Al Quaida expanding scope?

[KinKyJ]

Al-Qaeda opposes Palestinian vote



Al-Qaeda ideologue Ayman al-Zawahiri has urged Palestinians to reject a referendum on a future state.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas wants Palestinians to be able to accept or reject a two-state solution.

But the vote is opposed by the Hamas party, which won elections in January and is committed to destroying Israel.

Zawahiri, in a video on al-Jazeera TV, also praised militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The channel said the video was made before Zarqawi's death.

"God bless the prophet of Islam in Iraq, the persistent hero of Islam, the Holy Warrior Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," Zawahiri said.

Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5064184.stm
MS thread on the Palestinian referendum: http://www.mercuryserver.com/forums/...ad.php?t=28435

What is going on here all of a sudden? I can't recall Al Quaida making any statements specifically about the Palestinian conflict before. I first thought it was a new strategy after losing Al Zarqawi in Iraq, but as the article suggests the video was taped before AZ got 500 kilos of first class explosives tossed on his camel humping ass...

Anyway, it worries me... Support from Al Quaida could make Hamas go even more extremist whereas the referendum was a chance for them to leave the Jihad discours without losing face too much ("The comunis opinio dictates to recognize Israel, so we'll accept what our brothers want although we're reluctant to do so")

And that's just one thing. What worries me even more is the possibility of Al Quaida getting involved in terrorist acts against Israel. If that would happen, the peace process will be dead for years to come.

[thesightless]

Re: Al Quaida expanding scope?

if that happened, it would get REALLY bad. and its pretty bad now. also, when it comes to getting violent, isreal always throws a big dog into the fight. they dont retaliate against you, they retaliate against your family and neighborhood. it would escalate into epic events and god willing it doesnt.

[KinKyJ]

Re: Al Quaida expanding scope?

if that happened, it would get REALLY bad. and its pretty bad now. also, when it comes to getting violent, isreal always throws a big dog into the fight. they dont retaliate against you, they retaliate against your family and neighborhood. it would escalate into epic events and god willing it doesnt.

Exactly. During the PLO era, I was moderatly pro Palestinian just because of the excessive force Israel uses to defend itself. I've seen quite some documentaries on life in Ghaza etc... Man, shelling civilians and anihilating houses with bulldozers, that's just creating one milion excuses for another idiot to blow hisself up in a mall or a restaurant. That doesn't mean I was cheering when yet another bus with Israeli kids god blown up, don't get me wrong...

I was quite happy that although the peace proces has been in near coma since Bush got elected, the extreme violence of the 70's and the 80's extinguished slowly.

At the moment I tend to lean back to the Israelis because of the gestures they have made during the past months (evacuation of settlements) and the general opinion screaming out for peace instead of revenge.

Al Quaida attacking Israel "for the Palestinian cause" would indeed turn the region into a giant slaughterhouse again... Maybe even worse than before since they couldn't care less about the political issue. Their only objective is to create chaos and bloodshed.

IMO Al Quaida makes the nazis in WWII look good. Yes, the latter were responsible for the most heanous crimes against humanity to this day, but at least they wore uniforms and had their pride and honor. Whereas Al Quaida abuses a religion as ideology for blind violence, hides in caves and mingles with civilians. Allah (or whatever you call your personal god) will sort them out

[Yao]

Re: Al Quaida expanding scope?

^agree with that wholeheartedly Kinky, they're also reaching the point where they start losing credibility over their supposed griefs and objectives. Instead of a retaliatory fight again Western mingling in Middle-Eastern business, it's slowly turning into an ordinary domination struggle, imposing the 'true Islam' on everyone they can get their hands on.

Right now in Somalia something frightening is going on as well - Mogadishu has for the first time in years come under control of one group....Muslims. They are backed by the Islamic Courts Union, and are looking to take over more cities and eventually the entire country. Now, they've said they're willing to co-operate with the UN backed transitional government, and if that is the case it could mean an end to 15 years of lawlessness, but I won't believe it until I see it happening.

Possibly this is a chance for peace though, you don't have to expect any help from the warlords anyway since they have much to gain by disorder...

[davetlv]

Re: Al Quaida expanding scope?

Yawn yawn yawn

OK. . . heres a catch up. . . . soon after 9/11, for those of you with very short memories, UBL released one of his video nasties. In it he declared that AQ would not stop until Palestinian lands had been freed from Zionist control and Saudi Arabi was free of Americans. . . .thats a few years ago now.

Catch up. . . AQ cells have been supposedly working in Gaza since at least Septemeber of last year, after the disengagement, and has been trying to get a foot hold in the West Bank.

Now for those that don't realise - the West Bank is controlled by Fatah (a non-islamist faction) and Gaza is controlled by Hamas - AQ bastard brother.

Whilst AQ might not have the central control like Hamas, its pulls Hamas strings in many ways - most of Hamas's funding (and not the nice stuff that pays for teachers and doctors but the nasty murdering type of funding) comes from sources that more than likely fund AQ as well many other nasty terroris groups, not just in the OT but all over the mid-east and asia.

