Retired Navy Vice Admiral J. Michael McConnell, the man President Bush has tapped to be the next director of national intelligence, told senators at his confirmation hearing he will focus on reforming the intelligence community to counter a growing terrorist threat from inside the United States.

McConnell was the Pentagon's top intelligence officer during the first Iraq war and later headed the National Security Agency, an information-protection and intelligence-gathering organization.  He made his comments February 1 to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired by Senator Jay Rockefeller.

If confirmed by the full Senate, McConnell said he would push reforms suggested by Congress emphasizing "integration of the intelligence community."

"We know that terrorist organizations today are making plans for attacks on our citizens inside our borders," McConnell testified.  Previously, the intelligence community "focused almost exclusively on foreign threats outside our borders.  What is new is the need to focus on these threats inside our borders."

To counter that security challenge, McConnell said he would use his new job as overall director of most U.S. intelligence operations, including the CIA, to push reforms aimed at improving "collecting and processing information ... consistent with our Constitution, our laws and our values to respect the rights and privacy of our citizens."  http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2007&m=February&x=200702061103421EJrehsiF0.1179926

 

The U.S. State Department's top official on Africa went to Capitol Hill Tuesday to defend U.S. policy in Somalia. In December, Somali forces, backed by Ethiopian troops, drove out the Islamist government that had gained control of much of the country last year. In the weeks since then, U.S. has offered support to the transitional government that is now in control in Mogadishu. VOA's Marissa Melton reports from Washington.

Jendayi Frazer (undated photo)

State Department Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer came under tough questioning Tuesday by senators who were seeking a clearer outline of administration policy in Somalia.

Senator Russ Feingold began by asking Frazer why the Bush administration had missed a congressional deadline to submit a plan for Somali stabilization.

Frazer replied:

"What we're trying to do is develop, as you have asked and the Congress has asked, a comprehensive strategy," she said. "Let me just state that part of building a comprehensive strategy is actually responding to the events on the ground and actually implementing the strategies we have in place."

 

http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-02-06-voa81.cfm

 

The Afghan government is mulling the ways to dislodge Taliban militants from Musa Qala in the southern Helmand province, Presidential spokesman Mohammad Karim Rahimi said Tuesday.

"Afghan government is considering the ways to regain the control of Musa Qala without inflicting casualties on civilians," Rahimi told newsmen at a news briefing here.

However, he did not give more details, only saying the government is planning to solve the problem with minimum casualties.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters overran the far-flanged district early Friday.  http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200702/07/eng20070207_348109.html

 

An Iranian government-sponsored body set up to probe the veracity of the Holocaust on Tuesday challenged Europe to hand over documents about the mass slaughter of Jews in World War II, the IRNA state news agency reported.

Mohammad Ali Ramin, head of the World Holocaust Foundation created after Iran's controversial Holocaust conference last year, said Austria, Germany and Poland in particular should supply documents.

"They should hand over the proof for the dossier on the organised massacre of Jews in Europe during World War II to the independent international fact-finding committee affiliated to this foundation," the agency quoted him as saying.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the creation of the foundation after inviting a number of controversial revisionist Holocaust researchers to a conference in Tehran in December that caused an international outcry.

Ahmadinejad has repeatedly questioned the scale of the Holocaust, described the mass killing of six million Jews in World War II as a "myth" and also called for Israel to be "wiped from the map".  http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=298138

 

Spanish police warned yesterday that the country was becoming a base for Pakistani terrorists, after detaining a Moroccan suspected of belonging to a terrorist outfit involved in recruiting suicide bombers for Al Qaeda.
Morocco had issued an international arrest warrant for Moroccan Mbark el-Jaafari, who was captured in Reus, near Spain’s eastern city of Tarragona, Spain’s Interior Ministry said.
El-Jaafari was charged with belonging to a terrorist structure, allegedly run by the Algerian-based Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC), which is believed to co-ordinate Al Qaeda-related organisations in northern Africa.
The network was thought to have recruited 32 people for suicide bombings in Iraq and for preparing attacks in Morocco since May 2006. The network allegedly used Algerian camps of the GSPC for training terrorists.  http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=131333&version=1&template_id=39&parent_id=21

 

Last week, under pressure from US Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger, Kenyan authorities released from prison Sheikh Sharif Ahmad, one of the leaders of the ousted al-Qaida-linked Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in Somalia.

In late December, with US backing and support, Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia with forces from the recognized Somali Transitional Federal Government, (TFG). The invasion came a month after the ICU declared jihad against Ethiopia and Kenya. ICU forces, which had set up a Taliban-style tyranny throughout the country, fled before the Ethiopian advance. In just six days, the ICU was overthrown and the recognized Somali government had retaken control over Mogadishu.

From the outset of the Ethiopian invasion, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) both demanded an immediate Ethiopian retreat.

This is not surprising because the ICU has been the beneficiary of generous support from Arab League and OIC member states Eritrea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Djibouti, Yemen and Libya. According to respected military analyst Bill Roggio, US intelligence officials maintain that the so-called Saudi “Golden Chain” of al-Qaida financiers have given $200 million to the ICU since last spring. The EU also demanded that Ethiopia withdraw its forces and that the TFG negotiate an accord with al-Qaida’s front organization in the Horn of Africa. Today EU humanitarian aid commissioner Louis Michel has linked EU assistance to the TGF to its acceptance of ICU elements in its government.

THE US was the only country that backed Ethiopia, and with good reason. Shortly after Ethiopian forces took control of Mogadishu, US aircraft pursued fleeing al-Qaida terrorists in southern Somalia after intelligence reports indicated that among the fleeing ICU leaders were the masterminds of the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

Disturbingly, the US seems to have abandoned the fight.  http://commonsensewonder.com/?p=1780