DTN News - OSAMA BIN LADEN NEWS: 17 Suspected of Helping Track bin Laden Get Their Jobs Back

Defense News: DTN News - OSAMA BIN LADEN NEWS: 17 Suspected of Helping Track bin Laden Get Their Jobs Back

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Shaan Khan, CNN
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 14, 2013: Seventeen Pakistani women suspected of helping the CIA track down Osama bin Laden in Pakistan were given their jobs back Thursday, their lawyer told CNN.

The women appeared in the city of Peshawar's high court, where Justices Yayha Afridi and Seth Waqar Ahmed accepted their petition to have their jobs restored, Sajid Ali Awan, the women's counsel, told CNN.

"The court has also directed the Department of Health to act lawfully and take lawful measures after accepting our petition, which is the simple restoration of the employees as their termination without a shown cause notice was against the law," Awan said.

The women were fired from their jobs after allegations that they were involved in Dr. Shakeel Afridi's fake vaccination campaign, which helped the CIA collect DNA samples from residents of bin Laden's compound in the city of Abbottabad. The samples aimed to verify the al Qaeda leader's presence there.

Awan said the secretary of health for Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province fired the health workers in February 2012. However, they pleaded not guilty, saying they were not aware of Dr. Afridi's intentions and were simply following his orders.

Dr. Afridi is serving a 33-year sentence in a Peshawar jail, accused of having links to militant elements in Khyber Agency, though many believe he has been penalized for acting as a CIA front man in the fake vaccination campaign.

Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid on his Abbottabad compound in May of 2011.

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*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Shaan Khan, CNN
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DTN News - INTELLIGENCE REPORT/NEWS: CIA Derails Plot To Plant Al-Qaida Underwear Bomb

Defense News: DTN News - INTELLIGENCE REPORT/NEWS:  CIA Derails Plot To Plant Al-Qaida Underwear Bomb
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo - AP (Fox & Yahoo)
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 8, 2012:  Experts at the FBI's explosives lab in Virginia are picking apart a sophisticated new al-Qaida bomb to figure out whether it could have slipped past airport security and taken down a commercial airplane. U.S. officials say the unexploded bomb represents an intelligence prize, the result of a covert CIA operation in Yemen that thwarted a suicide mission in recent weeks.

The device did not contain metal, meaning it probably could have passed through an airport metal detector. But it was not clear whether new body scanners used in many airports would have detected it.

The device is an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009.

-The CIA thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, The Associated Press has learned.

The plot involved an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. This new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger's underwear, but this time al-Qaida developed a more refined detonation system, U.S. officials said.

The FBI is examining the latest bomb to see whether it could have passed through airport security and brought down an airplane, officials said. They said the device did not contain metal, meaning it probably could have passed through an airport metal detector. But it was not clear whether new body scanners used in many airports would have detected it.

There were no immediate plans to change security procedures at U.S. airports.

The would-be suicide bomber, based in Yemen, had not yet picked a target or bought a plane ticket when the CIA stepped in and seized the bomb, officials said. It's not immediately clear what happened to the alleged bomber.

White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said President Barack Obama learned about the plot in April and was assured the device posed no threat to the public.

"The president thanks all intelligence and counterterrorism professionals involved for their outstanding work and for serving with the extraordinary skill and commitment that their enormous responsibilities demand," Hayden said.

The operation unfolded even as the White House and Department of Homeland Security assured the American public that they knew of no al-Qaida plots against the U.S. around the anniversary of bin Laden's death. The operation was carried out over the past few weeks, officials said.

"We have no credible information that terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, are plotting attacks in the U.S. to coincide with the anniversary of bin Laden's death," White House press secretary Jay Carney said on April 26.

On May 1, the Department of Homeland Security said, "We have no indication of any specific, credible threats or plots against the U.S. tied to the one-year anniversary of bin Laden's death."

The White House did not explain those statements Monday.

The AP learned about the thwarted plot last week but agreed to White House and CIA requests not to publish it immediately because the sensitive intelligence operation was still under way. Once officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP decided to disclose the plot Monday despite requests from the Obama administration to wait for an official announcement Tuesday.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security acknowledged the existence of the bomb late Monday, but there were no immediate plans to adjust security procedures at airports. Other officials, who were briefed on the operation, insisted on anonymity to discuss details of the plot, many of which the U.S. has not officially acknowledged.

