Tag Archive | jihadist

Al Qaeda is Scared and No Match to the Biker Gangs

Al-Qaeda is Scared and No Match to the Biker Gangs

Al-Qaeda (/ælˈkaɪdə/ al-KY-də; Arabic: القاعدة‎ al-qāʿidah, Arabic: [ælqɑːʕɪdɐ], translation: “The Base” and alternatively spelled al-Qaida and sometimes al-Qa’ida) is a global militant Islamist organization founded by Osama bin Laden in Peshawar, Pakistan,[20] at some point between August 1988[21] and late 1989,[22] with its origins being traceable to the Soviet War in Afghanistan.[23] It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army[24] and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad and a strict interpretation of sharia law. It has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations Security Council, NATO, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, India and various other countries (see below). Al-Qaeda has carried out many attacks on non-Sunni Muslims,[25] non-Muslims,[26][27] and other targets it considers kafir.[28]

Al-Qaeda has attacked civilian and military targets in various countries, including the September 11 attacks, 1998 U.S. embassy bombings and the 2002 Bali bombings. The U.S. government responded to the September 11 attacks by launching the War on Terror. With the loss of key leaders, culminating in the death of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda’s operations have devolved from actions that were controlled from the top-down, to actions by franchise associated groups, to actions of lone wolf operators.

Characteristic techniques employed by al-Qaeda include suicide attacks and simultaneous bombings of different targets.[29] Activities ascribed to it may involve members of the movement, who have taken a pledge of loyalty to Osama bin Laden, or the much more numerous “al-Qaeda-linked” individuals who have undergone training in one of its camps in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq or Sudan, but who have not taken any pledge.[30] Al-Qaeda ideologues envision a complete break from all foreign influences in Muslim countries, and the creation of a new world-wide Islamic caliphate.[3][31][32] Among the beliefs ascribed to Al-Qaeda members is the conviction that a Christian–Jewish alliance is conspiring to destroy Islam.[33] As Salafist jihadists, they believe that the killing of civilians is religiously sanctioned, and they ignore any aspect of religious scripture which might be interpreted as forbidding the murder of civilians and internecine fighting.[9][34] Al-Qaeda also opposes man-made laws, and wants to replace them with a strict form of sharia law.[35]

Al-Qaeda is also responsible for instigating sectarian violence among Muslims.[36] Al-Qaeda is intolerant of non-Sunni branches of Islam and denounces them by means of excommunications called “takfir”. Al-Qaeda leaders regard liberal Muslims, Shias, Sufis and other sects as heretics and have attacked their mosques and gatherings.[37] Examples of sectarian attacks include the Yazidi community bombings, the Sadr City bombings, the Ashoura Massacre and the April 2007 Baghdad bombings.[38]

An outlaw motorcycle club (sometimes known as a motorcycle gang or biker gang) is a motorcycle subculture which has its roots in the immediately post-World War II era of American society. It is generally centered around the use of cruiser motorcycles, particularly Harley-Davidsons and choppers, and a set of ideals which celebrate freedom, nonconformity to mainstream culture and loyalty to the biker group. Many of the outlaw clubs operate criminal enterprises to support their way of life.

In the United States, such motorcycle clubs are considered “outlaw” as they are not sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) and do not adhere to the AMA’s rules. Instead the clubs have their own set of bylaws from which the values of the outlaw biker culture arise.^[1]^[2][

October 12, 2013

Al Qaeda is Scared and No Match to American Gangs

Al-Qaeda is Scared and No Match to American Gangs

Prison gangs

Main article: Prison gangs in the United States

American prison gangs, like most street gangs, are formed for protection against other gangs.^[13] The goal of many street gang members is to gain the respect and protection that comes from being in a prison gang.^[13]^[14] Prison gangs use street gangs members as their power base for which they recruit new members. For many members, reaching prison gang status shows the ultimate commitment to the gang.^[13]

