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The Psychic Spy Novel

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Eileen Evans is beautiful young woman and talented psychic who is unwittingly recruited by MI6 to join their new top secret Remote Viewing program during the heart of the Cold War in the 1970’s and 80’s. Eileen soon finds herself embroiled in excitement and danger as she quickly becomes a “psychic spy” for British Intelligence. Finding forbidden love with another agent, Eileen descends into a dark world filled with political intrigue, danger and death. Not only must she cope with the possibility of losing her life, she must also struggle with the very real threat of losing her soul. 

Smart, sexy and filled with humor and peril, The Psychic Spy is a thrilling adventure that explores a little-known but very real world where governments use actual psychics to spy on their enemies, and in some cases, even their allies! Irene Allen-Block has created a powerful tale that should entertain and educate readers on a piece of history that has been hidden in the shadows.

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Currently being developed as a dramatic television series, The Psychic Spy is now available in our store at Glannant Ty.com, as well as on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and in eBook formats.

 

www.glannantty.com 

ISIS flag waving in J&K: 12 men identified

 NEW DELHI: As many as 12 youths have been identified by security agencies for allegedly raising the flag of Middle-East terror group ISIS in J&K in the recent past.

"The 12 youths were behind almost all incidents where ISIS flags were raised in Kashmir. We are keeping a close eye on all of them," a senior official said.

The youths were identified on the basis of intelligence inputs, footage of CCTV cameras, still and video photographs.

"Action against the youths is being initiated," the official said.

There have been more than a dozen incidents of ISIS flag raising in Kashmir valley in recent months.

ISIS is a banned organisation in the country. The group has taken over a large part of Iraq and Syria and known for its brutality towards its hostages.  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ISIS-flag-waving-in-JK-12-men-identified/articleshow/47727280.cms     

Taliban choose deputy Mansour as successor

The Taliban have appointed a successor to Mullah Omar, who led the movement for some 20 years.

The death of Mullah Omar - reported by the Afghan government on Wednesday - was confirmed by the Taliban on Thursday, the BBC has been told.

His deputy, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, will replace him, sources close to the Taliban leadership said.


Correspondents say the move is likely to divide the militants, and that many senior figures opposed the appointment.

A Taliban statement did not say where, when or how Mullah Omar died, only that it was from an illness and that he had remained in Afghanistan since the 2001 US invasion.

This conflicts with the account given by Afghanistan, which said Mullah Omar died in hospital in the Pakistani city of Karachi two years ago. Pakistan has always denied that he was in the country.

The death has disrupted peace talks between Afghanistan and the insurgents, with a second round of negotiations due on Friday postponed.

Pakistan, which had been set to play host, said they were put back at the request of the Taliban's leadership amid uncertainty over Mullah Omar's death.

The naming of Mullah Mansour as Taliban leader was far from unanimous and followed days of intense debate.

Sources close to the movement's leading council, or shura, say many senior commanders and other Taliban heavyweights were dismayed by the decision.

They are thought to include the movement's top military commander, Mullah Qaum Zakir, as well as Tayeb Agha, the head of the Taliban's political office in Qatar, and Mullah Habibullah, a member of the Quetta shura. They would have preferred Mullah Omar's son, Yaqoob, to succeed him, and accuse pro-Pakistani circles of imposing Mullah Mansour on the rebels.

A Taliban statement distancing the movement from more talks with the Afghan government reflects splits over how to proceed.

However, Mullah Mansour is pro-talks.

The group appointed Siraj Haqqani, a key leader in another major Afghan military group, the Haqqani network, as Mansour's deputy, sources said.

Haqqani has a $10m (£6.4m) US bounty on his head for alleged involvement in an attack on a Kabul hotel that left six people dead and for his participation in cross-border attacks on US and coalition forces.

Mansour becomes only the second person to lead the Taliban after Mullah Omar, who founded the group during Afghanistan's civil war in the early 1990s.



His alliance with al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden prompted the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

He had been in hiding ever since, and although was not thought to have significant day-to-day involvement in the group remained a key figurehead.

The failure to prove that Mullah Omar was alive was a major factor behind the defection of several senior Taliban commanders to the so-called Islamic State group, according to the BBC's former Kabul correspondent, David Loyn.

Who is Mullah Mansour?

• Long seen as acting head of the Taliban, and close to its founder Mullah Omar
• Born in the sixties, in Kandahar province, where he later served as shadow governor after the Taliban's fall
• Was civil aviation minister during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan
• Had an active role in drug trafficking, according to the UN
• Has clashed with Abdul Zakir, a senior military commander, amid a power struggle and differences over negotiations with the Afghan government
• A man claiming to be Mansour met former Afghan President Hamid Karzai for peace talks in 2010 - but it later emerged he was an imposter

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-33721074

The Latest: Trial Begins in Virginia for Terror Suspect

A jury has been selected for the trial of a Russian military veteran accused of leading a Taliban attack against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Irek Hamidullin faces 15 terror-related charges, some of them punishable by up to life in prison. His trial began Thursday in U.S. District Court in Richmond. Opening statements are set for Friday morning.

According to prosecutors, Hamidullin led three groups of insurgents in a 2009 attack on Afghan border police and U.S. forces in Khowst province. The insurgents were virtually wiped out, and Hamidullin was captured. The coalition forces sustained no casualties.

The case is one of the latest examples of the Obama administration's effort to show it can use the criminal court system to deal with terror suspects. The move has been criticized by some Republican lawmakers who believe such cases should be handled by military tribunals.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/latest-trial-begins-virginia-terror-suspect-32790998 

Debris found on Indian Ocean island is 'major lead' in MH370 search

Saint-Denis, Reunion Island (CNN)The discovery of debris on a remote island in the Indian Ocean is "a very significant development" in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, but it's too soon to say whether the part is from the missing aircraft, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said Thursday. 

Authorities are treating it as "a major lead," Truss told reporters. 

MH370 is the only Boeing 777 that crashed over water and is unaccounted for, according to the Aviation Safety Network, an online database of flight incidents.

The debris was found Wednesday on the beach in Reunion, a French overseas territory in the western Indian Ocean. It is being examined to determine whether it is connected to Flight 370, according to a member of the French air force in Reunion.

The passenger jet, a Boeing 777, vanished en route to Beijing in March 2014 with 239 people aboard.

So far, no confirmed trace of it has been found, making it one of history's biggest aviation mysteries and leaving many relatives of passengers and crew members feeling trapped in uncertainty about the fate of their loved ones.

Number might help identify debris

A source close to the investigation told CNN that Boeing officials believe they are seeing a wing component of a 777 aircraft in the photos of the debris from Reunion.

Truss said Thursday that there is a number -- BB670 -- on the wreckage that may help investigators in the identification process. He said it wasn't a serial or registration number but could be a maintenance number.

Australia is leading the underwater search for the remains of Flight 370 in the southern Indian Ocean, some 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) east of Reunion. But Truss said that French and Malaysian authorities will be responsible for establishing whether the debris found off the island came from the missing jetliner.

Australia has nonetheless offered its help, he said, including asking marine experts to look at photos of the debris to determine whether barnacles on it are "consistent with something that was floating in the oceans for 16 months or more."