After 9/11 whilst it became difficult to fund UBL and his tinpot brigade of lunatics directly, it was easier to fund the likes of Hamas, who had no problem 'sharing' their funds with their big brother, via brown paper envelops (the like that would make Neil Hamilton cream his pants ).

Ideologically, OBL and Sheikh Yassim (may he be enjoying his 72 virgins) come from the same mold. The new Hamas leadership (we killed most of the old leadership ) see themselves intrinsically linked with the actions and ideology of AQ. Lets not forget those lovely images from Rafah after 9/11 shall we.

Thats my lot. Any questions?

[dig72]

Re: Al Quaida expanding scope?

[quote=davetlv]

Catch up. . . AQ cells have been supposedly working in Gaza since at least Septemeber of last year, after the disengagement, and has been trying to get a foot hold in the West Bank.

Is there any proof of this?

Now for those that don't realise - the West Bank is controlled by Fatah (a non-islamist faction) and Gaza is controlled by Hamas - AQ bastard brother.

Again, is there any evidence suggesting links with AQ?

Whilst AQ might not have the central control like Hamas, its pulls Hamas strings in many ways - most of Hamas's funding

Any evidence of this?

After 9/11 whilst it became difficult to fund UBL and his tinpot brigade of lunatics directly, it was easier to fund the likes of Hamas, who had no problem 'sharing' their funds with their big brother, via brown paper envelops (the like that would make Neil Hamilton cream his pants ).

Can you name any member of Hamas who has accepted funds from AQ?

The new Hamas leadership (we killed most of the old leadership ) see themselves intrinsically linked with the actions and ideology of AQ

.

What ideology is that?

Thats my lot. Any questions?

Just a few thanks.

[davetlv]

Re: Al Quaida expanding scope?

I'm sure even you Dig could have goggled. . . . but here you go. . . . how many of these do you want me to submit before you accept stark yet simple facts


Ties between al Qaeda and Hamas in Mideast are long and frequent
It shouldn't be any surprise that the two groups share ideology

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/03/05/INGERHG75F1.DTL

he ideological compatibility of Hamas with other jihadi movements in the Middle East raises the question of whether the new Hamas government that is about to be sworn in could create in the West Bank and Gaza a new center for global terrorism.

Russia certainly doesn't think so, because President Vladimir Putin invited a Hamas delegation to Moscow. France has supported the Russian move. And in many diplomatic circles, even in Washington, the argument is being made that Hamas can be brought into a political process and moderated. This is clearly being raised by individuals who have no idea what Hamas truly represents and why Israel has cut off all financial support to the new Palestinian government even before it is formally set up.

True, unlike al Qaeda, Hamas until now has not been involved in terrorist attacks against Western targets in the United States and Europe. It was left by those fostering the global jihad to focus its military efforts on Israel alone. Yet Hamas has maintained critical links with al Qaeda. And last week, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said he was concerned that al Qaeda had infiltrated the West Bank and Gaza.

Earlier evidence of links exists. In 2003, an Israeli ground unit in Gaza, seeking Hamas suspects, went into a school established by the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. Written materials that Israeli soldiers collected revealed the writings of a famous Saudi Wahhabi religious authority, Sheikh Sulaiman al-Ulwan. His ideological entry into the world of Hamas immediately raised eyebrows. After all, his name was featured in a famous Osama bin Laden video clip from December 2001, when the al Qaeda leader entertained his entourage on camera by re-enacting with his hands the hijacked aircraft slamming into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

In that video, one Saudi messenger entered the scene at the end, telling bin Laden that he brought with him a "beautiful fatwa" from al-Ulwan, who had justified the mass murder of Americans. Now his ideas have penetrated the Palestinians as well. And his Islamic religious ruling justifying suicide bombing attacks appeared on the Hamas Web site along with those of other al Qaeda clerics.

Also, in 2003 and 2004, Israeli forces found Hamas posters that were distributed in West Bank cities that extolled the war being waged by Islamic militants in the Balkans, Chechnya and Kashmir. At the top was the portrait of Hamas leader Yassin alongside the portraits of bin Laden and Chechen militant leaders like Shamil Besayev, who took credit for the bloody attack on a Russian school in Beslan.

That Hamas and al Qaeda share some common ideological roots should not have come as any surprise. Hamas is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement. Article Two of the Hamas Covenant reads, "The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine."

Throughout the Arab world, the Muslim Brotherhood is regarded as the common wellspring of all modern jihadi terrorism. Its spiritual leader, Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, has been one of the pivotal figures in the globalization of the Danish cartoon rage as well as a supporter of fighting against U.S. forces in Iraq. Much of the al Qaeda leadership -- from bin Laden's mentor, Abdullah Azzam, to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of Sept. 11 -- started out with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hamas and al Qaeda, as Muslim Brotherhood offshoots, have had a number of notable links.

