China hijacked the Internet last April
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - 3 Comments
State-owned company sucked in data for 18 minutes
In what’s believed to be one of the biggest data hijackings ever, security experts have confirmed that a state-run Chinese telecommunications company sucked in 15 per cent of all Internet traffic for 18 minutes last April. It’s hard to tell what happened to massive amount of data re-routed through China, though the possibilities include eavesdropping on unprotected communications like emails and instant messaging, manipulating the data passing through, or decrypting messages. Even more worrisome is the fact the targets of the hijackings were pre-selected destinations like military, intelligence and civilian networks in the United States and its allies. “Imagine the capability and capacity that is built into their networks,” says Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee, the world’s largest Internet security company. “I’m not sure there was anyone else in the world who could have taken on that much traffic without breaking a sweat.”
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Yemeni al Qaeda member arrested over UK bomb plot
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 12:01 PM - 0 Comments
Player in last week’s cargo bomb plot was planning an attack in Britain
A member of the group believed to be involved in last week’s cargo bomb plot was arrested in Britain earlier this year, British Home Secretary Theresa May has revealed. “Our police and agencies have been working to disrupt AQAP operatives in this country. An AQAP associate was arrested here earlier this year. He is alleged to have been planning a terrorist attack in this country. Threats such as these are likely to continue,” she said. The man, a member of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen, had been plotting an attack in the UK. He was part of the same group believed to be behind bombs built into desktop computer printers discovered at East Midlands airport and in Dubai on Friday morning after a tip from Saudi intelligence. Ibrahim al-Asiri, a Saudi-born militant believed to be at large in Yemen, is suspected of having constructed the bombs. He is also alleged to have been responsible for making the device that was involved in the failed Christmas Day bomb plot targeting a plane bound for Detroit last year.
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Taliban's explosives capacity diminished
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 11:50 AM - 0 Comments
Price of components rises dramatically as Taliban supply routes get disrupted
According to outgoing British military commander General Nick Carter, the Taliban’s capacity to prepare improvised explosive devices has been diminished due to the disruption of key supply routes by NATO forces in Afghanistan. Carter says anecdotal reports show increased prices for key chemical ingredients and other components, like detonators. IEDs are the biggest killer of British and U.S. troops in Afghanistan, accounting for over half of all fatalities. “The price of ammonium nitrate has increased 10 times. Basic IED components by 11 times. With these constraints and the economic impact of the poppy blight this year, we believe it is difficult for them to go on the offensive,” Carter told reporters.
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Taliban network reaches South Korea
By macleans.ca - Friday, October 22, 2010 at 1:32 PM - 0 Comments
Agents working for the Islamist group have been arrested weeks before Seoul G20
The Taliban’s network may be more far-reaching than first imagined. According to Korean intelligence officials, members of the Taliban were recently caught in Korea and more are believed to be working there in secret. This discovery has sparked security concerns less than three weeks before the G20 summit in Seoul. The Taliban members were caught seeking to export strategic weapons to Palestine, taking advantage of South Korea’s lax controls on strategic arms exports. Seoul authorities, working with Interpol, confiscated a ship carrying weapons right after it entered Palestine. One anonymous official said, “We believe more Taliban agents are in the country and are trying to track them down before the G20 summit.”
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Witness left al-Qaeda because they wouldn’t pay for wife’s cesarean
By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 1:46 PM - 0 Comments
Tears at 1998 African embassy bombings trial
L’Houssaine Kherchtou, a man who was once Osama Bin Laden’s personal pilot, broke down in tears in a U.S. court Wednesday when he was asked why he left al Qaeda in 1995. Kherchtou, a 46-year-old Moroccan, said he left because he saw no future for his children in Afghanistan (where al Qaeda was planning to move) and because al Qaeda had refused to pay for his pregnant wife’s medical treatment. (Kherchtou has previously testified that after returning to in Sudan after a trip to Kenya in 1995, he found his wife begging on the street for $500 for an emergency cesarean section.) Kherchtou was testifying yesterday against Ahmed Ghailani, who is accused of helping al Qaeda bombers buy the truck that destroyed the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on August 7, 1998. The bombing killed 11 people. A simultaneous explosion in Nairobi, Kenya killed 212 people.
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Iran stockpiling enriched uranium: UN
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 at 2:58 PM - 0 Comments
New report concludes that Iran is blocking inspections at nuclear sites
Despite toughened international sanctions, a new UN inspection reports that Iran continues to stockpile enriched uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency was unable to comment on the quantity of the nuclear materials, saying that they are often being blocked from investigating sites. However, representatives did say that the agency “remains concerned about the possible existence in Iran of past or undisclosed nuclear related activities,” including the possible “development of a nuclear payload for a missile,” reported the Washington Post. The UN report concluded that Iran has produced 50 pounds of uranium enriched at 20 per cent purification levels. Previously, it had not enriched it more than 5 per cent (90 per cent is considered weapons grade).
