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Showing posts with label counter-terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label counter-terrorism. Show all posts

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Syria-bound UK teens stopped in Turkey released on bail

Three young British men who were stopped from travelling to Syria from Turkey and arrested have been released on bail, the Metropolitan Police says.
The teenagers, two aged 17 and one 19, from north-west London were flown back to the UK on Saturday night.
They were arrested on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts and have been bailed pending further inquiries.
Meanwhile, an 18-year-old man is being held on suspicion of preparing to travel to Syria to join IS.
The man, from Hodge Hill in Birmingham, was detained on Monday morning in a pre-planned and intelligence-led operation, West Midlands Police said.
The three Britons stopped in Turkey were apprehended after UK police alerted Turkish officials after a tip-off from the younger teenagers' parents, the Times has said.
Counter-terrorism officers were initially made aware that the two 17-year-olds had gone missing and were believed to be travelling to Syria on Friday.
Their parents contacted police when they did not return home after Friday prayers, according to the Times.
After meeting the boys' families Keith Vaz MP said: The families of the two of the young men that I met are honourable, decent, hard-working British citizens who knew absolutely nothing about their sons' decisions.
"They acted swiftly, with the support of the leader of the council to alert the police."
Further enquiries revealed the pair had travelled with a third man, police said.
'Security co-operation'
"Officers alerted the Turkish authorities who were able to intercept all three males, preventing travel to Syria," a police spokesman added.
They were returned to the UK at about 23:10 GMT on Saturday and were arrested by counter-terrorism officers.
They have been bailed to return to a central London police station pending further enquiries.
The trio had flown to Istanbul from Barcelona in Spain, a Turkish official told the BBC.
The two 17-year-olds were stopped at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport by Turkish authorities acting on intelligence provided by British police.
Kadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima BegumKadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum (L-R) left Britain in February
However, the 19-year-old man was only detained after being questioned by Turkish police, the official said. He also was arrested at the airport.
"This is a good and a clear example of how the security co-operation between Western intelligence agencies and Turkey should work," the official added.
BBC correspondent Andy Moore said the development came after "recriminations" between UK police and Turkish officials following the disappearance of three girls who attended Bethnal Green Academy i east London.
"On this occasion it seems that the warning was raised in the UK and that was communicated very quickly to Turkey," said our correspondent.
The disappearance of the three girls led to criticisms from Turkey's deputy prime minister, who said Turkish officials had not been given enough warning about their disappearance.
Shamima Begum, Amira Abase, both 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16 - all from East London - took flights to Istanbul last month, from where it is feared they travelled to join IS militants in Syria.
The parents of a so-called "jihadi bride" from Scotland say their daughter denies recruiting the girls to the IS cause.
Khalida and Muzaffar Mahmood said they had been in touch with 20-year-old Aqsa Mahmood last week, and she insisted she had not been in touch with the Bethnal Green girls.
'Need for vigilance'
Mr Vaz, who chairs the Home Affairs Select Committee, said the police and Turkish security agencies should be commended for the speed in which they acted.
He said: "I have spoken to the Turkish ambassador to congratulate him on the action taken by the Turkish authorities.
"This is a rare good news story in the fight against terrorism and is a lesson to us all that we need to be vigilant against those who seek to groom our young men and women in this way.
"Clearly this flight of young people to Turkey in order to go to Syria is on a much larger scale than we envisaged."
"We need to prevent people going in the first place and that is why parents need to be vigilant but we also need co-operation from the Turkish authorities in order to stop them from going further.
A senior Turkish government official told the BBC that Turkish security agencies have drawn up a "no-entry" list of 12,500 people, with some volunteers being as young as 14.
They have also deported more than 1,100 people suspected of wanting to join Islamic State (IS).
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he complained that Western intelligence agencies are not doing enough to prevent the would-be fighters leaving their countries of origin.
Islamic State fightersIS fighters in Raqqa
About 600 Britons are believed to have travelled to Syria and Iraq since the conflict began, according to Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley.
The Home Office estimates around half of those have returned.
The BBC understands more than 500 Britons are believed to have travelled to the region to join militant organisations, while 100 Western volunteers, including some from the UK, went to fight with the Kurdish forces against IS.
Jamshed Javeed, a teacher from Bolton who admitted Syria-related terror offences, was jailed for six years earlier this month.
line
Analysis
Armed police at airport Armed police at Heathrow
Dominic Casciani, BBC Home affairs correspondent
Last year there were 327 terrorism-related arrests, more than half of them related to Syria, leading to 64 charges and prosecutions.
These numbers - and regular reports that some young people are still trying to get to Syria - are evidence enough that the problem isn't going to be solved by arrests alone.
The police will arrest and charge if there is clear evidence that someone has committed a terrorist offence.
But they will also look at other tactics to disrupt someone's intentions. Their counter-terrorism toolbox now includes beefed-up powers to stop people at ports, seize passports and place the most dangerous suspects under near-constant monitoring.
But most importantly, the recently passed Counter-Terrorism and Security Act places a legal duty on public authorities to start doing more to combat extremism.
The police will continue to make arrests - but the focus is increasingly moving to the really difficult business of preventing someone being radicalised in the first place.
line
The news comes as the National Police Counter Terrorism Network and partners have rolled out an advertising campaign designed to reach out to families, to prevent young people travelling to Syria.
It will involve adverts appearing in minority ethnic media across the country.
The awareness campaign features the relationship between a mother and daughter and encourages parents to discuss issues such as travelling to Syria and what they are viewing online.
In the last year 22 women and girls have been reported missing by families who feared they had travelled to Syria.
Kalsoom Bashir and Helen Ball on Andrew Marr, 1 March 2015Kalsoom Bashir of Inspire and Deputy Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball, counter-terrorism co-ordinator, said police were increasingly concerned about the numbers of young women who have travelled or are intending to travel to Syria.
She said: "It is an extremely dangerous place and the reality of the lifestyle they are greeted with when they arrive is far from that promoted online by terrorist groups.
"The option of returning home is often taken away from them, leaving families at home devastated and with very few options to secure a safe return for their loved one.
"We want to increase families their confidence in the police and partners to encourage them to come forward at the earliest opportunity so that we can intervene and help."
Kalsoom Bashir from the organisation Inspire, which works with Muslim women to tackle extremism, said: "Having seen the devastation facing families where a loved one has travelled to Syria, I would advise families to keep their children close, to constantly remind them that they are loved, that they are part of a strong family network and that they can talk to you about anything they are worried about."