Bin Laden sent emissaries to Hamas in September 2000 and January 2001; Israel arrested three Hamas militants in 2003 after they had returned from an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda operations chief Abu Zubaydah entered the world of terrorism through Hamas. And according to a 2004 FBI affidavit, al Qaeda recruited Hamas members to conduct surveillance against potential targets in the United States.

Hamas poses a unique danger in the world of global terrorism, because besides its past ties to the Sunni Islamic extremism of al Qaeda, Hamas is now erecting a strategic partnership with Shiite Iran. For years, Iran has funded Hamas, but now that relationship is about to be seriously upgraded.

Khaled Mashaal, head of the Hamas political bureau, declared at a recent news conference in Tehran that "Iran's role in the future of Palestine should continue and increase." He is clearly prepared to open up Gaza to Iranian influence and serve Iranian national interests.

Just recently, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah moved one of its command centers from its base in Beirut to the heart of Gaza. So now both of the major Islamist terrorist organizations have established themselves in this Hamas-dominated territory.

Hamas is not the PLO of 1993 that lost its collapsing Soviet patron, and hence had to moderate its behavior in order to obtain Western diplomatic and financial support. The patrons of Hamas today are pushing it in a completely opposite direction. And so Mashaal spoke openly recently about the defeat of the United States in Iraq and his opposition to Western policies across the entire globe, from Darfur to East Timor.

As the struggle between the West and Iran over its nuclear program heats up, Hamas could become an important instrument for any countermeasures that Iran seeks to take. Rather than accommodate Hamas, the West should seek ways to contain its spread. Palestinian society will eventually seek another path, but in the interim, it would be a cardinal error to assume that Hamas is about to change.

____________

?Axis of Evil?
Indicted Hamas leader linked to al Qaeda activist in Midwest.

By Evan Kohlmann

s the result of an extensive, decade-long federal investigation, former U.S. resident Musa Abu Marzook, also the acknowledged "political bureau" chief of the Palestinian Hamas terrorist organization since 1991, has been indicted along with several other Palestinian Americans for repeated and deliberate violations of U.S. export regulations and the material-support provisions of the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). While living as a U.S. resident during the mid-1990s, Abu Marzook also had a series of disturbing connections through family and personal associates to a known al Qaeda activist living in the U.S. named Ziyad Helmi Khaleel.

Musa Abu Marzook is a charismatic Islamist leader who has actively championed the jihad in Palestine. A day after a suicidal Hamas shooting attack in Jerusalem in 1994, Marzook told an interviewer, "Death is the goal to every Muslim and every fighter wants to die on Palestinian land. This is not the first time that the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassem heroes carr[ied] out suicide and terrorism actions." Moreover, captured Hamas operatives who were allegedly dispatched by Marzook from inside the United States have told Israeli interrogators that Marzook was intimately involved in financing and ordering actual Hamas terrorist operations.

At the same time, Marzook also played an integral role in local Muslim communities across America where he resided, including in Colorado, Northern Virginia, Texas, and Louisiana. In a suburb of Dallas, Marzook helped found the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), a Texas-based evangelical charity group that, last December, was named by the U.S. government as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity (SDGT) for providing critical financial support to Hamas. Musa also expanded his own personal roots here in America. For a time, Marzook set up shop in unimposing Ruston, Louisiana with his personal secretary and his family. Even his nephew Ahmed came to the United States, and stayed with his uncle every summer in the Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C.

Ahmed Abu Marzook is the founder and president of Palestinian Internet Services (P-I-S.com), a prominent local Internet provider located in Gaza. P-I-S.com is responsible for hosting both the websites for the Gaza office of the now-banned Holy Land Foundation and HLF's special hospital in Gaza, Dar al-Islam. The enterprising Ahmed Abu Marzook has also spent extensive time in other parts of the U.S., including in Detroit, Michigan, where he incorporated "A&A Intercontinental" at 3167 Hanley Street. Unsurprisingly, the same Hanley Street address has also been linked in public records to Ziyad Khaleel, a U.S. citizen and the webmaster of the official Hamas Internet site.

At the time, Khaleel was a roving jack-of-all-trades in the American underground militant Islamic community. His name and Detroit address both appeared prominently in ledgers taken from the Al-Kifah Refugee Center in 1994, a critical international financial and strategic arm of al Qaeda. While in Orlando, Florida, Khaleel served as the regional director for the Columbia, Missouri-based Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA), an Islamic charity that had a multimillion-dollar USAID contract cancelled after the U.S. State Department determined that it was not in America's "national-security interests." In Columbia itself, Khaleel operated a remote-branch office on behalf of radical Saudi dissidents based in London who were closely aligned with Osama bin Laden. He even added a digitized copy of an infamous al Qaeda propaganda video titled "The Martyrs of Bosnia" to his own short-lived Internet website, salam.net.

