At Least 43 Dead, 100 Hurt in Lahore Blasts

Suicide bombers target security forces in 4th major attack in a week

Video

Twin suicide blasts (MSNBC, March 12, 2010) – Lahore is rocked by a pair of suicide bombers who targeted army vehicles. MSNBC.com’s Dara Brown reports. (01:07)

The Associated Press and Reuters via MSNBC.com
March 12, 2010

LAHORE, Pakistan – A pair of suicide bombers targeting army vehicles detonated explosives within seconds of each other Friday, killing at least 43 people in this eastern city and wounding about 100, police said.

The blasts represented the fourth major attack in Pakistan this week, indicating Islamist militants are stepping up violence after a period of relative calm.

About 10 of those killed were soldiers, said Lahore police chief Parvaiz Rathore.

Several hours later another explosion reportedly hit the city, but there were no immediate details of casualties.

In the earlier attack, the bombers, who were on foot, struck RA Bazaar, a residential and commercial neighborhood where several security agencies have facilities.

Security forces swarmed the area as thick black smoke rose into the sky and bystanders rushed the injured into ambulances.

Video being shot with a mobile phone just after the first explosion showed a large burst of orange flame suddenly erupting in the street, according to GEO TV, which broadcast a short clip of the footage shot by Tabraiz Bukhari. …

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida.

The militants are believed to have been behind scores of attacks in U.S.-allied Pakistan over the last several years, including a series of strikes that began in October and lasted around three months, killing some 600 people in apparent retaliation for an army offensive along the Afghan border.

In more recent months, the attacks were smaller, fewer and confined to remote regions near Afghanistan.

But on Monday, a suicide car bomber struck a building in Lahore where police interrogated high-value suspects — including militants — killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.

Also this week, suspected militants attacked the northwest Pakistan offices of World Vision, a U.S.-based Christian aid group, killing six Pakistani employees. A bombing at a small, makeshift movie theater in the main northwest city of Peshawar killed four people. …

[The] attacks show that the loose network of insurgents angry with Islamabad for its alliance with the U.S. retain the ability to strike throughout Pakistan despite pressure from army offensives and American missile strikes. …

The violence also comes amid signs of a Pakistani crackdown on Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida operatives using its soil. Among the militants known to have been arrested is the Afghan Taliban’s No. 2 commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar [link added].

The Pakistani Taliban, meanwhile, are believed to have lost their top commander, Hakimullah Mehsud [link added], in a U.S. missile strike in January. The group has denied Mehsud is dead but has failed to prove he’s still alive. …

During the bloody wave of attacks that began in October [link added] — coinciding with the army’s ground offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in the South Waziristan tribal area — Lahore was hit several times.

In mid-October, three groups of gunmen attacked three security facilities [link added] in the eastern city, a rampage that left 28 dead. Twin suicide bombings at a market there in December killed around 50 people.

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Related reports on this site

Afghan War Expands to Region (Oct. 8, 2009)

Taliban Leader Vows Revenge (Oct. 5, 2009)

Taliban, al-Qaida Up the Ante (Sept. 21, 2008)

Al-Qaida Threatens New Attacks (Sept. 20, 2008)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — March 12, 2009

Worshippers at the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota’s largest mosque. The mosque is suspected by the families of some missing Somali men of having a role in their loved ones’ disappearance. (Photo credit: Craig Lassig / AP)

FBI Probing Somali Terror Link

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that the FBI was investigating whether young Somali men were being radicalized in Minnesota and recruited to fight with terrorist groups such as al-Shabab in Somalia.

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Here’s an item I clipped and saved at the beginning of the year but never used on this blog. In view of the current imbroglio involving Rep. Eric Massa, who resigned from Congress on Monday, I’m finally running the piece.

“Bring it on” Dick Cheney and Jim DeMint

By Congressman Eric Massa
Daily Kos diary
December 31, 2009

Last night, I was invited to appear on MSNBC’s “Ed Show” to discuss, amongst other things, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s dishonest, unpatriotic, hypocritical and highly personal continuing attacks on President Obama. I also discussed South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint’s record of putting his personal hatred of Labor Unions and his devotion to ideology above making sure we have all of the tools possible to protect the security of our Nation.

I for one am sick and tired of these Bush-era chicken hawk politicians that never served in uniform attacking Democrats on National Security when in fact, they are largely to blame for our Nation’s current national security problems. Apparently former Vice President Cheney and the likes of Senator Jim DeMint actually believe that they can score political points by forcing America to remember the incredible failures of the previous Administration and to that I say — “Bring it on.”

I have no problem running against their record of global economic failure, avarice, corporate greed run amok, no-bid insider contracts, and disastrous foreign policy decisions that left us isolated on the international stage at the very moment when we needed to count our allies. …

I am a military veteran who gladly wore the uniform of the United States Navy for the majority of my adult life. I, and thousands of others graduated from Annapolis and I witnessed, firsthand, the results of failed political decisions that were thrust upon the military while serving in the Beirut theater of operations in 1983.

I survived a diagnosis of terminal cancer which is largely believed by many to have been caused by the depleted heavy metal uranium shells we were firing during the first Gulf War. I had the honor to serve as the Special Assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, General Wesley Clark, when he, along with thousands of uniformed personnel and a core team of professional civilian personnel, planned and executed a successful strategy to defeat the genocidal regime of Slobodan Milosevic.

I, and millions of other veterans, can’t even count the number of Christmases, New Year’s Eves, Birthdays, 4th of July’s and Thanksgivings that we spent overseas and at home protecting our Nation.

We were Americans, not Republican or Democrats. For the likes of the former Vice President to politicize National Security in an attempt to score cheap political points is beyond unacceptable and his behavior will no longer be met with polite silence. It’s time to hit back, harder, with better aim and with purpose of forethought.

Now, as I complete my first year in the United States Congress, my days continue to be focused on protecting our Nation. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee, I have sat through hundreds of hours of testimony and worked around the clock to try to fix the mess George Bush and Dick Cheney left us. Make no bones about it, we are fixing what they broke. We are working everyday to support the troops, both in the field and when they come home.

We should declare 2010 the year that we stop listening to the empty rhetoric of arm chair chicken hawk quarterbacks like Dick Cheney and Jim DeMint when they try to shift blame for their failure and their incompetence on Democrats. We need to fight back.

Personally, I am glad that President Obama took three days to study the details of the attempted attack on Flight 253. President Bush took six days before weighing in on the case of shoe bomber Richard Reid, and I was glad when he took his time to get the facts straight before addressing the Nation.

