of the men had threatened to kill police officers and FBI agents in the US if they were unable to travel to Syria, the FBI said. The men came to the authorities’ attention after they posted to Uzbek-language websites in recent months. In one post, they pledged to kill US President Barack Obama, the FBI said.

The trial of a Pakistani man accused of plotting bomb attacks in the US and the UK has seen documents seized during the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound. The documents referred to planned attacks in Britain, Europe and Russia, a US court heard. Abid Naseer, 28, stands accused of orchestrating an al-Qaeda conspiracy to attack Manchester and New York. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied he was involved in any violent extremism.

A U.S. court in New York has found the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian Authority liable for attacks in Israel over 10 years ago. Six attacks in and around Jerusalem killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more during the second Palestinian intifada between 2002 and 2004. The jury awarded victims of the attacks more than $218m. The Palestinian groups expressed dismay at the court’s decision and vowed they would appeal. As some of the victims were American citizens, the lawsuit was filed in a U.S. court. After deliberating for a day, jurors ruled in favor of 10 American families who were seeking damages related to the six attacks. The
Israeli government has denied any official involvement in the lawsuit.

Two men convicted of seeking to join al-Qaeda and training to carry out attacks on Americans in Afghanistan were sentenced on 23 February to 25 years in federal prison, the U.S. Justice Department said. The two former Southern Californian men, Sohiel Omar Kabir, 37, and Ralph Deleon, 26, were said to have trained at firearms and paintball facilities in Southern California to prepare for their mission. They were found guilty in federal court in September of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder U.S. military and government
personnel.

The US Homeland Security Department has avoided a partial shutdown as Congress passed a one-week funding extension, hours before a midnight deadline. The House of Representatives voted 357-60 in favour of the short-term bill after it had been passed in the Senate.

A top official at the U.S. Justice Department has said that he is willing to indict people who assist ISIL with its use and production of social media, the Daily Beast reports, saying that the announcement raises questions about where the government would draw the line between support for a terrorist group and legally-protected free speech. John Carlin, the assistant attorney general for national security, told a cyber-security conference in Washington that officials could try to blunt ISIL’s violent PR operation by essentially trying propagandists as terrorists. He suggested the Justice Department could bring prosecutions under the law against providing material support to a terrorist organisation.

Eight people are dead and one person has been injured after a series of shootings in south-central Missouri. Police made the discoveries on late Thursday at five different homes in or near the small town of Tyrone after an emergency call.

CYBER ISSUES:

US intelligence agencies have placed cyber attacks from foreign governments and criminals at the top of their list of threats to the country. Online assaults would increasingly undermine US economic competitiveness and national security, according to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. A report issued by his office said Russia’s military was setting up a cyber command to carry out attacks. The report also describes China, Iran and North Korea as leading threats. The idea that major infrastructure such as financial networks or power grids could be disabled by hackers now looked less probable, he said. However he warned: “We foresee an ongoing series of low-to-moderate level cyber attacks from a variety of sources over time, which will impose cumulative costs on US economic competitiveness and national security.”

Last week, Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) coordinated a joint international operation from its operational center in The Hague, which targeted the Ramnit botnet that had infected 3.2 million computers around the world. The operation involved investigators from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK along with partners from private industry. This botnet – a term used to describe a network of infected computers – was used by the criminals running it to gain
remote access and control of the infected computers, enabling them to steal personal and banking information, namely passwords, and disable anti-virus protection. This malware, infecting users running Windows operating systems, explored different infection vectors such as links contained in spam emails or by visiting infected websites.

On 25 February, President Obama directed the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to establish the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC). The CTIIC will be a national intelligence center focused on “connecting the dots” regarding malicious foreign cyber threats to the nation and cyber incidents affecting U.S. national interests, and on providing all-source analysis of threats to U.S. policymakers. The CTIIC will also assist relevant departments and agencies in their efforts to identify, investigate, and mitigate those threats.

A teenager not even old enough to drive a car was able to wirelessly connect to a vehicle’s internal computer network and control various functions. The 14-year-old built an electronic remote auto communications device with $15 worth of Radio Shack parts that were assembled in less than a night. Auto executives at a conference last week sponsored by the Centre for Automotive Research revealed how stunned they were by the feat, which actually happened last summer, noting it shed light on the need for greater security as vehicles gain more wireless capabilities. The boy was among 30 other students ranging in age from high school to college undergraduates to PhD students who participated in the third annual Battelle CyberAuto Challenge. The year, make and models of the cars experimented on during the challenge were not disclosed.

AND FINALLY

In Avon and Somerset, UK, two 16-year-olds were magnet fishing off a bridge in a nature reserve at Greylake on the Somerset Levels when they came across a cache of weapons. Press reports states that among the haul were parts of a Nazi MG 42 light machine gun, AK47’s, an M16 and a Czech-made SA23 9mm submachine gun. After throwing most of the weapons backs in the water, one boy decided to keep a 1930s Smith & Wesson revolver that he took home. On seeing it, his stunned mother […] immediately called police. This resulted in police dredging the river the following day to recover the rest of the weapons. A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police later said, “None of the weapons were complete, and they were extremely rusty and very old. All of the weapon parts have been or are being destroyed.” Experts claimed the weapons could have been used by the IRA during The Troubles, but they may have been dumped when paramilitaries were meant to be declaring arms in 2001. Former SAS sergeant Andy McNab said the fact that some of the weapons had large machine gun barrels, meant it could be the IRA. A police spokesman however suggested they may have come from a former weapons factory in the area and possibly dated back to the Second World War.

CNN has apologised for a technical glitch that showed an image of Vladimir Putin during a news segment on an alleged Isis executioner known as Jihadi John. A picture of the masked man, who appears in beheading videos of at least five hostages, was followed by an image of the Russian prime minister looking somewhat annoyed. Putin’s face flashed up on screen during the live news broadcast above a caption that read: “Jihadi John identified”.

SIGNIFICANT ANNIVERSARIES:

2 March 2002 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda.
4 March 2001 The Real IRA mounts a car bomb attack on the BBC offices in Wood Lane, London W12. The device was contained in rear of black taxi left abandoned outside building – 2001
8 March 1995 Two American diplomats are shot dead by gunmen in Karachi, Pakistan.
8 March 1973 Two car bombs explode in London (Old Bailey and Whitehall). Two other VBIEDs were made safe. These attacks marked the start date of the Provisional IRA’s mainland offensive that continued (more or less) until the 1997 ceasefire.
9 March 1994 Provisional IRA launched improvised mortars at Heathrow Airport with further attacks taking place on 11 and 13 March.
9 March 2015 Commonwealth Day
11 March 2004 Ten bombs explode on morning rush hour trains in Madrid killing 200
15 March 2015 Mothering Sunday – UK only
16 March 1988 Murder of Kurdish villagers at Halabja by Iraqi troops using chemical weapons
16 March 1984 William Buckley, a U.S. national, kidnapped and killed by Hezbollah
17 March 1992 Car bomb at Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires kills 28, injures 220
17 March 1968 Grosvenor Square massed riots directed against the U.S. Embassy during an anti-Vietnam war rally
17 March 1968 Grosvenor Square massed riots directed against the U.S. Embassy during an anti-Vietnam war rally.
17 March 2015 St Patrick’s Day
19 March 2007 Suicide bomber attacks U.S. convoy in Afghanistan killing 2 officials. Taliban claimed responsibility.
19 March 1982 Argentinean actions result in the start of the Falklands War – 1982
20 March 2003 Invasion of Iraq by US/British troops to remove Saddam Hussein
20 March 1995 Sarin Nerve gas attack on Tokyo subway kills 12 and sickens 5,000.
21 March 2015 Nowruz – Afghanistan/Iran New Year
21 March 1985 Founding day of E.R.N.K. (political wing of the Kurdish PKK)
24 March 1986 U.S. retaliation against Libyan aggression during naval exercise in Gulf of Sirte
27 March 2001 Abdelmajid Dahoumane arrested for role in plot to attack Los Angeles International Airport on 31 December 1999
29 March 2010 Some 40 killed and 60 wounded as two female [Chechen] suicide bombers attack two Metro stations in Moscow.
29 March 2015 British Summer Time begins – clock in the UK go forward 1 hour
29 Marh 2015 Christian festival – Palm Sunday
30 March 1979 British MP, Airey Neave, killed by under vehicle bomb as he drove out of the Palace of Westminster. Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility.

The Enemy Within! Due Diligence & Corporate Survival

March 11, 2015 Dilitas Admin

In the dynamic and popular end of the security world, in the land of fast cars, operators dressed in black sliding up and down buildings and constant, dynamic, heart stopping action, the “enemy” is pretty easy to spot and, hopefully, quickly and deftly dealt with in a positive, profitable and cost effective manner.

However, as you move steadily through our world, you leave the tumultuous waters of Close Protection, Surveillance, and “Q Department” technology to eventually drift into the more gentle and slow moving back waters, where the chiseled jawed, suave, security operator is seldom, indeed if ever, seen.

For here, Dear Reader, is the land of the Personnel Professional, where we find, standing at the gates of the corporate citadel, the mighty Human Resources Manager.

Like the doughty, fearless, thick limbed heroes of the Norse Sagas’, the Human Resources Manager stands, double headed axe in hand, shield strung across a broad back, as the gate keeper of the company citadel.

This being ultimate bulwark against which all footpads, miscreants and ne’er do wells’ will cast themselves in a fruitless effort, to pass said Manager and gain entry into the corporate citadel!

Errrrrr, well no, actually!

This is the unsecured Portal through which the enemy will be welcomed and given entry, unchecked, unseen and unsuspected.

Unseen Enemy

If you look back at history, every kingdom, and mighty realm was brought to its knees by an unseen enemy; the traitor within with free, unfettered access, trusted and beloved by the majority, suspected by only the few, all of whom suffered ultimately from the backlash of the majority.

Your company is no different from these kingdoms of old. You cannot conceive that someone within your organisation could be engaged in activities, which will damage or destroy your company, can you?

Well wake up and smell the smoldering cordite and tumbling masonry. It can, it will and it probably is as you are reading this. Like cancer, you will only know of the problem when it’s too late and untreatable.

To focus your minds on the truth that lay before you, here is a tale about an international accountancy firm, who recruited an employee from Iran and who quickly achieved a prime position within the Corporate Finance Dept.

The recruit spent 12 years providing Human Resources with total waffle relating to his background and previous employment, all disguised in the mists of “I can’t really tell you, as my family were loyal to the Shah and if any of my real details fall into the current regimes hands then my family and I would be potentially repatriated and executed”.

Most of the cynical security professionals reading this are now moaning loudly and churning out expletives, but the HR department actually believed him. The employee was allowed to continue without providing the same level and quantity of personal details as colleagues. Finally, after 12 years of poor performance, incompetence and under performing, HR summoned up the courage and placed him on Garden Leave, preparatory to dismissal from the firm.

I hear your mighty cheer, Dear Reader, but wait; your excitement is ill founded and premature.

Damage

HR, feeling exultant in a job well done, retired for the weekend without briefing security of the employees’ down graded status nor having his access prevented. As you correctly guess, the employee returned to the office on Saturday evening, told the uniformed security officers that he was being re-appointed to new offices and security duly helped him remove all his files from the office to his waiting car.

Cut a long story short, the experienced security manager became involved on Monday and after no more than four hours belated but re-active Due Diligence, the employee was identified no less as an Iranian Intelligence officer!

