Category: Foreign Affairs

Frank Crimi in FrontPage The rapid rise of Germany’s homegrown Islamist movement is sparking fears that it will soon turn Germany into the next European focal point of Islamic terrorism. Two recently failed plots by German Islamists to launch chemical attacks have only heightened those concerns. Last week German authorities arrested two Islamists on suspicion of planning a chemical attack on the German capital of Berlin. The two men, one a German of Lebanese descent and the other from Gaza, had been detained after purchasing large quantities of chemicals, including cooling elements and acids used in the agriculture industry. In April 2011 German police had thwarted a similar planned chemical attack. In that case German police arrested three German Islamists in Dusseldorf, all of whom were suspected of having links to al-Qaeda. The discovery of the Dusseldorf terror cell had been gleaned from documents uncovered in the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s quarters in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Both incidents have served to underscore the growing determination of German Islamists to inflict upon Germany the same type of devastating terrorist attacks suffered

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Frank Crimi in FrontPage A report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has cited “increasing concerns” that Iran is edging ever closer toward the development of nuclear weapons. Adding fuel to those concerns is that the release of the UN report came only days before the Islamist state’s nuclear power plant at Bushehr finally came online for the first time. Specifically, the nine-page IAEA report cited “extensive” evidence that Iran, in defiance of UN- imposed sanctions, has not suspended its “enrichment-related activities.” Instead, Iran has boosted the production of enriched uranium and upgraded it closer to the level of nuclear weapons-grade. Furthermore, the IAEA found the Iranians continuing to work on heavy water-related projects, including the construction of a heavy water research reactor. The IAEA report also cited concern over Iran moving its nuclear fuel production program to a well-protected underground bunker outside the Iranian holy city of Qum, a move made earlier in 2011 by the Iranians in an attempt to better protect the program from an air or cyber attack. The Iranian actions have led the

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Frank Crimi in FrontPage With Gaddafi’s regime near total collapse, fears have arisen over the fate of Gaddafi’s remaining stockpile of deadly weapons. Unfortunately, given the large amount of weapons already run out of the country by Libyan rebels, the answer is both clear and unsettling. While Libyan rebels control most of Tripoli, Gaddafi’s regime still clings to life. American and allied officials are still uncertain as to who is currently in control of an arsenal that contains a deadly mix of conventional and chemical weapons, as well as raw nuclear material. Moreover, while the Libyan Transnational National Council (TNC) is the officially recognized governing authority, enormous doubts exist as to its ability or even willingness to help secure those weapons. The conventional weaponry in question includes Scud-B missiles, thousands of light and heavy weapons and some 30,000 shoulder-fired rockets. The potential loss of the shoulder-fired missiles is particularly disturbing given they are very portable, hard to detect and require minimal training. According to a senior policy analyst at the Rand Corp., they make an “ideal terrorist weapon,” especially when

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Frank Crimi in FrontPage Despite a recent UN report that found the country of Eritrea, located on the Horn of Africa, to be actively planning terrorist attacks as well as funding a wide array of terror groups, the Obama administration has declined to list it as a state sponsor of terrorism. The report by a UN monitoring group in June 2011 alleged the Eritrean government was providing military, financial and logistical support to Islamist and other militant terror organizations throughout East Africa, including Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, and the Sudan. The terrorist and militant groups receiving Eritrean support include Somalia’s Islamist al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam; Ethiopia’s Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and Oromo Liberation Front (OLF); and Djibouti’s Front pour le Restauration de la Democratie (FRUD). Eritrean support to these terror outfits include “training, people smuggling, arms trafficking, money laundering and extortion,” all facilitated by a large number of Eritrean political, military and intelligence officials. Moreover, Eritrea has established its own training camps, built for the purpose of training foreign fighters. While Eritrea has outsourced most of the implementation of its

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Frank Crimi in FrontPage The assassination of the chief Libyan rebel commander underscores the murky nature of the rebel opposition group and casts fresh doubts over its ability to overthrow the Gaddafi regime. General Abdul Fattah Younes, who been summoned to the Libyan opposition capital of Benghazi by the ruling Transitional National Council (TNC) for supposed questioning about military operations, was murdered there last week along with two other military officials. Younes, who had assisted Muammar Gaddafi’s rise to power in 1969, was Libya’s interior minister and commander of its powerful Lightning Brigade before he defected to the rebels in February 2011. While he quickly rose to become the chief of the rebel armed forces, his tenure was marked by claims that he was nothing more than a transplanted Gaddafi agent. Initially, it was unclear who had actually killed Younes and speculation was rife that he had been killed for either maintaining contacts with the Gaddafi regime or by rivals within the TNC attempting to settle some personal scores. TNC leader leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil did nothing to stifle the rumor

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Frank Crimi in FrontPage Saudi Arabia declares its intention to enter the nuclear arms race as Iran edges closer toward completion of its nuclear weapons goal. Fearful that he will soon face a nuclear-armed Iran, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki al-Faisal recently warned that the Saudi Kingdom would have no choice but to develop its own nuclear weapons, a move he said would lead to “untold and possibly dramatic consequences.” While the Saudi’s have long voiced the strategic goal of a nuclear-free Middle East, they have also unequivocally stated that they won’t sit back and allow themselves to be the only nonnuclear nation in the region. So, the remarks by al-Faisal — a former Saudi intelligence official — simply echo that view, one espoused by Saudi King Abdullah in 2006 when he said that if Iran ever developed nuclear weapons, “everyone in the region would, including Saudi Arabia.” However, with Iran now edging ever closer to acquiring its own nuclear weapons, it appears the Saudis have actually begun laying the groundwork for a similar pursuit. For example, in April 2011, the

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Frank Crimi in FrontPage As it prepares for its first General Election, Tunisia’s fledgling attempt toward democratic rule is being heavily threatened by an emboldened Islamist movement and an increased al Qaeda presence. As it prepares for its first General Election, Tunisia’s fledgling attempt toward democratic rule is being heavily threatened by an emboldened Islamist movement and an increased al Qaeda presence. Tunisia’s Islamist movement is led by Ennahda, the Tunisian Islamist party inspired by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. The Ennahda — which had been banned by former Tunisian President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali since its 1981 inception — was legalized in March 2011 following Ben Ali’s ouster. Like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Ennahda has been viewed as having the organizational expertise and large membership to make it the odds on favorite in any parliamentarian election. With that in mind, Tunisia’s interim government recently moved its originally scheduled July Election to October in an effort to help the country’s disparate group of loosely organized, secularist parties better prevail against the more organized Ennahda. Not surprisingly, that decision was denounced

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