Where was Dick Cheney when the two alleged masterminds of the Christmas attack were freed from Guantanamo Bay on November 9th, 2007? I hope Senator Jim DeMint had a lovely Christmas while the permanent office of the TSA Administrator remained vacant because of his deep, personal vendetta against organized labor (heaven forbid we should allow those that work on the front lines to protect us from terrorists from earning a decent living and fair benefits).

Vice President Cheney, Senator DeMint, it’s time for both of you to be held accountable for your failures and your poor decisions. …

Let’s make a New Year’s Resolution to call out hypocrisy in 2010. Stand against it and any time that former Vice President Dick Cheney opens his hypocritical mouth to continue uttering blather, he needs to be challenged in a straightforward factual manner that will demonstrate the emptiness of his rhetoric.

Congressman Eric Massa
New York’s 29th Congressional District 

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — March 11, 2009

Iraqi medics treat wounded state-owned Al-Iraqiya TV reporter Ibrahim al-Kateb at Baghdad’s Al-Yarmuk hospital on March 10, 2009. Kateb was wounded in a suicide blast that killed at least 33 people including tribal leaders and army officers outside the town hall in Abu Ghraib, on Baghdad’s western edge. (Photo credit: Khalil al-Murshidi / AFP – Getty Images)

Fears of Escalating Insurgency

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that a suicide bomber struck tribal leaders touring a market in a Sunni area west of Baghdad killing as many as 33 people in the second major attack in the capital area in two days and raising fears that Sunni insurgents may be escalating operations even as the U.S. phases out its combat role in Iraq.

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U.S. House Rejects Bill to Withdraw from Afghanistan

Afghanis protest against U.S. forces after an early morning raid in Khost province, east of Kabul on Saturday, March 7, 2009. (Photo credit: Nishanuddin Khan / AP file)

By Jim Abrams

March 10, 2010

WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives soundly rejected an effort by anti-war lawmakers Wednesday to force withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year.

The outcome of the vote, 356-65 against the resolution, never was in doubt. Nevertheless, the 3 1/2-hour debate gave those who oppose President Barack Obama’s war policies a platform to vent their frustrations.

Opposing the resolution was easy for almost all Republicans, who have been solidly behind Obama’s decision to increase U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan from 70,000 to 100,000. Only five Republicans supported the measure.

It was a harder vote for some Democrats, particularly in an election year where opposing the war can be equated with opposing the troops. Several expressed discomfort with a war that has lasted 8 1/2 years and cost the nation more than 930 American lives and the treasury more than $200 billion but said they were voting against the resolution because it was ill-timed and unrealistic.

Among the “no” voters was Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who gave an impassioned speech. The U.S. policy of needlessly sending troops into harm’s way was “shameful,” Kennedy said. He also lambasted the national media, calling their lack of attention to the loss of life in Afghanistan “despicable.”

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, also a Democrat and a former presidential candidate, wrote the resolution that would have directed the president to remove all U.S. troops from Afghanistan within 30 days of its adoption. If the president deemed that deadline unsafe, he would have had until the end of the year to end U.S. military presence in the nation.

Obama has said he wants to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan starting in July 2011.

Kucinich based his resolution on the 1973 War Powers Act, passed during the Vietnam War era to require the president to obtain congressional approval when he sends troops to a conflict for more than 90 days.

Congress authorized the use of military force to fight terrorists in 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks, but Kucinich said both the Bush and Obama administrations had wrongfully used that authority as carte blanche to circumvent the role of Congress in sending Americans to war. …

Republicans warned that a precipitous withdrawal would be a serious mistake, allowing the Taliban to regain power and assuring that al-Qaida and other terror groups would again have a staging ground to launch attacks against the United States and the West.

“In the case of Afghanistan, President Obama has demonstrated great responsibility and a sense of the national security interests of the United States,” said Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart. “He deserves our support.” …

Related link: H. Con. Res. 248

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Related reports on this site

Grim Milestone in Afghanistan (Feb. 24, 2010)

Marines carry wounded troops to a waiting helicopter after their armored vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Marja, Afghanistan. (Photo credit: Brennan Linsley / Associated Press — The Washington Post)

Public Opinion on Afghan Surge (Dec. 17, 2009)

A December 2009 poll showed Americans remained against sending more troops to Afghanistan. (Photo credit: Kevin Frayer / AP file)

Chuck Hagel on National Defense (Sept. 3, 2009)

Chuck Hagel and Aubrey Immelman

Obama War Strategy Setback (Aug. 29, 2009)

Deadliest month ever for U.S. GIs in Afghanistan (NBC Nightly News, Aug. 28, 2009) — At least 45 American troops have been killed so far this month in Afghanistan, a record in the eight-year war. NBC’s Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel reports on what is causing the uptick in casualties. (video; 01:47)

Afghanistan — Obama’s Vietnam? (Feb. 3, 2009)

Islamist militants blew up a bridge in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009, cutting a major supply line for Western troops in Afghanistan in the latest in a series of attacks on the Khyber Pass by insurgents seeking to hamper the U.S.-led mission against the Taliban. (Photo credit: Mohammad Sajjad / AP)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — March 10, 2009

Economy Has ‘Fallen Off a Cliff’

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that billionaire investor Warren Buffett said the economy had “fallen off a cliff” and predicted the U.S. likely would face higher unemployment and eventually inflation because of the economic crisis.

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U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq

As of Tuesday, March 9, 2010, at least 4,382 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 31,716 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department’s weekly tally.

U.S. Troop Casualties in Iraq

Latest identifications:

• None
• 3/11/10 update: Army Sgt. Aaron M. Arthur, 25, Lake City, S.C., died March 8, 2010 north of Al Kut, Iraq, of injuries sustained during a vehicle roll-over. Assigned to the 203rd Brigade Support Battalion, attached to the 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Ga.
• 3/11/10 update: Army Spc. Lakeshia M. Bailey, 23, Columbus, Ga., died March 8, 2010 north of Al Kut, Iraq, of injuries sustained during a vehicle roll-over. Assigned to the 203rd Brigade Support Battalion, attached to the 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Ga.

