Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[SharonB]

Gitmo Detainee doesn't want to go back to Algeria, 7 are soon to be released and sent to Algeria.(SharonB)

An attorney quotes an Algerian security services source:
7 Guantanamo detainees to be released later in July
...Monday 16 July 2007

A Guantanamo detainee attorney quoted “a confidential source within the Algerian security services that seven Algerians nationals are due to be sent from Guantanamo to Algeria on July 27 or 28.” It is likely that the think is about a group that Ambassador at-Large Clint Williamson negotiated on with Algerian officials in Algeria last April.
Guantanamo detainee Ahmed Belbacha has sent a letter, through his attorney Zachary Katzenlson, to his family in Algeria to tell them about information he knew from the source that talked about him, indicating that he has informed the British government and asked them to receive Belbacha who used to live in Britain legally, before leaving it in 1999 to Pakistan under unknown circumstances where he had been arrested and handed over to the CIA.
The letter of which El Khabar got a copy mentions that “a source from the Algerian security services revealed that seven Algerians nationals are to be sent from Guantanamo to Algeria on July 27 or 28; yet we have not been able to confirm this from any other source, nor do we have the names of the seven men, but we must take this report seriously, we believe that Ahmed is one of the men.”
Attorney Katzenlson living in Britain stressed that he visited Belbacha Saturday in Guantanamo “he looked well and smiled at news of everyone. I gave him an update on all the latest news”, namely the release date of the aforementioned detainees. Ahmed brother told El Khabar yesterday that he refuses the transfer to Algeria, without indicating further details.
http://www.elkhabar.com/FrEn/lire.php?ida=75181&idc=52
...Algeria: Al Qaeda attack kills eight troops
Posted: 11-07-2007 , 18:23 GMT

A truck bomb went off at an Algerian army barracks on Wednesday, killing eight troops in an attack claimed by al Qaeda's north Africa wing. The attack in Lakhdaria village 120 km east of the capital in the Kabylie region reported hours before the opening in Algiers of the All Africa Games.

The 0530 GMT blast was caused by a truck bomb and the eight dead and 23 injured were soldiers, the official APS news agency reported security sources as saying. Residents, citing unconfirmed reports, said the assault was carried out by a suicide bomber.

Al Jazeera television said al Qaeda's north Africa wing, the al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was a suicide mission. "Our martyr was able to enter into the heart of the (barracks) and set off the explosion there," said a spokesman of al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb in an audio tape.

The spokesman named the suicide attacker as Suhail Abu Malih and said more than one ton of explosives were used.

Algeria's Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni declared in Algiers that the fight against the armed groups "will continue with the same determination" and that measures have been taken to reinforce counterterrorism. Talking on the sidelines of the People's National Assembly (Parliament) works in response to the attack, Zerhouni said that it "was not ruled out that armed groups would commit such kind of attacks,” underlying that these latter "will never undermine the determination of security services to fight these groups.”
http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Algeria/215012
...Pentagon Chief Says Al-Qaida Expanding in N. Africa


Robert Gates


U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the al-Qaida terrorist network is expanding in North Africa, through a loose network of groups that share its ideology.
Secretary Gates says U.S. intelligence reports indicate that North Africa's Maghreb, which includes Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, is the latest area where al-Qaida is working to establish or affiliate with terrorist groups.

"There has basically been a merger, or whatever you want to call it, of several terrorist groups there, under the rubric of al-Qaida, in the Maghreb," he said. "I think that's probably the newest area where it has emerged as a reasonably coherent organization."

Secretary Gates says the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan destroyed al-Qaida's ability to directly control terrorist activities around the world. But he says the remnants of the network, including its senior leaders, continue to influence global terrorism from safe havens in Pakistan.

"We, I think, have pretty good evidence that, for example, al-Qaida in Iraq takes strategic guidance and inspiration from the al-Qaida in the western part of Pakistan, Osama bin Laden's organization, Zawahiri and company," he said. "They get advice. They clearly are connected. But they also have, I think, probably substantial autonomy."

Secretary Gates described al-Qaida today as a 'franchise' organization, a term also used Friday by White House spokesman Tony Snow.


Tony Snow


"What happens now is that you have a decentralized al-Qaida, where you have franchised operations around the globe that communicate using the Internet, using video, using very sophisticated techniques," he said. "They share finances. They share tactics. They share recruiting strategies. And they share communications."

The two officials spoke the day after a U.S. government intelligence report said al-Qaida has rebuilt much of its organization in recent years, although the report says the group is still weaker than it was before 2002.

Algeria's radical Islamic group, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, recently changed its name to the al-Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb. It has claimed responsibility for two recent suicide bombings that killed more than 40 people.

A year and a half ago, Secretary Gates' predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, visited Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, largely to discuss counter-terrorism cooperation. During that trip, Rumsfeld praised the three countries for fighting terrorism, and said there was "an extremely low possibility" that terrorists would be able to gain a foothold in the region.

President Bush said Thursday al-Qaida is weaker than it would have been if not for U.S. military actions in recent years, but he said it is still a threat.

VOA News
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200707/200707150014.html...
This is why the war with Islamic radicals must be addressed by the Democrats who seem bent on an isolationist agenda. President Bush is right on and needs support.
SharonB