More on This Story

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Various PDF files. Insightful and relative to Counterinsurgency and Counter Terrorism


What are we fighting for - Dr. David Kilcullen 

UNOSAT_A3_Landscape_Kobane_DamageAssessment_20150211.pdf

The Center for Strategic Studies TSG-Foreign-Fighters-in-Syria.pdf

Exploring the Kurdish Population in the Turkish Context


Twenty-Eight Articles: Fundamentals of Company-Level Counterinsurgency
by Dr. David Kilcullen, Lieutenant Colonel, Australian Army
Editorial Abstract: The author presents a tactical-level preparatory guide, based on lessons learned from personal campaign experience. He emphasizes the necessity of proper mental and situational preparation, and offers a series of recommendations for applying concepts and ideas in the real world of personal-level influence operations.

Victory Has a Thousand Fathers
Sources of Success in Counterinsurgency - RAND Corp.
Christopher Paul • Colin P. Clarke • Beth Grill
This research grew out of the sponsor’s desire to be able to evidence the historical contribution (or lack of contribution) of activities concordant with what is now referred to as strategic communication to the outcomes of counterinsurgency (COIN) campaigns. The method that the RAND Corporation proposed to answer this question—a combination of historical case studies and the qualitative comparative approach—was capable of answering a much broader set of questions about the contributions of a wider range of approaches to COIN with minimal additional effort. This research, then, reports on the demonstrated effectiveness of a variety of approaches to COIN (including strategic communication) through case studies of the world’s 30 most recent resolved insurgencies.

Like nongovernmental organizations and private military companies, large multinational corporations (MNCs) can play significant roles in zones of violent conflict. Any comprehensive conflict analysis needs to understand these roles, especially as they relate to counterinsurgency. Using a set of three case studies, the authors explore MNC operations in Liberia, Papua New Guinea, and the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The case studies.......... 

An Evaluation of counterinsurgency as a Strategy for Fighting the Long War Baucum Fulk
The single greatest national security question currently facing the U.S. National Command Authority is how best to counter violent extremism. The National Command Authority has four broad strategies through which it may employ military forces to counter violent extremism: counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, support to insurgency, and antiterrorism. The Long War is anticipated to continue for decades, perhaps generations. Thus, it is imperative to select the best strategy or strategies for employing military forces. Based on historical lessons in combating terrorism, the best strategy is

efficient and sustainable and avoids overreacting, acting incompetently, or appearing to be either over reactive or incompetent.
Relearning Counterinsurgency Warfare
ROBERT R. TOMES © 2004 Robert R. Tomes
Thirty years after the signing of the January 1973 Paris peace agreement ending the Vietnam War, the United States finds itself leading a broad coalition of military forces engaged in peacemaking, nation-building, and now counterinsurgency warfare in Iraq. A turning point appeared in mid-October
2003 when US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s memo on the future of Iraqi operations surfaced. His musings about whether US forces were ready for protracted guerrilla warfare sparked widespread debate about US planning for counterinsurgency operations.