Malaysian authorities said they had dispatched a team of aviation experts to Reunion Island to investigate the discovery, which they described as "a part identified as a flaperon that could possibly belong to the Boeing 777 aircraft that was MH370."

A flaperon is a lightweight part of an aircraft wing that helps control the plane's movement.

9 aviation mysteries highlight long history of disappearances

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Thursday that the debris is "very likely" from a Boeing 777.

But the statement from the Malaysian Transport Ministry cautioned that "until there is tangible and irrefutable evidence that the flaperon does belong to the missing aircraft, it would be premature to speculate."

The head of the Australian agency leading the search said Thursday that he hopes to hear "in the next 24 to 48 hours" definitively whether the debris is from MH370.

Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, told CNN's "New Day" that if the debris is from a Boeing 777, that effectively would confirm it is from Flight 370. 

"Our view is there is no other known source for ... a piece of that size and significance," he said.

The mystery of MH370: What you need to know

Family members wary

If it does turn out to be from Flight 370, the development would reassure Australian officials that they are looking for the rest of the plane in the right area, Truss and Dolan said.

Airplane debris found in western Indian Ocean 02:27

"It's credible that debris from MH370 could have reached the Reunion Islands by now," Truss said.

It's not clear where the plane part will be examined.

Razak said Thursday that French authorities would ship the part to Toulouse, France, the site of the nearest office of the BEA, the French authority responsible for civil aviation accident investigations.

But also Thursday, the BEA refused to confirm to CNN that the debris would be sent to Toulouse. The agency said any decision to move the debris will be taken by the local gendarmerie, which come under France's Ministry of Justice. 

Family members of those who disappeared on board the jetliner are treating the Reunion discovery with caution after witnessing many false leads in the search previously.

"We will follow the developments and hope to receive the official confirmation as soon as possible," a group of Chinese families said in a statement Thursday. "We do not want to hear guarantees of 99% likelihood from certain authorities. We need confirmation of 100% certainty."

And even if it is from the plane, it will still leave many of the relatives' questions unanswered.

"No matter where the debris is found, we care more about the whereabouts of our family members," the Chinese statement said. "Did the plane make a landing at some point? Did all passengers re-board? Nobody has answered those questions."

'There are a lot of very wild theories out there'

Confirmation that the object is from the missing plane would put to rest some of the more extreme theories about what happened to it, Truss told reporters.

"There are a lot of very wild theories out there ... that it has landed in Russia or that it has been sighted in places where it is way beyond the range of its fuel," he said.

Malaysia Airlines said it was working with authorities to determine where the part came from. It also warned that it was too soon "to speculate on the origin of the flaperon."

CNN analysts said there are indications the part could be from a Boeing 777, and if that's the case, it's likely from MH370.

"If it is a part from a triple 7, we can be fairly confident it is from 370 because there just haven't been that many triple 7 crashes and there haven't been any in this area," said CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo.

 http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/30/world/mh370-debris-investigation/index.html

India executes plotter of deadly 1993 Mumbai bombings

A man convicted of taking part in India's worst-ever attack, the 1993 bombings in Mumbai, has been hanged, Indian TV stations reported.

India's president and Supreme Court rejected last-ditch pleas to stay the execution of Yakub Memon over his role in the bombings, clearing the way for him to be hanged early on Thursday morning.

He was executed on his 53rd birthday at Nagpur jail in the western state of Maharashtra, according to the NDTV and CNN-IBN news channels.

Lawyers and activists had petitioned on behalf of Memon to Supreme Court Chief Justice H L Dattu after Indian President Pranab Mukherjee rejected a clemency plea late on Wednesday.

His lawyers had argued to the Supreme Court that executions are only to be carried out after seven days have passed following the rejection of a mercy petition.

In March 1993, a series of bombs ripped through the capital of Mumbai's financial district, killing at least 257 people and injuring a thousand others.

The Bombay Stock Exchange, the offices of Air India and a luxury hotel were among about a dozen targets of the blasts.

The attack remains the most devastating attack on Indian soil and came after a series of Hindu-Muslim riots in Mumbai.

Of the 11 suspects sentenced in 2007 for their role in the devastating attacks, Memon was the only one sentenced to death. He was convicted for being "the driving spirit" behind the attacks.

Meanwhile, his brother 'Tiger' Memon and fellow alleged collaborator Dawood Ibrahim are still believed to be hiding in Pakistan. 

Executions are only rarely carried out in India, but President Mukherjee has rejected a number of mercy pleas in the past three years, ending a de facto eight-year moratorium.

The lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks was hanged in 2012, while a Kashmiri separatist was executed in New Delhi the following year after being convicted of involvement in a deadly 2001 attack on the Indian parliament.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/india-executes-plotter-deadly-1993-bombings-mumbai-150730012554107.html

Israel authorises force-feeding of prisoners

Israel's parliament has passed into law the ability to force-feed prisoners on hunger strike, a move that had met vehement opposition from the country's medical association.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightist coalition weathered a lengthy parliamentary debate on Thursday, with 46 politicians in favour and 40 opposed in the 120-seat Knesset.

Israel says it is concerned that hunger strikes by Palestinians in its jails could end in death and trigger waves of protests in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from West Jerusalem, said that with the new law, jailers will be allowed to use a certain amount of force if a prisoner refuses to be fed. The legislation covers security prisoners -  inmates that Israel suspects or has convicted of what it calls terrorism-related charges.

"The opposition to this came very strongly from Israel's Medical Association," she said. "We spoke to one doctor who said force-feeding amounts to rape, there is not difference. They are urging all doctors not to undertake this, saying it goes against all medical ethics and their beliefs."

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Issa Qaraqe, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Commission, said that the law legalises murder.

"It's against Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, it legalises torture of prisoners who are demanding their rights in a non-violent way," he said. 

Qaraqe asked for a meeting of state parties to the Geneva Conventions to take a stand against the law and demand Israel not apply it. 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/israel-authorises-force-feeding-prisoners-150730064042746.html

Afghan Taliban confirms death of Mullah Omar, names new leader

Afghan Taliban sources confirmed to Al Jazeera that its reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, is dead. They also said that a high meeting of the Shura Council was held yesterday night and today, where the ruling council decided to elect Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, the head of the Quetta Shura, as his successor to be the new "Commander of the Faithful in Afghanistan.” 

Pakistan's foreign ministry said it is postponing the second round of talks between Afghanistan's government and the Taliban in Afghanistan in light of the news about Mullah Omar's death.

The Afghan Taliban, who have been fighting to topple the Kabul government for almost 14 years, said on Thursday they are "not aware" of a new round of peace talks due to begin on Friday in Pakistan – a statement indicating the group may be pulling out of the negotiations.

The Pakistan Foreign Office tells Al Jazeera that the peace talks have been postponed.

The Afghan intelligence service asserted Wednesday that Omar died in a Karachi hospital more than two years ago. In Washington, the U.S. government said they considered the report of the Taliban leader's death credible, although it was not confirmed by the Taliban or Pakistan.

