Noblesse Oblige

In the wake of killing Al Qaeda’s senior leader in Iraq a treasure trove of intel date has been uncovered in his safe house. They have a roster of Al Qaeda fighters in Iraq, including their Biographies and photos.

This will lead to further finds as intelligence agencies and governments track those leads back to sources and originations in other countries. From USA Today:

These images show documents that the U.S. military says it obtained after killing a senior member of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The one of the left is said to show a list of foreigners who entered the country to carry out “martyrdom” operations, while the one on the right is described as a biographical entry for one such foreign recruit.

The images were released earlier today by the Pentagon during a briefing on the death of Abu Usama al-Tunisi, an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader who they described as the emir of foreign fighters.

We’ve already seen a major AQ financier and recruiter captured, and as each lead is followed up more and more will be discovered. Iraqi forces also broke up a major meeting of AQ forces in northern Iraq, capturing an Iraqi Member of Parliament (un-named,) at the meeting.

The physical nature of groups that operate in cells is fragile and it takes a great deal of time to heal communications if a cell is fractured and if they truly follow the ideal dictates of inter-cell communications structure; which Al Qaeda does not always do.

It’s easier to ignore tight standards for inter-cell oversight for logistics purposes — and the hard fighting from Anbar Awakening and the US forces has created the need for AQ to break it’s inter-cell communications structure just to stay in the fight. One leader having a full roster is proof of that.

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Yesterday police caught a man trying to enter the US Embassy in Vienna, Austria. The man fled after a metal detector went off, but was quickly apprehended with a backpack full of explosives and nails.

Today police have arrested another man in connection to that case. From AP:

A second suspect has been arrested in connection with an attempted bomb attack against the US embassy in Vienna, Austrian police said Tuesday. Police said the man was arrested near Vienna on the basis of information given by the main suspect, a 42-year-old Bosnian, who was detained Monday after he tried to enter the US embassy with a rucksack containing nails and explosives. Doris Edelbacher, a spokeswoman for the Vienna security and counter-terrorism bureau told the Austria Press Agency that not too much should be read into the second arrest because the Bosnian appeared to want to implicate other people. The Bosnian suspect also appeared to be confused and no link had been established between the two men and any Islamic movement, Edelbacher said.

The main suspect tried to enter the embassy but explosives detectors at the entrance signalled an alarm and the man was detained in a nearby street as he fled.

Experts found two devices that looked like hand grenades in the bag, along with nails.

I hope they are not going to bill this as “just another crazy person”, but it appears that authorities might judging from the statement that “no link had been established between the two men and any Islamic Movement.”  I certainly hope the Buddhists from Bosnia aren’t mad at us now.

A Bosnian suicide bomber was stopped by metal detectors in Austria at the US embassy, he was caught as he tried to flee. Weasel Zippers and Little Green Footballs have more.

The Afghan, ISAF, and US forces have been so effective in killing off the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan that they’ve had to create a new “Top 12” wanted list for Taliban leaders. The new billboards and faces are being posted across the country, with rewards of $200,000.00 dollars. From AP:

Among the 12 men on the Most Wanted list, the U.S. is offering the $200,000 reward for five of them, including:

_ Abu Laith al-Libi: An al-Qaida training camp leader who has appeared in many Internet videos and who the U.S. says was likely behind the February bombing at the U.S. base at Bagram during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney.

_ Saraj Haqqani: Son of longtime warlord Jalalludin Haqqani and believed to have connections with al-Qaida.

_ Tahir Yuldash: The leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and an al-Qaida operational commander.

Pollock said the U.S. is offering up to $10,000 to Afghans who turn in any foreign fighter, such as militants from Arab countries or Chechnya, Turkey, or Uzbekistan. The U.S. has also been paying money to Afghans who tell authorities about roadside bombs that have been planted.

“This is not necessarily a new program, we’re just putting a lot more energy into it now,” Pollock said.

The U.S. says it has killed around 50 mostly mid-level insurgent leaders over the past year, a strategy the military is continuing to push with the Most Wanted rewards program.

If the mid level leaders are taken out, then the top level has to come out of hiding and become active.

In sadder news the Taliban hung a young boy just for having US dollars in his pocket and they shot a farmer for using NGO aid. They attack anyone in the south who uses NGO or USAID aid, this goes hand in hand with their program to stop deminers, vaccinations, girl’s schools, and modern farming. Their neo-luddism is because they want to keep Afghanistan medieval and backward because that’s the only way they can retain power.