He was truly the Enemy Within. The damage he caused the firm concerned was substantial, both reputationally and commercially.

HR is charged with ensuring the rights of the individual and this is the way it should be. However, they frequently take this role to the extreme and often to the detriment of the company that employs them. The more worrying part is that company directors are content to let this happen and, in abrogating their responsibility instead of exercising pro-active Due Diligence, the enemy slips through unguarded doors, unseen and unsuspected to cause havoc and destruction.

“So what is Due Diligence and how do we use it”? I hear you cry.

In-House Due Diligence or Employee Vetting

Due Diligence is simply a process whereby you find out as much as you can about those whom you employ and those with whom you are engaged or will be engaged in business.

Essentially, “Know Thine Enemy” and “Know More About Them Than They Do About You”. It’s all about maintaining a commercial and operational advantage and that’s good profitable business!

For those of you who employ staff, the first part of an effective Due Diligence programme is to screen every new employee. This process should never stop. All new workers of whatever grade should be screened on arrival, re-screened every five years and every time somebody is promoted, they should be screened again. Each time, the process should be more detailed relative to the knowledge and authority the employee gains or is given.

Now, on reading this your, HR department will be enrolling at night school to study advanced witchcraft in order to be make wax effigies of the writer, into which pins will be plunged in all sorts of places. They will protest that mass and on-going screening is intrusive, will cause extra work, blow stretched budgets to smithereens and “it’s just not fair or nice to the employees”.

In response to this, consider a little matter upon which the writer was involved back in the late eighties.

An American multi-national electronics company, at the forefront of developing computer and PCB technology, invested millions of dollars in developing new products, only to find that within weeks of delivering said new products to the market place an almost identical but cheaper product came whistling out of East Germany. Naturally enough, the company began to realise there was a problem within.

A highly sophisticated investigation and “Sting” was put in place which identified the Finance Director was responsible for stealing the prototype products and selling them to the East Germans. Following evidence obtained by a UK security company, he ended up having an appointment with the FBI and then moving off to jail for many years.

This man had been in the company for 20 years, having joined at a junior grade and worked his way to the Board. He was well liked, trusted and respected. But, what nobody knew was that he was both a traitor to his company and his country. The full extent of the damage he caused to the company, commercially, operationally and reputationally was never fully quantified.

The New Employee With the Smile

The person who joins your company as a good intentioned, smiley faced, well-qualified employee may be a fine, honest, up-standing individual. However, never lose sight of the fact that they may not. Just remember the old adage, “in God we trust, everybody else gets vetted and searched!”

Fraud

Every fraud the writer has investigated has involved a member or members of staff, some or all of who have been serial fraudsters. They committed fraud in one company, where they were allowed to leave, joined another company and, bingo, continued committing fraud.

Nobody is allowed to say anything negative about an employee on a reference form. The whole process is a costly, paper-shoveling, job, which creates piles of pointless paper. You need to have a system that asks questions, looks for problems and then asks further questions. Get this process ensconced in your policy and procedures manual and have somebody aggressively manage it! This responsibility should not sit with HR.

The responsibility is with your Security Manager and the security department. HR can complete the function, but the procedures must be in place to “flag up” anything out of the ordinary or inconsistent and move the application or re-vetting straight to Security.

The honest and genuine applicants sail through these processes. Such procedures do not prejudice the honest applicant, but they will target and identify those whom you absolutely do not want working in your business.

The other critical point to remember is the person who joined your company ten years ago is not the same person now as they were then. The only consistent fact about them is their date of birth. In this day and age, they may have changed their name, their marital status, their sex, their sexual orientation, their outlook on life, their religion or all of the above!

These changes may have made them better people, who in turn have spread joy and happiness where ere they go. However, in this stressful, modern life, more than likely, they now have more pressures, financial problems, developed or increased drink problems, fallen in love with the old Columbian marching powder, got a gambling addiction, met bad people who have dragged them to the Dark side of The Force, and Lord knows what else,

Any one of these factors may be the trigger to turn a person from “Employee of the Year” to a one-person crime wave or socially defective problem deep within your business, that may be almost impossible to remove given current employment law.

Regular Screening is Critical

This is why you must regularly and consistently screen staff. You may find people who have problems and, well-designed, in-house support programmes may help them through these problems. In this case you have done the right thing and may recover an employee who becomes the company’s biggest fan and a solid employee who will stay with you all their working life. But you will never know unless you screen and screen regularly. Screening or Vetting is an integral part of a company’s security, risk management or loss prevention programme.

Regular screening is one of the cornerstones of your security programme.

Each level of screening should follow different formats, depending who’s being screened and why. If you want to know how to go about this, Dilitas would be delighted to advise.

Due Diligence for Associates, Competitors and Acquisitions

When dealing with new clients’, old Clients’ acquisitions, takeovers or whatever, complete your Due Diligence. Frequently in these situations, Company Directors or Boards abrogate this responsibility to the lawyers, bankers and accountants who are paid vast fortunes to ensure everybody remains safe.

Due Diligence and Compliance are the much vaunted and trumpeted watchwords of modern business. They have spawned another load of restrictive, controlling, paper-generating groups and departments, none of whom have so much as thrown a Tupperware party in anger, let alone taken risk and undertaken inspired, courageous business. Don’t rely on their say so that Due Diligence has been done. Check and check and check again and if there is anything that makes you think twice, then act on the intuition immediately.

An example! Some years, two highly successful brothers were in the process of acquiring another profitable group of companies to add to their portfolio. This Group had particularly caught their eye, as a part thereof had invested a king’s ransom into research in Russia to develop and manufacture biofuel, which in the late 90’s they believed was worth investing in.

All looked well, but the brothers hard-earned instincts told them something was not right. The banks, lawyers and accountants had completed their Due Diligence and signed the deal off. The Brothers trusted their instincts and employed a UK security company to go to the location of the research and development centre in Russia to actually see what was there. The location took several days to find, but was eventually discovered at a grid reference miles from what passed for civilization in this snowy waste of the former USSR.

Great skills! Boots on the ground and a Mark 1 eyeball deployed!

A uniquely qualified security professional was dispatched into the wilds of Russia where Europeans never went and here, miles from any form of civilization; he found a big shiny warehouse, complete with a furnace, coal and a large supply of cabbages for the creature within. This poor unfortunate, disowned by both local inhabitants and the gene pool from which he originated, was living the Life of Reilly. Constant fuel and food delivered monthly, so that this captain of local industry could make soup, stay toasty warm and keep the furnace blazing, which kept him alive and the warehouse from disappearing in the snow.

Photographs were duly taken and returned to London, where they were presented to the Board of the Group who had siphoned off millions having created a complete fiction of biofuel development, believing nobody from the lawyers, banks or accountants completing Due Diligence would ever go there, even if they could locate it. Loads of Money!!!!!!

Errrrr, well no, actually. Cometh the security professional and the whole bogus deal went west. Fraudsters waltzed off to Wood Street, Brothers saved from terminal loss and profitable business inherited for almost nothing. That’s the power of Due Diligence!

Due Diligence is not about fiddling with paperwork and believing Wikipedia.

If you are about to take a big gamble, decision or a risk, get the security professionals who work in this peculiar world of ours to take the risk with you, take that leap of faith for you and dare greatly to return and tell you the actual story other than that which everyone is satisfied to believe.

We have removed the names to protect the stupid and gullible, who rather worryingly are still out there!

Dilitas Weekly International Security Brief

March 11, 2015 Dilitas Admin

The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is SEVERE
The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is MODERATE

SEVERE means that a terrorist attack is highly likely;
SUBSTANTIAL means that a terrorist attack is a strong possibility;
MODERATE, means that a terrorist attack is possible, but not likely.

DOMESTIC:

A teenager who was on his way to behead a British soldier with a 12in knife when he was arrested, has been found guilty of preparing a terrorist act. Brusthom Ziamani, 19, was also carrying a hammer and an “Islamic flag” when he was arrested in London in August 2014. The court heard he had been inspired by the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in 2013, researched Army cadet bases and boasted of a plot to “kill soldiers”. Ziamani, of Camberwell, London, will be sentenced on 20 March.

A 16-year-old boy from Greater Manchester has been charged with terror offences after allegedly attempting to acquire a biological weapon. The teenager was arrested 16 February at his home in Mossley, Tameside, following an investigation by the North West counter-terrorism unit. The boy, who cannot be named, has been charged with attempting to acquire a biological toxin or agent contrary to the Criminal Attempts Act 1981.

Three missing east London schoolgirls are feared to be travelling to Syria via Turkey, police say. Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and an unnamed 15-year-old, who are all pupils at Bethnal Green Academy, flew from Gatwick to Istanbul on Tuesday, during their half-term break. Commander Richard Walton said he was concerned about UK girls intent on joining terror group Islamic State. The trio are friends with a fourth girl who travelled in December. David Cameron says the disappearance of three east London girls feared to be heading to Syria to join Islamic State extremists is “deeply concerning”.

RAF jets were scrambled on Wednesday after two Russian military aircraft were seen off the Cornwall coast, the Ministry of Defence has said. The Russian Bear bombers did not enter sovereign airspace, it said. On the same day, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon warned that Russia’s President Putin posed a “real and present danger” to three Baltic states.

The UK and the EU have been accused of a “catastrophic misreading” of the mood in the Kremlin in the run-up to the crisis in Ukraine. The House of Lords EU committee claimed Europe “sleepwalked” into the crisis. The EU had not realised the depth of Russian hostility to its plans for closer relations with Ukraine, it said. It comes as French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke about the crisis at a joint news conference in Paris.

Police Scotland has admitted it lost 20,000 stop and search records because “someone pressed the wrong button”. The admission came as senior officers appeared before a Holyrood committee. Among them was Chief Constable Sir Stephen House, who said he had apologised for giving incorrect information to the police watchdog over stop and search statistics.

The man prevented from boarding a Paris Metro train by Chelsea football fans chanting racist slogans has called for them to be punished.

The 33-year-old, named as Souleymane S, told France’s Le Parisien: “These people, these English fans… should be locked up.” A video shows him trying to get on a Metro carriage but being pushed off. A group of people can be heard singing: “We’re racist, we’re racist and that’s the way we like it.” The footage was obtained by the Guardian, which reported that the incident happened at Richelieu-Drouot station in the centre of the French capital on Tuesday ahead of a Champions League match.

NORTHERN IRELAND AND EIRE:

A bomb found during a security alert in Londonderry was “designed to kill”, police have said. Officers began searching the Currynierin estate last Monday, after they received phone calls claiming an explosive device had been left in a laneway.

The man accused of murdering 29 people in the 1998 Omagh bomb will be prosecuted, a court has been told. Seamus Daly, 44, is originally from Culloville, County Monaghan, but now has an address at Kilnasaggart Road in Jonesborough, County Armagh. He appeared at Omagh Magistrates’ Court via video-link. Mr Daly was one of four men ordered to pay more than £1.5m in damages to the families of those killed in the Real IRA attack in August 1998.

The IRA that supported the peace process has “gone away” and is not involved in diesel laundering, cigarette smuggling or petrol stretching, a Sinn Féin justice spokesman has said. Those involved “are not republicans; they are criminal gangs,” he said. The Irish Minister for Justice agreed they were criminal but added “there are links to paramilitary groups”. The two were speaking during Dáil question time when questions were asked about Garda plans and resources to tackle criminal gangs involved in cross-Border crime.