The Taliban’s website had published statements attributed to Omar up to five days before the Afghan intelligence service’s announcement.

The office of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who is keen to pursue a peace process, said Omar's death would strengthen conditions for the peace process, a priority since he took office last year. But analysts have said the Taliban’s leadership have been divided over whether to take part.

The first round of the official, face-to-face discussions was hosted by Islamabad earlier this month. The meeting was supervised by U.S. and Chinese representatives and ended with both sides agreeing to meet again: a significant progress in itself.

This week, Afghan and Pakistani officials said the second round would take place Friday, in the Pakistani resort town of Murree. But Thursday's statement from the Taliban, who call themselves the "Islamic Emirate," contradicted that.

"The Islamic Emirate has handed all agency powers in this regard to its Political Office, and they are not aware of any such process," the statement said, referring to the talks.

The Taliban have been fighting to overthrow the Afghan government since 2001, when the United States led an invasion to topple the Taliban government.

Omar's leadership, which endured for years despite numerous past reports of his death, provided a unifying force for fighters on the ground and for those both in the Afghan government and Taliban leadership who have pushed the peace process forward in the months since Ghani took office.

His death may expose rifts at the top of the organization, which is widely believed to be split among those who support and reject contact with Ghani's government.

A further fracturing within the Taliban ranks could lead to a power struggle. Already, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which has taken control of large parts of Iraq and Syria, is believed to have recruited some disaffected Taliban members to its ranks as it tries to establish a presence in Afghanistan.

For his part, Ghani has sought Pakistan's help in bringing the Taliban to the negotiations, since Islamabad is believed to wield influence over the group.

A diplomat based in Kabul who is familiar with the peace process told The Associated Press that the "government's position has been since Ashraf Ghani became president that the real negotiation is between Afghanistan and Pakistan."

The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters on the ongoing talks.

After the U.S.-led invasion, remnants of the Taliban led by Omar fled over the border into Pakistan, where they are believed to have the protection of Islamabad. Omar has not been seen in public since then, though statements have been issued in his name giving credence to Taliban denials of his death.

Most recently, a statement purportedly by Omar was issued on the occasion of this month's Eid-al-Fitr holiday, expressing support for the peace talks.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/7/30/afghan-taliban-not-aware-of-peace-talks.html

Has the U.S. Just Sold Out the Kurds?

Turkey sent fighter jets into northern Iraq last week to attack an adversary it sees as a grave threat to its national security. But the target was not the Islamic State.

Instead, the Turkish warplanes pounded a Kurdish militia in Iraq that has fought Ankara for years in a bid for self-rule.

Turkey also bombed Islamic State militants in Syria last week. Yet the strikes against the guerrilla Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraq’s Qandil Mountains underscored Washington’s dilemma as it seeks to bring Turkey into the fight against the Islamic State despite Ankara’s long-running conflict with Kurdish separatists.

The United States has been pushing Turkey for nearly a year to throw its full weight behind the war against the Islamic State and for months was denied permission to stage airstrikes out of Incirlik Air Base, near the border with Syria. But now, as a consequence of winning Turkey’s permission to use the base for airstrikes, Washington may be allowing Ankara to batter the only forces on the ground that have proved effective against the Islamic State.

While Washington sees the Islamic State as a dire threat, it’s clear that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is as focused on going after the PKK, which claimed responsibility for fatally shooting two Turkish police officers on July 22. The attack prompted the Turkish air raids against the group in northern Iraq and signaled that a fragile two-year-old cease-fire had come undone.

Turkish leaders often speak about the Islamic State and the PKK in equivalent terms and have viewed the battlefield gains made by Syrian and Iraqi Kurds as a potential danger that could ignite separatist sentiment among its own restive Kurdish minority. The PKK waged a 30-year insurgency against Turkey that left tens of thousands dead, and the United States has labeled the group a terrorist organization.

The gap between Turkey and the United States was exposed in recent days as officials used different language to describe their new agreement. Turkish leaders said the two countries plan to form a “safe zone” along a strip of land in northern Syria on the border with Turkey.

The officials suggested the area would resemble a no-fly zone. Although the Islamic State has no air force, the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad has air defenses and warplanes that could threaten any safe area. U.S. officials have previously balked at the idea of enforcing a no-fly zone, as it would mean a wider American military commitment and possibly require opening a second front against the Assad regime even as the fight continues against the Islamic State.

U.S. officials were more cautious about the proposed 68-mile-long safe area, saying the two governments were still discussing exactly how an Islamic State “free zone” in northern Syria would operate and how it would be secured.

U.S. officials acknowledged that the tentative arrangement with Turkey was delicate and complicated, and they said they are urging Ankara to act with restraint and proportion in pursuing the PKK to avoid undermining the broader objective of defeating the Islamic State.

Officials said U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration recognizes the value of the Kurdish militias in Syria and Iraq and vowed not to abandon them.

The Syrian Kurds are an important partner and “they have had great success,” an administration official said Tuesday.

“We don’t want to see that complicated in any way” and “we are not going to forsake them,” the official told Foreign Policy.

Turkey received expressions of political support from NATO allies at an extraordinary meeting convened on Tuesday, with member states welcoming the country’s decision to move more forcefully against the Islamic State. But European officials are also concerned that Ankara could undercut the Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria if it unleashes a large-scale campaign against the PKK.

Obama’s deputy envoy to the international coalition battling the Islamic State, Brett McGurk, sought to play down the Turkish airstrikes against the PKK.

“We look forward to intensifying cooperation with Turkey and all of our partners in the global fight against #ISIL,” McGurk wrote in a tweet on Saturday.

“There is no connection between these airstrikes against PKK and recent understandings to intensify US-Turkey cooperation against #ISIL,” he stated in another tweet.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, an outspoken critic of Obama’s war strategy, backed the proposed safe area but voiced alarm at reports that alleged Turkish forces had attacked Syrian Kurds.

“One of my biggest fears is that the president’s mishandling of Syria would ignite regional tensions and expand the conflict,” Graham said in a statement. “A conflict between Turkey and the Kurds only benefits ISIL and Assad and further plunges the region into chaos. This ultimately compromises our national security.”

U.S. military officers frequently cite Kurdish forces as a model of success in the often faltering campaign against the Islamic State.

The Iraqi Army has lost ground in the west and struggled to push back the Islamic State at the Baiji oil refinery northwest of Baghdad. But the Kurdish Peshmerga in northern Iraq and the Kurdish militia in Syria have steadily advanced, able to take advantage of U.S.-led air power to maneuver and seize back territory.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on May 24 that Iraqi Army troops who retreated from the western city of Ramadi earlier this year lacked the “will to fight.” After recent victories by Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria, Defense Department spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said in June that the result showed what could be achieved by coalition air power coupled with “capable and willing ground forces.”

U.S. officials hope the proposed buffer zone along Syria’s northern border could choke off the two remaining supply lines for the Islamic State that run through the Syrian cities of Dabiq and Jarabulus.

“We’ve also discussed with Turkey the possibility of working with them in a coordinated way and with moderate opposition groups to begin to clear out … the last stretch of international border with Turkey that is controlled by ISIL,” a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday.