"The device never presented a threat to public safety, and the U.S. government is working closely with international partners to address associated concerns with the device," the FBI said in a statement.

It's not clear who built the bomb, but, because of its sophistication and its similarity to the Christmas bomb, counterterrorism officials suspected it was the work of master bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri or one of his protégées. Al-Asiri constructed the first underwear bomb and two others that al-Qaida built into printer cartridges and shipped to the U.S. on cargo planes in 2010.

Both of those bombs used a powerful industrial explosive. Both were nearly successful.

The operation is an intelligence victory for the United States and a reminder of al-Qaida's ambitions, despite the death of bin Laden and other senior leaders. Because of instability in the Yemeni government, the terrorist group's branch there has gained territory and strength. It has set up terrorist camps and, in some areas, even operates as a de facto government.

But along with the gains there also have been losses. The group has suffered significant setbacks as the CIA and the U.S. military focus more on Yemen. On Sunday, Fahd al-Quso, a senior al-Qaida leader, was hit by a missile as he stepped out of his vehicle along with another operative in the southern Shabwa province of Yemen.

Al-Quso, 37, was on the FBI's most wanted list, with a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. He was indicted in the U.S. for his role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the harbor of Aden, Yemen, in which 17 American sailors were killed and 39 injured.

Al-Quso was believed to have replaced Anwar al-Awlaki as the group's head of external operations. Al-Awlaki was killed in a U.S. airstrike last year.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources  By Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo - AP (Fox & Yahoo)
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*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: The Coming War With China

Defense News: DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: The Coming War With China
*A source close to Chinese military affairs said that China has been promoting the construction of a 93,000-ton atomic-powered carrier under a plan titled the “085 Project.” The nation also has a plan to build a 48,000-ton non-nuclear-powered carrier under the so-called “089 Project,” added the source. China had so far been known to be pushing ahead with construction of a non-nuclear-powered carrier, but not an atomic-powered one.
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Mark Thompson | Time
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 14, 2012: Is China a peaceful nation that only wants to turn out Apple iPads and iPhones? Or is the Middle Kingdom bent on attacking the U.S.? Beijing is the long, and strong, pole in the tent for the U.S. military – and they know it. China is the new Soviet Union, and perhaps it should be.

But is there a downside to view Beijing through such a lens? (Congress has created the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission to track China’s growing clout [remember when the CIA was our chief threat exaggerator?] It also compels the Pentagon to report annually on Chinese military threats [remember when, for good or for ill, we counted on the Defense Intelligence Agency to keep track of such things?])

Do such assessments only create a self-fulfilling prophecy (self-fulfilling prophecy: something that allows the self-licking ice-cream cone, with apologizes to John Cameron Swayze, to keep on licking)? Perhaps not. After all, former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger’s multi-colored annual editions of Soviet Military Power — which portrayed the Soviet Union as a military superpower during the 1980s as the Pentagon, DIA and CIA missed its internal rot — hardly strengthened the Red Army.

Two contrary views:

In the Chinese government’s China Daily newspaper, Luo Yuan, the executive director and deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Society of Military Science, writes:

Every cent that is spent on the Chinese military is to safeguard its citizens and its territory and help maintain peace. Last year, China spent $75 to protect each of its citizens, and $9.72 to protect each square kilometer of its land. The US on the other hand spent $2,201 to protect each of its citizens and $75.3 to protect each square kilometer of its territory. It is not difficult to see which country is the real threat.

Some have alleged that China’s military budget has outgrown its demand for self-defense, but it should be pointed out that China has never staged any military exercises off the coast of another country or carried out any close reconnaissance of another country. And it is worth remembering that China has never seized a single inch of another country or region’s territory. On the contrary, others are occupying its reefs and isles and plundering its resources. China is justified in spending money on its military to keep its territory intact.

Commentary magazine’s April cover story on the other hand, is all about the coming war with China. Long-time China-watcher Bill Gertz writes:

…the U.S. military [in November took] off the gloves as part of a major war-fighting initiative to counter new Chinese weapons that might succeed in enabling its weaker forces to defeat the United States in a regional war.