But Ziyad Khaleel never forgot his Palestinian heritage. While he used his technical abilities to register websites on behalf of a host of militant Islamic groups in North Africa and the Middle East, he simultaneously rededicated himself to spreading word of the Palestinian cause. He enthusiastically lectured to Muslim student groups at the University of Missouri on behalf of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), an organization based primarily in Dallas and Chicago and cofounded by Musa Abu Marzook. In a recent federal-court decision, a judge concluded that IAP has "distribute[d] information on behalf of Hamas" and, in a variety of other ways, "has acted in support of Hamas." While in Detroit, Khaleel collected advertising money for an IAP publication and shared common residential addresses in Detroit with both Ahmed Abu Marzook and, separately, another Palestinian associate of Uncle Musa: Mohammed Abu Dayyeh. And, of course, Khaleel happily administered the Hamas Internet domain for Marzook and his assorted henchmen.

In the mid-to-late 90s, Ziyad Khaleel finally ran afoul of federal authorities in the United States for taking his orders not from Musa Abu Marzook, but rather from the top advisors of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden. In November 1996, senior al Qaeda lieutenant Khaled al-Fawwaz instructed Ziyad Khaleel to purchase a $7,500 satellite telephone for personal use by bin Laden. Between 1996 and 1998, Khaleel replenished the phone with more than 2,000 minutes of telephone air time, also at the behest of Fawwaz. Bin Laden's bustling branch office in Columbia, managed by Khaleel and disguised as a low-income housing project, started attracting far too much attention. The FBI secretly raided the nondescript office and collected extensive intelligence information.

Khaleel's role in knowingly aiding bin Laden was subsequently revealed in detail by prosecutors during the 2001 trial of al Qaeda terrorists responsible for the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings. However, Khaleel was never indicted for his role in the conspiracy, even though bin Laden used the satellite telephone to communicate the very orders to carry out the attacks in Kenya and Tanzania. Nevertheless, according to Newsweek, on the eve of the millennium, Khaleel was abruptly seized by Jordanian intelligence officials and the FBI as he arrived in Amman. Evidently, investigators had sought to question him in regards to the shocking failed millennium terror plots attributed to the al Qaeda network. Nevertheless, the Newsweek report indicated Khaleel was "cooperating" with the inquiry and would not be held.

Of course, the abrupt ending to this tale leaves many intriguing questions unanswered about the apparent links between prominent Hamas and al Qaeda activists living and working inside the United States. Is this proof that Hamas and al Qaeda have been openly collaborating with each other? It should be noted in this regard that several Hamas leaders have specifically renounced any ties to al Qaeda and have condemned the 9/11 terror attacks. However, like virtually any radical movement, Hamas is characterized by many factions, some more moderate and some more extreme. While the U.S. government has heretofore been reluctant to take decisive action against Hamas, perhaps the very real fear of fringe Palestinian militants aligning themselves with al Qaeda will finally encourage us to change that policy and "get tough" with all terrorists who have American blood on their hands, irrespective of their geographic or national identity.

https://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-kohlmann010203.asp

___________________

Islamic Extremism in Europe: Beyond al-Qaeda?Hamas and Hezbollah in Europe
Featuring Matthew Levitt
April 27, 2005

Testimony before the Joint Hearing of the House Committee on International Relations, Subcommittee on Europe and Emerging Threats

INTRODUCTION

The rise of global jihadist movements in Europe is alarming, not only because of the threat such movements pose to our European allies but because Europe has served as a launching pad for terrorist operatives plotting attacks elsewhere. As the 9/11 trial just begun in Spain highlights, the 9/11 hijackers and their logistical and financial collaborators plotted and planned their operations in Europe. Similarly, Richard Reid?s failed shoe-bombing of a U.S. airliner was plotted and launched from Europe; Hezbollah operatives have launched attacks against Israel from Europe; and Hamas operatives have plotted and funded suicide and other terrorist attacks against civilians in Israel from Europe as well.

While terrorist groups remain the central structural unit in international terrorism, terrorist groups today are better described as networked groups tied together by individual relationships than as clearly defined organizations that are structured and discrete. The relationships between individual terrorists affiliated with different groups are paramount, especially when operating within Diaspora communities in places like Europe and the United States. This crossover and pollination facilitates cooperation among groups, including operational cooperation but far more often interconnectivity at the logistical and financial support levels. Such links exist even between groups that do not share similar ideologies, leading to cooperation between religious zealots and secular radicals; between ideologically- or theologically-driven terrorists and criminal entities (as has been the case in several terrorist attacks in Iraq, where criminal elements played critical roles in return for monetary compensation); between Sunni and Shi?a groups; and between individuals whose person-to-person contacts require no agreement between their respective headquarters.

As such, it should not surprise that several investigations into al-Qaeda operatives in Europe and elsewhere revealed significant crossover to terrorist elements tied to Hamas. A particularly interesting example is the Madrid Al-Qaeda cell, perhaps the most important cell broken up since 9/11. Around April 2002, Spanish authorities searched the home and offices of Muhammad Zouaydi, a senior al-Qaeda financier in Madrid. Investigators found a five-page fax dated October 24, 2001, revealing that Zouaydi was not only financing the Hamburg cell responsible for the September 11 attacks, but also Hamas. In the fax, which Zouaydi kept for his records, the Hebron Muslim Youth Association solicited funds from the Islamic Association of Spain. According to Spanish prosecutors, "the Hebron Muslim Youth Association is an organization known to belong to the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas which is financed by activists of said organization living abroad." Spanish police also say Zouaydi gave a total of almost $6,600 marked ?Gifts for Palestine? to Sheikh Helal Jamal, a Palestinian religious figure in Madrid tied to Hamas.