U.S. Military Deaths in Afghanistan

As of Friday, March 5, 2010, at least 930 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. Outside the Afghan region, the department reports 76 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Latest identifications: 

• Marine Lance Cpl. Carlos A. Aragon, 19, Orem, Utah, died March 1, 2010 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve, based out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.
• Army Spc. Josiah D. Crumpler, 27, Hillsborough, N.C., died March 1, 2010 in Bala Murghab, Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked his unit using small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
• Army Spc. Ian T. D. Gelig, 25, Stevenson Ranch, Calif., died March 1, 2010 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 782nd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
• Army Spc. Matthew D. Huston, 24, Athens, Ga., died March 1, 2010 in Bala Murghab, Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked his unit using small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
• Army Sgt. Vincent L. C. Owens, 21, Fort Smith, Ark., died March 1, 2010 at Forward Operating Base Sharana, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered earlier that day when enemy forces attacked his vehicle using direct fire in Yosuf Khel. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Nigel K. Olsen, 21, Orem, Utah, died March 4, 2010 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve, based out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.
• Army Spc. Anthony A. Paci, 30, Rockville, Md., died March 4, 2010 at Gereshk, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered during a vehicle rollover. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry, 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.
• Army Spc. Alan N. Dikcis, 21, Niagara Falls, N.Y., died March 5, 2010 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 630th Engineer Company (Clearance), 7th Engineer Battalion (Combat Effects), 20th Engineer Brigade (Combat) (Airborne), Fort Drum, N.Y.
• 3/10/10 update: Army Pvt. Nicholas S. Cook, 19, Hungry Horse, Mont., died March 7, 2010 in Konar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Camp Ederle, Italy.
• 3/11/10 update: Army Pfc. Jason M. Kropat, 25, White Lake, N.Y., died March 9, 2010 in Khowst province, Afghanistan, from wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small-arms fire, indirect fire, and rocket-propelled grenades. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.
• 3/11/10 update: Army Sgt. Jonathan J. Richardson, 24, Bald Knob, Ark., died March 9, 2010 in Khowst province, Afghanistan, from wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small-arms fire, indirect fire, and rocket-propelled grenades. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.
• 3/12/10 update: Marine Lance Cpl. Garrett W. Gamble, 20, Sugarland, Texas, died March 11, 2010 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Remember Their Sacrifice

Related links

Iraq Casualties

Afghanistan Casualties

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — March 9, 2009

Bachmann sounds the socialism alarm.
(Photo credit: CNN / Getty Images)

Bachmann on the Media Circuit

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that Rep. Michele Bachmann had not met face-to-face with constituents at townhall meetings in her district, but was active as ever on the talkshow circuit.

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Iraqis Defy Violence to Vote

At least 36 killed, but millions cast ballots

Women display inked fingers after casting votes in parliamentary elections in Baghdad, Iraq. (Photo credit: Hadi Mizban / AP)

March 7, 2010

BAGHDAD — Despite bombings, mortar rounds and grenades that claimed at least 36 lives, Iraqis voted Sunday in an election testing the mettle of the country’s still-fragile democracy.

About 19 million Iraqis were eligible to vote for who will lead the country after U.S. forces pull out, in an election that will determine whether Iraq can overcome the jagged sectarian divisions that have defined it since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. …

It could take three days to get results, U.N. officials say. And with the fractured nature of Iraqi politics, it could take months of negotiations after results are released in the coming days for a government to be formed.

Voters in the ethnically and religiously divided country were given a choice between secular groups and Shiite Islamist parties that have dominated Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s fall.

Despite mortars raining down nearby, voters in the capital still came to the polls. In the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah in northern Baghdad, Walid Abid, a 40-year-old father of two, was speaking as mortars boomed several hundreds yards (meters) away. Police reported at least 20 mortar attacks in the neighborhood shortly after daybreak. Mortars also fell in the Green Zone — home to the U.S. Embassy and the prime minister’s office. …

The Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida affiliate, had warned Iraqis not to vote and vowed to attack those who defied them.

At least 19 people died in northeastern Baghdad after an explosion leveled a building, and mortar attacks in western Baghdad killed seven people in two different neighborhoods, police and hospital officials said.

In Baghdad’s northeast Hurriyah neighborhood, where mosque loudspeakers exhorted people to vote as “arrows to the enemies’ chest,” three people were killed when someone threw a hand grenade at a crowd heading to the polls, said police and hospital officials.

In the city of Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, a bomb inside a polling center killed a policeman, said Iraqi Army Col. Abdul Hussein. There were also explosions elsewhere in the country, but no further reports of fatalities.

Insurgents also launched mortars toward the Green Zone — home to the U.S. Embassy and the prime minister’s office — and in the Sunni stronghold of Azamiyah police reported at least 20 mortar attacks in the neighborhood since daybreak.

About 6,200 candidates were competing for 325 seats in the new parliament, Iraq’s second for a full term of parliament since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion seven years ago this month.

Many view the election as a crossroads at which Iraq will decide whether to adhere to politics along the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish lines or move away from the ethnic and sectarian tensions that have emerged since the fall of Saddam’s iron-fisted, Sunni minority rule. …

Security was tight across the capital. The borders were sealed, the airport closed and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi military and police flooded the streets. …

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Late update

Karim Kadim / AP

Iraqis celebrate successful elections (NBC Nightly News, March 8, 2010) — The U.S. military expressed confidence Monday that drawdown plans are still on track after Iraq’s first self-organized national election drew 63% of voters nationwide. NBC’s Richard Engel reports. (video; 03:02)

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Related reports on this site

Iraq Election Preview (March 6, 2010)

Iraq Set to Elect Pro-Iran Leader (Feb. 25, 2010)

Iraq Mass Casualty Bombing (Feb. 1, 2010)

Iraq War on Trial (Jan. 29, 2010)

Triple Bombing Rocks Baghdad (Jan. 25, 2010)

Iranian Troops Cross into Iraq (Dec. 18, 2009)

Deadly Violence Erupts in Iraq (Dec. 8, 2009)

Massive Bomb Attack on Iraq Govt (Oct. 25, 2009)

Bomb Blasts Across Baghdad (Aug. 19, 2009)

Mass Casualty Baghdad Bombings (May 21, 2009)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — March 8, 2009

Iraqis carry the coffin of a relative, who was killed in a suicide attack, as they leave the mortuary of al-Kindi hospital in Baghdad, March 8, 2009. (Photo credit: Ahmad al-Rubaye / AFP – Getty Images)

Sunday Bloody Sunday in Iraq

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that a suicide bomber had killed 32 people at the entrance of Baghdad’s main police academy in a chilling reminder of the nation’s still-shaky security. The blast — the second major attack to hit Iraq in three days and the deadliest to strike Baghdad in nearly a month — was a bloody reminder of the ability of insurgents to defy security improvements and stage dramatic attacks as the U.S. begins to draw down its forces.

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U.S.-Born al-Qaida Spokesman Caught

Adam Gadahn, 31, reportedly held in Pakistan

Al-Qaida spokesman Adam Yahiye Gadahn is seen in a 25-minute video-recording posted online Sunday, March 7, 2010 by Al-Qaida’s media arm As-Sahab. (Photo credit: SITE Intelligence Group via AFP — Getty Images)

NBC News and The Associated Press via MSNBC.com
March 7, 2010

KARACHI, Pakistan – Adam Yahiye Gadahn, a U.S.-born spokesman for al-Qaida, has been captured in Pakistan, government sources said Sunday.