The Pentagon will press the defense industry for new ideas, as one defense official put it, “about how to go into China.” Public discussion of [the new Pentagon strategy known as] Air-Sea Battle has been focused largely on operations outside China, such as anti-submarine warfare, mines and countermine warfare, and defending carriers 1,000 miles from Chinese territory. Internal military operations against China under Air Sea Battle will include special forces commando raids on missile forces and bases and, most controversial, covert action and aid to ethnic groups, such as the Uighurs in Xinjiang, anti-regime elements inside Tibet, and ethnic Inner Mongolians seeking to reunite with independent Mongolia.

It’s a safe bet that Luo Yuan’s argument is too benign (no mention of Taiwan or Tiananmen, for example). But it’s fair to suggest that Gertz’s is too menacing (no mention, for example, that nearly everything in every American Walmart is made in China).

We pay the U.S. military to survey the horizon for threats, and prepare to deal with them. China bears watching: its actions makes its neighbors uneasy, and the fate of Taiwan will have to be resolved one way or the other. But, interestingly, as each side focuses on wars that might come, they all seem to erupt in China’s backyard, not ours.

That’s probably a good thing, most Americans would say. But it sure doesn’t look that way to the Chinese.

A source close to Chinese military affairs said on March 27 that China has been promoting the construction of a 93,000-ton atomic-powered carrier under a plan titled the “085 Project.” The nation also has a plan to build a 48,000-ton non-nuclear-powered carrier under the so-called “089 Project,” added the source. China had so far been known to be pushing ahead with construction of a non-nuclear-powered carrier, but not an atomic-powered one.

Once the proposed Chinese carriers are deployed, the radius of the Chinese Navy's range is expected to reach Guam, where a U.S. base is located. Thus, military experts are worried about China's moves prompting an arms race in Northeast Asia.

The dossier said the construction of the nuclear-powered carrier will be completed in 2020. China State Shipbuiling Corp's Jiangnan shipyard located on Changxing Island near Shanghai, will be responsible for its design and construction. The size is similar to former Soviet's unfinished atomic-powered carrier Ulyanovsk, the dossier states. China reportedly secretly purchased the design of Ulyanovsk from Russia. When the nuclear-powered carrier is finished, China will own an aircraft carrier which is on par with the U.S's newest of such vessels, the 97,000-ton atomic-powered USS Ronald Reagan, which recently docked at Busan Port to participate in a joint exercise between the South Korean and U.S. militaries.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Mark Thompson | Time
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DTN News - OSAMA BIN LADEN NEWS: Bin Laden Was 'Betrayed By One Of His Jealous Wives' Who Revealed Location Of His Secret Pakistan Compound

Defense News: DTN News - OSAMA BIN LADEN NEWS: Bin Laden Was 'Betrayed By One Of His Jealous Wives' Who Revealed Location Of His Secret Pakistan Compound
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Simon Tomlinson - Daily Mail UK
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 11, 2012: Oldest wife wanted revenge because aging terrorist was 'bedding' his youngest spouse, investigator claims.

Betrayed: Osama Bin Laden may have been outed by one of his jealous wives, a retired Pakistani Brigadier has claimed

Osama Bin Laden was betrayed by one of his wives who revealed the location of his Pakistan hideaway because she was jealous of the Al-Qaeda leader's youngest spouse, it was claimed today.

Khairiah Saber, the oldest of his five wives, was motivated by revenge because the aging terrorist was 'bedding' Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada while she slept in abedroom on the floor below, according to a Pakistani official.

Retired brigadier Shaukat Qadir, who has investigated the U.S. operation which killed Bin Laden in May last year, also controversially claims that Saber may have been working with Al-Qaeda itself.

He believes word that 'someone very important' was living in Abbottabad got out to the Taliban, Pakistan’s ISI military intelligence service and ultimately the CIA. 

Qadir suggests that Al-Qaeda was looking to cash in on the $25m (£16m) bounty on his head. But he said he has no proof.

Pakistan claims it had not been warned about the raid, but Qadir's claims suggest elements in the intelligence service may have been aware.

Marital discord: Jealously and suspicions between Bin Laden's wives began when his eldest spouse moved into the compound

According to the Sunday Times, it was also said that Bin Laden understood what was happening, but had lost the will to live.

Trouble arose when Saber, the mother of at least five of Bin Laden's sons, showed up at the compound in early 2011.