The al-Taqwa banking system?with offices in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy and the Caribbean?also facilitated the financing of multiple terrorist organizations, including Hamas. Bank al-Taqwa was added to the U.S. Treasury Department?s terrorism list in November 2001 for ?provid[ing] cash transfer mechanisms for Al Qaida,? and European intelligence services confirm ?al-Taqwa used Hamas funds in the late 1990s.? Subsequent investigation has determined al-Taqwa was established in 1988 with financing from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, "$60 million collected annually for Hamas was moved to accounts with Bank al-Taqwa." Al-Taqwa shareholders include known Hamas members and individuals linked to al-Qaeda. Ghalib Himmat, noted for his ties to the International Islamic Charity Organization (IICO), another charity suspected of financing Hamas, is also an executive of the al-Taqwa banking network. Moreover, a 1996 report by Italian intelligence further linked al-Taqwa to Hamas and other Palestinian groups, as well as to the Algerian Armed Islamic Group and the Egyptian al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya.

Beyond the presence in Europe of global jihadists tied to the al-Qaeda network, the activities of groups like Hamas and Hezbollah also pose significant national security risks. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, these risks are not limited to the terrorist attacks these groups plot against Israel, they include risks to the countries in which they are operating and to the United States as well.

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC07.php?CID=234

Anything else sir?

[Jenks]

Re: Al Quaida expanding scope?

Dig72, you just got dunked on son!!

[KinKyJ]

Re: Al Quaida expanding scope?

^^^what he said

[Jenks]

Re: Al Quaida expanding scope?

[dig72]

Re: Al Quaida expanding scope?

I'm sure even you Dig could have goggled. . . . but here you go. . . . how many of these do you want me to submit before you accept stark yet simple facts


Ties between al Qaeda and Hamas in Mideast are long and frequent
It shouldn't be any surprise that the two groups share ideology

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/03/05/INGERHG75F1.DTL

he ideological compatibility of Hamas with other jihadi movements in the Middle East raises the question of whether the new Hamas government that is about to be sworn in could create in the West Bank and Gaza a new center for global terrorism.

Russia certainly doesn't think so, because President Vladimir Putin invited a Hamas delegation to Moscow. France has supported the Russian move. And in many diplomatic circles, even in Washington, the argument is being made that Hamas can be brought into a political process and moderated. This is clearly being raised by individuals who have no idea what Hamas truly represents and why Israel has cut off all financial support to the new Palestinian government even before it is formally set up.

True, unlike al Qaeda, Hamas until now has not been involved in terrorist attacks against Western targets in the United States and Europe. It was left by those fostering the global jihad to focus its military efforts on Israel alone. Yet Hamas has maintained critical links with al Qaeda. And last week, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said he was concerned that al Qaeda had infiltrated the West Bank and Gaza.

Earlier evidence of links exists. In 2003, an Israeli ground unit in Gaza, seeking Hamas suspects, went into a school established by the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. Written materials that Israeli soldiers collected revealed the writings of a famous Saudi Wahhabi religious authority, Sheikh Sulaiman al-Ulwan. His ideological entry into the world of Hamas immediately raised eyebrows. After all, his name was featured in a famous Osama bin Laden video clip from December 2001, when the al Qaeda leader entertained his entourage on camera by re-enacting with his hands the hijacked aircraft slamming into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

In that video, one Saudi messenger entered the scene at the end, telling bin Laden that he brought with him a "beautiful fatwa" from al-Ulwan, who had justified the mass murder of Americans. Now his ideas have penetrated the Palestinians as well. And his Islamic religious ruling justifying suicide bombing attacks appeared on the Hamas Web site along with those of other al Qaeda clerics.

Also, in 2003 and 2004, Israeli forces found Hamas posters that were distributed in West Bank cities that extolled the war being waged by Islamic militants in the Balkans, Chechnya and Kashmir. At the top was the portrait of Hamas leader Yassin alongside the portraits of bin Laden and Chechen militant leaders like Shamil Besayev, who took credit for the bloody attack on a Russian school in Beslan.

That Hamas and al Qaeda share some common ideological roots should not have come as any surprise. Hamas is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement. Article Two of the Hamas Covenant reads, "The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine."

Throughout the Arab world, the Muslim Brotherhood is regarded as the common wellspring of all modern jihadi terrorism. Its spiritual leader, Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, has been one of the pivotal figures in the globalization of the Danish cartoon rage as well as a supporter of fighting against U.S. forces in Iraq. Much of the al Qaeda leadership -- from bin Laden's mentor, Abdullah Azzam, to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of Sept. 11 -- started out with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hamas and al Qaeda, as Muslim Brotherhood offshoots, have had a number of notable links.