Gadahn was arrested in recent days, two officers who took part in the operation told The Associated Press. A senior government official also confirmed the arrest. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

An intelligence source confirmed the report to NBC News, adding that Gadahn was detained in Sohrab Goth, a suburb of Karachi, and was later moved to the capital Islamabad.

The arrest is a major victory in the U.S.-led battle against al-Qaida and will be taken as a sign that Pakistan is cooperating more fully with Washington. It follows the recent detentions of several Afghan Taliban commanders in Karachi.

Gadahn moved to Pakistan in 1998, according to the FBI, and is said to have attended an al-Qaida training camp six years later, serving as a translator and consultant for the group.

A U.S. court charged Gadahn with treason in 2006, making him the first American to face such a charge in more than 50 years. He could face the death penalty if convicted. He was also charged with two counts of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. …

Gadahn was last known to be in Southern California in 1997 or 1998. His mother says she last spoke to him by phone in March 2001. At the time he was in Pakistan, working at a newspaper, and his wife was expecting a child. …

Al-Qaida has used Gadahn as its chief English-speaking spokesman, and he has called for the destruction of the West and for strikes against targets in the United States. In one video, he ceremoniously tore up his American passport. In another, he admitted his grandfather was Jewish, ridiculing him for his beliefs and calling for Palestinians to continue fighting Israel.

The last person in the U.S. convicted of treason was Tomoya Kawakita, a Japanese American sentenced to death in 1952 for tormenting American prisoners of war during World War II. President Eisenhower later commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. …

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3/8/10 Update

American al-Qaida Suspect is Not Spokesman

March 8, 2010

KARACHI, Pakistan – Pakistani officials have reversed course on a recently captured American suspected of being a member of al-Qaida, saying the man is not the terror network’s U.S.-born spokesman, as they initially believed.

The man arrested in the southern city of Karachi was first identified as al-Qaida spokesman Adam Gadahn, the most wanted American in the terrorist network. But authorities said Monday it was a case of mistaken identity and that they have a different American in custody.

Pakistani intelligence officials instead identified him as Abu Yahya Majadin Adam, a name similar to one listed on the FBI’s Web site as an alias for Gadahn, the 31-year-old man who has appeared in several al-Qaida videos threatening the West since 2001. …

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Gadahn’s Last Hurrah

Note: Earlier today, I decided not to give Adam Gadahn any credence by propagating his latest screed on this site. Now, however, with news of Gadahn’s arrest, I can trumpet his swan song.

Update

Reports of Gadahn’s arrest have been greeted with skepticism by U.S. intelligence officials, who believe it may be a case of mistaken identity.

Al-Qaida Calls on U.S. Muslims to Attack America

Adam Gadahn, seen in these undated file photos released by the FBI. The American-born Al-Qaida spokesman called on Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces to emulate the Army major charged with killing 13 people in Fort Hood in a video posted on a radical Islamic web site on Sunday, March 7, 2010. Gadahn, who was raised in California, describes Maj. Nidal Hasan as a pioneer who should serve as a role model for other Muslims. (Photo credit: AP File / Photos released by the FBI)

By Patrick Quinn

March 7, 2010

CAIRO – Al-Qaida’s American-born spokesman on Sunday called on Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces to emulate the Army major charged with killing 13 people in Fort Hood.

In a 25-minute video posted on militant Web sites, Adam Gadahn described Maj. Nidal Hasan as a pioneer who should serve as a role model for other Muslims, especially those serving Western militaries.

“Brother Nidal is the ideal role-model for every repentant Muslim in the armies of the unbelievers and apostate regimes,” he said.

Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki, was dressed in white robes and wearing a white turban as he called for attacks on what he described as “high-value targets.”

Gadahn grew up on a goat farm in Riverside County, California, and converted to Islam at a mosque in nearby Orange County.

“You shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that military bases are the only high-value targets in America and the West. On the contrary, there are countless other strategic places, institutions and installations which, by striking, the Muslim can do major damage,” he said, an assault rifle leaning up against a wall next to him.

Gadahn has been wanted by the FBI since 2004 and two years later was charged with treason. There is a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

He has in the past posted videos and messages calling for the destruction of the West and for strikes against targets in the United States. His location is unknown, but he is believed to be somewhere along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Hasan has been charged in the Nov. 5 shooting that killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas. The 39-year-old Army psychiatrist remains paralyzed from the chest down after being shot by two civilian members of Fort Hood’s police force.

“Nidal Hasan is a pioneer, a trailblazer and a role-model who has opened a door, lit a path and shown the way forward for every Muslim who finds himself among the unbelievers,” Gadahn said.

In the latest video, Gadahn said those planning attacks did not need to use only firearms like Hasan, but could use other weapons. “As the blessed operations of September 11th showed, a little imagination and planning and a limited budget can turn almost anything into a deadly, effective and convenient weapon.”

Gadahn said fighters should target mass transportation systems in the West and also wreak havoc “by killing or capturing people in government, industry and the media.”

He recommended finding ways to shake “consumer confidence and stifle spending” and noted that even unsuccessful attacks, such as the failed attempt to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, can bring major cities to a halt.

“I am calling on every honest and vigilant Muslim in the countries of the Zionist-Crusader alliance in general and America, Britain and Israel in particular to prepare to play his due role in responding to and repelling the aggression of the enemies of Islam,” Gadahn said.

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Related reports on this site

Christmas Terrorism Alert (Dec. 25, 2009)

Heartbreak at Ft. Hood (Nov. 5, 2009)

Tom Ridge Terror Threat Claim (Aug. 21, 2009)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — March 7, 2009

Upon assuming the presidency, Barack Obama said ending the war in Iraq would require a new definition of victory, but experts said ending the war might not mean a peace dividend for the ballooning U.S. defense budget. (Photo credit: AP / Charles Dharapak)

Iraq Exit Will Be Long and Hard

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that with the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq in sight, the cost of leaving had begun to be measured in financial, logistical, and — above all — political terms, with the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq estimated to cost hundreds or billions of dollars.

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Anti-U.S. Militia Returns to Baghdad

Minority Sunnis fearful of Shiite group ahead of elections 

Iraqi Shiite Muslims shout slogans in support of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr during prayers in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood on Friday, March 5, 2010. A militia tied to al-Sadr has resurfaced and is threatening Sunnis. (Photo credit: Joseph Eid / AFP – Getty Images)

March 5, 2010

BAGHDAD – They’re back, on street corners in places Sunnis had thought were safe again: the Shiite militiamen who drove them from their homes in a bloody campaign that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war.

Many Iraqis in areas where anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army once held sway say young men who had worn the militia’s signature black shirts have returned ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections, albeit in smaller numbers and a low profile.

