By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

WASHINGTON DC, USA – The Pakistani-American man accused of trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square has told investigators that he drew inspiration from Anwar Al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American cleric whose militant online lectures have been a catalyst for several recent attacks and plots, an American official said Thursday.

The would-be bomber, Faisal Shahzad, was inspired by the violent rhetoric of Mr. Awlaki, said the official, who would speak of the investigation only on condition of anonymity. “He listened to him, and he did it,” the official said, referring to Saturday’s attempted bombing on a busy street in Times Square.

New evidence is deepening a notion, albeit still unverified, that the failed car bombing in Times Square was not the work of one disgruntled young man, but inspired by a global extremist network stretching from Yemen to Pakistan, united by the Internet and a common radical vision of faith.

According to one account, Shahzad told investigators that he actually met with Awlaki – as well as Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, and even Abdulmutallah, who tried to blow up a Northwest airliner landing in Detroit on Christmas Day. Investigators are skeptical, reports the New York Daily News, saying Shahzad claims to know most of the biggest players in the world of radical Islam. They have yet to verify his statements.

If true, Shahzad’s apparent susceptibility to Awlaki’s sermons, coupled with an ability to travel to Pakistan for training, and then back to the US with an American passport, offers a disturbing portrait of a virtual jihadi highway, linking mentality to means and money.

Investigators are not yet sure where that money came from. They are looking to question a courier who allegedly funneled money to Shahzad to pay for the SUV used in the attack, as well as the improvised explosives. But the source country remains unknown, the Associated Press reports.

As a result, the United States is likely to push Pakistan to press harder against militant enclaves in that country’s North Waziristan region, deemed the epicenter of the network behind the failed bombing. But that is likely to strain an already threadbare relationship between Washington and Islamabad, experts warn.

For more information, please see:

CSM – US-Born Cleric Inspired Times Square Bomber Faisal Shahzad – 7 May 2010

New York Times – Times Sq. Bomb Suspect Is Linked To Militant Cleric – 6 May 2010

AOL News – Times Square Suspect Reportedly Inspired By Radical Cleric – 7 May 2010

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

LUBBAN ASH-SHARQIYA, West Bank – Arsonists set fire to a mosque in a town ten kilometers south of Nablus on May 4. The mosque was largely destroyed by the attack, and Israeli settlers are widely suspected of setting the mosque on fire.

Israeli forces are continuing to investigate the arson, and said they have not yet found any evidence linking the attack to settlers. Still, the mayor of Lubban Ash-Sharqiya told journalists that local residents had seen the settlers in the village streets before the attack. Lubban Ash-Sharqiya is near three Israeli settlers: Eli, Maaleh Levona, and Shiloh.

Tensions have been high in the Nablus area since Israeli settlers allegedly vandalized a mosque in nearby Hawara a month ago; the Star of David and the name “Mohammad” was written in Hebrew letters on the walls of the mosque. Earlier this week, an olive orchard in Hawara was set on fire. In December, another mosque in Yasuf, also in the Nablus area, was set on fire and a message in Hebrew was left. Though the Israeli police have begun investigations into these attacks, there have been no arrests.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has warned that such attacks could be irreparably harm the peace process. In a statement released on May 4, Abbas said that such attacks were “criminal,” and that the most recent arson “represented a threat to the efforts to revive the peace process,” because the Israeli army protects illegal settlers.

Since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a six-month freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, radical Israeli settler groups have adopted a “price tag” policy, calling for aggressive action to any action by the Israeli police or military to curb unauthorized settlement expansion or construction. On May 3, Israeli authorities destroyed several structures in the Shavei Shomron settlement, which had been built in violation of the settlement freeze.