INTERNATIONAL:

ISIS

Islamist militants have released a video in which they appear to call for terrorist attacks on some of the busiest shopping areas in the UK and US. In the footage, fighters from the al Shabaab group specifically mention Oxford Street, and give GPS coordinates for the Westfield shopping centres in Stratford and Shepherd’s Bush. US authorities have said they are taking the threats seriously, while the Metropolitan Police told Sky News its Counter Terrorism Command is aware of the video and is assessing the content.

Jihadist militants from Islamic State (IS) have burned to death 45 people in the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi, the local police chief says. Exactly who these people were and why they were killed is not clear, but Col Qasim al-Obeidi said he believed some were members of the security forces. IS fighters captured much of the town, near Ain al-Asad air base, two weeks ago.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says its armed forces are preparing for an offensive to retake the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State (IS). Mr Abadi said he hoped Mosul would be liberated in a few months’ time, and with a minimum of casualties.

Egypt bombed Islamic State targets in Libya hours after the group published video showing the apparent beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians, according to reports on state television on 16 February. The dawn strikes targeted camps, training sites and weapons storage areas – hours after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that Egypt had the “right to respond” against IS.

Islamic State militants are planning a takeover of Libya as a “gateway” to wage war across the whole of southern Europe, letters written by the group’s supporters have revealed. The jihadists hope to flood the north African state with militiamen from Syria and Iraq, who will then sail across the Mediterranean posing as migrants on people trafficking vessels, according to plans seen by Quilliam, the British anti-extremist group. The fighters would then run amok in southern European cities and also try to attack maritime shipping. The document is written by an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) propagandist who is believed to be an important online recruiter for the terror in Libya, where security has collapsed in the wake of the revolution that unseated Colonel Gaddafi in 2011. The group has already established Libyan-based cells, who last weekend, released a video showing a mass beheading of 21 Egyptian Christian guest workers.

Turkey and the US have reached a tentative agreement to train and arm moderate Syrian opposition forces taking on Islamic State (IS) militants. The US state department said that a deal had been reached “in principal” and would soon be signed.

Two weeks ago, the head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said that ISIL is already alleged to have used chlorine gas and is attempting to get access to more. He stated that reports had reached him of Islamic State members trying to get chemical weapons and that attempts by his organisation to destroy chemical weapons facilities in Syria had been hampered by the country’s ongoing civil war. Speaking in Tokyo he stressed the danger that militants could acquire chemical weapons or the means of producing them, and warned that the international community must be alert to such perils.

The Malaysian Home Ministry has warned of the threat kidnapping by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), saying that the radical Islamist group is plotting to kidnap wealthy Malaysians and stage bank robberies in the country, major Chinese dailies reported late last week. Its Minister said in a joint interview that the tactics employed by ISIS is to hold these tycoons for ransom and use the money to funds their terrorist activities, Sin Chew Daily reported last Friday.

The United States has found around 1,200 opposition fighters in Syria that could participate in US military led training programs to fight against ISIS, the Pentagon said last week. The fighters will undergo vetting for the programme, which is expected to begin in March at multiple sites outside of Syria and train more than 5,000 Syrian fighters a year. Some 3,000 could be trained by the end of 2015, a US official said. The program is expected to vet fighters using both US government
databases as well as intelligence from regional partners.

SYRIA

Hundreds of Turkish troops in armoured vehicles have entered northern Syria and evacuated a historic Ottoman tomb and the soldiers guarding it. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the remains of Suleyman Shah would be moved elsewhere in Syria.

LIBYA

The Italian coastguard has rescued more than 2,000 migrants in a major operation off the Libyan coast, officials say. During the rescue, search teams were threatened by Kalashnikov-wielding men who approached in a speedboat from Libya, Italian officials said. Last week, at least 300 migrants perished in the Mediterranean Sea.

YEMEN

Clashes have erupted in Yemen’s second city of Aden between militiamen loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and forces allied to Houthi rebels. At least three people were killed after members of the Popular Resistance Committees attacked pro-rebel police guarding several government buildings. The PRC now control an intelligence headquarters and television building.

Yemen’s former president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi has fled the capital, Sanaa, weeks after he was put under house arrest by Houthi rebels who forced him to resign.

EGYPT

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has called for a United Nations resolution allowing international forces to intervene in Libya. There was no other choice, he told French radio. “We will not allow them to cut off the heads of our children.” Egyptian jets bombed IS targets last Monday in response to a militant video of the apparent beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians.

Egyptian court jails prominent anti-Mubarak activist Alaa Abdel Fattah for five years for breaking protest law

QATAR

Qatar has recalled its ambassador from Egypt following a row about air strikes on Islamic State targets in Libya. Foreign ministry officials said it was prompted by comments made by Egypt’s delegate to the Arab League, who accused Qatar of supporting terrorism. Qatar had expressed reservations over Egypt’s unilateral military action in another Arab League member state and the risk of civilian casualties.

AFRICA

A group of 158 women and children abducted by Boko Haram militants in north- eastern Nigeria in December have been reunited with their families. They were kidnapped during a raid on Katarko village in Yobe state and spent about a month in captivity. In April last year, the Islamist insurgents caused worldwide outrage when they kidnapped more than 200 girls from a boarding school in Chibok in Borno state, which borders Yobe. The schoolgirls have yet to be released despite military assistance from countries such as China, France, the UK and the US.

Some 20 people, including senior officials, have been killed in an attack on a hotel in the Somali capital, witnesses have said. The Central Hotel, often frequented by politicians, was hit by a car bomb and a suicide attack. Gunmen then stormed the hotel mosque and opened fire during Friday prayers.

Dozens of people have been killed in suicide attacks in Nigeria. Twenty people died following explosions at a military checkpoint outside the north-eastern town of Biu. Troops present at the checkpoint fired back, killing 17 of the insurgents. It is believed they were from Boko Haram. On Tuesday the group released a video in which Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau vowed to disrupt Nigeria’s elections at any cost. The 15-minute film was released via the group’s newly created Twitter account, prompting some analysts to question whether they had been influenced by Islamic State.

Nigerian troops, backed by air strikes, have reclaimed the towns of Monguno and Marte from Boko Haram, according to a military statement. Meanwhile, Cameroon says its army has killed more than 80 Boko Haram soldiers and arrested 1,000 of their supporters. Niger also claimed on Monday to have arrested 160 people with links to Boko Haram since 6 February.

A female suicide bomber has killed at least seven people at a crowded bus station in north-eastern Nigeria. Police say more than 30 others were wounded in the city of Damaturu, capital of Yobe State. No group has said it carried out the bombing but the jihadist group Boko Haram has previously launched attacks in the city. A week last Saturday, Boko Haram fighters tried to take over the regional capital of neighbouring Gombe state.

Reported 17th February 2015 – Thousands of people have marched in Niger’s capital to protest against Boko Haram, which has launched deadly raids into the country from Nigeria. The demonstrators were led by Niger’s Prime Minister Brigi Rafini and protected by a heavy police presence.

An albino toddler has been kidnapped in northern Tanzania, raising fears that he may be killed by witchdoctors. Police say one-year-old Yohana Bahati was taken by attackers who broke in to his mother’s house, striking her with a machete. The body parts of albino people, who lack pigment in their skin, are sought after by witchdoctors in Tanzania. The country banned witchcraft in December in an attempt to prevent attacks and kidnappings.
RUSSIA

The US has accused Russia of violating the Minsk agreement on Ukraine, as the UN Security Council voted unanimously to approve the ceasefire deal. Vice-President Joe Biden said “the costs to Russia will rise” if it continued to violate the accord. Fighting is continuing around the strategic town of Debaltseve, with pro-Russian rebels saying they now control most areas.

UKRAINE

Shelling is reported from several places in eastern Ukraine despite the official ceasefire between government forces and pro-Russia rebels. Artillery fire could be heard in the region’s biggest city, Donetsk, where the truce had been observed so far. Ukrainian military sources also accused rebels of shelling positions near the port city of Mariupol. The fighting comes as Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany held further talks over the phone.

The government and rebels in eastern Ukraine have agreed to start pulling back heavy weapons from the frontline. A Russian general involved in the process said work would start yesterday, Sunday 22nd February 2015, but actual withdrawal is not expected to get under way until Tuesday.

The Ukrainian military has said it cannot start withdrawing heavy weapons from the front line in the east until the rebels stop shelling its positions. Military spokesman Anatoliy Stelmakh told reporters the rebels had not stopped firing.

FRANCE

France is tracking hundreds of people believed to belong to possible sleeper cells for terror organisations like al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group, the country’s top security official said. In an interview with The Associated Press, the French Interior Minister laid out what has become an increasingly urgent question for European intelligence services: How to trace the moment when someone transforms from a disgruntled criminal or a disaffected citizen into a terrorist, and how to block those first steps toward radicalisation. He said, “Four hundred targets have been identified by our intelligence services that are more or less sleeper cells, affiliated or in relation with al-Qaeda-type organisations …”

DENMARK

Denmark’s domestic intelligence agency (PET) says it was warned by prison officials about the man who killed two people in a shootout in Copenhagen. It says it received a report in September saying that the man now confirmed by police as Omar El-Hussein, 22, was at risk of being radicalised while serving time for a stabbing. However, PET said there had been no indication he was planning an attack. The gunman was shot dead by police after two attacks in the capital.

ITALY

Italian security chiefs have approved a plan to put 4,800 soldiers on the streets throughout the country to help guard against potential terrorist attacks. A statement by the interior ministry after a meeting on 17 February of military and security officials said they would guard sensitive sites and targets until at least June. Italian media said about 500 would be deployed in Rome, where army troops already help guard diplomatic missions and residences, the capital’s synagogue and Jewish schools. The troops are expected to be deployed at tourist venues including archaeological sites and monuments.

CHINA

A Chinese man rammed a car into a barrier in front of the US Consulate in Shanghai and injured an armed police officer, officials said late last week. Shanghai police said the 35-year-old man was placed in custody and told officials that he felt he was being chased by assassins and wanted to get some attention. The man was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the incident and the case was still under investigation, police said on their official microblog site.

JAPAN

On 17 February, Japan announced $15.5 million to fight “terrorism” in the Middle East and Africa, as Tokyo tries to demonstrate its resolve despite the murder of two of its citizens by Islamist extremists, Agence France Presse reported. Japan’s Foreign Minister said in a statement that the aid was part of Japan’s effort to support “counter-terrorism capacity building assistance in the Middle East/Africa,” including border control, investigation and development of legal systems.

AUSTRALIA

The Australian authorities are examining an Islamic State video that appears to show Sydney terrorist Mohamed Elomar watching the brutal beheading of a “spy” in Syria. The Islamic State propaganda film shows a man – who bears a resemblance to Khaled Sharrouf – delivering a short speech in poorly spoken Arabic. The executioner, believed to be a foreign fighter, carries a knife in his right hand and is flanked by IS fighters near the group’s stronghold of Raqqa.

MALDIVES

Police in the Maldives have arrested opposition leader and former President Mohamed Nasheed. He was detained on terror charges over a 2012 order he issued when he was president to arrest a senior judge, AP news agency reports. Mr Nasheed became the country’s first democratically elected leader in 2008.

COLOMBIA

Three Colombian soldiers were killed by an attack on their armoured vehicle with an explosive device in Norte de Santander province. The army said the device was planted by Colombia’s second largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN). The ELN announced last year that it was willing to enter into peace talks with the Colombian government, but formal talks have not yet begun.