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The CIA's man in Kabul
By macleans.ca - Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 10:36 AM - 0 Comments
Karzai aide accused of corruption is on the agency’s payroll
Well this is awkward. It turns out that Mohammed Zia Salehi, the key aide to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and a principal figure in a corruption investigation, has been working for the CIA for years. “It is unclear exactly what Mr. Salehi does in exchange for his money, whether providing information to the spy agency, advancing American views inside the presidential palace, or both,” reports the New York Times today. He was arrested by the Afghan police after they allegedly wiretapped him soliciting a car for his son in exchange for impeding an American-backed investigation into a company suspected of shipping billions of dollars out of the country for Afghan officials, drug smugglers and insurgents. Big deal, some might say. Salehi would hardly be the first spy with a dodgy personal narrative. But as the Times nicely spells out, it’s problematic for a certain U.S. President who bangs on about how the Karzai government needs to root out corruption before the country can stand on its own. Hard to do, one imagines, when those suspected of corruption are being subsidized by Uncle Sam.
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Hamburg shuts down mosque frequented by 9/11 hijackers
By macleans.ca - Monday, August 9, 2010 at 11:57 AM - 0 Comments
Members may have visited terrorist training camps last year
Citing evidence that the Taiba Mosque is still acting as a jihadist recruitment centre, police in the northern German city of Hamburg have shut it down indefinitely. The mosque was frequented by three of the September 11 hijackers, including ringleader Mohammed Atta. Twenty police officers searched the mosque early Tuesday morning while other officers recovered money from the bank accounts of certain members. A group of 10 men from the 45-member mosque are alleged to have traveled to Pakistan or Afghanistan last year to attend jihadist training camps, say German security officials. One member recently appeared in a German-language propaganda video encouraging Muslims to enlist in jihad. In March, four Islamic militants, including two ethnic-German converts, were jailed for planning a terrorist attack in Germany.
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Japanese tanker explosion was a terrorist attack
By macleans.ca - Friday, August 6, 2010 at 12:11 PM - 0 Comments
United Arab Emirates news says explosions linked to al-Qaeda
A state-run news agency in the United Arab Emirates claims the explosion on the M Star, a Japanese tanker, was a terrorist attack. The explosion occurred just after midnight last Wednesday while the ship was in the Strait of Hormuz, between Oman and Iran. “An examination carried out by specialized teams had confirmed that the tanker had been the subject of a terrorist attack,” the news agency said. The explosives found on the ship were homemade and caused little to no damage to the oil tanker. Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the explosion in a post on a website. The Japanese government has yet to confirm the report.
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“Underwear bomber” may not have been alone
By macleans.ca - Friday, July 16, 2010 at 12:12 PM - 0 Comments
Extremists appear to have discussed bombing NYC restaurants or nightclubs
The attempt by Umar Abdulmutallab to light a bomb hidden in his underwear on a flight en route to Detroit may not have been the only terror attack planned for Christmas Day 2009. Extremists also discussed an attack on restaurants and nightclubs in New York City, according to an FBI report obtained by Fox News Channel. The alleged NYC plot involved smuggling an explosive device from Nairobi, Kenya to London, England in a shipment of khat before passing it on to a “Caucasian British Muslim,” who would bring it to a Somali man for detonation in New York. An anonymous FBI official suggested that the attempted underwear bombing on the Northwest Airlines flight may have been a back-up plan for a larger terrorist attack in New York City. However, FBI spokesman Bill Carter said it would be wrong to suggest the December 4 report would have helped prevent the attempt by Abdulmutallab. Carter said the report was based on “raw intelligence, unsubstantiated, uncorroborated information.” Another expert agreed, saying that there are “hundreds” of similar reports about potential attacks in New York City each month.
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Turkey threatens to cut off diplomatic ties with Israel
By macleans.ca - Monday, July 5, 2010 at 11:56 AM - 0 Comments
Longtime allies could be headed for historic rupture
Relations between Israel and its ally Turkey, already strained since Israel raided a Gaza-bound flotilla in May, appear headed for rupture. Turkey has warned Israel that it will cut diplomatic ties with the Jewish state unless Israel apologizes for the raid in which nine activists were killed. Israel’s foreign minister says it will do no such thing. The two countries have had close political and military ties for decades, motivated in part because both are non-Arab democracies in a region dominated by illiberal autocracies.