Some prison gangs are transplanted from the street, and in some occasions, prison gangs “outgrow” the penitentiary and engage in criminal activities on the outside. Many prison gangs are racially oriented. Gang umbrella organizations like the Folk Nation and People Nation have originated in prisons.^[15]

One notable American prison gang is the Aryan Brotherhood, an organization known for its violence and white supremacist views.^{[citation needed]} Established in the mid-1960s, the gang was affiliated with the Aryan Nations and engages in violent crime, drug trafficking, and illegal gambling activities both in and out of prisons. On July 28, 2006, after a six-year federal investigation, four leaders of the gang were convicted of racketeering, murder, and conspiracy charges.^[16] Another significant American prison gang is the Aryan League, which was formed by an alliance between the Aryan Brotherhood and Public Enemy No. 1. Working collaboratively, the gangs engage in drug trafficking, identity theft, and other white collar crime using contacts in the banking system.^[17] The gang has used its connections in the banking system to target law enforcement agencies and family members of officers.^[17]

There has been a long running racial tension between black and Hispanic prison gangs, as well as significant prison riots in which gangs have targeted each other.

Motorcycle gangs

The United States has a significant population of motorcycle gangs, which are groups that use motorcycle clubs as organizational structures for conducting criminal activity.^[4] Some motorcycle clubs are exclusively motorcycle gangs, while others are only partially compromised by criminal activity.^[4] The National Gang Intelligence Center reports on all motorcycle clubs with gang activity, while other government agencies, such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) focus on motorcycle clubs exclusively dedicated to gang activity.^[4] The ATF estimates that approximately 300 exclusively gang-oriented motorcycle clubs exist in the United States.^[4]

Organized crime gangs

Main article: Organized crime

Organized criminal groups are a subtype of gang with a hierarchical leadership structure and in which individuals commit crime for personal gain.^[18]^[19] For most organized criminal group members, criminal activities constitute their occupation. There are numerous organized criminal groups with operations in the United States (including transnational organized crime groups), such as the American Mafia, Triad Society, Russian Mafia, Yakuza, Sicilian Mafia, Irish Mob, and Folk Nation.

The activities of organized criminal groups are highly varied, and include drug, weapons, and human trafficking (including prostitution and kidnapping), art theft, murder (including contract killings and assassinations), copyright infringement, counterfeiting, identity theft, money laundering, extortion, illegal gambling, and terrorism. The complexity and seriousness of the crimes committed by global crime groups pose a threat not only to law enforcement but to democracy and legitimate economic development as well.^[20]

American national and local street gangs will collaborate with organized criminal groups.^[21]

Juvenile gangs

Youth gangs are composed of young people, male or female, and like most street gangs, are either formed for protection or for social and economic reasons. Some of the most notorious and dangerous gangs have evolved from youth gangs. During the late 1980s and early 1990s an increase in violence in the United States took place and this was due primarily to an increase in violent acts committed by people under the age of 20.^[22] Due to gangs spreading to suburban and smaller communities youth gangs are now more prevalent and exist in all regions of the United States.

Youth gangs have increasingly been creating problems in school and correctional facilities. However youth gangs are said to be an important social institution for low income youths and young adults because they often serve as cultural, social, and economic functions which are no longer served by the family, school or labor market.^[23] Youth gangs tend to emerge during times of rapid social change and instability. Young people can be attracted to joining a youth gang for a number of reasons. They provide a degree of order and solidarity for their members and make them feel like part of a group or a community.^[23]

The diffusion of gang culture to the point where it has been integrated into a larger youth culture has led to widespread adoption by youth of many of the symbols of gang life. For this reason, more and more youth who earlier may have not condoned gang behavior are more willing, even challenged to experiment with gang-like activity^[24] Youth Gangs may be an ever-present feature of urban culture that change over time in its form, social meaning and antisocial behavior. However, in the United States, youth gangs have taken an especially disturbing form and continue to permeate society.^[25]

Gang demographics and ethnic gangs

In 1999, Hispanics accounted for 47% of all U.S. gang members, African Americans for 34%, whites for 13%, and Asians for 6%.^[26]

Law enforcement agencies reported in 2011 that gangs affiliated with ethnicity and non-traditional gangs have expanded in recent years.^[27]

Hispanic gangs

An MS-13 suspect bearing gang tattoos is handcuffed. In 2004, the FBI created the MS-13 National Gang Task Force. A year later, the FBI helped create the National Gang Intelligence Center.