CANADA

With less than a week until Canada Day, John Nuttall and his wife Amanda Korody, were in a motel room near Vancouver, Canada, watching television and discussing their alleged plan to bomb the British Columbia legislature on the national holiday. They had spent the afternoon of June 26, 2013, shopping for bomb-making materials such as pressure cookers, their terrorism trial has heard, and they planned to build the devices the following day. The prosecution has said the couple planned the attack to avenge what they saw as the mistreatment of Muslims abroad, and the videos have featured numerous instances in which Nuttall complains about Canadian military involvement in Arab countries.

USA

The US has accused Israel of selectively leaking information from the Iran nuclear talks to misrepresent its position in the negotiations. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that Israel was “cherry-picking” information and using it out of context. Six world powers want Iran to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions. Negotiations with Iran are due to begin again on Friday.

Reported Saturday 21st February 2015 – New US Defence Secretary Ash Carter has arrived in Afghanistan days after taking up the post, saying he wants “lasting success” for the country. Mr Carter will meet US commanders and Afghan heads on the unannounced visit.

More than 4,000 US soldiers are heading to Kuwait, opening up the possibility of an intervention in Iraq after President Obama asked Congress to authorize military action against terrorists in the Middle East. The Commander-in-chief has ruled out large-scale US ground combat operations similar to those in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he asked for the option to use military force against Islamic State fighters for three years. The fight could be extended to any ‘closely related successor entity’ to the Islamic State organization that has overrun parts of Iraq and Syria, imposed an
extreme form of Sharia law and killed several hostages it has taken.

A Michigan woman was trying to adjust her bra holster when she shot herself in the face, authorities said. Christina Bond, 55, was repositioning the handgun inside her brassiere when she looked down and fired a round into her eye, the Kalamazoo Gazette reported last week. “She was having trouble adjusting her bra holster, couldn’t get it to fit the way she wanted it to,” said St Joseph Public Safety Director Mark Clapp. “She was looking down at it and accidentally discharged the weapon,” he said. The New Year’s Day shooting occurred at the woman’s Lake Michigan home. She was taken to a local hospital, then airlifted to Bronson Methodist Hospital, where she died a day later, the paper reported. A full autopsy report has not yet been received, Clapp said. The woman had served in the Navy and had been recently elected as a Republican precinct delegate. Source The incident precipitated some to again urge for greater gun control in the US.

CYBER ISSUES:

US and British intelligence agencies hacked into a major manufacturer of Sim cards in order to steal codes that facilitate eavesdropping on mobiles, a US news website says. The Intercept says the revelations came from US intelligence contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden. The Dutch company allegedly targeted – Gemalto – says it is taking the allegations “very seriously”. It operates in 85 countries and has more than 40 manufacturing facilities.

More than 25 billion cyber-attacks on the Japanese government and other bodies were logged in 2014, an agency said 17 February with 40 per cent of them traced to China. The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), which has a network of a quarter of a million sensors, said there were 25.66 billion attempts to compromise systems, according to a report by Kyodo News. The figure includes attacks aimed at testing the vulnerability of software used in servers. The survey was first carried out in 2005, when it recorded just 310 million attempts to breach security. NICT said an increasing number of the attacks it was seeing involve attempts to take over routers, security cameras and other systems connected to the Internet. Of the cyber-attacks the agency was able to trace, 40 per cent originated in China, while South Korea, Russia and the United States also figured prominently.

SIGNIFICANT ANNIVERSARIES:

23 Feb 1998 Osama bin Laden issued a ‘global Fatwa’ allowing attacks against American nationals worldwide
25 Feb 1991 Coalition forces start land offensive against Iraq in first Gulf War
26 Feb 1993 Vehicle bomb at the World Trade Center kills six and injures 1,000 – Ramzi Yousef later convicted of this attack
27 Feb 1991 Kuwait City liberated by coalition forces. Coalition forces halt offensive actions the following day.
27 Feb 1980 Colombian extremists (M-19) seize Dominican Embassy in Colombia holding 85 hostages (20 of whom were Ambassadors).
28 Feb 1994 NATO carries out first ever offensive action since it was formed: Two USAF F-16’s shoot down four Bosnian-Serb aircraft that were infringing a “No Fly” zone in Bosnia

1 March 2003 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged architect of the ‘9/11’ attacks is arrested in Pakistan
1 March 2015 St David’s Day
2 March 2002 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda.
4 March 2001 The Real IRA mounts a car bomb attack on the BBC offices in Wood Lane, London W12. The device was contained in rear of black taxi left abandoned outside building – 2001
8 March 1995 Two American diplomats are shot dead by gunmen in Karachi, Pakistan.
8 March 1973 Two car bombs explode in London (Old Bailey and Whitehall). Two other VBIEDs were made safe. These attacks marked the start date of the Provisional IRA’s mainland offensive that continued (more or less) until the 1997 ceasefire.
9 March 1994 Provisional IRA launched improvised mortars at Heathrow Airport with further attacks taking place on 11 and 13 March.
9 March 2015 Commonwealth Day
11 March 2004 Ten bombs explode on morning rush hour trains in Madrid killing 200
15 March 2015 Mothering Sunday – UK only
16 March 1988 Murder of Kurdish villagers at Halabja by Iraqi troops using chemical weapons
16 March 1984 William Buckley, a U.S. national, kidnapped and killed by Hezbollah
17 March 1992 Car bomb at Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires kills 28, injures 220
17 March 1968 Grosvenor Square massed riots directed against the U.S. Embassy during an anti-Vietnam war rally
17 March 1968 Grosvenor Square massed riots directed against the U.S. Embassy during an anti-Vietnam war rally.
17 March 2015 St Patrick’s Day
19 March 2007 Suicide bomber attacks U.S. convoy in Afghanistan killing 2 officials. Taliban claimed responsibility.
19 March 1982 Argentinean actions result in the start of the Falklands War – 1982
20 March 2003 Invasion of Iraq by US/British troops to remove Saddam Hussein
20 March 1995 Sarin Nerve gas attack on Tokyo subway kills 12 and sickens 5,000.
21 March 2015 Nowruz – Afghanistan/Iran New Year
21 March 1985 Founding day of E.R.N.K. (political wing of the Kurdish PKK)
24 March 1986 U.S. retaliation against Libyan aggression during naval exercise in Gulf of Sirte
27 March 2001 Abdelmajid Dahoumane arrested for role in plot to attack Los Angeles International Airport on 31 December 1999
29 March 2010 Some 40 killed and 60 wounded as two female [Chechen] suicide bombers attack two Metro stations in Moscow.
29 March 2015 British Summer Time begins – clock in the UK go forward 1 hour
29 Marh 2015 Christian festival – Palm Sunday
30 March 1979 British MP, Airey Neave, killed by under vehicle bomb as he drove out of the Palace of Westminster. Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility.

1 April 2015 All Fools Day (UK and US)
2 April 1998 In the Irish Republic, a 990lb VBIED is discovered at Dublin ferry port bound for England. The device was made safe. Real IRA blamed.
2 April 1986 Attempted sabotage of TWA flight 840. Four people killed, nine injured.
2 April, 1982 Argentina invades the Falkland Islands, precipitating war with Britain
April campaign across the USA
3 April 2015 Christian festival – Good Friday
4 April 1986: La Belle discothèque bombed in Germany killing three. Libya implicated in the attack.
April 4 1979 Execution by hanging of former Pakistan President Bhutto
4 April 2015 Pesach (Passover)
5 April 2015 Christian festival – Easter Day
April 5, 1988 Hezbollah hijack a Kuwaiti B747 aircraft, an incident that lasted 16 days.
April 6, 2001 Algerian Ahmed Ressam is convicted of the New Years Day plot to bomb Los Angeles airport.
April 6, 1994 Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi killed when their aircraft was believed shot down by a missile. Start of Rwanda civil war.
April 7, 1998 Rocket attack on the Athens branch of the U.S. Citibank
April 10, 1998 Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement signed
April 10, 1992 Massive Provisional IRA truck bomb functions outside the City of London’s Baltic Exchange killing 3 people and causing immense damage.
April 11, 1968 Founding day of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command
April 12, 1997 Police in Sarajevo thwart an attempt to kill the Pope.
April 12, 2000 HM Queen presents the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) with the George Cross, the highest civilian award for bravery.
April 14, 2005 In the UK, Kamel Bourgass is jailed for 17 years for plotting to spread Ricin. He was already serving life for the murder of a police officer during a police raid on his Manchester apartment in 2003.
April 15, 2013 Three killed, 264 wounded when bombs explode at Boston Marathon; Djokhar Tsarnaev arrested, Tamerian Tsarnaev killed in manhunt
April 15, 1986 U.S. fighter planes from USAF Lakenheath attack targets in Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. Libya threats to retaliate against US and UK.
April 16, 1988 Assassination in Tunis of PLO Leader Abu Jihad by Israeli Agents
April 17, 1984 Murder of woman police officer, Yvonne Fletcher, outside Libyan Peoples Bureau in St. James Square, London.
April 17, 1961 An invasion force of Cuban exiles lands at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs to try to overthrow Fidel Castro.
April 18, 1983 Hezbollah mounts a massive VBIED attack on the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon killing 63 people and wounding more than 100.
April 18, 2010 Abu Ayyub al-Masri and ‘Umar al-Baghdadi, the leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq, are killed in Coalition raid in Baghdad
April 19, 1993 End of the siege at the Branch Davidian Cult in Waco, Texas.
April 19, 1995 Massive VBIED attack on the Federal building in Oklahoma kills 167 people. McVeigh later executed for this crime June 2001.
April 20, 2014 Easter Day – Christian
April 20, 1870 Birth Date of Hitler (occasional rallies by extreme Right Wing groups)
April 20, 1998 Germany’s Red Army Faction announces its disbandment
April 21, 1926 Birthday of HM Queen Elizabeth ll. Gun salutes in Hyde Park
April 21, 1997 End of 126-day siege at Japanese Ambassador’s residence in Peru.
April 22, 2002 Al-Qaeda attack on a Tunisia synagogue in Djerba kills 19 people
April 24, 1915 Anniversary of Armenian genocide in Turkey.
April 24, 1916 Start of the Easter Rising in Dublin.
April 24, 1968 Founding of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command.
April 24, 1993 A massive Provisional IRA truck bomb at Bishopsgate, City of London, kills one person and injures 35 others.
April 24, 1996: Large Provisional IRA Semtex bomb under Hammersmith Bridge fails to function properly.
April 25, 2011 Easter Monday
April 25, 1997: To date, the last Provisional IRA attack on mainland UK prior to their current ceasefire. A bomb attack on an electricity pylon next to M6 in Walsall.
April 25, 1980 Failed U.S. military hostage rescue mission to free 53 U.S. hostages held in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
April 26, 1986 Chernobyl Disaster
April 27, 1984 End of Libyan Embassy siege in London
April 28, 2011 Bomb kills 15 in Marrakech cafe frequented by Westerners in first major attack in country since May 2003; government blames AQIM but group denies responsibility
April 29, 1992 Rioting in Los Angeles following verdict in Rodney King case
April 30, 1975 The war in Vietnam ends as Saigon surrenders to the Vietcong.
April 30, 1973 President Nixon takes responsibility for the Watergate scandal but denies any personal involvement
April 30, 1980 Iranian Embassy siege in London – ended on May 5th in a resolution by 22 Special Air Service Regiment.

HMS Argyll intercepts Russian Frigate

March 11, 2015 Dilitas Admin

A Royal Navy warship has tracked a Russian frigate off the coast of France and monitored her movement through the English Channel.