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Afghanistan’s soldiers and police aren’t measuring up
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, June 29, 2010 at 12:08 PM - 0 Comments
Only 23% of soldiers and 12% of police can be trusted to work unsupervised, says U.S. investigator
U.S. and coalition forces have not successfully trained Afghan security forces, says a new report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, Arnold Fields. He says that only 23% of Afghan
soldiers and 12% of police can work unsupervised, partially due to corruption. Some senior officers were found to be stealing food and fuel, others are accused of selling weapons. Turnover is another problem. Even the
“premier” National Civil Order Force lost three quarters of its recruits in the space of a year. The U.S. has spent 28.4 billion (CAD) on training security forces in Afghanistan. Defence minister Peter McKay announced in April that Canada will continue training police after the planned pullout in 2011. -
Pakistan spy agency funding Afghan Taliban
By macleans.ca - Monday, June 14, 2010 at 10:46 AM - 4 Comments
Goes far beyond just limited, or occasional support, researchers say
Pakistan’s senior spy agency, the ISI, is directing, funding, and providing sanctuary to the Afghan Taliban, according to a report from the London School Economics, despite Pakistani claims to have severed contact with the Islamist group it helped found almost two decades ago. “This goes far beyond just limited, or occasional support,” said author Matt Waldman. “We’re also saying this is official policy of that agency, and we’re saying that it is very extensive. It is both at an operational level, and at a strategic level, right at the senior leadership of the Taliban movement.” Waldman, who interviewed nine Taliban field commanders last year, said some Taliban claimed ISI agents had attended meetings of their top leadership council, the so-called Quetta Shura.
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UN votes for new sanctions on Iran over nuclear programme
By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 1:05 PM - 0 Comments
Sends an “unmistakable message”: Obama
The United Nations Security Council has voted in favour of new sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program, which the United States and its allies say is geared toward building a nuclear bomb. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had previously said Iran would not agree to further talks if the sanctions were imposed. Turkey and Brazil, which recently brokered a deal with Iran on uranium enrichment, voted against the resolution. Lebanon abstained. The United Sates said the sanctions are the toughest Iran has faced, but they were watered down following negotiations with Security Council members China and Russia and contain no oil embargo.
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UN imposes new sanctions on Iran
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 at 12:19 PM - 2 Comments
Ahmadinejad may pull out of nuclear negotiations as a result
The United Nations Security Council has voted in favour of new sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program, which the United States and its allies say is geared toward building a nuclear bomb. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had previously said Iran would not agree to further talks if the sanctions were imposed. Turkey and Brazil, which recently brokered a deal with Iran on uranium enrichment, voted against the resolution. Lebanon abstained. The United Sates said the sanctions are the toughest Iran has faced, but they were watered down following negotiations with Security Council members China and Russia and contain no oil embargo.
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Pakistan court upholds decision to release Hafiz Mohammad Saeed
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 12:38 PM - 1 Comment
Islamist militant accused of masterminding 2008 Mumbai attack
The man India accuses of masterminding the 2008 massacre in Mumbai will remain free after Pakistan’s Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision to release him. Hafiz Mohammad Saeed founded the Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, thought to be behind the attack, but Saeed claims he had nothing to do with it. Saeed had not been charged but was placed under house arrest after the United Nations proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba. He was released last June when a Lahore high court said there was no evidence to justify his continued detention. Pakistan’s federal and Punjabi provincial governments had asked for a review of the Lahore court’s decision.
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Leaders of Thai "red shirt" movement surrender
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 10:34 AM - 0 Comments
Authorities put Bangkok under curfew; protesters continue to riot
Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, is burning and under curfew tonight, after Thai troops stormed the barricades of anti-government protesters camped in the city centre. At least five died in the assault, including an Italian news photographer, and more than 50 are injured. Leaders of the protest “red shirt” movement have surrendered, but many of their supporters urged continued defiance, rioted, and set nearby buildings on fire. Television footage showed soldiers firing at the backs of protesters running for cover. A government spokesperson described the operation as a success.
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Canada vulnerable to cyber-attacks: CSIS
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 9:45 AM - 1 Comment
Government, university, and industry at risk, memo says
CBC News has obtained a heavily censored briefing note under an access to information request showing that Canada’s spy agency has warned that cyber-attacks on government, university and industry computers has been growing “substantially,” the news agency reports. Canada’s energy, financial and telecommunications systems all are increasingly vulnerable, according to the June 2009 memo from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS. “In addition to being virtually unattributable, these remotely operated attacks offer a productive, secure and low-risk means to conduct espionage,” the CSIS briefing says. The federal government’s March throne speech pledged a cyber security strategy, but Canada still has no official plan for responding to coordinated cyber-attacks. Public Safety Canada did not respond to CBC’s interview requests.