It has been a challenging year for the Department of Defense. For more than a decade, Operation Iraqi Freedom and the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan highlighted the need for a modern military to be able to operate in complex human terrain. But even as the military continued to fight in Afghanistan, it also faced the budgetary uncertainties of sequestration. In this fiscally constrained environment, even given current events, counterinsurgency may return to a low priority. The DoD has reached a decision point; it is undergoing a paradigm shift, deciding what its capabilities will be in the aftermath of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The Kurds in Post-Saddam Iraq.pdf

The London School of Economics, and Political Science - Maps into Nations:
Kurdistan, Kurdish Nationalism and International Society

The Wisdom of the Kurds: 100 Proverbs

Shooting Up









http://www.au.af.mil/info-ops/iosphere/iosphere_summer06_kilcullen.pdf


under construction opps.......

more links on the way

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2,000 Iraqi counterterrorism troops and 25,000 Iraqi Army troops set to retake Mosul


While the Kurdish Peshmerga is holding in the North and West of Mosul the Iraqi Army has yet to show itself on that battlefield. However an official from US Central Command said that Iraq will likely start the fight to retake Mosul in April or May this year. The Iraqi Army will have 12 Iraqi brigades, about 20,000 to 25,000 troops. There will also be a special counter-terrorism brigade of about 2,000 men who are training with US Special Operation Forces. The Iraqi Army regular units are still undergoing their training and that appears to be the hold up at the moment. Once the Iraqi forces are ready they will begin the operation to retake Mosul.


Currently three Peshmerga brigades of YPG and YPJ have surrounded Mosul in the north and west and they have liberated at least 12 villages/towns northwest of Mosul. the 12 Brigades will be made up as follows: 5 well trained Iraqi Army brigades for the core fiighting force that would launch the attack, 3 Iraqi Army brigades in reserve, 1 counter terrorism brigade, and the 3 existing Kurdish Peshmerga brigades in the north and west. There ill also be a Mosul fighting force of formet Mosul police and tribal forces who have to be ready to go back to work in the city once the Army Units clear out Daesh.

The U.S. will provide military support for the operation with trainiing, air support, intelligence, and survelliance. No decision has been made if there will be US ground troops to call in air strikes.

It is estimate dthat there is 1,000 to 2,000 ISIL insurgents in Mosul. The main delay in the operation has not only been the training of the Iraqi Army troops but also the plan for the day after ISIS is defeated.

US central command may actually even delay the Mosul operations if they feel that the troops need more training, conditions are not met, or if the equipment is not there and ready.

It was also revealed that Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia will be hosting training sites for Obama's so called moderate rebels in Syria.



Related Articles

Thursday, March 6, 2014

'The Accidental Guerrilla': Dr David Kilcullen at ANU, June 09


Uploaded on Mar 14, 2010
The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One - recorded at The Australian National University, 1 June 2009.

In the first few years of the post-9/11 era, the established models for fighting small wars proved distressingly ineffective against resilient insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. As the insurgents fought Western armies to a stalemate, it was clear that a new approach was necessary. Dr David Kilcullen, a former Australian army officer, and one of the worlds most influential experts on guerrilla warfare, became a key architect of the Wests revamped military strategy. As the senior advisor to General David Patraeus in Iraq, Kilcullens revolutionary approach to counterinsurgency was an intellectual foundation for the Surge of 2007.

Kilcullen will uncover the face of modern warfare, illuminating both the global challenge, the War on Terrorism, and small wars across the world in Afghanistan, Iraq, Indonesia, Thailand, East Timor, and Pakistan. He will explain that todays conflicts are a complex hybrid of contrasting trends that America has tended to conflate, blurring the distinction between local and global struggles, and thereby enormously complicating our challenges. The West has continually misidentified insurgents with limited aims and legitimate grievances—accidental guerrillas—as members of a unified worldwide terror network. We must learn how to disentangle these strands, develop strategies that deal with global threats, avoid local conflicts where possible, and win them where necessary.

David Kilcullen is one of the worlds leading experts on guerrilla warfare and, rarely among his kind, has a PhD (UNSW) in political anthropology. He has served in every theatre of the War on Terror since 9/11 as special advisor for counterinsurgency to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, senior counterinsurgency advisor to General David Petraeus in Iraq, and chief counterterrorism strategist for the US State Department. He is a former Australian army officer with combat experience in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Presented by the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (The Middle East and Central Asia).