HMS Argyll, a Type 23 frigate fitted with advanced Artisan radar, used her Lynx helicopter and sensors to locate and monitor the movement of the Russian warship as she returned from a Mediterranean deployment.

Under the NATO agreement whereby alliance nations co-operate to monitor activity, the Royal Navy took over from French surveillance and sent the Fleet Ready Escort, a warship maintained at high-readiness for tasks in UK waters.

The Russian warship Yaroslav Mudryy is a Neustrashimy class frigate and was sailing with her accompanying tanker, the Kola.

Commander Paul Hammond, Commanding Officer of HMS Argyll, said: “We are one of the Royal Navy’s high readiness ships and we knew we could be called upon to respond a range of duties, such as monitoring a Russian warship, at short notice.

“The vast majority of the ship’s company, myself included, returned from a highly successful Atlantic Patrol Task (North) deployment just before Christmas.

“To be ready to undertake this duty after a short period of leave and maintenance is a testimony to their hard work and the capability of this ship.”

Based in Plymouth, HMS Argyll is the longest-serving Type 23 frigate in the Royal Navy.

She has recently completed a very successful deployment to the Caribbean and North Atlantic on Atlantic Patrol Task (North).

During that deployment she successful seized £77million of drugs, assisted Bermuda following Hurricane Gonzalo and hosted a Royal visit.

Dilitas Weekly Security Brief

March 11, 2015 Dilitas Admin

The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is SEVERE
The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is MODERATE

SEVERE means that a terrorist attack is highly likely;
SUBSTANTIAL means that a terrorist attack is a strong possibility;
MODERATE, means that a terrorist attack is possible, but not likely.

DOMESTIC:

A Muslim teenager who idolised the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby was arrested on his way to behead a British soldier, a court has heard. Brusthom Ziamani, 19, was arrested in east London in August last year carrying a 12in knife and a hammer in a rucksack. He had researched the location of army cadet bases in the south-east of the capital, the Old Bailey in London was told. Ziamani had reverted to Islam early in 2014, and his arrest came after he showed his ex-girlfriend the weapons, described Rigby’s killer Michael Adebolajo as a legend and told her he would kill soldiers, the prosecution said.

A man and two women have been arrested on suspicion of terror-related offences. The man, aged 31, is being held on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism and his arrest comes as police searched five addresses on Merseyside.

Two women from the Black Country have been arrested by officers from West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism offences. A 23-year-old from Walsall is suspected of preparing for acts of terrorism, while a 33-year-old woman, also from Walsall, has been held on suspicion of failing to disclose information. Both were detained at their home addresses on 11 February and we being held at a police station in the area.

Two fugitive jihadis who skipped bail and fled London to join ISIL have been reunited on the battlefield with one claiming that extremists “are in place waiting to attack” the UK. Abu Rahin Aziz, 32, and Siddhartha Dhar, 31, posted an image online showing the pair brandishing AK47s beneath a downed plane at a captured Syrian airbase. In an online exchange with the Standard […] Aziz, who uses the alias Abu Dugma al-Britani, claimed ISIL was plotting to kill a UK politician. The extremist has previously said that the terror group would capture Downing Street and hold executions in Trafalgar Square. He claimed he was now part of the terror group’s “regular fighting force” unit, adding, “It’s inevitable an attack will take place [in the UK soon]. There are people, already in place, waiting.”

A London terrorist who was declared dead as a cover for his return to Britain from Syria was jailed on 6th February for twelve years. Imran Khawaja, 27 of Southall, had been pictured carrying an Islamic State banner and holding the severed head of a Syrian government soldier. He was arrested at Dover after spending months at a Syrian terrorist training camp and being hailed a hero by the terrorist group, Rayat al-Tawheed, which had falsely announced his death. [During sentencing] the judge said that Khawaja had been “a willing and enthusiastic participant in the films and images which had been designed and intended to encourage others in the UK to take up arms in the cause of Islamic State.”

The last British detainee to be released from Guantánamo is in line for a £1 million compensation payment from the UK government – despite claims of his terror links to al-Qaeda in official US documents. Shaker Aamer, a father-of-four, has been jailed in Guantánamo for 13 years, seven years longer than any other British citizen or resident. The campaign to ensure his release has been stepped up in recent months and as a result, Aamer has been cleared for release. Aamer, a Saudi Arabian citizen, had been living in London prior to travelling to Afghanistan with his family in 2001. He insists he went there to open a school and run a charity while the US authorities have accused him of being a senior al-Qaeda figure, who acted as a ‘special interpreter’ for Osama bin Laden, was trained in the handling of explosives, and had alleged links to terror networks both in the UK and US.

Thousands of British Muslims gathered near Downing Street 8 February to protest against cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. A leaflet issued by the Muslim Action Forum (MAF), which organised the rally, said recent republishing of cartoons, caricatures and depictions of Muhammad by satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and other publishers is a “stark reminder” that freedom of speech is “regularly utilised to insult personalities that others consider sacred”. In response to the demonstration, a small number of counter protesters supporting the English Defence League and Britain First also gathered on Whitehall, shouting “Je Suis Charlie” and some chanted racist slogans.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal evidence of an astonishing legal cover-up that threatens to wreck one of Britain’s biggest terrorism cases – the convictions of the five men jailed for a combined total of 153 years for the ‘21/7’ attempted London bombings in 2005. In an exclusive interview, two top Government explosives experts who were directly involved in the case have revealed that in 2006, a year before the trial, they filed a highly critical report saying that the forensic tests that would become central to the prosecution case were fatally flawed (this relating to the viability of the devices deployed by the five men).

An Egyptian man who officials said led a London terrorist cell will serve 25 years in prison, according to the US Justice Department. Adel Abdel Bary, 54, led an al-Qaeda terrorist cell in London that helped spread the organisation’s propaganda both before and after the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He was extradited to the US from the UK in 2012 and pleaded guilty in September to terrorism charges. “Adel Abdel Bary occupied important positions in Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al-Qaeda,” the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York said, adding, “As he admitted […] he facilitated communications by Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders, including publication of the 1998 al-Qaeda fatwa to kill Americans.” In addition to the jail time, Bary has been ordered to pay nearly $34 million, including $7.5 million in restitution to victim’s families.Bary’s son, Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, who used to be a rapper in London, is believed to have joined extremists fighting in Syria (and who is suspected by the media as being the IS ‘executioner’ referred to as “Jihadi John”).

NORTHERN IRELAND AND EIRE:

Dissident republican terrorists planned to use a rocket launcher to kill Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister, it has been revealed. Martin McGuinness said he was warned of the CIRA (Continuity) IRA plot by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). In a statement, Mr McGuinness said, “I have been made aware the PSNI has discovered a plan to launch a rocket attack against me. “The PSNI has said that a group calling itself ‘CIRA’ considered an attack against me using a rocket launcher.” A decision by Mr McGuinness to meet the Queen in 2012 caused outrage among hardline dissident republicans opposed to the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Secret recordings of alleged Continuity IRA terror plot meetings revealed plans to attack Northern Ireland’s transport infrastructure, the High Court heard 12 February. Discussions also explored future sniper strikes on high-profile targets, prosecutors said. Further details of the covert MI5 operation at a house in Newry, Co Down were disclosed as bail was refused to one of the men accused of attending some of the gatherings. Terence Marks, 54, denies charges of belonging to a proscribed organisation, namely the IRA, and conspiring to cause an explosion likely to endanger life. The father-of-six’s lawyer claimed the recordings were of singing and drink-fuelled bravado.

A man who sparked a major security alert at the home of a DUP politician during the flags protests has been jailed for 13 months. Belfast Crown Court heard that while Robert Colgan (26) was not a member of any paramilitary organisation, he made a total of six hoax bomb calls, most which he said were on behalf of the ‘Real UDA’. His five-week campaign caused widespread disruption.

INTERNATIONAL:

At least 300 migrants are feared to have drowned after attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa in rough seas, the UN said last week. UNHCR official Vincent Cochetel said it was a “tragedy on an enormous scale”.

Galvanised by the recent terror attacks in France, European Union leaders on Thursday debate a range of ambitious steps to better protect their 28 nations, including exchanging airliner passenger manifests, tightening controls at the border and combating extremism on the Internet. “Europe is facing an unprecedented, diverse and serious terrorist threat,” Gilles de Kerchove, the bloc’s counter-terrorism coordinator, told EU member governments in a report last month.

ISIS

Egypt says it has bombed Islamic State targets in Libya, hours after the group published video showing the apparent beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians. State TV said the dawn strikes had targeted camps, training sites and weapons storage areas.

Islamic State (IS) has captured an Iraqi town about 8km (5 miles) from an air base housing hundreds of US troops, the Pentagon says. US officials downplayed the fall of al-Baghdadi, which is within striking distance of the Ain al-Asad air base. Ain al-Asad was itself attacked by IS on Friday though the militants were repelled, officials say.

Egypt has offered to evacuate its citizens from Libya after Islamic State (IS) released photos which it says show 21 Coptic Egyptians kidnapped there. President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi said Egyptians would be airlifted out of Libya, state-run news agency Mena said. The pictures of the hostages were released in the latest online edition of IS magazine Dabiq.

The US has confirmed the death of aid worker Kayla Mueller, the last American hostage known to be held by Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria. Her family said they were “heartbroken” to learn the news, and released a letter written during her captivity.

Islamic State will hold territory on the shores of the Mediterranean within two months unless Britain and its allies help to restore order in Libya, the country’s former prime minister has warned.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group is facing a shortage of willing martyrs, after a recent string of defections following the loss of a key Syrian border town, activists within its territory say. Since the loss of Kobane late last month to Kurdish forces, many militants marked for suicide operations within the group have either fled or defected to rival militias, and anti-ISIS activist group has claimed.

Airstrikes carried out by the US-led coalition in Iraq have killed a chemical-weapons expert working with the Islamic State extremist group, officials with the US military’s Central Command said late January. Abu Malik, an Islamic State chemical-weapons engineer, who also had ties to the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, was killed 24 January during strikes in the vicinity of Mosul, Central Command officials said. “We don’t know that they have a chemical-weapons capability,” a defence official said. “He presented a risk in the fact that he had some chemical-weapons know-how.

John Cantlie, the British journalist held hostage by ISIL in Syria, has appeared in a new propaganda video in which he interviews a French-speaking jihadist who urges further Charlie Hebdo-style attacks in France. The video is the latest in a series of broadcasts by Cantlie […] and in it he interviews an unidentified French-speaking gunman to ask his thoughts on January’s massacre at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris, in which Islamist gunmen killed 12 people in revenge for the publication printing cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. The gunman […] tells Cantlie, “These three attacks on made us happy, and every time we hear about one or more brothers defending their religion in the West we are delighted.” He then urged other Muslims living in France to carry out further “lone wolf” strikes. He says, “Start carrying out individual attacks, be wolves on earth, for each man among you can be an entire army.”

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad says his government is receiving messages from the US-led coalition battling the jihadist group, Islamic State. Mr Assad said that there had been no direct co-operation since air strikes began in Syria in September.
But third parties – among them Iraq – were conveying “information”. He also denied that Syrian government forces had been dropping barrel bombs indiscriminately on rebel-held areas, killing thousands of civilians.

Some 5,000 members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Qaeda terrorist groups are westerners who can travel to the United States without a visa, Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security Representative Michael McCaul said during a hearing on preventing terror travel and homegrown terrorism. “Up to 5,000 of these fighters are westerners, many of whom are able to travel into the United States without obtaining a visa,” McCaul said last week. He added, “More than 150 American citizens have attempted to, or succeeded in getting to, the battlefield and we know some have already returned to our shores.”

