Category Archives: Stratfor
Egypt: Protestors set fire to government buildings
January 26, 2011
Protesters in Suez set a government building on fire and tried to burn down an office of the National Democratic Party on Jan. 26, Reuters reported, citing unnamed security sources and witnesses. Police used tear gas to push back protesters, and the party’s office failed to set fire, the sources said. Shops were ordered closed by city officials after incidents of looting, and clashes with police left about 55 people injured, witnesses said.
The real news. Lebanon and the ‘Persian Project’
The real and serious news today is the protests all over Lebanon and seemingly the ones in Egypt and elsewhere, but the ones in Lebanon got the most attention from STRATFOR this morning. I have received no less than a dozen SITREPS on closures of highways, major demonstrations and movements of people in Lebanon who are concerned about Hizb’allah and the Hariri matter.
I cannot post them all here, as STRATFOR is a paid service and while, as I do pay for it, I do not mind posting the odd one which is directly relevent to our specific field of interest here at Vladtepesblog, I am not comfortable posting all of the,
In that spirit, I make the following suggestion.
Sometimes, www.stratfor.com runs a special where you can get two weeks free to try their product. Now that The Islamic Brotherhood is trying to capitalize on the inertia of the coup in Tunisia, and that strong forces are acting in Lebanon, and the North Caucasus seems to be stepping up it’s game, I think now might be a really good time to get that two week offer.
Not that Stratfor is perfect, I have a few issues with them. They seem to think that Islam as an ideology is not an issue and it is a standard geopolitical matter for one thing. However as an augmentary source of information, I am very grateful for it. Today’s news out of Lebanon alone is worth the effort to get the subscription, certainly if it is free.
Eeyore for Vladtepesblog.
Egyptian Government blames Palestinian group for Copt NYE church bombing
STRATFOR: January 23, 2011
Egyptian Interior Minister Habib al-Adli said he believes the Army of Islam, a Palestinian militant group linked to al Qaeda, is responsible for the New Year’s Day bombing at a Coptic Christian church that killed 20 people and wounded about 100 others, VOA reported Jan. 23. Though the Army of Islam has praised the attack, it has denied being involved in the incident.
STRATFOR: Possible Parcel Bomb In New York
U.S.: Possible Parcel Bomb In New York STRATFOR
January 19, 2011
Police are investigating a possible parcel bomb at a commercial Israeli bank in New York, according to a New York Police Department spokesman, CNN reported Jan. 19. X-ray imaging revealed the potential device in a large envelope at a New York branch of Bank Hapoalim. According to a law-enforcement source, the letter was addressed to a bank employee. Emergency vehicles have arrived at the building, located in Manhattan, as investigators try to determine the contents of the package.
U.S: Suspicious Package Is A Greeting Card – NYPD
January 19, 2011
The New York Police Department (NYPD) said a suspicious package sent to an Israeli commercial bank in Manhattan turned out to be a greeting card from a headhunting firm, AP reported Jan. 19. The package was considered suspicious because X-ray imaging detected wires and a battery.
STRATFOR: South Korea: Government Ordered To Resolve Issue Over Hijacked Freighter
January 16, 2011 Stratfor:
South Korean President Lee Myung Bak on Jan. 16 instructed his government to take all possible measures to resolve the hijacking of the Samho Jewelry, an 11,500-ton South Korean chemical freighter that was seized by Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea on Jan. 15, presidential aides said, Yonhap reported. The Samho Jewelry, carrying 21 crewmembers, was en route to Sri Lanka from the United Arab Emirates when it was hijacked in waters between Oman and India. The Choi Young, a 4,500-ton destroyer belonging to South Korea’s Cheonghae unit, has set sail toward the Samho Jewelry and is expected to reach the waters where it was hijacked within two days, according to sources in Seoul.
STRATFOR: Clash at hospital after train shooting of Christians
January 11, 2011 STRATFOR:
Clashes between security officials and protesters erupted in Egypt on Jan. 11 after a 71-year-old Christian man was shot and killed on a train in Upper Egypt, Middle East World News reported. According to security officials, violent clashes broke out at the hospital where those injured in the shooting were taken. Police reportedly used tear gas to disperse the protesters.
STRATFOR: The Mohammed Cartoon Dust Has Not Settled
Whatever any of you may get from this report, what I get from it is something everyone used to know not too too long ago, and precious few do now. That the second most important thing for a free people, is the second amendment of the US constitution. The right to personal self defence. Without that, we are subject to whatever foaming hate filled nut bag that wants to force his values on us.
From the geopolitical think-tank STRATFOR:
January 6, 2011
By Scott Stewart
When one considers all of the people and places in the West targeted by transnational jihadists over the past few years, iconic targets such as New York’s Times Square, the London Metro and the Eiffel Tower come to mind. There are also certain target sets such as airlines and subways that jihadists focus on more than others. Upon careful reflection, however, it is hard to find any target set that has been more of a magnet for transnational jihadist ire over the past year than the small group of cartoonists and newspapers involved in the Mohammed cartoon controversy.
Every year STRATFOR publishes a forecast of the jihadist movement for the coming year. As we were working on that project for this year, we were struck by the number of plots in 2010 that involved the cartoon controversy — and by the number of those plots that had transnational dimensions, rather than plots that involved only local grassroots operatives. (The 2011 jihadist forecast will be available to STRATFOR members in the coming weeks.)
Groups such as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have gone to great lengths to keep the topic of the Mohammed cartoons burning in the consciousness of radical Islamists, whether they are lone wolves or part of an organized jihadist group, and those efforts are obviously bearing fruit. Because of this, we anticipate that plots against cartoon-related targets will continue into the foreseeable future.
