6 teens trained as suicide bombers

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi military on Monday displayed a group of weeping teenagers who said they had been forced into training for suicide bombings by a Saudi militant in the last urban stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq.
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Four of the six boys were lined up for the media at police headquarters in the northern city of Mosul, where they said they had been training for a month to start suicide operations in early June.

The United Nations and the Iraqi and U.S. militaries say they fear that al-Qaida in Iraq is increasingly trying to use youths in attacks to avoid the heightened security measures that have dislodged the group from Baghdad and surrounding areas.

The youths, three wearing track suits and one with a torn white T-shirt, began crying as they were led into the police station.

"The Saudi insurgent threatened to rape our mothers and sisters, destroy our houses and kill our fathers if we did not cooperate with him," one of the youths, who were not identified, told reporters in Mosul, where security forces are cracking down on al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents.

Iraqi soldiers acting on tips found the youths, who ranged in age from 14 to 18, in the basement of an abandoned house on Monday after the Saudi militant who was training them was killed in military operations last week, deputy Interior Minister Kamal Ali Hussein said.

More:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080526/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_080517190318

http://snipurl.com/2arks

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Who is "al-Baghdadi",Hamid Dawoud al-Zawi.

Image via WikipediaCAIRO, Egypt — Al-Arabiya television reports it has identified the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq and the network broadcast his photograph.

The Dubai-based network, citing an Iraqi police official, said the real name of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who allegedly heads the Islamic State of Iraq, is Hamid Dawoud al-Zawi.

Photo from mypet jawa/



Originally from Haditha, al-Baghdadi served in the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein, then joined Al Qaeda in 2003, the police official told Al-Arabiya.

The U.S. has described al-Baghdadi as a fictitious character.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354372,00.html

http://snipurl.com/27sl8

Accuses Al-Qaida of Stoking Infighting Among Iraqi Insurgents

By Evan Kohlmann

The 1920 Revolution Brigades -- a prominent Sunni militant group linked to the Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood -- has issued an irate response to recent criticisms by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and other spokesmen for Al-Qaida's "Islamic State of Iraq." In its statement, the 1920 Brigades dismissed these claims as "an effort at settling a score or possibly even the product of a personal agenda." The 1920 Revolution Brigades also issued its own set of counter-allegations, accusing Al-Qaida in Iraq of engaging in a consistent pattern of treachery, deceit, and murder. An English translation of the statement is now available for download c/o the NEFA Foundation website:

"Do not listen to those of your brothers who became enslaved by their own insecurities and fell into a trap… Dear brothers… you should know that the snake has a head and a tail. The head is the infidel American occupiers, their allies, and their agents—and the tail is your own neighbors who have sought to stray from the principles of Islam and decided instead to be used by the enemy… We inform you that the ISI’s denials about forcing other jihadi factions into joining the Al-Qaida organization are false, and the evidence for this is our own practical experience dealing with Al-Qaida in Abu Ghraib. They forced one of our brigades, the Jaffar al-Tayyar Brigade, to join them and they kept increasing pressure on them until the brigade was forced to defend itself… We would like to remind you that Muharib al-Jabouri (commander of the 1920 Revolution Brigades) was asked to swear an oath of allegiance to Al-Qaida, but he refused because he believed that the Al-Qaida organization had no right either to establish an ‘Islamic State’ without first consulting other factions nor to fight against those who refuse to join its state. Unfortunately, that was exactly what happened when fighting broke between the 1920 Revolution Brigades and the ISI that persisted until the joint agreement signed [between us]... In reality, the people who were murdered and tortured were fighters from the 1920 Revolution Brigades: Omar Abdel Razaaq and his two friends. Omar was captured [by Al-Qaida] during the cease-fire and resulting peace talks that concluded with the February 4 joint agreement... After Al-Qaida promised not to cause any harm to Omar, his dead body was sent to his family... We wonder, does the Al-Qaida organization look down upon the sacrifices of others and choose only to glorify its own?”