Bin Laden sent emissaries to Hamas in September 2000 and January 2001; Israel arrested three Hamas militants in 2003 after they had returned from an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda operations chief Abu Zubaydah entered the world of terrorism through Hamas. And according to a 2004 FBI affidavit, al Qaeda recruited Hamas members to conduct surveillance against potential targets in the United States.

Hamas poses a unique danger in the world of global terrorism, because besides its past ties to the Sunni Islamic extremism of al Qaeda, Hamas is now erecting a strategic partnership with Shiite Iran. For years, Iran has funded Hamas, but now that relationship is about to be seriously upgraded.

Khaled Mashaal, head of the Hamas political bureau, declared at a recent news conference in Tehran that "Iran's role in the future of Palestine should continue and increase." He is clearly prepared to open up Gaza to Iranian influence and serve Iranian national interests.

Just recently, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah moved one of its command centers from its base in Beirut to the heart of Gaza. So now both of the major Islamist terrorist organizations have established themselves in this Hamas-dominated territory.

Hamas is not the PLO of 1993 that lost its collapsing Soviet patron, and hence had to moderate its behavior in order to obtain Western diplomatic and financial support. The patrons of Hamas today are pushing it in a completely opposite direction. And so Mashaal spoke openly recently about the defeat of the United States in Iraq and his opposition to Western policies across the entire globe, from Darfur to East Timor.

As the struggle between the West and Iran over its nuclear program heats up, Hamas could become an important instrument for any countermeasures that Iran seeks to take. Rather than accommodate Hamas, the West should seek ways to contain its spread. Palestinian society will eventually seek another path, but in the interim, it would be a cardinal error to assume that Hamas is about to change.

____________

?Axis of Evil?
Indicted Hamas leader linked to al Qaeda activist in Midwest.

By Evan Kohlmann

s the result of an extensive, decade-long federal investigation, former U.S. resident Musa Abu Marzook, also the acknowledged "political bureau" chief of the Palestinian Hamas terrorist organization since 1991, has been indicted along with several other Palestinian Americans for repeated and deliberate violations of U.S. export regulations and the material-support provisions of the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). While living as a U.S. resident during the mid-1990s, Abu Marzook also had a series of disturbing connections through family and personal associates to a known al Qaeda activist living in the U.S. named Ziyad Helmi Khaleel.

Musa Abu Marzook is a charismatic Islamist leader who has actively championed the jihad in Palestine. A day after a suicidal Hamas shooting attack in Jerusalem in 1994, Marzook told an interviewer, "Death is the goal to every Muslim and every fighter wants to die on Palestinian land. This is not the first time that the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassem heroes carr[ied] out suicide and terrorism actions." Moreover, captured Hamas operatives who were allegedly dispatched by Marzook from inside the United States have told Israeli interrogators that Marzook was intimately involved in financing and ordering actual Hamas terrorist operations.

At the same time, Marzook also played an integral role in local Muslim communities across America where he resided, including in Colorado, Northern Virginia, Texas, and Louisiana. In a suburb of Dallas, Marzook helped found the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), a Texas-based evangelical charity group that, last December, was named by the U.S. government as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity (SDGT) for providing critical financial support to Hamas. Musa also expanded his own personal roots here in America. For a time, Marzook set up shop in unimposing Ruston, Louisiana with his personal secretary and his family. Even his nephew Ahmed came to the United States, and stayed with his uncle every summer in the Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C.

Ahmed Abu Marzook is the founder and president of Palestinian Internet Services (P-I-S.com), a prominent local Internet provider located in Gaza. P-I-S.com is responsible for hosting both the websites for the Gaza office of the now-banned Holy Land Foundation and HLF's special hospital in Gaza, Dar al-Islam. The enterprising Ahmed Abu Marzook has also spent extensive time in other parts of the U.S., including in Detroit, Michigan, where he incorporated "A&A Intercontinental" at 3167 Hanley Street. Unsurprisingly, the same Hanley Street address has also been linked in public records to Ziyad Khaleel, a U.S. citizen and the webmaster of the official Hamas Internet site.

At the time, Khaleel was a roving jack-of-all-trades in the American underground militant Islamic community. His name and Detroit address both appeared prominently in ledgers taken from the Al-Kifah Refugee Center in 1994, a critical international financial and strategic arm of al Qaeda. While in Orlando, Florida, Khaleel served as the regional director for the Columbia, Missouri-based Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA), an Islamic charity that had a multimillion-dollar USAID contract cancelled after the U.S. State Department determined that it was not in America's "national-security interests." In Columbia itself, Khaleel operated a remote-branch office on behalf of radical Saudi dissidents based in London who were closely aligned with Osama bin Laden. He even added a digitized copy of an infamous al Qaeda propaganda video titled "The Martyrs of Bosnia" to his own short-lived Internet website, salam.net.