A member of Mara Salvatrucha.

Hispanic gangs form a significant group of ethnic-based gangs in the United States. One of the concerns of increased illegal immigration to the United States is gang-related activity.^{[citation needed]} U.S. immigration investigation programs such as Operation Community Shield, have detained more than 1,400 illegal immigrants who were also gang members.^[28] ICE’s Operation Community Shield has since arrested 7,655 street gang members. .^{[citation needed]} A confidential California Department of Justice study reported in 1995 that 60 percent of the twenty thousand members of the 18th Street Gang in California are illegal immigrants.^[29]

The Latin Kings is the largest and most organized Hispanic street gang in the United States.^[30] The group has roots dating back to the 1940s in Chicago. The Latin Kings first emerged in Chicago in the 1940s after several young Puerto Rican men on the north side—and later, Mexican men on the south side—organized into a self-defense group to protect their communities. The initial intention was to unite “all Latinos” into a collective struggle against “oppression” and to help each other overcome the problems of racism and prejudice that newly arriving Latino immigrants were experiencing. Hence, the name “Latin Kings and Queens”, which as it denotes, is a reference to members of all Latino heritages. They organized themselves as a vanguard for their communities. Like the Black Panthers, the Young Lords, and many other groups perceiving social injustices directed at their kind, the Latin Kings were broken as a movement. They lost touch with their roots and grew into one of the largest and most infamous criminal gangs in America. The group’s members became involved in crimes including murder, drug trafficking, robberies and other organized criminal activities.

Mara Salvatrucha, commonly abbreviated as “MS”, “Mara”, or “MS-13”, is another Hispanic street gang operating in the United States. It originated in Los Angeles and has spread to Central America, other parts of the United States, and Canada. Mara Salvatrucha is one of the most dangerous gangs in the United States, and its activities include drug and weapons trafficking, auto theft, burglary, assault, and murder (including contract killings). The gang also publicly declared that it targets the Minutemen, an anti-illegal immigration group^[31] who take it upon themselves to control the border, to “teach them a lesson”,^[32] possibly due to their smuggling of various Central/South Americans (mostly other gang members), drugs, and weapons across the border.^[33] The majority of gang members are ethnically Salvadoran, Honduran, Guatemalan, and Nicaraguan, and the gang has 70,000 members.^{[citation needed]} Mara Salvatrucha has been investigated by the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and in September 2005 the gang was targeted by raids against its members, in which 660 people were arrested across the United States.

Other ethnic gangs

Among other ethnic-based gangs are Asian gangs, which operate similar to Asian organized crime groups with a hierarchical structure and little concern for control of territory.^[27] Asian gangs often victimize Asian populations, and law enforcement faces difficulty investigating Asian gangs due to language barriers and distrust among the Asian population.^[27] Asian gangs engage in a variety of crime, including violent crime, drug and human trafficking, and white collar crime.^[27]

East African gangs operate in over 30 jurisdictions in the United States. They are generally divided between Sudanese gangs, Ethiopian gangs and Somali gangs.^[34] Unlike the majority of traditional street gangs, Somali gang members adopt names based on their clan affiliation. Largely keeping to themselves, they have engaged in violent crime, weapons trafficking, human, sex and drug trafficking, and credit card fraud.^[34] As of 2013, there has been a decrease in gang-related activity among disaffected Somali youths, as they have grown more settled.^[35] Sudanese gangs have emerged in several states since 2003. Among the most aggressive of these Sudanese gangs is the African Pride gang. Some Sudanese gang members also possess strategic and weapons knowledge gained during conflicts in Sudan.^[34]