A Recent Plot
On Dec. 29, 2010, authorities in Denmark and Sweden arrested five men they say were involved in planning an armed assault on the offices of Jyllands-Posten in Copenhagen. Jyllands-Posten is the newspaper that first published the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in September 2005. According to the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (known by its Danish acronym PET), three of the arrested men, a 29-year-old Swedish citizen born in Lebanon, a 44-year-old Tunisian and a 30-year-old Swedish citizen, lived in Sweden and had traveled to Denmark to participate in the plot. The other two individuals arrested were a 37-year-old Swedish citizen born in Tunisia who was detained in a Stockholm suburb and a 26-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker who was arrested in a Copenhagen suburb. The Iraqi has been released from Danish custody.
According to the PET, one of the three men who had traveled to Copenhagen, 29-year-old Swedish citizen Munir Awad, had been arrested in Somalia in 2007 and in Pakistan in 2009 on suspicion of participating in terrorist activity. When arrested in Pakistan, Awad was allegedly traveling in the company of Mehdi Ghezali, a Swedish citizen who had been released in 2004 after being held in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay since 2002. Given Awad’s background, it is almost certain that he had been placed under intensive surveillance by Swedish authorities and it is likely this surveillance resulted in the unraveling of the plot. Continue Reading →
STRATFOR: Why Egypt matters, and the recent attack on the Copts
Egypt and the Destruction of Churches: Strategic Implications
January 4, 2011 STRATFOR.COM
By George Friedman
Over the past few days, Christian churches have been attacked in at least two countries — Nigeria and Egypt — while small packages containing improvised explosive devices were placed on the doorsteps of Christian families in Iraq. Attacks against Christians are not uncommon in the Islamic world, driven by local issues and groups, and it is unclear whether these latest attacks were simply coincidental and do not raise the threat to a new level or whether they indicate the existence of a new, coordinated, international initiative. There is a strong case to be made for the idea that there is nothing new in all of this.
Yet I am struck by the close timing of events in three distant and dispersed countries. Certainly, Egyptian intelligence services are looking for any regional connections (e.g., whether Iraqi operatives recruited the Egyptian bomber). While there have been previous bombings in Egypt, they have focused on tourists, not churches. What is important is this: If the recent attacks are not coincidental, then a coordinated campaign is being conducted against Christian churches that spans at least these countries. And it is a network that has evaded detection by intelligence services.
Obviously, this is speculative. What is clear, however, is that the attack on a church in one country — Egypt — is far from common and was particularly destructive. Egypt has been relatively quiet in terms of terrorism, and there have been few recent attacks on the large Coptic Christian population. The Egyptian government has been effective in ruthlessly suppressing Islamist extremists and has been active in sharing intelligence on terrorism with American, Israeli and other Muslim governments. Its intelligence apparatus has been one of the mainstays of global efforts to limit terrorism as well as keep Egypt’s domestic opposition in check. Continue Reading →
STRATFOR: Israel: 2 Arrested For Plot To Attack Football Stadium
Israel: 2 Arrested For Plot To Attack Football Stadium
January 2, 2011
Two Arabs have been arrested for their suspected involvement in a plot to fire a rocket into a Jerusalem football stadium along with three other men who sold them the firearms, according to a statement released Jan. 2 by Israel’s Shin Bet, AFP reported. The two Arabs, Mussa Hamada and Bassem Omari, an Israeli citizen, had been active for several years in Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood operations in Jerusalem, the security service said. They had received support from the Muslim Brotherhood in Saudi Arabia, the statement said, adding that they have been formally charged with membership in and support for a terrorist organization, firearms offenses, and conspiracy to commit a crime. The three other men have been charged with weapons trafficking.
Muslims also murder a bunch of people in Nigeria last night.
Nigeria: Bomb Kills 4 In Abuja
January 1, 2011
At least four people were killed and more than a dozen were injured by a bomb at Mami market in the Nigerian capital of Abuja during New Year’s Eve celebrations, Reuters reported Jan. 1. President Goodluck Jonathan blamed the blast on Islamist group Boko Haram that claimed responsibility for the Dec. 24 bombings in Jos.
Nigerian teaching hospital attacked by Muslims
Nigeria: 3 Killed In Militant Attack STRATFOR
December 29, 2010
Three people, including a senior police officer, were killed when gunmen fired shots in a teaching hospital in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, Borno state, Nigeria, Reuters reported Dec. 29. According to Borno state police, an investigation is under way, but authorities believe the method of attack indicates the killings were carried out by Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
STRATFOR: Saudi Arabia: Security Forces Break Up Shia, Sunni Clash
December 17, 2010
Saudi security personnel late Dec. 17 dispersed crowds of Shia and Sunnis after fights broke out in the western city of Medina during the Shiite holy day of Ashura, Shiite sources said, Reuters reported. Shiite website Rasid.com said Sunnis attacked several Shia with stones, and a local Shiite resident confirmed the incident, saying it occurred near the Quba Mosque.
STRATFOR: Analizes Wikileak data concerning Iran, Israel and a potential strike
STRATFOR: SITREP North Korea prepares for war
From Stratfor:
November 27, 2010
North Korean workers departed the Russian town of Nakhodka following increased tensions on the Korean peninsula, Vladnews agency stated, The Independent reported Nov. 27. Traders left the kiosks and markets, workers abandoned building sites, and North Korean secret service employees working in the region have all departed the area, according to Vladnews.