The area would not require a no-fly zone, but such a project “will be done in a way that the objective is to get Daesh out of this area and to allow life to return,” said the official, using an Arabic term for the Islamic State.

Enabling armed American drones and manned aircraft to fly strike missions out of Incirlik instead of from more distant bases in the Persian Gulf will bolster the U.S.-led air war against the militants, officials said, as it puts warplanes much closer to potential targets and allows them to linger for a longer period over a target.

But the Pentagon said it will take “weeks” before U.S. airstrikes are launched from Turkish soil, as officials are still working out final arrangements. Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters Monday that several bases were being looked at to house U.S. aircraft for missions against the Islamic State.

Davis said that the United States has not provided any logistical or intelligence support for the Turkish strikes on the PKK and has only shared information to ensure coalition flights are coordinated over Syrian and Iraqi airspace.

Although the mounting threat from the Islamic State has raised anxiety in Ankara, Turkish domestic politics played a major factor in the government’s shift, as Erdogan is anxious to present himself as a man of action to shore up political support, experts said.

And amid concern in Turkey about a Kurdish independent state potentially emerging on its border, the planned buffer zone will be seen as a safety measure to protect the country’s flank, said Suat Kiniklioglu, a former Turkish MP from Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party.

“Turkish public opinion is sensitive to a situation whereby a Kurdish entity is in command of Turkey’s southern borders. The safe zone — if successfully created — would de facto break the continuity of a future Kurdish entity there,” said Kiniklioglu, now executive director of the Center for Strategic Communication (STRATIM), an Ankara-based think tank.

A former Obama administration official said discussions on the use of Incirlik had been underway since 2014. In return for permitting U.S. air raids to be staged from the base, Turkey had demanded the creation of a safe area in northern Syria.

The discussions had revolved around international law, Turkey’s role in the safe area, and how the zone would be maintained — what military planners call “sustainability,” the ex-official said.

“One of the biggest issues is sustainability — because once you start it, you can’t stop,” he said.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/28/has-the-u-s-just-sold-out-the-kurds/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Flashpoints&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign 

British spies are officially setting the standard for fighting hackers

British spy standards have gone international.


A pilot scheme for the UK government’s cyber security training initiative has launched in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – meaning British spies are now setting the international standard for fighting hackers.

The scheme will be run by the Communications-Electronics Security Group (CESG), the information security arm of the GCHQ. It is an extension of the CESG's ongoing UK Certified Professional (CCP) scheme.

The UK scheme launched in October 2012 and is designed to ensure security professionals meet a quality benchmark set by the CESG, assuring potential hirers of their anti-hacker abilities.

The scheme ranks professionals at three levels of competency: Practitioner, Senior Practitioner, and Lead Practitioner.

To date, the scheme has accredited 1,200 UK professionals in a variety of roles, including penetration testers and crypto custodians.

Penetration testers are hackers companies hire to find holes in their defences. Crypto custodians are professionals that manage companies' use of encryption.

Encryption is a security technology that scrambles digital information using specialist mathematics. It makes it so only people in possession of a specific unlock key or password can read the encrypted information.

The pilot international scheme will be limited to security and information risk advisors (SIRA) and IA architects – the people who advise companies on how to protect their data and design their information security systems.

The new US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand tests will be run by the APMG International examination body and CESG.

Overcoming the cyber skills gap

The pilot scheme’s launch is the latest step in the UK and US governments' bid to overcome the reported cyber skills gap. The UK government has warned that there is an ongoing shortage of skilled security professionals.

UK government spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) estimates the cyber skills gap will last 20 years, costing the nation £27 billion a year. IT skills and certifications body CompTIA reported 45% of of UK businesses are experiencing an "excessive" shortage of IT talent in its "The International Technology Adoption and Workforce Trends Study" in May.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/gchq-has-expanded-its-security-training-scheme-to-run-in-the-us-canada-australia-and-new-zealand-2015-7?r=US&IR=T

44 terror suspects arrested in Saudi Arabia

Manama: Saudi authorities have arrested 44 terror suspects over nine days in several areas of the kingdom.

The suspects, arrested without any serious armed resistance, included 33 Saudis. The others were from Yemen, Pakistan, Sudan, Palestine and Afghanistan, security sources told Saudi daily Al Jazeera.

The arrests took the number of suspects detained by the Saudi authorities in cases related to terrorism to 4,350 from 42 nationalities.

The figure includes 1,650 suspects with links to the terror group Daesh, the daily added.

The Daesh suspects, arrested in the last nine months, are mainly young people and include 450 expatriates from 29 nationalities.

Saudi Arabia has been waging a relentless fight against terrorists and extremists promoting fanatic ideologies under religious guises.

In June, it announced the arrest of 34 suspects who included a Chinese national, the first man from China to be held on terrorism charges in the kingdom.

The suspects were arrested as the Saudi authorities conducted manhunt operations between June 11 and June 14.

Most of the suspects were Saudi nationals, but the list also included one Yemeni and one Palestinian.

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi-arabia/44-terror-suspects-arrested-in-saudi-arabia-1.1557826#.VbiZHMZ9sMk.linkedin

Malik Ishaq, head of al-Qaida-linked Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, dies with 13 others in operation some suspect may have been staged by authorities

Malik Ishaq is greeted by supporters upon his release from prison in 2011. Punjab’s counter-terrorism chief said Ishaq had offered to take police to an arms dump after his arrest last Saturday. Photograph: Rahat Dar/EPA 


Leaders of Pakistan’s most infamous sectarian terrorist group, including its founder Malik Ishaq, were killed in a gun battle with police on Wednesday that many suspect may have been deliberately staged.

Ishaq and 13 other militants from the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) – including two of his sons and a top official – died after gunmen attempted to free them from custody in a pre-dawn operation, police claimed.

The al-Qaida-linked group, which Ishaq co-founded in 1996, is notorious for its attacks against Shias, as well other minority groups including Christians and Ahmedis.

Rai Muhammad Tahir, the head of Punjab’s counter-terrorism department, said Ishaq had offered to take police to an arms dump after he was arrested on Saturday.

“A special team was organised to visit the area with Malik Ishaq, his two sons and colleague Ghulam Rasool to recover explosives from a house situated in Shah Wali area of Muzaffargarh,” Tahir said.

“The moment the special team arrived at the place, some 20 militants attacked and tried to free Malik Ishaq and others. In a direct exchange of heavy fire, Malik Ishaq, his two sons and colleague Ghulam Rasool were killed along with 11 others,” he said.

The haul of weapons recovered from the house included 40kg of explosives, suicide bomb vests and guns, Tahir said.

The account raised immediate suspicions among some observers that the battle may have been an “encounter” – the name Pakistanis give to contrived killings of troublesome terror suspects whom the courts have been unable to convict.

Tahir was unable to explain why police had required so many senior LeJ leaders to attend to the identification of the weapons cache. Asad Munir, a retired officer of the inter-services intelligence directorate (ISI), Pakistan’s top spy agency, said “an encounter cannot be ruled out”.