But Ziyad Khaleel never forgot his Palestinian heritage. While he used his technical abilities to register websites on behalf of a host of militant Islamic groups in North Africa and the Middle East, he simultaneously rededicated himself to spreading word of the Palestinian cause. He enthusiastically lectured to Muslim student groups at the University of Missouri on behalf of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), an organization based primarily in Dallas and Chicago and cofounded by Musa Abu Marzook. In a recent federal-court decision, a judge concluded that IAP has "distribute[d] information on behalf of Hamas" and, in a variety of other ways, "has acted in support of Hamas." While in Detroit, Khaleel collected advertising money for an IAP publication and shared common residential addresses in Detroit with both Ahmed Abu Marzook and, separately, another Palestinian associate of Uncle Musa: Mohammed Abu Dayyeh. And, of course, Khaleel happily administered the Hamas Internet domain for Marzook and his assorted henchmen.

In the mid-to-late 90s, Ziyad Khaleel finally ran afoul of federal authorities in the United States for taking his orders not from Musa Abu Marzook, but rather from the top advisors of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden. In November 1996, senior al Qaeda lieutenant Khaled al-Fawwaz instructed Ziyad Khaleel to purchase a $7,500 satellite telephone for personal use by bin Laden. Between 1996 and 1998, Khaleel replenished the phone with more than 2,000 minutes of telephone air time, also at the behest of Fawwaz. Bin Laden's bustling branch office in Columbia, managed by Khaleel and disguised as a low-income housing project, started attracting far too much attention. The FBI secretly raided the nondescript office and collected extensive intelligence information.

Khaleel's role in knowingly aiding bin Laden was subsequently revealed in detail by prosecutors during the 2001 trial of al Qaeda terrorists responsible for the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings. However, Khaleel was never indicted for his role in the conspiracy, even though bin Laden used the satellite telephone to communicate the very orders to carry out the attacks in Kenya and Tanzania. Nevertheless, according to Newsweek, on the eve of the millennium, Khaleel was abruptly seized by Jordanian intelligence officials and the FBI as he arrived in Amman. Evidently, investigators had sought to question him in regards to the shocking failed millennium terror plots attributed to the al Qaeda network. Nevertheless, the Newsweek report indicated Khaleel was "cooperating" with the inquiry and would not be held.

Of course, the abrupt ending to this tale leaves many intriguing questions unanswered about the apparent links between prominent Hamas and al Qaeda activists living and working inside the United States. Is this proof that Hamas and al Qaeda have been openly collaborating with each other? It should be noted in this regard that several Hamas leaders have specifically renounced any ties to al Qaeda and have condemned the 9/11 terror attacks. However, like virtually any radical movement, Hamas is characterized by many factions, some more moderate and some more extreme. While the U.S. government has heretofore been reluctant to take decisive action against Hamas, perhaps the very real fear of fringe Palestinian militants aligning themselves with al Qaeda will finally encourage us to change that policy and "get tough" with all terrorists who have American blood on their hands, irrespective of their geographic or national identity.

https://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-kohlmann010203.asp

___________________

Islamic Extremism in Europe: Beyond al-Qaeda?Hamas and Hezbollah in Europe
Featuring Matthew Levitt
April 27, 2005

Testimony before the Joint Hearing of the House Committee on International Relations, Subcommittee on Europe and Emerging Threats

INTRODUCTION

The rise of global jihadist movements in Europe is alarming, not only because of the threat such movements pose to our European allies but because Europe has served as a launching pad for terrorist operatives plotting attacks elsewhere. As the 9/11 trial just begun in Spain highlights, the 9/11 hijackers and their logistical and financial collaborators plotted and planned their operations in Europe. Similarly, Richard Reid?s failed shoe-bombing of a U.S. airliner was plotted and launched from Europe; Hezbollah operatives have launched attacks against Israel from Europe; and Hamas operatives have plotted and funded suicide and other terrorist attacks against civilians in Israel from Europe as well.

While terrorist groups remain the central structural unit in international terrorism, terrorist groups today are better described as networked groups tied together by individual relationships than as clearly defined organizations that are structured and discrete. The relationships between individual terrorists affiliated with different groups are paramount, especially when operating within Diaspora communities in places like Europe and the United States. This crossover and pollination facilitates cooperation among groups, including operational cooperation but far more often interconnectivity at the logistical and financial support levels. Such links exist even between groups that do not share similar ideologies, leading to cooperation between religious zealots and secular radicals; between ideologically- or theologically-driven terrorists and criminal entities (as has been the case in several terrorist attacks in Iraq, where criminal elements played critical roles in return for monetary compensation); between Sunni and Shi?a groups; and between individuals whose person-to-person contacts require no agreement between their respective headquarters.