Primarily operating along the East Coast, Caribbean ethnic-based gangs include Dominican, Haitian, and Jamaican gangs.^[34] The largest Dominican gang and the fastest-growing Caribbean gang is the Trinitarios.^[34] Although a prison gang, Trinitario has members operating as a street gang, and it is known for violent crime and drug trafficking in the New York and New Jersey area.^[34] Haitian gangs, such as Zoe Pound, are involved in a variety of crime, including violent crime and drug and weapons trafficking.^[36] U.S.-based Jamaican gangs, unlike those in Jamaica, are unsophisticated and lack hierarchy; however, they often maintain ties to Jamaican organized crime and engage in drug and weapons trafficking.^[36]

October 12, 2013

Al Qaeda is Scared and No Match to the Neo Nazi Groups

Al-Qaeda is Scared and No Match to the Neo Nazi Groups

Neo Nazi Groups

Europe

Neo-Nazi march in Munich, Germany, 2005

Austria

Far right parties are among the strongest political parties in Austria.^[7] The success of the far right in Austria has not been the result of economic crisis or social conflict, but primarily of political factors, including the failure of denazification after World War II.^[8]^[9]

The major postwar far right party was the Austrian National Democratic Party (NDP), until it was banned in 1988 for violating Austria’s anti-Nazi legislation, Verbotsgesetz 1947.^[10] The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) served as a shelter for ex-Nazis almost from its inception. In 1980, scandals undermined Austria’s two main parties, and the economy stagnated. Jörg Haider became leader of the FPÖ and offered partial justification for Nazism, calling its employment policy effective. In 1994, the FPÖ won 33 percent of the vote in Carinthia and 22 percent in Vienna, showing that it had become a force capable of reversing the old pattern of Austrian politics. In the 1994 Austrian election, the FPÖ won 22 percent of the vote.^[11]

Historian Walter Laqueur writes that even though Haider welcomed former Nazis at his meetings and went out of his way to address Schutzstaffel (SS) veterans, the FPÖ is not a fascist party in the traditional sense, since it has not made anti-communism an important issue, and does not advocate the overthrow of the democratic order or the use of violence. In his view, the FPÖ is “not quite fascist”, although it is part of a tradition, similar to that of 19th century Viennese mayor Karl Lueger, that involves nationalism, xenophobic populism, and authoritarianism.^[12] Professor Ali Mazrui, however, identified the FPÖ as neo-Nazi in a BBC world lecture.^[13]

Haider, who in 2005 left the Freedom Party and formed the Alliance for Austria’s Future, was killed in a traffic accident in October, 2008.^[14]

Barbara Rosenkranz, the Freedom Party’s candidate for the Austrian presidential election, 2010, is controversial for having made allegedly pro-Nazi statements.^[15] Rosenkranz is married to Horst Rosenkranz, a key member of a banned neo-Nazi party, and known for publishing far-right books. Rosenkranz says she cannot detect anything “dishonourable” in her husband’s activities.^[16]

The volume Rechtsextremismus in Österreich seit 1945 (Right-wing Extremism in Austria since 1945), issued by DÖW in 1979, listed nearly 50 active far right organizations in Austria. Their influence waned gradually, partly due to liberalization programs in secondary schools and universities that emphasized Austrian identity and democratic traditions. Votes for the RFS (Ring Freiheitlicher Studenten), the Freedom Party’s academic student organization, in student elections fell from 30% in the 1960s to 2% in 1987. In the 1995 elections for the student representative body Österreichische Hochschülerschaft (Austrian Students’ Association), the RFS got 4% of the vote. The FPÖ won 22% of the votes at the General Election in the same year.^[17]