Ishaq’s killing proved that Operation Zarb-e-Azb, a major push against militant groups launched by the army last year, was being “conducted across the board”.

“We have seen throughout this operation that no one is being spared,” Munir said.

Whether or not the killings were staged, the death of Ishaq marks a striking change in fortunes for LeJ, which has long dodged government attempts to crack down on its activities.

Despite being the head of an organisation linked to al-Qaida and designated by the US in 2014 as a “specially designated global terrorist”, Ishaq had never been successfully convicted by a court system where witnesses, judges and prosecutors are easily intimidated.

In one case in 2011, Ishaq made sure the trial judge was aware of the risk he was running by reading out the names of his children.

Ishaq had been implicated in dozens of lethal attacks on Shia religious processions and mosques and in a local newspaper interview in 1997 even admitted to having been involved in the killing of more than 100 people. Instead, public order laws were used to hold him for long stretches in police custody or house arrest.

After the collapse in 2011 of a case in which he was accused of masterminding the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, Ishaq was greeted by hundreds of supporters, who garlanded him with flowers. In addition to his involvement in terrorist attacks, he regularly stoked anti-Shia hatred with bloodcurdling speeches to his supporters.

Despite the weakness of the courts, many sceptical analysts believed Ishaq must also have enjoyed the patronage of Pakistan’s intelligence apparatus, which has long had murky dealings with militant groups, some of whom were used to further the country’s regional ambitions.

In 2009, Ishaq was even drafted to assist the army in an attempt to negotiate with terrorists who had attacked the army’s headquarters and taken several people hostage.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/29/pakistan-terrorist-leader-maliq-ishaq-killed-police-shootout

Breaking Bad fan found guilty of ordering ricin delivery from FBI agent

Mohammed Ammer Ali, photographed under a UV light after he was arrested, covered in invisible liquid from handling the toy car with what he believed was ricin. Photograph: Greater Manchester police 

A Liverpool man has been found guilty of ordering a “Breaking Bad-style” delivery of enough ricin to kill 1,400 people from an undercover FBI agent.

Mohammed Ammer Ali, 31, attempted to purchase 500mg of “the poisoner’s perfect poison” on the dark web before police raided his family home earlier this year.

He was arrested after the FBI tipped off the north-west counter-terrorism unit in the UK, although detectives have since found no evidence that Ali had any links to terrorist groups.

At his Old Bailey trial, Ali argued that he was not guilty of attempting to possess a chemical weapon between 10 January 2015 and 12 February 2015 because it was for a “peaceful purpose”. He claimed to have been simply curious to see whether he could purchase items from the dark web.

However, a jury on Wednesday found him guilty after deliberating for five and a half hours. The trial judge, Mr Justice Saunders, said: “There is no evidence that he was planning any sort of terrorist attack.

“There is also no evidence that he had in mind any specific victims for ricin. I do not accept he was going to dispose of it. I’m satisfied it would have remained in his possession in some way and that is the basis on which I propose to sentence.”

Ali slumped in the dock with his head in his hands after hearing the verdict. The judge ordered a psychiatric report as he adjourned sentencing to 18 September. The maximum sentence for the offence is life imprisonment.

Ali, a software engineer, used the online moniker “Weirdos 0000” and used the cryptocurrency bitcoin to order 500mg of ricin from an online black market known as the Evolution Marketplace, the trial heard.
He privately contacted a US dealer about obtaining the deadly poison – not knowing that the dealer was in fact an undercover FBI agent.

Over several weeks of communication, Ali promised to order 500mg of ricin a month for several months if he was happy with the initial product. He said in one message: “I do like the idea of five separate vials. Are we talking Breaking Bad-style?”

Jurors were told that Ali, a father of two, carried out Google searches for “small sized pets” and “Liverpool pet shop” minutes after receiving the five vials, which were concealed in a children’s toy car.

Instead of ricin, police officers in the UK had planted a harmless substance in the car – including an invisible chemical that would later prove Ali had handled the toy after it was delivered by FedEx. He was arrested in a series of counter-terrorism raids across Merseyside the following morning.

Ali, who was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome following psychological assessments after his arrest, told jurors that he was fascinated with the dark web and had ordered ricin simply because he was watching the cult US drama Breaking Bad at the time, which featured the toxin in at least one storyline.

“I was interested in the dark net and ricin,” he said in the witness box. “I just wanted to know what the fuss was about. I wanted to know can you actually get anything from these sites. So I go on one of these websites – Evolution.

“I found lots of different items ranging from drugs, guns, other illegal items, and because I had been watching Breaking Bad TV show I just had ricin in my head.”

When investigators examined his computers, they found he had carried out Google searches for “small sized pets” and made an aide memoire saying “get pet to murder”.

He had also spent months researching different types of lethal poison – with Google searches including “abrin v ricin”, “home made cyanide and ricin” and “hydrogen peroxide”.

On his LG Nexus mobile phone, Ali had searched on Yahoo for “what poison kills you quick, is foolproof, easily found/made, easily concealed and hard to detect post mortem”.

Giving evidence, Ali said: “After doing a few searches I realised this is a very stupid, very very stupid thing to do, and I stopped looking for any sort of pets and started searching for Pets Direct for my son.”

However, prosecutor Sally Howes QC said Ali’s explanation did not stack up. She said he had made a “carefully crafted, well planned and thoroughly researched attempt to get his hands on ricin” – and been caught out.

DCS Tony Mole, of the north-west counter-terrorism unit, said after the verdict: “Ali attempted to buy a deadly poison and we can only speculate on what he planned to use it for, but in any case such as this, we take swift and decisive action.

“Thanks to the vigilance of officers from a number of different law enforcement agencies, we were able to intervene before this man did get hold of such a deadly substance from a genuine seller.



“I want to reassure our communities that the north-west counter-terrorism unit and local police are well aware of the potential dangers associated with internet activity on the dark web. Law enforcement agencies use a range of investigative techniques to monitor and police unlawful internet activity.”

Sue Hemming, head of the Crown Prosecution Service counter-terrorism division, said: “The jury has today roundly rejected Mohammed Ali’s claim that he was trying to understand the workings of the dark web and wanted to buy ricin, a deadly toxin, for a peaceful purpose.

“Ricin is a naturally occurring poison which is fatal even in very small doses. Ali knew the dangers of ricin and had been researching poisons for months before he attempted to obtain it. The evidence also showed that he was planning to test it on an animal that he was hoping to buy.

“Today shows yet again that even in the case of crimes committed in the darkest corners of the internet, criminals can be caught and convicted.”

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/29/liverpool-man-who-ordered-breaking-bad-style-ricin-delivery-found-guilty

Bomb threat forces BA flight from Las Vegas to London to land in Montreal

A British Airways flight from Las Vegas to London has been forced to perform an emergency landing in Montreal due to a bomb threat, Canadian police have said.

Flight BA274 touched down at Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau international airport at about 5.15am local time (10.15am BST) after the pilot diverted the plane as a precaution.

Cpl Francois Gagnon, of the Royal Canadian Mounted police, the national police force leading the operation at the airport, confirmed a bomb threat had been received.

“British Airways received a bomb threat through a phone call,” he said.