As such, it should not surprise that several investigations into al-Qaeda operatives in Europe and elsewhere revealed significant crossover to terrorist elements tied to Hamas. A particularly interesting example is the Madrid Al-Qaeda cell, perhaps the most important cell broken up since 9/11. Around April 2002, Spanish authorities searched the home and offices of Muhammad Zouaydi, a senior al-Qaeda financier in Madrid. Investigators found a five-page fax dated October 24, 2001, revealing that Zouaydi was not only financing the Hamburg cell responsible for the September 11 attacks, but also Hamas. In the fax, which Zouaydi kept for his records, the Hebron Muslim Youth Association solicited funds from the Islamic Association of Spain. According to Spanish prosecutors, "the Hebron Muslim Youth Association is an organization known to belong to the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas which is financed by activists of said organization living abroad." Spanish police also say Zouaydi gave a total of almost $6,600 marked ?Gifts for Palestine? to Sheikh Helal Jamal, a Palestinian religious figure in Madrid tied to Hamas.

The al-Taqwa banking system?with offices in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy and the Caribbean?also facilitated the financing of multiple terrorist organizations, including Hamas. Bank al-Taqwa was added to the U.S. Treasury Department?s terrorism list in November 2001 for ?provid[ing] cash transfer mechanisms for Al Qaida,? and European intelligence services confirm ?al-Taqwa used Hamas funds in the late 1990s.? Subsequent investigation has determined al-Taqwa was established in 1988 with financing from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, "$60 million collected annually for Hamas was moved to accounts with Bank al-Taqwa." Al-Taqwa shareholders include known Hamas members and individuals linked to al-Qaeda. Ghalib Himmat, noted for his ties to the International Islamic Charity Organization (IICO), another charity suspected of financing Hamas, is also an executive of the al-Taqwa banking network. Moreover, a 1996 report by Italian intelligence further linked al-Taqwa to Hamas and other Palestinian groups, as well as to the Algerian Armed Islamic Group and the Egyptian al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya.

Beyond the presence in Europe of global jihadists tied to the al-Qaeda network, the activities of groups like Hamas and Hezbollah also pose significant national security risks. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, these risks are not limited to the terrorist attacks these groups plot against Israel, they include risks to the countries in which they are operating and to the United States as well.

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC07.php?CID=234

Anything else sir?

Not for now, this will keep me busy for a while.

Thanks.

[dig72]

Re: Al Quaida expanding scope?

Dig72, you just got dunked on son!!

Are you like 12 years old?


Dave lives in Israel and has alot to offer on issues regarding Israel and Palestinian issues and whenever he posts I read what he has to say with alot of interest simply because his comments carry alot more substance than most other posters.

Alot of what he has to say isn't published or spoken about in our media. So alot of what he has to say is new to us over here.

If I am doubtful or not too sure about what he has posted, I will ask questions, especially when asked for.


This is not a pissing contest and if you think it is then you need to grow up.

[davetlv]

Re: Al Quaida expanding scope?

Dave lives in Israel and has alot to offer on issues regarding Israel and Palestinian issues and whenever he posts I read what he has to say with alot of interest simply because his comments carry alot more substance than most other posters.

Alot of what he has to say isn't published or spoken about in our media. So alot of what he has to say is new to us over here.

If I am doubtful or not too sure about what he has posted, I will ask questions, especially when asked for.

Dig72. . .

Like most complex political situations, the middle east (and lets widen the scope here to include everything and not just Israel/Palestine) can be seen from various perspectives.

Each and everyone of us, regardless of who we are, will find our own truths in what we see here, and usually those truths are guided by our own personal outlooks. What I try to do here, and this is especially hard in discussing the Middle East, is post things that I know to be 100 % true, not Fox true, or BBC true, or JPost true or CNN true..

And how do I know them to be true. . . simple. I read and read and read and read, I never take anything on face value in this region and then I read and read and read some more. Through this knowledge we can shift through the propaganda of all sides.

I have been critical to both the Israelis and the Palestinians in this forum, and I have been especially critical of Iran here of late.

When I post fact please believe me I aint blowing steam out of my ass I would never, unlike other people on various forums that i frequent, post something as a truth unless I could back it up. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to do that.

The internet age has had its pros and cons on the purveyors of propaganda. However for those of us who are not prepared to take what our mainstream media shove down our throats as the only truth it has allowed us to widen our knowledge base to the extent where finally we can get a clearer picture of what is real and what is nothing more than shameless propaganda.

Enjoy (not sure thats the right word) the articles and feel free to hit me up for any other bits and pieces that might help reach the truth you are seeking.

Shalom

[Jenks]

Re: Al Quaida expanding scope?

Dave lives in Israel and has alot to offer on issues regarding Israel and Palestinian issues and whenever he posts I read what he has to say with alot of interest simply because his comments carry alot more substance than most other posters.

Dave is from Isreal ...no freakin way!!! Dude!!!


Nice post btw Dave. Over the years, i think i can speak for all of us when i say we appreciate your view from behind the lines.

[dig72]

Re: Al Quaida expanding scope?

Enjoy (not sure thats the right word) the articles and feel free to hit me up for any other bits and pieces that might help reach the truth you are seeking.

Shalom

Will do.

Cheers.