A radical non-parliamentary, anti-democratic far-right organization active in Austria was the VAPO (Volkstreue Außerparlamentarische Opposition) founded by the Austrian neo-Nazi Gottfried Küssel in 1986, who publicly declared to be a member of the US-American neo-Nazi organization NSDAP/AO since 1977. Neither an association nor a party, the VAPO was loosely organized in “Kameradschaften” (comradeships) and defined itself as a “battle alliance of nationalist groups and persons” with the aims of “reestablishing the NSDAP” and the “seizure of power”.^[18] In 1993 Küssel was repeatedly convicted on charges of “NS-Wiederbetätigung” (re-engagement in national socialism) under the Austrian anti-Nazi law (Verbotsgesetz 1947) and sentenced to ten years of prison.^[19] The VAPO de facto disbanded in the course of the imprisonment of its leading figures, much due to its loose organizational structure. Due to procedural errors Küssel’s sentence was revoked by the OGH (Austrian High Court) and the trial reheld in 1994 where Küssel was sentenced to eleven years in prison.^[20]

Belgium

Main article: Bloed, Bodem, Eer en Trouw

A Belgian neo-Nazi organization, Bloed, Bodem, Eer en Trouw (Blood, Soil, Honour and Loyalty), was created in 2004 after splitting from the international network (Blood and Honour). The group rose to public prominence in September 2006, after 17 members (including 11 soldiers) were arrested under the December 2003 anti-terrorist laws and laws against racism, antisemitism and supporters of censorship. According to Justice Minister Laurette Onkelinx and Interior Minister Patrick Dewael, the suspects (11 of whom were members of the military) were preparing terrorist attacks in order to “destabilize” Belgium.^[21]^[22] According to journalist Manuel Abramowicz, of the Resistances network, the ultras of the radical right have always had as its aim to “infiltrate the state mechanisms,” including the army in the 1970s and the 1980s, through Westland New Post and the Front de la Jeunesse.^[23]

A police operation, which mobilized 150 agents, searched five military barracks (in Leopoldsburg near the Dutch border: Kleine-Brogel, Peer, Brussels (Royal military school) and Zedelgem– as well as 18 private addresses in Flanders. They found weapons, munitions, explosives, and a homemade bomb large enough to make “a car explode.” The leading suspect, B.T., was organizing the trafficking of weapons, and was developing international links, in particular with the Dutch far right movement De Nationale Alliantie.^[24]^[25]^[26]^[27]^[28]^[29]

Two further incidents of neo-nazism in Belgium include: Demonstrators at an anti-Israel rally in Antwerp, on November 18, 2012 chanted “Hamas, Hamas, all Jews to the gas.”, Murdering Jews by gas was the most common of murder methods by the Nazis, after 1941. On October 9, 2012 in Brussels, A synagogue was vandalized by two unidentified male perpetrators who spray-painted “death to the Jews” and “boom” on the wall of the Beth Hillel synagogue.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

The neo-Nazi white nationalist organization Bosanski Pokret Nacionalnog Ponosa (Bosnian Movement of National Pride) was founded in Bosnia and Herzegovina in July 2009. Their model is the Waffen-SS Handschar Division, composed of Bosnian Muslim volunteers.^[30] They proclaimed their main enemies to be “Jews, Gypsies, Serbian Chetniks, the Croatian separatists, Josip Broz Tito, Communists, homosexuals and blacks“.^[31]^[32] They mix an ideology of Bosnian nationalism, National Socialism and white nationalism. The group is led by a person nicknamed Sauberzwig, after the commander of the 13 SS Handschar. The group’s strongest area of operations is in the Tuzla area of Bosnia.