Three hundred and 12 passengers and 16 crew members were evacuated from the flight, which left Las Vegas McCarran international airport at 9.30pm Pacific time on Tuesday and was due to arrive at Heathrow at 3.25pm on Wednesday.

Michael Kontos, 35, was on board the flight returning to his home in north London from a four-day trip to Las Vegas with his business partner.

“It was about four or five hours into the flight and we were woken up and told to check our bags to see if it was all ours,” he said. “The air stewards came round to check the bags too, to see if any items or packages were not ours.

“They couldn’t find anything but the captain decided to land the plane in Montreal. There was a little bit of hysteria on board the plane. It was not a pleasant experience. The captain told us there was a security scare.”

Kontos, the founder and artistic director at the London School of Barbering, said he and his fellow passengers were in a holding lounge while their luggage was searched and expect to stay in a Montreal hotel on Wednesday night.

“Everyone is tired,” he said. “We just want to know when we’re going to get home.”

A spokesman for Montreal police said a Swat team and police dogs were set to search the plane to ensure “nothing dangerous or suspicious” was on board.

Images posted on Twitter showed a fleet of police cars approaching the plane on the runway.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/29/bomb-threat-british-airways-flight-las-vegas-london-land-montreal

Germany warns of possible attacks on public transport in Istanbul

The German foreign ministry warned on Wednesday about possible attacks on Istanbul's underground rail network and bus stops in the wake of Turkey's assault on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq.

"There could be increased attack activity by the PKK," the foreign ministry said in a statement on its website, referring to the Kurdistan Workers Party.

"Beyond that there are indications of possible attacks on the underground rail network and bus stops in Istanbul," the ministry added.

The number of foreign visitors to Turkey fell by 2.25 percent to 14.89 million people in the first six months, data from the Tourism Ministry showed on Wednesday

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/germany-warns-of-possible/2016046.html

Pentagon Email Network Shut Down During Investigation

A portion of the Department of Defence’s nonclassified email network used by Army General Martin Dempsey and other members of the U.S. military’s Joint Staff has been shuttered after “suspicious activity” was detected on the systems over the weekend.

“We continue to identify and mitigate cybersecurity risks across our networks,” Lieutenant Colonel Valerie Henderson said. “With those goals in mind, we have taken the Joint Staff network down and continue to investigate.”


The Pentagon has not released details of the nature of the event being investigated, but did confirm that the shutdown was initiated by the DoD and was not the result of malicious activity directly.

Late in 2014, U.S. State Department officials similarly disclosed they had taken an unclassified email system offline as a precaution following an unauthorized access event, joining a growing list of federal agencies who had disclosed network breaches recently.

Officials said they had observed “activity of concern” on the systems around the same time period that the White House had reported a similar incident on its unclassified systems, as did the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

In February of this year, after three months of working to secure the unclassified email system, the State Department was still unable to expel the attackers and lock down the network, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation.

The USPS had to disable employee VPN access to its networks and suspend telecommuting in the wake of a substantial data breach, but did allow staff to resume remote work after a deploying security enhancements.

NOAA reported they were the subject of a serious unauthorized intrusion in late September of last year, but officials had given no notice that a security incident had taken place until late in October.

NOAA spokesman Scott Smullen released a statement at the time saying that the agency began incident response immediately upon learning of the system breach, but declined to provide any more details as an investigation was underway.

The timeline of these events could be indicative of a coordinated effort by attackers to probe federal systems looking for vulnerabilities that could be exploited at a later date, and it would not be surprising if other government entities have also suffered security events that have yet to be disclosed publicly, if ever.

http://darkmatters.norsecorp.com/2015/07/29/pentagon-email-network-shut-down-during-investigation/

Russian Military To Create Two New Armies In West Of Country As Hostility Toward NATO Increases

The Russian military plans to create two new armies in the west of the country by winter, according to a senior military source cited by the pro-Russian news agency Tass. The moves, which will include the creation of an army designed to support the Kremlin's new 5th generation Armata tank, is the latest in a long line of changes to Moscow's military as it looks to reestablish itself as a global military force on par with the U.S.

The establishment of the new military units will again cause concern for NATO, which has its own forces conducting U.S-led exercises on the alliances eastern flank in the former Soviet Republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as in the Balkans. Many will see Moscow's move as the clearest sign yet that Russia and the West are reinventing Cold War style military postures. "According to a directive of the chief of the General Staff, the 1st Guards Tank Army and 20th Guards Combined Army are to be formed within the western military district by December 1, 2015," the Tass source said.

There will be very little difference in the compilation of both armies, according to the Tass report. "Each will have one reconnaissance and one air missile brigade, as well as a logistics brigade, missile and artillery units a helicopter regiment and other units, including reconnaissance and attack drone units," said the source. “The tank army will have more tanks and the combined army, mechanized infantry combat vehicles."

While it's not yet known how many Armata tanks will be deployed, it will represent a fierce proposition for NATO forces. The tank, which made a public display at the recent Victory Day parade in May, is reported to be one of the most advanced tanks in any military. However, at the parade in Moscow one of the tanks broke down.

http://www.ibtimes.com/russian-military-create-two-new-armies-west-country-hostility-toward-nato-increases-2029592?ft=a73y7

Germany and Holland investigated Russian physicist for espionage

The German and Dutch governments allegedly joined forces to investigate a Russian supercomputer specialist, who studied in Germany and Holland, suspecting him of passing technical information to Russian intelligence. German weekly newsmagazine Der Spiegel, which published the report in its current issue, identified the physicist only as “Ivan A.” and said that the 28-year-old man was a member of a physics laboratory affiliated with the Max Planck Institute in the western German city of Bonn. According to Spiegel, Ivan A. studied in Bonn between 2009 and 2011, conducting research on quantum physics and nanophotonics, an area of study that examines the behavior of light on the nanometer scale. Much of the research in this specialized field relates to supercomputers and cutting-edge quantum computing applications.

Citing unnamed government sources, Spiegel said that Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which is the country’s top counterintelligence agency, started to monitor the scientist once he began meeting regularly with a Russian diplomat. The diplomat, who was stationed at the consulate of the Russian Federation in Bonn, had been identified by German intelligence as a member of the Russian secret services. German counterintelligence officials thus began suspecting Ivan A. of channeling restricted technical information to Moscow via the Russian diplomat.

However, in 2013 Ivan A. relocated to the Dutch city of Eindhoven to study at the Eindhoven University of Technology, at which point German counterintelligence officers reached out to their Dutch colleagues. During one of his trips from Germany to Holland, Ivan A. was detained for several hours along with this wife at the Düsseldorf International Airport. He was questioned and his personal electronic devices were confiscated. Upon his release Germany and Holland jointly launched against him a formal investigation for espionage. Eventually his European Union residence visa was cancelled and he was expelled by the Dutch government as a danger to national security. Der Spiegel said Ivan A. returned to Russia and today denies that he was a spy.

