Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee communicated with and gave information to terrorists bent on waging violent jihad, according to new indictments by a federal grand jury.In newly amended indictments against each man, prosecutors added information on the breadth of the defendants’ communications before their arrests two years ago.Both men are charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. That includes their trying, in 2005, to join Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group India blames for the bloody three-day siege of Mumbai last month.Ahmed and Sadequee have pleaded not guilty and will be tried separately. Ahmed’s trial is set for June 1 in federal court in Atlanta. Sadequee is to stand trial in August. They are being held without bond.Ahmed’s lawyer, Jack Martin, said the new indictment does not substantially change the allegations against Ahmed or his defense. “And, once again,” Martin added, “it’s quite clear from the indictment there’s no allegation he committed any terrorist act or act of violence whatsoever.”
Don Samuel, a lawyer for Sadequee, said his client will plead not guilty to this indictment as well. “Nobody’s heard our side yet,” he said. “The grand jury hears only the government’s side of the story.”During an April 2005 trip to Washington, Ahmed, a former Georgia Tech student, and Sadequee, of Roswell, recorded amateurish videos of “symbolic and infrastructure targets for potential terrorist attacks,” said the indictment.In one video, Ahmed and Sadequee pass the Pentagon as they drive toward Washington. “This is where our brothers attacked the Pentagon,” Sadequee says on the video, the indictment said.The videos were sent to Aabid Hussein Khan, who is in prison in England for possessing articles for terrorism.According to Tuesday’s indictment, when he was arrested in June 2006, Khan had the videos recorded by Ahmed and Sadequee.Khan also had maps and timetables for the Washington and New York public transit systems; information on truck routes into New York; schematics of the financial district in lower Manhattan; aerial photos of the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and information on paramilitary training camps in Pakistan, the indictment said.Separately, the new indictment said, between August 2005 and April 2006, Sadequee was in contact with a number of supporters of violent jihad. They included Mirsad Bektasevic, who was arrested in Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 2005 after being found with more than 20 pounds of plastic explosives, firearms, bomb-making materials and a manifesto promising an attack on Western interests, the indictment said.

Activist of the Kurdish PKK, considered a terrorist organization by the EU and USA, has been captured at the Bulgarian border post of Oryahovo, DeltaNews reports.Thirty Five year old Veisel Yatash had requested for political asylum in Bulgaria, Border Police Chief, Commissioner Krasimir Petrov said. "He entered the country with a Turkish passport, but tried to exit it with a fake Bulgarian ID card", says Petrov.
The Kurd intended to go to Germany, as he fled from Turkey where he had been constantly arrested over his relations with PKK. According to Commissioner Petrov, Interpol had been on the hunt for Yatash.He has been arrested and is transported to the home for temporary accommodation of foreigners in Busmanci. According to Commissioner Petrov there will probably be a case filed in court.PKK (or Kurdistan Workers' Party) is a militant organization founded in the 1970s and led by Abdullah Öcalan. The PKK's ideology is founded on revolutionary Marxism-Leninism and Kurdish nationalism.The PKK's goal has been to create an independent, socialist Kurdish state in Kurdistan; a geographical region that comprises parts of southeastern Turkey, northeastern Iraq, northeastern Syria and northwestern Iran, where the Kurdish population is the majority.