A top US official has said that Iraqi troops will begin a major ground offensive against ISIL in the coming weeks. Retired General John Allen, the US coordinator for the anti-ISIL coalition of Western and Arab countries, said the offensive would be launched “in the weeks ahead. When the Iraqi forces begin the ground campaign to take back Iraq, the coalition will provide major firepower associated with that,” he told Jordan’s official Petra news agency.

Air strikes have degraded ISIS’ capabilities by 20 per cent after bombing efforts against the group were recently intensified, the head of the Jordanian airforce has claimed. He said that Jordan has carried out nearly a fifth of the sorties of the US-led coalition against ISIS in Syria to date; conducting 56 bombing raids against the militants in northeast Syria within three days after the brutal killing of one of its pilots, First Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh.

The widow of Paris kosher supermarket gunman Amedy Coulibaly has linked up with ISIS, the terror group claims. The second issue of an ISIS French language magazine, which began circulating on pro-ISIS Twitter accounts last week, contains a purported two-page question-and- answer story with Hayat Boumedienne, who is believed to have disappeared into Syria before the attack. The magazine, entitled Dar al Islam, claimed Boumedienne safely reached the Islamic State, but offered no pictures or any other proof to corroborate the claim.

A senior militant and former Guantánamo Bay detainee who recently pledged allegiance to Islamic State has been killed in Afghanistan. A drone strike in Helmand province, killed the militant along with a small group of insurgents, according to a provincial police spokesman. A spokesman for the US-led coalition declined to reveal names of the targets but confirmed that a precision strike had caused “the death of eight individuals threatening the force”

AFGHANISTAN

Reported 9th February 2015 – A drone strike in Afghanistan has killed a militant commander who recently swore allegiance to Islamic State (IS), officials say. The police chief of Helmand said that former Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Rauf had died in the Nato strike. It emerged last month that Rauf had sworn allegiance to IS after falling out with the Taliban. Tribal elders in northern Helmand say a car carrying up to six people was destroyed while crossing the desert. The car was loaded with ammunition and exploded, reports said.

SYRIA

Air strikes by Syria’s air force around Damascus have killed almost 200 people over the past 10 days, activists say. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the strikes were in the Ghouta green belt outside the city, particularly in the suburb of Duma. Rocket attacks launched from parts of the Ghouta by rebel group Army of Islam killed at least 10 people last Tuesday.

YEMEN

The US, UK and France are closing their embassies in Yemen due to the deteriorating security situation and political crisis in the country. The US and UK governments have withdrawn diplomatic staff from Sanaa and urged their citizens to leave. France’s embassy closed on Friday.

Reported 13th February 2014 – Saudi Arabia has suspended operations at its embassy in Yemen, as the security situation in the country deteriorates. It is the first Arab country to suspend its diplomatic mission. Many Western embassies have also closed.

PAKISTAN

Taliban militants have attacked worshippers at a Shia mosque in the Pakistani city of Peshawar with guns and grenades, killing at least 20. Police killed one of the militants in a gunfight around the mosque, in the wealthy Hayatabad district. Another of the militants blew himself up with a suicide vest, and a third was arrested, police said.

EGYPT

Reported 13th February 2015 – A bomb detonated by suspected Islamist militants wounded eight police officers and one civilian in the Cairo neighbourhood of Ain Shams, Egypt’s Interior Ministry said. The wounded included a police captain. A bomb squad was combing the area for other possible explosives, a ministry statement said.

UKRAINE

Observers are to try again to reach the besieged Ukrainian town of Debaltseve, where fighting has continued despite a ceasefire. The OSCE were denied access to Debaltseve by pro-Russian rebels on Sunday, the European security group said.

MYANMAR

Nearly 50 soldiers have been killed in a week of fighting between government troops and Kokang ethnic rebels in Myanmar, state media report. The Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said air strikes had been used in the response to the flare-up in Shan state, near the Chinese border.

TAIWAN

Some 29 pilots working for Taiwanese airline TransAsia have been suspended after failing or missing safety tests, a week after a fatal crash. The airline said the results were not acceptable and promised to improve the training of its pilots. Regulators ordered the tests after a TransAsia plane crashed in Taipei, killing at least 42 people. The airline has offered $470,000 (£309,000) in compensation to the family of each victim.

AUSTRALIA

Police in the Australian city of Sydney have charged two men with planning to carry out an imminent attack. The pair, aged 24 and 25, were arrested in a raid in the western suburb of Fairfield on Tuesday. Details of the alleged plot are not known, but police say a hunting knife, an Islamic State (IS) flag and a video describing an attack were seized.

Police in Australia have seized 3D-printed weapons after a raid in a suburb of Gold Coast City, Queensland. The haul included plastic knuckle dusters and what are suspected to be printed gun parts. If confirmed, the state’s police force has said it would be the first time it had discovered 3D-printed firearm components in a home.

Two men charged with planning a terror act in Sydney had made a video saying they would ‘stab kidneys and strike at necks’, the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has told parliament. The men were arrested by police in the city’s suburb earlier last week. Police say a hunting knife, an Islamic State flag and the video were seized. Police allege Omar Al-Kutobi and Mohammad Kiad were about to kill or harm a member of the public with a knife when they were arrested. Mr Abbott said the video showed one of the suspects promising to “carry out the first operation for the soldiers of the [IS] caliphate in Australia”. “He went on to say … ‘I swear to almighty Allah, blonde people, there is no room for blame between you and us. We only are you, stabbing the kidneys and striking the necks’,” the prime minister said. The suspects, aged 24 and 25, are expected to appear via audio-video link at the court on 16 March 2015.

DENMARK

Danish police have said three officers were shot and wounded at blasphemy debate in Copenhagen where the French ambassador was speaking. Two gunmen are said to still be at large. Reports say up to forty shots were fired outside the venue in the Danish capital. Controversial Danish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who has drawn caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, was also present at the debate, according to local reports.

BELGIUM

Reported 11th February 2015 – A Belgian court has jailed the leader of a group that sent jihadists to Syria, in the largest-ever trial of its kind in the country. The court in Antwerp found a total of 45 members of the Sharia4Belgium group guilty of terror-related offences. The judge called the organisation “a terrorist group” and sentenced leader Fouad Belkacem to 12 years in prison. The other 44 members were given sentences, some suspended, ranging between three and 15 years. The group sent recruits to militant groups such as Islamic State (IS), prosecutors said. Only seven of the accused were at the court for the ruling. Most others are said to still be in Syria, and some may already be dead.

AFRICA

Reported 14th February 2015 – Boko Haram Islamist militants have attacked the north-east Nigerian city of Gombe, residents say. Fighters overran a checkpoint on the edge of the city and explosions and gunfire were heard, they added.

Reported 13th February 2015 – Nigerian Boko Haram militants have carried out an attack on Chad overnight, the first such assault on Chadian soil, officials say. Fighters crossed Lake Chad in four motorboats and attacked a village, an army spokesman told the BBC. The Islamist militants were pushed back by Chadian troops after killing several people, residents said.

Niger’s parliament has voted to send troops to Nigeria to join the fight against militant Islamist group Boko Haram. The vote took place after Boko Haram attacked a prison and detonated a car bomb last Monday in the town of Diffa, near Niger’s border with Nigeria.

Nigeria’s National Security Adviser has said the country’s general election, which has been postponed until March 28, will not be moved again and that all known camps belonging to the armed group Boko Haram will be destroyed in the next six weeks. He said, “All known Boko Haram camps will be taken out. They won’t be there. They will be dismantled,” Sambo Dasuki told reporters. He added that he believed the new military co-operation agreed to between Nigeria and its neighbours – Cameroon, Chad and Niger – will prove decisive against Boko Haram.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau vowed in a new video released last week that the group would defeat a regional force fighting the extremists in Nigeria’s far northeast, Niger and Cameroon. “Your alliance will not achieve anything. Amass all your weapons and face us. We welcome you,” he said in a 28-minute speech, one of three videos posted by the Islamists on YouTube.

Suspected militants from Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram have hijacked a bus in northern Cameroon, abducting at least 20 people, residents say. Militants reportedly seized a bus carrying market-goers and drove it toward the border with Nigeria. Some reports put the total number kidnapped in Cameroon as high as 30.

Reported 9th February 2015 – A Somali member of parliament has been shot dead in Mogadishu by Islamist militants from the al-Shabab movement, officials say. Abdullahi Qayad Barre was killed near the presidential palace when gunmen opened fire on his car.

The UN has withdrawn its backing for a planned offensive against rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after the government refused to sack two generals, a spokesman has said. UN troops could not join the offensive because the generals were accused of human rights abuses, he added. The planned offensive was aimed at disarming the FDLR rebels who are seen as a threat to regional stability.

ARGENTINA

An Argentine prosecutor has asked a federal judge to investigate President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner over allegations she helped cover up Iranian links to a deadly 1994 bombing. Prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita inherited the case from Alberto Nisman, who was found dead in mysterious circumstances. The president denies the allegations, with the government calling the probe an “anti-democratic attack”. The attack on a Jewish centre killed 85 people. Iran denies being involved.

VENEZUELA

An ex-air force general has been arrested and more than 10 other people implicated in a plot to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, officials say. The group planned to attack the presidential palace and other buildings, Mr Maduro said.

CANADA

Canadian police say they have foiled a plot to carry out a mass shooting in the Halifax area on Saturday. Three suspects were arrested and a fourth reportedly shot himself dead after police surrounded his home. At least two suspects had intended “to go to a public venue… with a goal of opening fire to kill citizens, and then themselves”, police said.

USA

President Barack Obama has asked Congress to formally authorise the use of military force against Islamic State (IS) militants. The president says he already has the statutory authority to attack IS, but he wants the clear backing of lawmakers. This new measure would expire in three years and would not permit “enduring offensive combat operations”.

US police in North Carolina have arrested a man after three Muslim students were found dead in their home. Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, is charged with the triple murder of Deah Barakat, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha. They were discovered last Tuesday, all with gunshots to their heads. US President Barack Obama has denounced the killing of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina as “brutal and outrageous murders”. In a statement, Mr Obama said no one in the US should be targeted for “what they look like” or “how they worship”. His comments came after criticism from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over Mr Obama’s silence on the case.

A man accused of planning to blow up the US Capitol in Washington has been arrested by the FBI. Christopher Cornell, 20, is charged with plotting to attack the building and kill US government officers with explosives and guns. Also said to be known as Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah, he came to the notice of the FBI after tweeting support for groups such as Islamic State. He is said to have told an FBI informant they should “wage jihad” and showed plans for targeting the Capitol — where the House of Representatives and Senate meet — with pipe bombs. Cornell, who lives in southern Ohio, was arrested after buying two semi-automatic rifles and about 600 rounds of ammunition, authorities said.