Many Sunnis in flashpoint neighborhoods say they are lying low or temporarily moving to safer areas as they wait in fear that the elections will spark a new sectarian backlash against them. …

Interactive Iraq’s 2010 elections  View a timeline, videos and more about the steps toward democracy.

Ex-Mahdi Army members appear to have been emboldened by the prospect of an Iraq free of the U.S. military and by al-Sadr’s decision to join a Shiite-led alliance that may become the single largest bloc in the next legislature. The alliance could earn the right to nominate the next prime minister.

The radical cleric’s movement fought bloody battles with Sunni militants and the Americans and was blamed for some of the worst retaliatory sectarian violence. The elections could give it more leverage than it has had since it burst on the scene after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Bloodshed between death squads from the two rival Islamic sects brought Iraq to the brink of civil war before a U.S. troop buildup in 2008 helped rout the extremists from both sides. …

Sunday’s election for a 325-seat legislature has been billed as a key step in Iraq’s democratic evolution. Iraqis hope it helps them achieve national reconciliation at a time when the United States is pressing ahead with plans to withdraw all its forces by the end of next year.

Slide presentation Iraq goes to the polls Scenes from an election that will determine who will lead the country as U.S. forces go home.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who in 2008 initiated several offensives against Shiite and Sunni militant groups, is seeking a second term in office. He leads an alliance that is dominantly Shiite and led by his Dawa Party. He refused to join the Supreme Council and the Sadrists in one coalition.

The decision by a Shiite-led vetting panel to disqualify more than 400 candidates from running because of alleged ties to Saddam’s outlawed Baath party also has left many Sunnis seething. They see the move as a thinly veiled attempt to undermine their minority community, which dominated Iraq under Saddam.

Some Shiites are worried that extremist Sunnis will respond to the elections with bloodshed. …

In one of the worst recent incidents, eight members of one Shiite family were shot and beheaded last month in the village of Wahda, a mixed Shiite-Sunni village south of Baghdad.

Al-Sadr, who considered past elections illegitimate, has joined a Shiite alliance led by an Iranian-backed party — the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. He has endorsed this election as a means of “political resistance,” raising the likelihood of a large turnout by Sadrists and the possibility that the alliance could emerge as Iraq’s strongest political force after Sunday’s vote.

Al-Sadr’s movement has returned to using the “Sadrist Trend” — its official name — on its campaign propaganda material. In previous elections, the movement said it was only backing selected independents. …

The Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council is thought be behind the hundreds of posters in Shiite areas of Baghdad bearing the image of the country’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in a move designed to use the name of the much revered cleric to attract voters.

In a clear provocation to the Sunnis, former Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili, one of two former government officials accused of allowing Shiite death squads to use ambulances and government hospitals to carry out kidnappings and killings, is running for parliament in the Shiite-led coalition led by the Supreme Council and the Sadrists. The charges against the two were dropped two years ago.

The number of Iraqis killed in war-related violence increased by 44 percent — to at least 255 — between January and February.

Figures compiled by The Associated Press show that at least 30 unidentified bodies were found in January and February across the country. That was still a low number compared with past years but a number large enough to suggest that sectarian killings may not have entirely ceased.

Video

A mix of hope, fear (NBC Nightly News, March 5, 2010) – A power void immediately following Iraq’s elections could put the still-volatile country in peril. NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel reports. (01:32)

Pre-election analysis by Richard Engel

Iraqi elections: America’s final hurdle

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Attacks Mar Iraq Early Voting

Video

Amid violence, Iraqis head to polls (NBC Nightly News, March 4) – At least 12 people were killed and 27 injured Thursday in separate attacks in Iraq, a reminder that the violence continues even if the war is winding down. NBC’s Richard Engel reports on how that has affected the nearly 100,000 Americans still stationed there. (02:19)

March 4, 2010

BAGHDAD – A string of deadly blasts shattered an early round of voting in Iraq Thursday, killing 17 people and highlighting the fragile nature of the country’s security gains ahead of crucial parliamentary elections this Sunday.

Iraq security forces were out in full force, trying to protect early voters in an election that will determine who will lead the country through the crucial period of the U.S. troop drawdown and help decide whether the country can overcome its deep sectarian divisions.

But three explosions — a rocket attack and two suicide bombings — showed the ability of insurgents to carry out bloody attacks. They have promised to disrupt the voting with violence. …

Many of the blast victims were believed to be security personnel, targeted by suicide bombers who hit police and soldiers lined up to vote. …

In the first attack, a Katyusha rocket killed seven people in the Hurriyah neighborhood about 500 yards from a closed polling station, police said.

The second attack hit the upscale Mansour neighborhood, where a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest near a group of soldiers lining up at a polling station, killing six and wounding 18, police said.

The blast left a small crater in the middle of the street, and debris from the explosion splattered around the crater. Pools of blood and burnt human flesh littered the ground along with broken glass, rubble from buildings and the remnants of shops signs.

In the third blast, another suicide bomber blew himself up near policemen waiting to vote in the Bab al-Muadham neighborhood in central Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 14 others, according to police and hospital officials. …

In Washington, senior administration officials said a number of potential attacks were headed off by security forces on the perimeter of polling places Thursday.  …

Sunday’s elections are only Iraq’s second for a full parliamentary term since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein, leading to the eventual creation of the Shiite-dominated government in power today, headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. …

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Related reports on this site

Iraq Set to Elect Pro-Iran Leader (Feb. 25, 2010)

Iraq Mass Casualty Bombing (Feb. 1, 2010)

Iraq War on Trial (Jan. 29, 2010)

Triple Bombing Rocks Baghdad (Jan. 25, 2010)

Iranian Troops Cross into Iraq (Dec. 18, 2009)

Deadly Violence Erupts in Iraq (Dec. 8, 2009)

Massive Bomb Attack on Iraq Govt (Oct. 25, 2009)

Bomb Blasts Across Baghdad (Aug. 19, 2009)

Mass Casualty Baghdad Bombings (May 21, 2009)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — March 6, 2009

A policeman inspects the wreckage of a vehicle used in a car bomb attack in Hamza, 80 miles south of Baghdad, on Thursday, March 5, 2009. (Photo credit: Reuters)

Iraq Update

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that a car bomb exploded in a livestock market in Iraq’s southern Babil province, killing 12 people, wounding 40, and shattering a peace that had held in the area for some time, while insurgents attacked a main U.S.-Iraqi base in the northern city of Mosul, killing one American soldier and striking directly at the Iraqi command center for an offensive against the militants.