The arrests were made by 242 officers who conducted 16 searches in Brussels and Liege, while French police arrested two additional suspects tied to the group, anti-terrorism officials said.In a major anti-terrorism sweep carried out as European leaders arrived in Brussels for a summit, Belgian police on Thursday arrested 14 suspects allegedly linked to Al Qaeda, including one who police believe was close to launching a suicide attack. The raids came after a yearlong investigation in which police tracked militants, mainly Belgians and French of North African origin, who traveled to Al Qaeda hide-outs in Pakistan and Afghanistan, fought against Western troops and then returned to Europe, investigators said.Authorities said they grew alarmed during the last week when surveillance showed that a key suspect had returned from South Asia on Dec. 4 and begun making what police believe were preparations for a suicide attack. Investigators feared the attack might target the 27 leaders of the European Union, who began the two-day summit in Brussels on Thursday."We don't know where this suicide attack was envisioned," chief federal prosecutor Johan Delmulle said at a news conference. "It could concern an operation in Pakistan [or] Afghanistan, but it could not be totally ruled out that Belgium or Europe were a target."The investigation featured one of the largest recent deployments of anti-terrorism investigators and wiretaps in Belgium. The allegations resemble a pattern detected in Britain and other European countries: Militants travel to the Afghan-Pakistani border zone and return to target their homelands, often directed from afar by Al Qaeda masterminds. Belgian investigators said they had intercepted Internet communications from militants who described their experiences in combat in Afghanistan during the last year."They would say things like, 'I wasn't able to communicate for a while because it was really tough, we got bombed by the Americans,' " said a Belgian anti-terrorism official who requested anonymity because of the continuing investigation. "Or they talked about helping a brother who had been wounded in combat."The combatants in Afghanistan were Belgians of North African descent, authorities said. The suspects were active in the underworld of Belgian robbery gangs before they became Islamic extremists, the anti-terrorism official said. The investigation gathered steam as three suspects returned in recent months, and particularly when the suspect who arrived eight days ago sent "disturbing messages," authorities said. The suspect discussed saying goodbye to loved ones and talked about a video that had been prepared for them, authorities said. Investigators believe the video might be a "martyrdom" message because the suspect's actions resembled the classic preparations of militants before suicide attacks."The information revealed that the suspect had gotten the green light to execute an operation from which he would not return," Delmulle said. "This information had to be seen in connection to a message intercepted Dec. 7 which talks about evacuating women and children. The exact meaning of the message is not yet clear, but it is known that before previous attacks that wives and children of people involved were sometimes relocated in safe places."Despite fears of an imminent attack, no explosives were found, authorities said.Authorities said one alleged leader arrested in Brussels was Malika Aroud, the Belgian widow of an Al Qaeda suicide bomber who killed anti-Taliban warlord Ahmed Shah Massoud in Afghanistan two days before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Aroud has survived several attempts to prosecute her. She is revered in militant circles because of her fierce eloquence and because she came to know Al Qaeda leaders while living in Afghanistan in 2001, investigators say."She is really very important and very clever," said a Belgian law enforcement official, who requested anonymity because the investigation remains open.Police say Aroud's second husband, Moez Garsaouli, also served as a leader of the group and remains a fugitive overseas. He allegedly oversaw the travel of Belgian and French recruits through Turkey and Iran to the tribal areas in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border, authorities said."The investigation shows that direct contacts exist between the group around the suspect M.G. located in Pakistan and in Afghanistan and important people in the Al Qaeda organization," Delmulle said. Two Belgian anti-terrorism officials confirmed that "M.G." referred to Garsaouli.Last year, the couple were among a dozen suspects arrested in a pre-Christmas operation. At the time, prosecutors alleged that they had detected plots to free an Al Qaeda convict from a Belgian prison and to carry out a bombing in Brussels. Although authorities issued a terrorism alert, the suspects were all released without charges -- a frequent occurrence in a nation that has weaker anti-terrorism laws than its European neighbors. Nonetheless, Belgium's justice and interior ministers said Thursday that the investigation confirmed intelligence that a bona fide threat existed last December."The operation carried out today proves that at the time, the evaluation of the threat by our services was correct," Justice Minister Jo Vandeurzen and Interior Minister Patrick Dewael said in a statement. "Very probably, an attack in Brussels was foiled."
The suspects arrested Thursday will be questioned, and judges will decide in the coming days if there is enough evidence to charge them.Belgian police today arrested 14 members of a suspected terrorist cell in Brussels, thwarting what it described as an “imminent” attack. The target remains unclear. “It could have been an operation in Pakistan or Afghanistan, but it can't be ruled out that Belgium or Europe could have been the target”, a federal prosecutor, Johan Demulle, has said.
The authorities made clear, though, that their decision to wind up their year-long surveillance operation was in part prompted by the arrival of EU leaders for a two-day gathering. “The fact that there's a European Union summit in Brussels at this moment left the investigating judges and the federal prosecutors no choice but to intervene today,” the authorities said.The operational reason for the decision was intelligence suggesting that one suspect was preparing for a suicide mission.