See also:
- (NEFA Foundation) Transcript of September 14 audio recording by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi from Al-Qaida's "Islamic State of Iraq" (ISI)
- (NEFA Foundation) Translation of reaction from Hamas in Iraq
- (NEFA Foundation) Translation of statement from Asaeb al-Iraq al-Jihadiya ("the Iraqi Jihad Union")
- (Globalterroralert.com) Translation of reaction from Iraqi Islamic Resistance Front (JAAMI)
- (Globalterroralert.com) Translation of Al-Qaida/ISI Statement on the 1920 Revolution Brigades
- (Counterterrorism Blog) "Khawaarij and Jihad: Is Al-Qaida's Network in Iraq Doomed to the Fate of the GIA?"
- (NBC News) "Insurgent groups condemn al-Qaida tactics."
October 13, 2007 01:42 AM Link

Iraqi insurgents announce new coalition

By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF, Associated Press Writer 45 minutes ago

CAIRO, Egypt - Nearly two dozen previously unknown Iraqi insurgent groups announced a new coalition to fight foreign occupation but it also set conditions for talks with the U.S. in a statement on a Web site affiliated with the country's deposed Baath party.

The 22 groups said their leader is Izzat al-Douri, the highest ranking member of Saddam Hussein's former ruling party still at large.

In the nearly half hour video message, an unidentified man, face blurred, was shown sitting behind a table with an Iraqi flag on his right side reading a statement announcing the formation of the new alliance called "The Jihad and Liberation."

The new alliance laid down a series of conditions for talks with the U.S. It demanded an unconditional withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq, immediately or within a short timetable, the release of all detainees, return of the security forces to their status before the occupation and a halt to all operations against the people.

"If the enemy wants to withdraw and save face, they should sit down and speak directly with the resistance to discuss implementing these sacred principles. Otherwise, the only alternative is their collapse and flight," the statement said.

Ayad Allawi, Iraq's first post-Saddam prime minister, has recently said he held talks with members of the Baath party loyal to al-Douri, for which he was severely criticized by Iraq's current prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.

The statement made no mention of al-Qaida in Iraq, but it contained slogans praising Arab nationalism and the Arab nation's great past. Al-Qaida's extremist ideology does not recognize nationalism, but calls for an Islamic state.

Iraqi kid punished for thumbs up

Even when the kids do support the USA forces they get punished.

16 Iraqi captured while trying to sneak into USA

We need more boots on the ground on the border.

Director
of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said.

Later, addressing a question about security along the U.S.-Mexico
border, McConnell said that people linked to terrorist groups had
sought to enter the United States from the south, but "not in great numbers."

Referring to the southwestern border, he said: "Would they use it as
a path, given it was available to them? In time they will."

He said that a "significant number" of Iraqis have been smuggled
across the border in the past year. A spokesman for McConnell
clarified that the Iraqis were asylum-seekers, who have been
apprehended at border crossings in increasing numbers. So far this
year, 178 Iraqis seeking asylum have been detained along the southern
border; 16 were captured while trying to sneak into the United
States, the spokesman said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082202598.html?hpid=topnews

HOW MANY GOT THRU?

g

Iraqi Biometric Database Swells

Iraqi Biometric Database Swells
By Luke O'Brien EmailJuly 13, 2007 | 10:41:46 AM

190164232_5c92c3ab74_m Sprinkled among the M-4 carbines and other combat gear that ships regularly to U.S. troops in Iraq one will now find a good number of iris and fingerprint scanners. Yes, the U.S. Army is building a rather large database of biometric info on suspected militants in Iraq, as USA Today reports here. More:

"This year, U.S. troops in Iraq are to receive 3,800 handheld scanners, up from 200 now in use, to equip every squad in the country, said Col. Michael Meese....The devices can both collect and display data, letting troops view someone's background and decide whether he should be detained.

'If we see some guy at the site of a blast or a shooting, we put him in the database,' said Capt. John Henry Moltz of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division. 'If we find he's at every blast, now we've got probable cause to question him.'

While the goal of the database, which appears to be a true dragnet, is to stop the seemingly unstoppable slew of bombings in Iraq, it's hard to know how effective the program has been (no word on whether it's actually caught anyone). It's also hard to imagine why the Pentagon would trouble with probable cause or privacy rights in a country governed by little more than the law of the jungle. Already, hundreds of thousands of "suspected militants" have been fingerprinted and eyeballed.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/

http://tinyurl.com/2p5yro