For more information, please see:

The Washington Post – Mahmoud Abbas Warns Fire at West Bank Mosque Could Imperil Peace Talks – 5 May 2010

Al-Jazeerah – Illegal Israeli Settlers Burn Al-Lubban Mosque in the West Bank – 4 May 2010

Herald Sun – Settlers Torch West Bank Mosque – 4 May 2010

New York Times – Emotions in West Bank Run High After Mosque Fire – 4 May 2010

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – Armed US drones have been deployed to target Anwar Al-Awlaki, one of the world’s most wanted Islamist terrorists following reports that he was involved in last week’s failed suicide bomb attack against Britain’s ambassador to Yemen.

The cleric, who allegedly had ties to the September 11 hijackers, later praised the Fort Hood killings and said Muslims should only serve in the US military if they intended to carry out similar attacks.

He is also believed to have played a role in the radicalization of Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the British-educated Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound jet last Christmas.

Mr Obama took the highly unusual step of authorizing the assassination of an American citizen after US intelligence officials convinced the White House that the radicalization of impressionable young Muslims by al-Awlaki’s sermons posed a major threat to national security.

Senior US intelligence officials say they have stepped up their efforts to target Al-Awlaki following new evidence that the American-born cleric is taking an increasingly operational role in the operation of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

But experts caution that unless Yemen diversifies its approach – which led to success in neighboring Saudi Arabia – increased military action as well as overt cooperation with America may ultimately backfire.

“Up until Christmas Day 2009, Al-Qaeda … was stronger in Yemen than it had ever been before. Over the last few months, they’ve taken a series of hits … but none of these have been sort of the debilitating blow that’s going to knock the organization off its tracks for any sustained period of time,” says Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University in New Jersey.

For more information, please see:

Telegraph UK – American Drones Deployed To Target Yemeni Terrorist – 2 May 2010

One India – Obama Orders Deployment Of US Drones To Target Yemeni Terrorist – 2 May 2010

CSM – Why Yemen’s US-Aided Fight Against Al-Qaeda Could Backfire – 2 May 2010

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – An Egyptian intelligence official on Thursday denied allegations leveled by Hamas that Egypt pumped gas into a cross-border tunnel used to smuggle goods into the Gaza Strip, killing four Palestinians.

Egypt has been under pressure to shut down the hundreds of tunnels that are a key economic lifeline for the blockaded Palestinian territory but which are also used to bring in weapons for the Islamic militant group.

The intelligence official confirmed that Egyptian security forces destroyed the entrances to several tunnels this week, but said that no gas was used in the operations. He said that Egypt routinely blows up the mouths to the tunnels to seal them off, and that the blast and an ensuing fire could quickly use up all the oxygen in the confined space, causing people caught inside to suffocate.

Egypt’s denial comes a day after Hamas accused Egyptian forces of killing four Palestinians by pumping gas into a smuggling tunnel. The Hamas Interior Ministry said in a statement late Wednesday that the gas used to try to clear the tunnel was poisonous. It said six people were also injured.

It was not immediately clear what evidence Hamas was basing its allegations on.

Mohammed al-Osh, the medical director of the Abu Yusef al-Najar hospital in the Gaza border town of Rafah where some of the dead and injured were taken, could not confirm those killed had inhaled poison gas. He said the hospital did not have the equipment or specialists needed to conduct the necessary tests on lungs and clothing.

The United States and Israel have been pushing Egypt to do more to try to close the tunnels, which provide Hamas with a lifeline helping it to stay in power in Gaza. Weapons and other contraband regularly move through the tunnels.

But the 1.5 million residents of the impoverished Gaza Strip also rely on the tunnels to bring in food and commercial goods like refrigerators and clothing.

Many of the tunnels, dug with electrical drills and running side by side under the border, are just high enough to enable workers to move on all fours. Their entrances are covered by tents and they are equipped with motorized pulleys to haul goods and generator-powered lighting.

For more information, please see:

Press Trust Of India – Egypt Denies Pumping Gas Into Gaza Smuggling Tunnel – 29 April 2010

AP – Egypt Rejects Claims That It Gassed Gaza Tunnels – 29 April 2010

NPR – Egypt Rejects Claims That It Gassed Gaza Tunnels – 29 April 2010