Captured Mumbai Lashkar e Taiba terror commando Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab told police in a videotaped confession on the night of his arrest that he turned to violence in part because his impoverished family was promised almost $4000 US dollars if his attack succeeded.In this file photo, a gunman identified by police as Mohammed Ajmal Aamir Qasab walks at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India. Qasab, the only gunman captured after a 60-hour terrorist siege of Mumbai said he belonged to a Pakistani militant group with links to the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, a senior police officer said Sunday. "We were told that our big brother India is so rich and we are dying of poverty and hunger. My father sells dahi wada on a stall in Lahore and we did not even get enough food to eat from his earnings. I was promised that once they knew that I was successful in my operation, they would give Rs 1,50,000 [almost USD 4,000] to my family)," said Qasab. He also naively begged police to not reveal he had survived since Lashkar e Taiba had sent him to die,and if it was revealed he had survived, he later would be killed by other members of his terrorist organization.

"Jihad means to kill, become famous and make God happy," captured terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab reportedly answered interrogating Mumbai police when asked to define "jihad", or "holy war", a term some militants use to justify violence.

Police officials also claimed Kasab could not recite any verse in the Koran, the Islamic holy book, and that he admitted that money tempted him to enlist in the November 26 terrorist attack on Mumbai, along with nine others, all of whom were killed. The seaborne assault last week launched from outside India killed 183 people and injured over 300. After officially banned Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) promised to compensate Kasab's impoverished familyin Faridkot village in Pakistan's Punjab province, Kasab's father asked him to join the LET a year ago, according to the "confession". Twenty-one-year old Kasab was captured by Mumbai police at Girgaum Chowpatty on Marine Drive during their three-night siege of two luxury hotels and a Jewish community center in south Mumbai. Kasab is a rare prize: a terrorist captured alive on a suicide mission. He is also the center of a mystery because there have been no coherent or consistent accounts of his statements to authorities. The captured terrorist's contradictory explanations are mirrored in India's confused official response to what's being described as the world's most audacious and brutal urban terrorist attack since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Indian and international media professionals for the past week have have not had access to any coordinated government briefings on the crisis. There is no spokesperson or even official statements clearly underlining India's position. For instance, on the afternoon of December 2, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee ruled out India launching military action against Pakistan. By night, however, Mukherjee was reported to have said nothing was ruled out on how to respond to Pakistan. On December 3, Mukherjee declared that India's response will be based on what action Pakistan takes to deliver on Indian demands, such as handing over a list of "20 Most Wanted" fugitives said to be in Pakistan.

INDIAN air force chiefs today said authorities have received warning of a possible airborne attack.The threat comes as airports were put on high alert following intelligence warnings that terrorists may be planning fresh attacks.Indian Defence Minister AK Antony summoned the military chiefs to warn them to be prepared for attacks from the air and the sea in the wake of growing criticism over security after the Mumbai attacks.Meanwhile, Indian officials said two senior leaders of a banned Pakistani militant group are suspected to have orchestrated the three-day siege of the country's financial capital.Evidence points to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Yusuf Muzammil as the masterminds behind last week's bloody rampage in Mumbai, according to government officials. Lakhvi and Muzammil belong to outlawed Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba – which India blames in the attack – and are believed to be living in Pakistan, the officials said. The lone surviving gunman in the assault told police Lakhvi recruited him and the assailants called Muzammil on a satellite phone. The revelations came as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Pakistan today.