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Pentagon Shooter Had History of Mental Illness 

Parents say they warned authorities about his behavior

A psychiatrist says John Patrick Bedell tried to self-medicate his bipolar illness with marijuana, inadvertently making his symptoms more pronounced. (Photo credit: Washoe County Jail via AP)

NBC News and The Associated Press via MSNBC.com

March 5, 2010

HOLLISTER, Calif. – The California man who was killed in a shootout with Pentagon police had a history of mental illness and had become so erratic that his parents reached out to local authorities weeks ago with a warning that he was unstable and might have a gun, authorities said Friday.

It’s still unclear why John Patrick Bedell opened fire Thursday at the Pentagon entrance, wounding two police officers before he was fatally shot. The two officers were hospitalized briefly with minor injuries.

Bedell was diagnosed as bipolar, or manic depressive, and had been in and out of treatment programs for years. His psychiatrist, J. Michael Nelson, said Bedell tried to self-medicate with marijuana, inadvertently making his symptoms more pronounced.

His parents reported him missing Jan. 4, a day after a Texas Highway Patrol officer stopped him for speeding in Amarillo, according to the missing person’s report. …

Cross-country odyssey

The 36-year-old Bedell returned to his parent’s home Jan. 18, telling them “not to ask any questions” about where he had been. But he left after that, and his parents didn’t know where he went. …

The Bedell family put out a statement Friday saying they were “devastated as a family by the news.”

Video Officials: Gunman acted alone (NBC Nightly News, March 5, 2010) – John Patrick Bedell’s  frequent Web rants reveal a deeply disturbed man. NBC Pentagon Correspondent Jim Miklaszewski reports. (03:13)

“We may never know why he made this terrible decision,” the statement said. “One thing is clear though — his actions were caused by an illness and not a defective character.”

The San Jose Mercury News reported Bedell attended San Jose State University and was enrolled in fall 2009 in the graduate electrical engineering program. He did not enroll for 2010. A professor remembered him as one of the best circuit design students in his class, the newspaper said.

Investigators were trying to unravel a bizarre series of Internet postings that suggested Bedell was fascinated with conspiracy theories, computer programming, the science of warfare and libertarian economics.

Curiously, Bedell also proposed in 2004 that the Pentagon fund his own research on smart weapons. The 28-page proposal outlined his idea for DNA nanotechnology research that might “provide significant new capabilities for the Department of Defense and the individual warfighter.”

That document is the first tangible link to surface connecting Bedell and the Pentagon.

Dressed to kill?

On the day of the attack, Bedell left his green, 12-year-old Toyota in a nearby mall parking garage.

The 6-foot tall software devotee approached the Pentagon entrance Thursday evening wearing a jacket, dress shirt and pants, seeming like any other end-of-the-day commuter.

Bedell, the officials say, opened fire with a 9 mm handgun just five feet from the nearest officer, Marvin Carraway. Fellow officer Jefferey Amos ran out of a nearby guard booth to confront Bedell, as did a third, unidentified officer. All three officers gave chase and fired at Bedell, who was struck in the head and left arm. …

Officers praised

Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday called the two wounded officers to express his “appreciation for their service, their bravery and their professionalism,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell. …

The assault at the very threshold of the Pentagon — the U.S. capital’s ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001 — came four months after a deadly attack on the Army’s Fort Hood, Texas, post allegedly by a U.S. Army psychiatrist with radical Islamic leanings [link added].

Hatred of the government motivated a man in Texas last month to fly a small plane into a building housing Internal Revenue Service offices, killing an IRS employee and himself [link added]. …

 Related video

Was Pentagon shooter angry at government? (MSNBC Hardball, March 5, 2010) – NBC News terrorism analyst Roger Cressey discusses the possible motives behind 36-year-old John Patrick Bedell’s  fatal shootout at the Pentagon. (04:41)

Anger at America turns deadly (MSNBC Dylan Ratigan, March 5, 2010) – Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center offers his take on the gun attack outside the Pentagon, populist anger, and anti-government violence. (05:53)

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Anger in America: Topical reports on this site

Extremism Explodes in America (March 3, 2010)

Bachmann Conspiracy Nation (Feb. 20, 2010)

Condemning Beck and Bachmann (Nov. 19, 2009)

Anger in America (Oct. 31, 2009)

Economy and Obama Volatile Mix (April 16, 2009)

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SIDEBAR

Iran’s Ahmadinejad: September 11 Attacks a ‘Big Lie’

March 6, 2010

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday called the official version of the Sept. 11 attacks a “big lie” used by the U.S. as an excuse for the war on terror, state media reported.

Ahmadinejad’s comments, made during an address to Intelligence Ministry staff, come amid escalating tensions between the West and Tehran over its disputed nuclear program. …

“September 11 was a big lie and a pretext for the war on terror and a prelude to invading Afghanistan,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by state TV. He called the attacks a “complicated intelligence scenario and act.”

The Iranian president has questioned the official U.S. version of the Sept. 11 attacks before, but this is the first time he ventured to label it a “big lie.”

In 2007, New York officials rejected Ahmadinejad’s request to visit the World Trade Center site while he was in the city for a U.N. meeting. The president also sparked an uproar when he said during a lecture in New York that the causes and conditions that led to the attacks, as well as who orchestrated them, still need to be examined.

At the time, he also told Iranian state TV the attacks were “a result of mismanaging and inhumane managing of the world by the U.S,” and that Washington was using Sept. 11 as an excuse to attack others.

He has also questioned the Sept. 11 death toll of around 3,000, claiming the Americans never published the victims’ names.

On the 2007 anniversary of the attacks, the names of 2,750 victims killed in New York were read aloud at a memorial ceremony.

Related reports on this site

Iran Now a ‘Nuclear State’ (Feb. 11, 2010)

Psychological Profile of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (June 11, 2009)

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s personality profile

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — March 5, 2009

Rush Limbaugh (Photo: The Associated Press)

Republican Leaders Cower

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that top Democrats believed they had struck political gold by depicting Rush Limbaugh as the new face of the Republican Party.

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In New Video, CIA Bomber Says He Lured Targets with Doctored Intelligence

“The bait fell in the right spot, and they went head over heels with excitement,” Balawi says

In a newly released posthumous video, Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi says he capitalized on the “stupidity” of Jordanian and U.S. intelligence officials. (Photo credit: IntelCenter via EPA / AP)

By Joby Warrick

March 1, 2010 

The suicide bomber behind the Dec. 30 attack on a CIA base in eastern Afghanistan claims in a posthumously released recording that he lured U.S. and Jordanian intelligence officers into a trap by sending them misleading information about terrorist targets as well as videotapes he made of senior al-Qaeda leaders.

The bomber, a Jordanian physician named Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, also claims that he intended to kidnap only a single Jordanian intelligence officer, but then stumbled on an unexpected opportunity to attack a large group of Americans and their Jordanian allies at once.