Espionage scandals frequently rock German-Russian relations. In 2013, a German court convicted a married couple, Andreas and Heidrun Anschlag, of having spied for the Soviet Union and Russia since at least 1990. The two had used forged Austrian passports to enter West Germany from Mexico in 1988 and 1990.

http://intelnews.org/2015/07/28/01-1744/ 

Caucasus Emirate in Syria displays US-made anti-tank missile

A jihadist poses in front of a US-made TOW anti-tank missile 

A fighter from the Caucaus Emirate in Syria, an al Qaeda-affiliated group, released a photo showing ownership of a US-made BGM-71 anti-tank missile. It is unclear when or where the photograph was taken, but it is likely recent and taken in northern Syria. A note card reading “Imarat Kavkaz” or “Caucasus Emirate” in Chechen can be seen in the foreground.

The Caucasus Emirate in Syria was formed when the former emir of Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar (Army of Emigrants and Helpers), Salahuddin Shishani, was removed from his post along with his deputy, Abdul Karim Krymsky, last month. Shishani announced his pledge to Muhammad Abu Usman, the new leader of the Caucasus Emirate, in a short video that was released by Akhbar Sham, a Russian-language website that previously promoted Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar’s activities and leaders in Syria. However, according to From Chechnya to Syria, a website that tracks Russian-speaking jihadists in Syria, it is not a new organization; rather, it is the same group in Syria that had sworn allegiance to the Caucasus Emirate, only now independent from Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar.

 http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/07/caucasus-emirate-in-syria-photographs-us-made-anti-tank-missile.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LongWarJournalThreatMatrix+%28The+Long+War+Journal+Threat+Matrix%29

 

Anonymous Attacks ISIS Supporters, Spams Twitter Accounts with Anime Pics

The online hacktivist Anonymous has been fighting an online battle against the Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL). And now they have just extended their fight against the organization by targeting those who express sympathy with the group’s ideology over social media platforms.

The hacktivist group has using Japanese anime characters against a list of over 750 Twitter accounts who they found alleged of aiding the IS, either having a conversation with the workforces or by spreading propaganda in support of the organization. Due to these activities some members have already been removed and suspended from Twitter while the others are being spammed with pictures of anime characters. 

https://www.hackread.com/anonymous-attacks-pro-isis-twitter-anime-pics/

Jersey Jihad: Inside the ISIS case that ensnared 5 friends

NEWARK —They appeared to be a tight circle of friends.

There was Nader Saadeh, a 20-year-old New Jersey man who federal prosecutors say began trolling the internet for jihadist websites before leaving for Jordan in an apparent effort to join ISIS. His older brother, Alaa Saadeh, 23, told a friend to lie if the FBI came knocking.

Samuel Topaz, a talented musician and classmate of Nader Saadeh at Fort Lee High School, was converted by him to Islam. He posted "selfies" on Facebook wearing the dark head and face scarves favored by Islamic State fighters. According to court filings, they were captioned: "Which assassin am I, or am I all of them?"

Munther Omar Saleh, 20, was studying electrical circuitry at an aeronautical engineering college in Queens and also knew Nader Saadeh. After Saleh allegedly tweeted support for the gunmen who attacked the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, authorities believe he began scouting out New York City landmarks and tourist sites. They said he was planning on assembling a deadly pressure cooker bomb.

And Fareed Mumuni, 21, who was close to Saleh, had been described by neighbors as a quiet, friendly guy who "never talked about politics or anything," before he came at federal agents with a kitchen carving knife when they showed up to arrest him.

Lawyers and friends were reluctant to say much, or anything at all. But their story as seen through a series of criminal complaints, following a year-long FBI/Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation that spanned two states, offers a unique view into the lives of five young men who grew up in the U.S. Living typical American lives, attending school, enjoying music, playing sports, still all felt the pull to join the cause of the militant Islamic State.

From New Jersey to California, federal authorities have charged 58 people in the past year alleging support or ties to ISIS, or ISIL as it is also called. Most have been U.S. citizens  in their early 20s.

They have included married women, jobless teenagers, military veterans and converts. At least three of those charged successfully made it to Syria. And as with the case of the five friends now charged in federal court in Brooklyn and in Newark, many may not even show up on the radar screen until worried friends or relatives make a call.

While prosecutors in New Jersey and New York would not discuss the case which came to light last month, an examination of court filings, examined in the context of a single timeline, indicates that the FBI did not open an investigation into the group until a call this past January from a "close acquaintance" of Samuel Topaz—likely a family member—who expressed fears that his friends were pushing him to "do something stupid."

The individual, who federal officials won't identify but clearly had access to Topaz's personal belongings, took his passport and hid it.

High school friends

Topaz and Nader Saadeh grew up together in Fort Lee after the parents of the Saadeh brothers were deported in 2002 over a credit card fraud case, say law enforcement sources. The father of the American-born brothers lived in the Gulf state of Oman. Their mother was in Jordan. Family members could not be contacted and it is not known who raised the boys.

Sam Topaz lived at home with his mother and a younger brother, say friends. Hoping to become a musician, his soulful rendition covering Stevie Wonder's "Ribbon in the Sky" can still be found on YouTube. He played varsity football as a junior. Records show he played one game and had one tackle. He also ran track.

Graduating from Fort Lee High School with Nader Saadeh, the two accepted their diplomas at the June 24, 2013 commencement in the black cap-and-gowns and orange stoles of the suburban Bergen County school district. Nader Saadah can be seen in a photo with a wide smile. Topaz hobbled up on crutches when his name was called.

Classmates say Topaz had been accepted to Boston's Berklee College of Music, but was unable to go because of financial reasons. Instead, he enrolled in Bergen Community College after graduation for a time before dropping out and becoming a line cook at Chipolte, said one classmate who asked not to be identified. In April, the FBI was again in touch with the acquaintance who took Topaz's passport. They were told that Nader Saadeh and a friend from New York, Munther Omar Saleh, were "trying to recruit" Sam, "preying on his insecurities and pain," say court records. And Sam was becoming distant from his old high school friends "who were a good influence on him."

Topaz was not interested in continuing with community college, the federal agents were told in follow-up interviews. "He does not see a future for himself in the United States," the acquaintance said. He said "they" promised him $7,000 a week and that he could have four wives. He also had been praying "night and day," and had begun fasting. Just who "they" might be was not specified in the complaint.

After his graduation, the FBI was told Nader Saadeh had started to express increasing support for ISIS and its violent agenda. He became "deeply and uncharacteristically interested in views and behaviors associated with Islam. In late 2014, he began to fast, stopped drinking and smoking and eating foods not permissible under Islamic law. Prosecutors say he took to wearing heavy, dark eyeliner, grew out his beard and dyed it red with henna, as some Muslim men do. He soon converted Topaz to Islam, according to court filings.

From Pokémon To Jihad

Nader Saadeh already knew Munther Omas Saleh, also 20, whose high school graduation photo on Facebook shows him clean-shaven, a blue dress shirt and matching tie, in blue cap-and-gown. Saleh's Twitter account once was a place where his main interest seemed to be focused on Pokémon and Japanese anime.

But he, too, changed. The FBI later found regular exchanges between Nader Saadeh and Saleh dating to 2012 about the death of Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born Islamic militant killed in a 2011 U.S. drone attack, as well as the Syrian civil war. They discussed building a "small army" that would include their friends. Saadeh messaged the Queens student over the explosive media reports detailing security leaks regarding the National Security Agency's secret surveillance methods.