A hearing for five alleged 9/11 plotters held at Guantánamo Bay came to an abrupt halt last week after two of the defendants said they recognised a court interpreter as having worked at a secret CIA prison where they were previously detained. Alleged al-Qaeda conspirator Ramzi bin al Shibh interrupted proceedings in a high-security courtroom at the US Navy base in Cuba, telling the military judge he recognised his male translator from his internment at a so-called CIA “black site”. Another of the accused, Walid bin Attash, also claimed to recognise the man, his lawyer telling the judge that her client had been “visibly shaken” by coming face-to-face with one of the people responsible for “his illegal torture”

Six Bosnian Muslim immigrants to the St. Louis area have been indicted for sending money and military equipment to ISIS and al-Qaeda. An indictment unsealed two weeks ago in the US District Court in St. Louis said the defendants donated money themselves and in some cases collected funds from others in the US and sent the donations overseas. While investigations of ISIS presence and support are currently taking place in 49 of the 50 states, the indictment in St. Louis says two of the defendants used some of the money to buy US military uniforms, firearms accessories, tactical gear and other equipment, which was shipped to people in Turkey and Saudi Arabia who forwarded the supplies to terrorists. Three of the six are naturalised citizens of the US and all were in the US legally. One or more were in the US as “refugees.”

Top Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi took the witness stand in New York last week as the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization fight a lawsuit that would force them to pay up to $3 billion to victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel. Victims and their families have sued the PA and the PLO over six shootings and bombings in the Jerusalem area from 2002 to 2004 that killed 33 people and wounded more than 450, saying the defendants provided
support to the terrorists who carried out the attacks.

CYBER ISSUES:

Up to 100 banks and financial institutions worldwide have been attacked in an “unprecedented cyber robbery”, claims a new report. Computer security firm Kaspersky Lab estimates $1bn (£648m) has been stolen in the attacks, which it says started in 2013 and are still active. A cybercriminal gang with members from Russia, Ukraine and China is responsible, it said.

US Health insurer Anthem Inc has warned its customers about an email scam targeting former and current members whose personal information was suspected to have been breached in a massive cyber attack. The No. 2 US health insurer said that hackers breached its computer system containing data on up to 80 million people. Anthem announced the warning about the email scam in a statement, saying they purport to come from Anthem and ask recipients to click on a link to obtain credit monitoring. Anthem advised recipients not to click on links or provide any information on any website. Anthem said there was no indication the email scam was connected to those who perpetrated the security breach.

Britain’s £6 billion aircraft carriers could be rendered useless by a cyber-attack because of their reliance on ageing software, a report has warned. The Royal Navy and its international allies must “fundamentally rethink” how they use technology on expensive warships such as the carriers because of the relatively short lifespan of their computer operating systems, the study by a research team at Lancaster University found. The reliance on computers and online connectivity creates another weak link in the form of the crew. State-sponsored cyber-attackers, criminals and cyber-terrorists could use social media to target and compromise individuals and access the main network, the report also said. The Future of Maritime Cyber Security was published by Security Lancaster, the politics department’s unit of security and protection sciences. It was based on issues raised at a workshop held by a Ministry of Defence think-tank.

The Hacktivist group ‘Anonymous’ has claimed to have taken down more than 1,000 (Islamic State) ISIS sites, accounts and emails since launching an offensive against the militant group in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. The group released a video boasting of the online accounts it has ‘exposed and destroyed’ since declaring war against jihadists in January. In this latest video a red outline of the group’s masked front man warns, ‘there is no safe place for [ISIS] online’.

AND FINALLY:

Two women who dressed in skimpy, “sexy” police officer costumes, allegedly showed up at a prison in Brazil’s interior Mato Grosso state last week, according to local media reports. The women talked guards into letting them inside and seduced them, spiking their drinks in the process, according to reports. What happened next is what one might expect when strangers in lingerie appear unannounced at your work place: the guards were found the next morning, naked and handcuffed with little recollection of the night before. And 26 prisoners had escaped from the prison, located in Nova Mutum, a small city near Cuiaba. A spokesman for the Justice Secretariat of Mato Grosso, which oversees prisons, confirmed to CNN that officials found bottles of spiked whiskey and a pair of provocative, police-themed costumes next to the handcuffed guards, who were passed out. “We assume that is what the women were wearing when they seduced the guards,” a spokesman said adding that he did not know who was behind the prison break but saying that civil police were handling the investigation. Eleven of the inmates were soon recaptured. The escape plan had apparently been organised by the inmate boyfriend of one of the women who seduced the wardens. Some of the escaping prisoners took shotguns, rifles and pistols from the jail’s weapons caches before leaving out of the prison’s front doors. Eight prisoners were soon recaptured after police launched a widespread manhunt.

SIGNIFICANT ANNIVERSARIES:

16 Feb 1992 Sheikh Musawi – spiritual head of Hezbollah, killed by Israeli helicopter gunships in Southern Lebanon
16 Feb 1999 Greek Embassy in London is stormed and occupied by hundreds of Kurdish protesters.
16 Feb 2015 US Public Holiday – President’s Day
17 Feb 2003 Congestion charging started in London
19 Feb 2015 Chinese New Year
20 Feb 1998 Japanese Red Army member sentenced to 30 years for attack on US Embassy in Indonesia
22 Feb 1995 Anglo/Irish joint framework published to bring peace to Northern Ireland
23 Feb 1998 Osama bin Laden issued a ‘global Fatwa’ allowing attacks against American nationals worldwide
25 Feb 1991 Coalition forces start land offensive against Iraq in first Gulf War
26 Feb 1993 Vehicle bomb at the World Trade Center kills six and injures 1,000 – Ramzi Yousef later convicted of this attack
27 Feb 1991 Kuwait City liberated by coalition forces. Coalition forces halt offensive actions the following day.
27 Feb 1980 Colombian extremists (M-19) seize Dominican Embassy in Colombia holding 85 hostages (20 of whom were Ambassadors).
28 Feb 1994 NATO carries out first ever offensive action since it was formed: Two USAF F-16’s shoot down four Bosnian-Serb aircraft that were infringing a “No Fly” zone in Bosnia

Dilitas Weekly International Security Brief – Feb 9

February 9, 2015 Dilitas Admin

The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is SEVERE
The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is MODERATE

SEVERE means that a terrorist attack is highly likely;
SUBSTANTIAL means that a terrorist attack is a strong possibility;
MODERATE, means that a terrorist attack is possible, but not likely.

DOMESTIC:

Britain will be attacked by ISIL in retaliation for waging war against the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria, a Luton man who joined the militants has told the magazine, ‘Passionate Islam’. Abu Rahin Aziz, who says he skipped bail and evaded the security services to join ISIL in Syria, told the publication, “My message to the UK is simple; if you want to live in peace and security then stay out of Muslim affairs. They have managed to stick their nose in our country many times and have actively attacked us. Currently they have decided to go to war with the Islamic State, so remember you have gone to war with us and in a war you cannot expect to attack without getting attacked back. If you play with fire, then expect to get burnt.”

On 3 February, the Metropolitan Police arrested a 22-year-old man in east London on suspicion of encouraging acts of terrorism. A spokesman for the Met said, “The man was arrested under PACE at an address in east London and taken to a central London police station where he remains in custody. An address in east London is being searched as part of the investigation. Enquiries continue.”

A Muslim student with “extremist views” [who was said to have wanted the black flag of the Islamic State to fly over Downing Street] and who wanted to join fighters in Syria, has been jailed for 31⁄2 years. Birkbeck College student David Souaan, 20, from Serbia, denied preparing for acts of terrorism but was convicted at the Old Bailey in London in December. The prosecution said Souaan had been on his way to Syria to fight when he was arrested at Heathrow Airport in May. Souaan, who had visited Syria in December 2013, was arrested after fellow students became concerned at his radical views on Islam and pictures he had of himself posing with guns in Syria.

The UK’s role in fighting Islamic State extremists is “strikingly modest” and should be stepped up, MPs have said. The Defence Select Committee found the UK had carried out 6% of coalition air strikes against the jihadist group and said it was “surprised and deeply concerned” it was not doing more. But it stressed it was not in favour of deploying combat forces to battle IS. The government said military action was just part of “comprehensive” action by the international coalition. […] The report said IS was the “most significant threat” to international security to have emerged from the Middle East “in decades”.

NORTHERN IRELAND AND EIRE:

Police have confirmed that an under-car explosion in west Belfast just after midnight on 4 February was caused by a pipe bomb. The parked vehicle was extensively damaged in the incident.

A viable pipe bomb was found in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim in the early morning of 4 February. Army bomb experts examined a suspicious object which was found to be a viable pipe bomb type device. It was seized for examination

INTERNATIONAL:

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France aim to meet in Belarus’s capital Minsk on Wednesday to discuss a peace plan for eastern Ukraine. It comes after leaders of the four countries discussed the ongoing conflict by telephone on Sunday.

The International Court of Justice has rejected claims of genocide by Serbia and Croatia against each other during the Croatian war of secession from Yugoslavia. The Croatian government had alleged that Serbia committed genocide in the town of Vukovar and elsewhere in 1991.

The head of a UN inquiry into potential war crimes committed during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict has resigned amid allegations of anti-Israel bias. William Schabas acknowledged he had previously done work for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and did not want this to compromise the probe. Israel had accused Prof Schabas of “clear and documented bias” against it.

ISIS

Jordan has confirmed the death of pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh after a video published online by Islamic State (IS) claimed to show him being burned alive. The video shows a man standing in a cage engulfed in flames. Officials are working to confirm its authenticity. Jordan’s King Abdullah hailed Lt Kasasbeh as a hero, saying Jordan must “stand united” in the face of hardship. The pilot was captured when his plane came down near Raqqa, Syria, during a mission against IS in December. The video posted on Tuesday was distributed via a Twitter account known as a source for IS propaganda.

King Abdullah II has returned to Jordan for crisis talks after curtailing a trip to the US following the killing of a Jordanian pilot by Islamic State. He landed in Amman a day after IS posted a video appearing to show pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned alive.

Jordan has executed two convicts, including a female jihadist, following the killing of one of its air force pilots by Islamic State (IS) militants. The woman, failed suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi, and al-Qaeda operative Ziyad Karboli – both Iraqi nationals – were hanged at dawn, officials said. The executions came hours after IS posted a video appearing to show pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned alive.

Jordan says it has carried out 56 air strikes in three days on Islamic State logistics sites and hideouts. “We achieved what we aimed at,” Air Force chief Gen Mansour al-Jbour said.

Jordan intensified its strikes after captured pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh was shown being burned alive by IS.

ISIL has called for fresh attacks against France in a video released last week, nearly a month after the attacks in Paris, Yahoo! News reports, via AFP. In the video, an unidentified, masked jihadist is seen surrounded by militants calling on French Muslims to quit their country for ISIL’s self- proclaimed “caliphate”, which covers parts of Iraq and Syria […] and calls for more killings in France. He asks supporters to attack police and military targets, as well as those who participated in mass protests last month to condemn the killing of 12 people at the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on January 7.

Saudi Arabia is attempting to place its spies inside Islamic State (ISIS) as the kingdom scrambles to strengthen its defences’ amid fears of attacks by homegrown jihadists. Saudi Arabia has struggled to infiltrate the militant group since it swept out from strongholds in Syria last summer to capture large parts of northern and central Iraq. An ISIS raid that killed three Saudi soldiers on the kingdom’s northern border with Iraq last month has underscored the need for better intelligence from inside the group.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) says it is “extremely concerned” by images seeming to show its food parcels in Syria being handed out bearing the logo of the Islamic State militant group. The pictures on social media appear to be from the town of Deir Haf, where WFP distributed food last August.

SUDAN

Two Russians working for UTair airline have been kidnapped in Sudan’s Darfur region, Russian officials say. UTair has a contract to fly aircraft for the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (Unamid) which has been in Darfur since 2007. It said two of its employees had been taken in the town of Zalingei on 29 January.