“It wasn’t planned this way,” Balawi says in an undated, 44-minute videotape released Sunday by as-Sahab, the media arm of al-Qaeda. He attributes the change to “the stupidity of Jordanian intelligence and the stupidity of American intelligence” services that invited him to Afghanistan to help set up a strike against al-Qaeda targets.

The video, if authentic, would be the second recorded statement to surface in which Balawi talks of his plan to penetrate Forward Operating Base Chapman, a highly secure CIA base in eastern Afghanistan’s Khost province. A Taliban group in January released a taped message in which Balawi says he was avenging the death of Baitullah Mehsud, a Taliban commander killed last year in a CIA missile strike.

U.S. officials have acknowledged that Balawi was a double agent who provided valuable intelligence over several months before being allowed to meet with U.S. operatives at Chapman. Six Americans and three others were killed in the deadliest attack on the U.S. intelligence agency’s staff in a quarter-century.

In the new video, the 32-year-old Balawi gives an animated account of his journey from doctor to suicide bomber, at one point brandishing what he says is a block of C4 military explosive that he intended to use in the attack. Wearing military garb and holding a rifle in his lap, he mocks his Jordanian handlers for thinking that he could be lured into spying on al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

“They tried to entice me with money and offered me amounts reaching into the millions of dollars,” he says, according to an English translation by IntelCenter, a private intelligence company that monitors jihadist Web sites. The Arabic-language video was provided to The Washington Post by SITE Intelligence Group, another private intelligence firm.

Balawi says the Jordanians spent thousands of dollars to settle him in Pakistan, and claims he intended from the beginning to strike a blow against the pro-U.S. Jordanian government. Balawi says he initially planned to capture or kill the Jordanian officer who served as his handler, but called off the plan. Meanwhile, he was enticing the Jordanians with videos. “The bait fell in the right spot, and they went head over heels with excitement,” Balawi says.

To further solidify his handlers’ trust, he sent coordinates of Taliban and al-Qaeda positions to the CIA, he says. Some of the information was erroneous, but Balawi says he would “throw in some accurate information which we thought the enemy probably already had knowledge of.” …

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3/5/10 Update

CIA investigators believe suicide bomber was Qaeda plant from the outset (Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, March 5, 2010)

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Related reports on this site

Al-Qaida’s Next High-Value Target (Jan. 18, 2010)

Baitullah Mehsud, commander of the Pakistani Taliban until he was killed in a U.S. missile strike in August 2009, said in March 2008 his group was planning an attack on the White House that would “amaze” the world. … Mehsud’s death served as the apparent source of inspiration for the Jordanian suicide bomber and al-Qaeda double agent whose Dec. 30 attack at an American base in eastern Afghanistan killed seven CIA officers and contractors. In a chilling videotape released posthumously by the Pakistani Taliban and broadcast on regional TV channels, bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, 32, called on Muslim holy warriors worldwide to avenge Mehsud’s death by attacking U.S. targets. … More

New Details in CIA Bombing (Jan. 10, 2010)

The Jordanian doctor arrived in a red station wagon that came directly from Pakistan and sped through checkpoints at a CIA base in Afghanistan before stopping abruptly at an improvised interrogation center. Outside stood one of the CIA’s top experts on al-Qaeda, ready to greet the doctor and hear him describe a way to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri, the organization’s No. 2 and a man long at the top of U.S. target lists. … A sharp “CLMMMP” sound coincided with a brief flash and a small puff of smoke as thousands of steel pellets shredded glass, metal, cement and flesh in every direction. … A moment that CIA officials in Washington and Afghanistan had hoped would lead to a significant breakthrough in the fight against al-Qaeda instead became the most grievous single blow against the agency in the counterterror war. … More

Balawi Fit Suicide Bomber Profile (Jan. 5, 2010)

Based on reports by the Associated Press quoting sources familiar with Dr. Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, the 32-year-old Jordanian physician who turned against his Jordanian intelligence recruiters and struck the CIA’s forward operating base Camp Chapman in Khost province near the Afghan-Pakistan frontier on December 30 killing seven Central Intelligence Agency employees and his Jordanian recruiter, al-Balawi matched the psychological profile of a suicide bomber. … Personal descriptions by individuals closely acquainted with al-Balawi offer a precise match for the puritanical compulsive terrorist type represented by 9/11 hijack ringleader Mohamed Atta — the unobtrusive, disciplined operative willing to sacrifice himself for a “higher” cause — that I red-flagged in a confidential report to the CIA in March 2005. … More

CIA Zawahiri Team Decimated (Jan. 4, 2010)

A suicide bombing on a CIA base in Afghanistan was carried out by a Jordanian doctor who was an al-Qaida double agent. According to intelligence officials, the perpetrator was Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, 36. Forward Operating Base Chapman had been at the heart of overseeing a covert program for selecting al-Qaida and Taliban targets for drone aircraft strikes. … More

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — March 4, 2009

Republican Leaders Cower

Video

Steele, Limbaugh in GOP spat (MSNBC, March 3, 2009) — Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele apologizes to conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. NBC’s Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd and the ‘Morning Joe’ team listen and analyze the latest spat within the Republican party. (07:12)

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that two days after calling conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh a mere “entertainer” with an “incendiary” talk show, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele apologized and acknowledged Limbaugh as a “national conservative leader” in a spat that raised questions about the leadership of the GOP.

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“Patriot” Groups, Militias Surge in Number in Past Year

Southern Poverty Law Center
March 2, 2010

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The number of extremist groups in the United States exploded in 2009 as militias and other groups steeped in wild, antigovernment conspiracy theories exploited populist anger across the country and infiltrated the mainstream, according to a report issued today by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

Antigovernment “Patriot” groups – militias and other extremist organizations that see the federal government as their enemy – came roaring back to life over the past year after more than a decade out of the limelight. 

The SPLC documented a 244 percent increase in the number of active Patriot groups in 2009. Their numbers grew from 149 groups in 2008 to 512 groups in 2009, an astonishing addition of 363 new groups in a single year. Militias – the paramilitary arm of the Patriot movement – were a major part of the increase, growing from 42 militias in 2008 to 127 in 2009. 

The report, “Rage on the Right,” is the cover story in the Spring 2010 issue of the SPLC’s quarterly investigative journal Intelligence Report.

Video

Patriot groups have been fueled by anger over the changing demographics of the country, the soaring public debt, the troubled economy and an array of initiatives by President Obama that have been branded “socialist” or even “fascist” by his political opponents.

“This extraordinary growth is a cause for grave concern,” said Intelligence Report editor Mark Potok. “The people associated with the Patriot movement during its 1990s heyday produced an enormous amount of violence, most dramatically the Oklahoma City bombing that left 168 people dead.”