After 9/11, she spent years under house arrest in Iran until, after her release in 2008, she told Al-Qaeda she wanted to be rejoin her husband, according to Qadir.

He said: 'Nobody really understood why she should want to come back to him. They had lost contact, there was nothing going on between them — he was bedding only Amal.'

Favourite: The five-times married and twice divorced bin Laden shared a room with his youngest wife, Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada, seen right in an undated passport photo

Revenge motive: The aging terrorist was bedding his youngest wife, while Khairiah Saber had to sleep in a bedroom on the floor below

The arrival of Saber, a well-educated Saudi in her 60s, was disruptive, particularly for Amal, Bin Laden’s fifth wife, Siham Sabar, and her 24-year-old son, Khalid.

Qadir said: 'In the house everyone is suspicious of her and Khalid questions her, saying, "Why the hell have you come back?"

THE HOUSEHOLD HIERARCHY

Twenty-eight people lived within the Abbottabad compound in Pakistan.

Osama bin Laden lived with his three wives, eight of his children and five grandchildren.

He shared a room with his youngest and favourite wife, Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah as-Sada.

Another wife, Siham Saber, lived on the same floor as her husband.

His eldest wife, Khairiah Saber, arrived later and stirred up trouble living on the floor beneath the al-Qaeda leader.

Bin Laden had two wives previous to Khairiah who he divorced and twenty children between the women.

He doesn't believe Saber had any connection with the CIA, but her arrival in Abbottabad revealed to those hunting Bin Laden that he might be there. 'Who else could have led them there?'

His theories go against the U.S version of events which states that Bin Laden was tracked to his secret compound by following a 'courier' who was his contact with the terrorist organisation.

The picture of bin Laden's family life comes after Qadir was given rare access to transcripts of Pakistani intelligence's interrogation of Amal, who was detained in the raid.

Others in the family, crammed into the three-story villa Abbottabad compound where bin Laden would eventually be killed in a May 2 U.S. raid, were convinced that the eldest wife intended to betray the al-Qaeda leader.

Indeed, the compound where bin Laden lived since mid-2005 was a crowded place, with 28 residents — including bin Laden, his three wives, eight of his children and five of his grandchildren.

The bin Laden children ranged in age from his 24-year-old son Khaled, who was killed in the raid, to a three-year-old born during their time in Abbottabad.

Bin Laden's courier, the courier's brother and their wives and children also lived in the compound.

Crowded: 28 people lived in the recently destroyed Abbottabad compound with bin Laden including his three wives, eight children and five grandchildren

Bin Laden’s home life was stirred up when Khairiah joined the fray. 

There was already bad blood between Khairiah, who married bin Laden in the late 1980s, and Amal because of bin Laden's favoritism for the younger Yemeni woman.

Even ISI officials who questioned Khairiah after the raid were daunted by her.

‘She is so aggressive that she borders on being intimidating,’ Qadir said he was told by an ISI interrogator.

Amal stayed close to bin Laden as he fled Afghanistan into Pakistan following the 2001 U.S. invasion. 

She took an active role in arranging protection for him and bin Laden wanted her by his side, the tribal leaders told Qadir.

Khairiah fled Afghanistan in 2001 into Iran along with other bin Laden relatives and al-Qaeda figures. 

She and others were held under house arrest in Iran until 2010, when Tehran let them leave in a swap for an Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Pakistan's frontier city of Peshawar.

Khairiah showed up at Abbottabad in February or March 2011 and moved into the villa's second floor, Amal told her interrogators.

Khalid, bin Laden's son with Siham, was suspicious, according to Amal's account. He repeatedly asked Khairiah why she had come. 

At one point, she told him, ‘I have one final duty to perform for my husband.’ Khalid immediately told his father what she had said and warned that she intended to betray him.

Amal, who shared Khalid's fears, said bin Laden was also suspicious but was unconcerned, acting as if fate would decide, according to Qadir's recounting of the interrogation transcript.

There is no evidence Khairiah had any role in bin Laden's end. Accounts by Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officials since the May 2 raid have made no mention of her. 

Instead, U.S. officials have said the courier inadvertently led the CIA to the Abbottabad villa after they uncovered him in a monitored phone call.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Simon Tomlinson - Daily Mail UK
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*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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