IRAN

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says he would rather see no deal on the country’s nuclear programme than one that undercuts Iranian interests. He would back an accord, but only if neither side got everything it wanted, he said in a statement. The comments came as the US and Iran held further talks in Munich.
EGYPT

Security measures were heightened at Cairo Airport last Tuesday after police found two bombs in different terminals, said security sources. The bombs were detected using electronic devices. No arrests were immediately made, Reuters reported. Also on Tuesday, an explosion was heard in Central Cairo, according to a witness. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear.

Clashes between football fans and security forces in the Egyptian capital Cairo have left at least 22 people dead, prosecutors say. Fans of the Zamalek football club tried to force their way into a match without tickets, sparking the clashes, officials said.
The violence broke out ahead of a premier league game against ENPPI.

UKRAINE

Up to 16 civilians have been killed and dozens more injured in the space of 24 hours in fighting in eastern Ukraine, last week. Government officials and representatives of the rebels reported deaths in locations across the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Ukraine’s army also said five soldiers had died during fierce clashes with the pro-Russian rebels near the strategic town of Debaltseve in eastern Donetsk.

Three people were killed and many more wounded when a shell hit a hospital in the rebel-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

CHINA

Two members of a cult in China have been executed for murdering a woman in a McDonald’s restaurant in Shandong, according to a local court. Zhang Lidong and his daughter Zhang Fan were members of the banned Church of the Almighty God cult. They were part of a group who attempted to recruit the 35-year-old victim, Wu Shuoyan, in the restaurant in the town of Zhaoyuan in May 2014. When she refused to give her phone number, they beat her to death.

SOUTH KOREA

A South Korean soldier who shot dead five of his colleagues and injured seven others has been sentenced to death by a military court. The sergeant opened fire in June 2014 at his post near the North Korean border and fled, sparking a manhunt.

TAIWAN

A plane carrying mostly Chinese tourists has crashed into a river in Taiwan, killing at least 19 people. Dramatic video footage emerged showing the TransAsia Airways plane clipping a bridge as it came down shortly after take-off from a Taipei airport. The plane, carrying 58 people, has broken up and the fuselage is lying half-submerged in the Keelung River. Rescue efforts are ongoing.

FRANCE

Last week, French police arrested eight men suspected of recruiting fighters for Islamist militants in Syria, Interior Minister Barnard Cazeneuve said. The arrests in the Paris and Lyon areas are not linked to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January, Mr Cazeneuve told local media.

On 3 February, three French soldiers were wounded in a knife attack outside a Jewish cultural centre in the southern city of Nice, the Interior Ministry said. The knifeman and a second man were detained by police following the attack. According to media reports, the man who stabbed the soldiers was arrested in Turkey last week while en-route to join ISIL. Moussa Coulibaly, 30, was detained at Istanbul airport and deported back to France after border control became suspicious.

SPAIN

The Spanish government and the main opposition party have agreed to pass new measures to combat individuals travelling to fight in radical Islamist groups or acting in “lone wolf” attacks on home soil, the country’s Prime Minister said last week. The agreement follows last month’s attacks by Islamist militants in Paris, which prompted European governments to look at expanding the powers of their security agencies.

BRUSSELS

On 2 February, a major evacuation was launched at the European Parliament after a man dressed in camouflage was arrested, and a chainsaw and gun found in his car. Prosecutors in Brussels said the man, from Slovakia, told police officers at the scene that he wanted to meet the European president. The incident sparked a security scare, including the evacuation of a number of offices nearby. The incident comes at a time when Belgium is on high alert after security forces foiled a plot by Islamist radicals to attack police stations across the country. Extra soldiers have been deployed.

AFRICA

Last week, Chadian troops have entered Nigeria to join the battle against militant Islamist group Boko Haram. Armoured vehicles and infantry crossed a bridge from Cameroon following air strikes and mortar attacks on Boko Haram positions.

In Nigeria, a female suicide bomber killed herself last week when she exploded a vehicle packed with explosives near a stadium where Nigeria’s president had just held an election rally in the northeastern city of Gombe, police said. They said there were no other casualties. [..] Most suicide bombings are blamed on Boko Haram Islamic extremists who are against democracy and have vowed to disrupt the Feb. 14 elections for the president, state governors and legislators in Nigeria, Africa’s richest and most populous nation.

CANADA

Canadian police have arrested a man who they say was part of an Islamic State (ISIS) recruiting cell and charged two other men who are overseas, one of whom may be dead. Police said that they had arrested Awso Peshdary, 25, and charged him with participation in the activity of a terrorist group and with facilitating a terrorist group. Police also filed terrorism charges in absentia against Khadar Khalib, 23, and John Maguire, a 24-year-old convert to Islam. Both men had travelled to Syria. Maguire, who has appeared in an ISIS video calling for attacks against Canadians, might have been killed recently, according to reports.

USA

An al-Qaeda terror suspect who plotted to blow up New York City subways and targets in Europe has claimed he wasn’t talking about bombs (in email chats) but trying to find to woman to marry. Abid Naseer said hours of online chats with other men from nine different email accounts was his attempt to find a suitable girlfriend. The 28-year-old Pakistani national is due to go on trial in New York later this month, accused of being part of a terror cell that planned attacks in the US, UK and
Denmark.

In an interview with CNN, the head of the FBI’s counterterrorist division, Michael Steinbach, acknowledges that it is extremely difficult to track every American who might travel abroad to join terrorist groups like ISIL, and says the unknown worries him the most. When asked if there are ISIL cells in the US, Steinbach said, “there are individuals that have been in communication with groups like ISIL who have a desire to conduct an attack” and those people are living in the US right now. In the US, the FBI has seen children as young as 15 recruited by ISIL and Steinbach said he “can’t speak with 100% certainty that individuals of that age group have not gotten over there successfully.”

President Obama will send Congress a proposal to authorize the use of force against ISIL shortly, the White House and House Speaker John Boehner has said. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the administration will send “specific language” of an Authorisation for the Use of Military Force to Congress [AUMF] “relatively soon,” while Boehner told Capitol Hill reporters he’s “expecting [an AUMF] sent up here in the coming days.” The move will set up “what’s sure to be a fierce political fight on Capitol Hill.”

As part of President Obama’s renewed push to close Guantanamo Bay, a US counterterrorism official told Senators that only six detainees released since the president’s pledge returned to terrorism or military activities. Speaking to a Senate panel skeptical on shuttering the infamous facility, Nicholas Rasmussen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said that the recidivism rates from Guantanamo were on the decline. Six of the 88 detainees released from Guantanamo since 2009 have been determined by US intelligence to be “directly involved in terrorist or insurgent activities,” Rasmussen told the Senate Armed Services Committee, for a confirmed recidivism rate of 6.8%

CYBER ISSUES:

A hacker who hijacked computers to make death threats has been jailed for eight years. Yusuke Katayama played a game of cat and mouse with the authorities, leading them to make numerous wrongful arrests. He threatened a massacre at a comic book event, as well as to attack a school attended by the grandchildren of Japan’s Emperor Akihito.

Terrorists will soon be able to launch advanced cyber-attacks on critical national infrastructure, a leading security figure has warned. World governments are “scared” of cyber warfare and are not yet capable of deflecting cutting-edge hacks, Eugene Kaspersky, the founder and chief executive of Kaspersky Lab, said in an interview with The Times. Kaspersky, who advises the British government, Interpol and Europol on cyber-security issues, said that most states understood the “huge” problems they faced, but were a long way from having adequate systems in place to defend themselves. When asked what governments feared the most, Mr Kaspersky said: “My advice is to watch Die Hard 4.0.” In the 2007 film, which stars Bruce Willis, cyber terrorists attack the US by sabotaging traffic signals and air traffic control systems, stealing from banks and infiltrating the FBI’s computer networks.

Twitter’s chief executive says the company “sucks” at dealing with trolls and he is “ashamed” of how poorly it has dealt with the issue. Dick Costolo said in recent memos to employees that bullying behaviour could be driving users away, and he has promised tougher action to deal with abusers. He wrote, “We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we’ve sucked at it for years.” The memos follow an internal employee forum in which a staff member asked what could be done to address abuse on the social network. Costolo promised to start “kicking these people off right and left and making sure that when they issue their ridiculous attacks, nobody hears them”. Twitter recently streamlined the process for reporting abuse, and in November it teamed up with an advocacy group to investigate harassment against women. According to studies, women are disproportionately affected by online abuse.

From The Times of India: Information technology (IT) companies in the city may soon be snooping on their employees’ surfing habits to check if they are accessing terror-related information on the internet. This follows the Cyberabad police’s advisory to the companies in view of several software professionals emerging as closet sympathisers of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. In the past few days, at least two meetings were held by the Cyberabad police with honchos of IT companies to take stock of preparedness for lone-wolf terror attacks, hostage crisis or other
emergencies.

SIGNIFICANT ANNIVERSARIES:

9 Feb 1992 Algeria: State of Emergency declared following clashes between Islamists and government forces.
9 Feb 1996 Provisional IRA mount VBIED attack in Canary Wharf. Two people killed. Marked the end of the then PIRA ceasefire.
9 Feb 2000 PKK announces formal halt to war; adopts new name, Kongra Gel, and re- elects Abdullah Oçalan as its leader
11 Feb 2003 Information about a claimed terrorist threat to civil aviation at London’s Heathrow led to the largest security operation at the airport for more than 10 years.
12 Feb 2008 Assassination of the Hizballah official, Imad Mugniyah, believed responsible for 18 April 1983 bombing of US Embassy in Beirut, killed by car bomb in Damascus.
12 Feb 1996 The late Yasser Arafat was sworn in as president of the Palestinian authority in Gaza.
13 Feb 1979 Iranian Revolution Day
13 Feb 1984 Maqbool Butt, the co-founder of the Jammu & Kashmiri Liberation Front was hanged by the Indian authorities
14 Feb 1989 Death threat made against Salman Rushdie by Ayatollah Khomeini over the publication of the book, “The Satanic Verses”
15 Feb 1999 The Kurdish PKK leader, Abdullah Oçalan is arrested in Nairobi sparking Europe-wide protests.
16 Feb 1992 Sheikh Musawi – spiritual head of Hezbollah, killed by Israeli helicopter gunships in Southern Lebanon
16 Feb 1999 Greek Embassy in London is stormed and occupied by hundreds of Kurdish protesters.
16 Feb 2015 US Public Holiday – President’s Day
17 Feb 2003 Congestion charging started in London
19 Feb 2015 Chinese New Year
20 Feb 1998 Japanese Red Army member sentenced to 30 years for attack on US Embassy in Indonesia
22 Feb 1995 Anglo/Irish joint framework published to bring peace to Northern Ireland
23 Feb 1998 Osama bin Laden issued a ‘global Fatwa’ allowing attacks against American nationals worldwide
25 Feb 1991 Coalition forces start land offensive against Iraq in first Gulf War
26 Feb 1993 Vehicle bomb at the World Trade Center kills six and injures 1,000 – Ramzi Yousef later convicted of this attack
27 Feb 1991 Kuwait City liberated by coalition forces. Coalition forces halt offensive actions the following day.
27 Feb 1980 Colombian extremists (M-19) seize Dominican Embassy in Colombia holding 85 hostages (20 of whom were Ambassadors).
28 Feb 1994 NATO carries out first ever offensive action since it was formed: Two USAF F-16’s shoot down four Bosnian-Serb aircraft that were infringing a “No Fly” zone in Bosnia

Risk & Security Management