News:Director General Speaks of a Need For Continued Perseverance

Source: MI5 Website

Jonathan Evans, the Director General of the Security Service, gave a speech at the Society of Editors' conference in Manchester on 5 November 2007 in which he provided an update on the terrorist threat and spoke about the need for perseverance and strategic thinking in the continuing fight against international terrorism.

Mr. Evans highlighted the need to protect young people from radicalisation and indoctrination by violent extremists.

Mr Evans said "The violence directed against us is the product of a much wider extremist ideology, whose basic tenets are inimical to the tolerance and liberty which form the basis of our democracy. So although the most visible manifestations of this problem are the attacks and attempted attacks we have suffered in recent years, the root of the problem is ideological."

He expanded further his view by saying "Because the ideology underlying Al Qaida and other violent groups is extreme. It does not accept the legitimacy of other viewpoints. It is intolerant, and it believes in a form of government which is explicitly anti-democratic. And the more that this ideology spreads in our communities, the harder it will be to maintain the kind of society that the vast majority of us wish to live in."

Following his predecessor, Eliza Manningham-Buller comments regarding about the increased threats by Al Qaida inspired terrorists in which she identified around 1,600 individuals who MI5 believed posed a direct threat to national security and public safety, Mr Evans now said that figure today would be at least 2,000.

He focused his speech on the growth of the 'Al Qaida franchise' including Somalia and a new grouping called 'Al Qaida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb' based in North Africa.

He also remarked on the unfortunate diversion of key resources away from vital counter-terrorist work by ongoing Russian espionage activity in the UK.

For further information on his key note speech you can read more on Address to the Society of Editors by the Director General of the Security Service, Jonathan Evans

Knowledge-Who are the PKK?

Source:MIPT Database

Name: Partiya Karkeran Kurdistan (PKK)

AKA: KADEK, KHK, Kongra-Gel (KGK), Kongreya Azadi u Demokrasiya Kurdistan, Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress, Kurdistan People's Conference, The People’s Congress of Kurdistan

History: The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is a leftist Kurdish nationalist organization, founded in 1974 from the student/youth movement in Turkey. Led by Abdullah Ocalan, operated informally until 1978, when it formalized its agenda. Influenced by Maoist doctrine, the PKK's goal was to incite a revolution that would free the Kurdish people and establish an independent Kurdish state.

In 1980, prior to the military coup in Turkey, the PKK fled Turkey and established training camps in the Bekaa valley, part of Syrian-controlled Lebanon. By 1984, the PKK had initiated its first armed attacks in the Anatolia regions of Turkey. Reports claim that the PKK killed over 30,000 civilians within Turkey during the mid-80s including fellow Kurds who they believed they "collaborated" with the Turkish government. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, in an effort to win increased support from the Kurdish peasantry, the PKK altered its leftist secular ideology to better accommodate and accept Islamic beliefs.

During the early 1990s, the PKK continued its strategy of actively attacking Turkish government and tourist assets in an effort to destroy the Turkish military Government. In 1999, the PKK's leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was arrested in Kenya and extradited to Turkey, though convicted, Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2002, and his sentence was changed to life imprisonment after the original death sentence was called for. Following his arrest, Ocalan declared a unilateral cease-fire and announced his desire to establish a "peace initiative" with Turkey on Kurdish issues.

In 2002, the PKK changed its name to the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK), supposedly committing itself to non-violent activities. Despite the cease fire, the group continued its military training and planning and continues to threaten violence. In late 2003, the KADEK sought to engineer another political face-lift, renaming the group Kongra-Gel (KGK) (Kurdistan People's Congress) and brandishing its "peaceful" intentions, while continuing to commit attacks and refuse disarmament. The cease-fire with the Turkish government ended in the spring of 2004 and violence continued.

The group claimed responsibility for three ambushes of Turkish forces in early March 2006, alleged to be retaliation for the deaths of seven PKK members in February. The group is also suspected in several small bombings in early 2006, including a bombing in Ankara on March 8th that killed three people and injured eighteen. It is on the list of US Current List of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Information-Dutch Intelligence Observes ‘New Phase’ In Islamic Radicalisation

Source:AIVD website

The General Intelligence and Security Service of The Netherlands (Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst-AIVD) has recently issued an report into a new development in Islamic Radicalisation within the Netherlands that is bound to have implications within Europe-especially within Germany and the United Kingdom

The report titled ‘The radical dawa in transition’ the AIVD states in the report that “the dawn of the new phase of Islamic neo-radicalism is connected to a rapid expansion of a move within radical Islam, which is called ‘radical dawa’. In the Netherlands this movement especially shows itself in political salafism. The AIVD establishes that the radical dawa in the Netherlands and Europe is becoming more and more professional”.

“Despite its non-violent character, the radical dawa is an extremely intolerant and anti-democratic movement. Followers of the radical dawa strive for a large degree of isolation, combined with intolerance towards dissenters.”

“The AIVD emphasizes that the group of individuals which is sensitive and open to the radical Islamic message is growing. The AIVD also states, however, that the scope of present Muslim radicalism cannot be overestimated nor underestimated.”

The AIVD (previously known as the Binnenlandse Veiligheidsdienst, Domestic Security Service or BVD) was heavily criticised after the attacks on 9th September 2001 for not focusing on the Islamic fundamentalism movement and the extreme right-wing, concentrating instead on extreme left wing activities.

Subsequent revelations relating to the murder of Theo Van Gogh by Mohammed Bouyeri a member of the Hofstad Network has now seen a re-doubling of efforts, including research and an ‘academic’ approach as well as the counter-terrorist aspects to intelligence gathering and law enforcement.

The AIVD is now seen as one of the premier intelligence agencies working on the subject and is influencing thinking within Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

For Futher Reading:

Radical Dawa in Transition
Violent Jihad in the Netherlands
From Dawa to Jihad
AIVD Report on Activities 2005

NEWS- Islamist militants blamed for Bhutto attack

Source:Reuters

KARACHI - The Pakistan government blamed Islamist militants for twin blasts early on Friday that killed 133 people as opposition leader Benazir Bhutto drove through masses of supporters in Karachi.

Bhutto, travelling in a truck reinforced to withstand bomb attacks, was unhurt by the deadliest bomb attack in her country's violent history.
Army Chief General Musharraf condoled with his potential ally by telephone from Islamabad and they both "expressed their unflinching resolve to fight the scourge of extremism and terrorism", the president's spokesman Rashid Quereshi said. The grenade and suicide attack struck Bhutto's motorcade as it edged through hundreds of thousands of well-wishers who had stayed up late into the night to welcome the two-time prime minister back to Pakistan after years of self-imposed exile.

There was no claim of responsibility. But police were investigating whether the attack had links to tribal regions bordering Afghanistan which have become hotbeds of support for al Qaeda and the Taliban. Militants linked to al Qaeda, angered by Bhutto's support for the U.S. war on terrorism, had this week threatened to assassinate her, and officials said there were intelligence reports of plots by three separate groups.

"The first blast was caused by a hand grenade. The second was the suicide attack," said Manzoor Mughal, a senior police official. "The attacker ran into the crowd and blew himself up."Mughal said the head of the suspected bomber had been found, and it was estimated he had 15 to 20 kg of explosives strapped to his body. Typically, the upward force from a blast blows off the head an attacker.

Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, accused Pakistani intelligence agencies of involvement in the attack on his wife, a suspicion shared by many Pakistanis.