The Patriot movement has made significant inroads into the conservative political scene, according to the new report. “The ‘tea parties’ and similar groups that have sprung up in recent months cannot fairly be considered extremist groups, but they are shot through with rich veins of radical ideas, conspiracy theories and racism,” the report says.

Unlike the 1990s, the Patriot movement’s central ideas are being promoted by people with large audiences, such as FOX News’ Glenn Beck and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota [links added]. Beck, for instance, reinvigorated a key Patriot conspiracy theory – the charge that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is secretly running concentration camps – before finally “debunking” it. 

The growth of Patriot groups comes at a time when the number of racist hate groups stayed at record levels – rising from 926 in 2008 to 932 in 2009, according to the report. The increase caps a decade in which the number of hate groups surged by 55 percent. The expansion would have been much greater in 2009 if not for the demise of the American National Socialist Workers Party, a key neo-Nazi network whose founder was arrested in October 2008. 

There also has been a surge in “nativist extremist” groups – vigilante organizations that go beyond advocating strict immigration policy and actually confront or harass suspected immigrants. These groups grew from 173 groups in 2008 to 309 in 2009, a rise of nearly 80 percent.

These three strands of the radical right – the hate groups, the nativist extremist groups, and the Patriot organizations – are the most volatile elements on the American political landscape. Taken together, their numbers increased by more than 40 percent, rising from 1,248 groups in 2008 to 1,753 last year.

There are already signs of radical right violence reminiscent of the 1990s. Right-wing extremists have murdered six law enforcement officers since Obama’s inauguration. Racist skinheads and others have been arrested in alleged plots to assassinate the president. Most recently, as recounted in the new issue of the Intelligence Report, a number of individuals with antigovernment, survivalist or racist views have been arrested in a series of bomb cases.

The hate groups listed in this report include neo-Nazis, white nationalists, neo-Confederates, racist skinheads, Klansmen and black separatists. Other hate groups target gays or immigrants, and some specialize in producing racist music or propaganda denying the Holocaust.

A list and interactive, state-by-state map of active hate groups can be viewed here.

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Related media

Video

Number of hate groups reach record level (The Dylan Ratigan Show, MSNBC, March 2, 2010) — According to a new report, militias and other extremist groups increasing 244 percent in 2009. Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center and radio host Mark Williams of the Tea Party Express discuss. (08:33)

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Related reports on this site

Bachmann Conspiracy Nation (Feb. 20, 2010)

Town Hall Face (Photos: Landov, AP, Getty Images / Newsweek)

Conspiracy theories have long been a fixture on the political landscape, with political paranoia most virulent among politically marginalized sectors of the polity. So, with Democrats holding the reins of power, it stands to reason that the right fringe has become the prime repository of collective craziness.

Condemning Beck and Bachmann (Nov. 19, 2009)

Rage Grows in America: Anti‑Government Conspiracies

November 2009

Introduction: A Year of Growing Animosity

Since the election of Barack Obama as president, a current of anti-government hostility has swept across the United States, creating a climate of fervor and activism with manifestations ranging from incivility in public forums to acts of intimidation and violence.

Hate groups including neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan have grown since Barack Obama was elected president. (Image: NBC News)

What characterizes this anti-government hostility is a shared belief that Obama and his administration actually pose a threat to the future of the United States. Some accuse Obama of plotting to bring socialism to the United States, while others claim he will bring about Nazism or fascism. All believe that Obama and his administration will trample on individual freedoms and civil liberties, due to some sinister agenda, and they see his economic and social policies as manifestations of this agenda. In particular anti-government activists used the issue of health care reform as a rallying point, accusing Obama and his administration of dark designs ranging from “socialized medicine” to “death panels,” even when the Obama administration had not come out with a specific health care reform plan. Some even compared the Obama administration’s intentions to Nazi eugenics programs. … Full story

Bachmann Rebuked for Nazi Image (Nov. 12, 2009)

Sign displayed at U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s “House Call on Congress” anti-health care reform rally in Washington, D.C., Nov. 5, 2009. The sign reads, “National Socialist Health Care: Dachau, Germany — 1945.” (Photo credit: Lee Fang / ThinkProgress)

Anger in America (Oct. 31, 2009)

Bachmann Heads Teabaggers (Sept. 13, 2009)

Rep. Michele Bachmann speaks at a Tea Party at Lake George in St. Cloud, Minn., after a town hall meeting, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009. (Photo credit: Jason Wachter / St. Cloud Times)

Invitation to Tea Party headlined by Michele Bachmann

Bachmann: “Slit Our Wrists” (Sept. 2, 2009)

Rep. Michele Bachmann speaks to a luncheon crowd at the Denver Athletic Club, Aug. 31, 2009 (Photo credit: Jason Kosena / The Colorado Statesman)

In a speech filled with urgent and violent rhetoric, Bachmann … drew a clear line on health care reform.

“You’re either for us or against us on this issue,” she said. …

At times, Bachmann’s legislative briefing sounded more like the plot of a slasher movie.

“Right now, we are looking at reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom,” she said. “And we may never be able to restore it if we don’t man up and take this one on.”

While Bachmann didn’t ask this audience to “rise up” against President Barack Obama’s tyrannical rule, they stood anyway and applauded when she announced she was No. 1 on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s list of “top targets.” …

Economy and Obama Volatile Mix (April 16, 2009)

An April 2009 Homeland Security intelligence estimate warns that right-wing extremists could use the bad state of the U.S. economy and the election of the country’s first black president to recruit new members and incite anti-government violence.

Bachmann Call for Armed Revolt? (March 24, 2009)

On March 21, 2009 Rep. Michele Bachmann said that she wants people in Minnesota “armed and dangerous” on the issue of an energy tax, “because we need to fight back” and “having a revolution every now and then is a good thing.”

Obama, Economy Fuel Hate Groups (Feb. 28, 2009)

A cross and swastika are burned at an event called Hated and Proud in Nebraska in July 2008. (Photo credit: Southern Poverty Law Center / CNN)

Obama Racist Backlash (Nov. 16, 2008)

Racial incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama, including schoolchildren chanting “assassinate Obama,” racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars, and Black figures hung from nooses, are shattering the post-election illusion of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America. There have been “hundreds” of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — March 3, 2009

History repeats? Job hunters mass for $4 a day work in 1935 and the line unwinds outside a New York City job fair in February 2009. (Photo credit: Associated Press)

U.S. Economy in Depression?

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that according to some economists, a Depression doesn’t have to be Great, with bread lines, rampant unemployment, and a wipeout in the stock market; the economy can sink into a milder depression — the kind spelled with a lowercase “d” — and it may be happening now.

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