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Suicide bomber kills 18 in Kabul
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 9:40 AM - 0 Comments
Deadly attack on NATO convoy killed one Canadian soldier
A massive suicide car bomb today hit a NATO convoy in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing at least 18 people and injuring 50 more. Six of the dead are NATO soldiers—five Americans and a Canadian, whose name has not yet been released. An Afghan civilian who witnessed the attack said many of the victims are women and children. This is the third large-scale attack in the Afghan capital this year.
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Terrorism watch in North Africa
By Michael Petrou - Monday, May 17, 2010 at 4:09 PM - 0 Comments
The long-running dispute between Morocco and the Polisario Front over sovereignty of Western Sahara is usually ignored by the rest of the world. The territory is mostly desert flatlands and has a population of maybe half a million people. The conflict has little chance of spreading. The Polisario Front, for its part, appears to be almost a relic of the Cold War, heralding socialism and national liberation rather than Islam. Continue…
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Syrian-Canadian to sue federal government
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at 2:56 PM - 22 Comments
Man was held for eight years on suspicion of terrorism
“Just acknowledge what happened to me.” So goes the plea from Hassan Almrei, the Syrian-Canadian held for eight years on a national security certificate before being released without charges last year. On Tuesday, Almrei announced he will sue the Canadian government for false imprisonment and negligence. “I need to know why all this happened,” he explained. Almrei is seeking damages from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the RCMP, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency. But the real goal, says his lawyer Lorne Waldman, is to get the federal government to fess up to what it did: “I would have expected that there would have been some kind of soul-searching, and some kind of acknowledgment and recognition, that something went horribly wrong in this case. But the only thing that we’ve had so far is absolute silence.” Almrei arrived in Canada in 1991 on a fake passport; he was detained shortly after 9/11 and then arrested on suspicion of terrorism.
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Hakimullah Mehsud vows attacks on American cities
By macleans.ca - Monday, May 3, 2010 at 12:07 PM - 6 Comments
New internet video reveals Pakistani militant leader thought to be dead
Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, thought to have been killed in an American drone strike in January, is alive and well. Mehsud has appeared on a new Internet video vowing to attack American cities. U.S. and Pakistani officials said they were certain he had been killed in January, though Pakistani intelligence agents last week said they had been mistaken and that Mehsud survived the attack. This latest video, filmed in April and released today, proves that he did.
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Khadr in plea bargain negotiations
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 8:58 AM - 7 Comments
Lawyer says repatriation is a key part of the talks
Omar Khadr may yet find his way back to Canada if his lawyers successfully negotiate a plea deal that includes his repatriation. Barry Coburn, Khadr’s lead U.S. lawyer, says there are ongoing plea bargain talks involving Khadr’s lawyers, his U.S.-based prosecutors, the convening authority, “and potentially the Canadian government.” Khadr’s return to Canada is a key part of those talks, Coburn says. Pre-trial proceedings against Khadr, who’s facing charges of murder, conspiracy and support of terrorism and is currently housed in Guantanamo Bay, are set to begin Wednesday.
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UK envoy escapes suicide bombing in Yemen
By macleans.ca - Monday, April 26, 2010 at 12:10 PM - 0 Comments
British ambassador is unharmed
A suicide bomber in Sanaa, Yemen, today attacked a convoy of vehicles carrying the British ambassador, Tim Torlot, who escaped unscathed. No group has claimed responsibility, but British officials suspect al-Qaeda. The terrorist group has been increasingly active in the country. Two Yemeni security officials and a bystander were wounded. The bomber, a young man wearing a school uniform, died in the explosion.
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North Korea halts cross-border visits to mountain resort
By macleans.ca - Friday, April 23, 2010 at 11:29 AM - 0 Comments
Koreas “at the crossroads of a war or peace”
Tensions are mounting between North and South Korea after North Korean officials shut down cross-border visits to the Mount Kumgang resort and seized South Korean-owned assets at the site. The move follows accusations by South Korea that its northern neighbour was behind the sinking of a warship last month. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday she hoped “there is no talk of war, there is no action or miscalculation that could provoke a response that might lead to conflict” and urged North Korea to return to the six-party talks aimed at halting its nuclear program. However, a statement by a North Korean state agency suggested “the situation has reached such an extreme phase that it is at the crossroads of a war or peace.”