Terrorist money is a cornerstone of US counter-terrorism strategy that has achieved unwelcome results.A couple weeks ago, high-minded Al-Qaeda second banana Ayman a-Zawahiri delivered his first post-2008 election video message using the occasion to spew a racial epithet ('house negro') against President-elect Obama.Although this video message exposes the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of Al-Qaeda, it was clearly intended to show the incoming Obama administration that Al-Qaeda is still in business, despite killer robot airplanes, renditions, torture, black site prisons, Guantanamo, war in Afghanistan, and spying on Americans.Oh, and despite a international effort to disrupt Al-Qaeda's finances that has succeeded in offending America's allies, while failing to put Al-Qaeda out of business.A Washington Post article a few weeks ago detailed how the Bush administration's efforts to track and disrupt terrorist finances are nearing collapse. A United Nations sanctions program intended to cut off funding to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban has been challenged by the European Court of Justice. The court says that the lack of appeal procedures and other safeguards violate fundamental individual rights. Several European officials have complained that the "blacklist" of companies and individuals targeted by the UN sanction appears to be highly politicized.

Meanwhile, an upcoming report on terrorism finance titled "The Money Trail," authored by two former US Treasury officials, paints a picture of lax enforcement and controls, especially in the Gulf Arab states of Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates--major conduits for terrorist funds. The report goes on to describe how terrorist finances rely heavily on cash and the time-honored Middle Eastern business practice of hawalah, a sort of alternative banking method based on trust and personal connections. Hawalah has been a particularly difficult nut for US intelligence to crack, especially in view of the cultural and language finesse (not the strengths of US intelligence capabilities) underlying this ancient tradition.

Of course terrorists use cash and hawalah--everyone on the planet knows that US intelligence monitors the international banking network, even when it violates the privacy laws of US allies. In another example of US intelligence policy running afoul of allied governments, news broke in 2006 that the US Treasury Department regularly snoops around on an international system of inter-bank money transfers known as SWIFT. EU authorities are angered that the US government has subverted EU's stringent protections over individual confidentiality for its counterterrorism dragnet.The US government's recent record of targeting terrorist finances and fundraising has turned out to be somewhat of an embarrassment. For example, the ongoing case against the Oregon-based Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation has been marked by nearly incomprehensible government missteps. Much of the Al-Haramain case has been built up around secret evidence that the government will not share with defense attorneys. At one point, government officials inadvertently handed classified documents over to defense attorneys revealing warrantless wiretapping of US citizens, as well as the defense attorneys themselves. The incoming Attorney General Eric Holder could move to unseal the secret evidence on which the Al-Haramain case is currently based, if a judge doesn't throw out the government's secrecy claims in the case.Efforts to unravel terrorist networks by cutting off their funds were destined to come up short--it's too bad that they also have irritated America's allies. The methodology of financial traces and investigation proved useful in solving other thorny international intelligence problems, like drug and arms traffickers--and weapons of mass destruction proliferators. But there are huge differences in scale between the scant resources needed for the recent Mumbai attacks or an embassy bombing, and the tens of millions involved in procuring the exotic, expensive machinery needed for manufacturing nuclear material or purchasing squadrons of late-generation fighter planes. Explosives, small arms, rent money for a safe house are cheap, and likely to stay under the radar of major international finance. US diplomats and intelligence officials will do well in the coming years to undo policies--like overreaching to track terrorist money.

Five terrorist gunmen might have escaped the carnage in Mumbai and could strike again.Security forces claimed only 10 militants were behind the co-ordinated attacks that claimed almost 200 lives. However, a hijacked Indian fishing boat used by the gunmen had equipment for 15 men on board when it was discovered adrift, suggesting several gunmen could still be at large, the London Times reported. Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only gunman to be caught alive, said during police questioning that 24 men were trained in camps in Pakistan for the mission, according to a leaked account of his police interrogation. It also emerged yesterday that India had received warnings of a possible terrorist attack on targets in Mumbai. Unnamed US intelligence officials told the American ABC network they had warned their Indian counterparts in mid-October of a potential attack "from the sea against hotels and business centres in Mumbai". One intelligence official even mentioned specific targets, including the Taj hotel. Indian intelligence officials told ABC News that on November 18 they intercepted a satellite phone call to an address in Pakistan used by the leader of the Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist group, revealing a possible seaborne attack. US officials also said US intelligence had been tracking prepaid mobile phone SIM cards recovered from the Mumbai terrorists, which had led them to a "treasure trove" of leads from Pakistan and several possible connections to the US. The death toll from the attacks was yesterday revised to 188, up from 172.