"Man I feel its really hope[less] to try to oppose these people," complained Saadeh.

"What can we do? Really want to leave this country," Saleh said.

"in shaa ALLAH," wrote Nader Saadeh. God willing.

In January of this year, Munther Saleh enrolled at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in Queens, authorities say. He began coursework and laboratory work in electrical circuitry, said the FBI.

Despite his jihadist talk on his internet accounts, he aroused little suspicion until a Port Authority police officer saw him one Sunday in March walking toward the George Washington Bridge, not far from where Sam Topaz lived in Fort Lee. Saleh told police only that he had been visiting a friend in New Jersey. After agreeing to a search of his computer, law enforcement agents said they found references to ISIS propaganda.

Fareed Mumuni, 21, who lived on Staten Island, completed the circle. Mumuni, who was from Ghana, lived with his parents in Mariners Harbor and graduated in 2013 from Curtis High School on Hamilton Avenue in Staten Island. A student at the College of Staten Island, he worshiped at the Noor Al-Islam mosque near his home. According to complaints filed in the case, he came under surveillance after repeatedly meeting with Munther Saleh in lower Manhattan and Staten Island.

A decision to leave

Most of the group seemed increasingly focused on getting to the Middle East, according to the criminal complaints. Citing messages on Twitter and other social media uncovered after prosecutors began investigating the group, along with other computer records, Nader Saadeh starting looking for airline tickets—at first to Turkey—after learning that the deli where he worked was to be sold.

By April of this year, authorities say Saadeh—identified as a co-conspirator but never directly named in the complaints—was speaking mostly in Arabic, had stopped using the computer in the house, and turned to his smartphone for most communications. He told friends he was heading to Jordan.

His older brother, Alaa Saadeh, was "on the fence" about traveling and so was Sam Topaz, the complaints said. But Nader Saadeh had made his decision. He shaved off his beard, telling friends he did so because he did not want to be harassed by officials. He told another friend only that he wanted to study theology overseas in the Middle East. The friend told the FBI it made him suspicious. Nader Saadeh, he told them, had never been very studious.

Nader's plan to travel to Jordan was apparently not welcome news to his father in Oman.

"Yesterday your mother called me. She was crying and was subdued because of your issue. She said that you want to travel to Turkey and join a group of people you do not know who they really are," the father wrote in an email cited in the criminal complaints filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey.

He urged his son to reconsider. "They seduce you under the flag of Islam, but when you get to them, you see things that make you hate your situation...My dear, please, think about it...If you aim at the afterlife, you should obtain your parents' satisfaction, build a family and make us happy."

His mother, in an email the same day, also urged him not to go: "Nader, do not listen to them they liers [sic]. Do not go anywhere if u love me dont kill your mom...Don't kill my smile."
Their pleas apparently fell on deaf ears.

We're gonna unite everybody...

 On April 30,  a ticket was purchased in Nader's name on Royal Jordanian Airlines, using Alaa Saadeh's credit card. That same day, several friends gathered at a restaurant for a going away party. The Saadeh brothers headed to John F. Kenney Airport on Tuesday evening, May 5, together with Saleh and another unnamed individual believed to be an FBI informant who recorded their conversation.

Munther Saleh declared that when he left the United States, he would never be coming back. Nader Saadeh promised that his brother and Sam Topaz would come too.

"We're trying to bring everybody and reunite everybody," Nader said, according to a transcript of the surveillance recording.

"Like a holiday," laughed Saleh.

"Yeah, it's gonna be awesome. Yeah, yeah," proclaimed Nader Saadeh. "We're just gonna unite everybody, insh'allah."

At 9:40 p.m., Nader Saadeh boarded Flight 262 for Queen Alia International Airport in Amman. The plane took off into the night sky, right on schedule.

A series of arrests

A week later on May 15, Alaa Saadeh's father called to tell his older son there had been trouble in Jordan. Nader was being detained by security forces and placed in solitary confinement. He instructed his son to be "very careful who he talked to," and to delete everything off his phone, prosecutors said.

Alaa Saadeh soon texted Topaz, convinced that "somebody snitched" on his brother. "Lay low," he warned. "And don't talk to nobody." He expressed fears he was being followed by the FBI. According to the court complaints, he told another friend that he hoped it was not Topaz or Saleh who was responsible for his brother's detention. "I'm hoping it's not because if it is...I think I'm going to kill someone."

Munther Saleh, meanwhile, had allegedly begun searching for information on the internet for instructions on how to construct a pressure cooker bomb, according to an FBI agent assigned to the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force. They claimed he was conducting online searches for a watch and other components for a bomb, including propane, and met several times with Mumuni in New York.

On Saturday, June 13, Saleh—who by now the FBI was convinced was targeting one or more New York City landmarks—was the first to be arrested on a warrant issued in U.S. federal court in Brooklyn. Topaz tried repeatedly that day to call him, but complained to a friend that he was not answering.

Four days later, on June 17, the FBI showed up with warrants at Topaz's home in Fort Lee and took him into custody as well. And that same morning, an arrest team showed up at Mumuni's home in Staten Island at 6:35 a.m. But according to the criminal complaint, he lunged at them with a large kitchen knife before being subdued.

As news of the arrests became public, Alaa Saadeh was asked by another informant who recorded the conversation what to say if the FBI came knocking.

"If they do come—straight up—tell them what it is about me," he replied. "When it comes to Nader, just say 'I don't know...You tell them, his personality, how he was. He worked. He was just a normal kid. Blah, blah, blah..."

Awaiting trial

Today, Topaz, 20, is being without bail in the Essex County Correctional Facility, charged with conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq.

Friends say they cannot believe the charges again the classmate they knew as a gentle, insecure student with a beautiful voice. One said the Facebook selfies asking "which assassin am I?" referenced in the criminal complaint were nothing more than a teenager's attraction to the popular video game "Assassin's Creed."

Topaz's court-appointed attorney declined to talk about the case. "At this time, no comment," said Borce Martinoski of Hackensack. "Not at liberty to discuss the situation."

Munther Saleh has also been charged with conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq—a charge that could have him facing up to15 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. His attorney, Deborah Colson of Manhattan, also said she could not comment.

Mumuni has been charged with trying to kill an FBI agent. According to court filings, he waived his rights after his arrest and admitted to discussing the construction of a pressure cooker bomb with Saleh. He faces up to 20 years in prison. His attorney, Anthony L. Ricco of New York, did not return calls to his office.

Nader Saadeh today remains detained in Jordan, according to law enforcement officials. He has not been formally charged in this country, despite being referred to repeatedly in criminal complaints as a co-conspirator.

Alaa Saadeh was arrested on Monday, June 29, and has also been charged with conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State. His attorney, Maria Notto of Matawan, said she could not say much about the case, but said he "is not the monster" he is being portrayed as in the media.

"My client did not go to Jordan," she said.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/07/jersey_jihad_inside_the_isis_case_that_ensnared_5.html