Croatia

Estonia

In 2006, Roman Ilin, a Jewish theatre director from St. Petersburg, Russia, was attacked by neo-Nazis when returning from an underground tunnel after a rehearsal. Ilin subsequently accused Estonian police of indifference after filing the incident.^[55]^{[dead link]} When a dark-skinned French student was attacked in Tartu, the head of an association of foreign students claimed that the attack was characteristic of a wave of neo-Nazi violence. An Estonian police official, however, stated that there were only a few cases involving foreign students over the previous two years.^[56]^{[dead link]} In November 2006, the Estonian government passed a law banning the display of Nazi symbols.^[57]

The 2008 United Nations Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur’s Report noted that community representatives and non-governmental organizations devoted to human rights had pointed out that neo-Nazi groups were active in Estonia — particularly in Tartu — and had perpetrated acts of violence against non-European minorities.^[58]^{[dead link]}

Hungary

Further information: History of the Jews in Hungary

Today, Neo-Nazism in Hungary takes the form of hatred towards Judaism and Israel, it can be observed from many prominent Hungarian politicians. The most famous example is the MIÉP-Jobbik Third Way Alliance of Parties. Antisemitism in Hungary is manifested mainly in far right publications and demonstrations. Hungarian Justice and Life Party supporters continued their tradition of shouting antisemitic slogans and tearing the US flag to shreds at their annual rallies in Budapest in March 2003 and 2004, commemorating the 1848–49 revolution. Further, during the demonstrations held to celebrate the anniversary of the 1956 uprising, a post-Communist tradition celebrated by the left and right of the political spectrum, antisemitic and anti-Israel slogans were heard from the right wing, such as accusing Israel of war crimes. The center-right traditionally keeps its distance from the right-wing Csurka-led and other far-right demonstrations.^[59] On February 2–3, 2008 Two teenagers, ages 15 and 16, spray-painted swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans on 24 graves in a local Jewish cemetery. The boys also admitted to defacing a Holocaust memorial and a store owned by Chinese immigrants. On January 23, 2011 Three teenagers toppled 75 tombstones in a Jewish cemetery and admitted to police that they were “showing off” for one another. Prime Minister Orbán’s spokesman condemned the incident, saying, “vandalism triggered by anti-Semitism” is “offensive to the Hungarian Jewish community and to all Hungarians.” He added that “the government condemns vandalism and will punish such acts.” At March 25, 2012 another Jewish cemetery was desecrated when vandals toppled 57 tombstones in the Kaposvar’s Jewish cemetery. At July 22, 2012 The main Holocaust memorial was vandalized with Stars of David and graffiti that said, “This is not your country, dirty Jews” and “You are going to be shot there” next to an arrow pointing to the nearby Danube river, in the same place at December 1944 and January 1945, the Nazi-allied Hungarian Arrow Cross shot about 20,000 Jews on the banks of the Danube and threw them into the river. Just days prior to this incident, a statue of Raoul Wallenberg was vandalized with pigs feet. On June 9, 2012 A large menorah outside the Jewish community’s Holocaust memorial was vandalized in Nagykanizsa. In the same city another Holocaust memorial was vandalized later on that year on November 19, 2012. On October 25, 2012 Supporters of the ultranationalist Jobbik political party burned an Israeli flag in front of the city’s main Synagogue. At November 26, 2012, In a parliamentary session to discuss the conflict in Gaza, ultranationalist Jobbik party member Márton Gyöngyösi suggested that members of the Hungarian Parliament who are Jewish or of Jewish origin be counted and registered, “in order to avoid the national security risk caused by the Jews.”, not unlike the lists of Jews used during the Holocaust.

France

Main article: History of far-right movements in France

Neo-Nazi organizations in France are outlawed, yet a significant number exist.^[60] Legal far-right groups are also numerous, and include the Bloc identitaire, created by former members of Christian Bouchet‘s Unité Radicale group. Close to National Bolshevism and Third Position ideologies, Unité Radicale was dissolved in 2002 following Maxime Brunerie‘s assassination attempt on July 14, 2002 against then-President Jacques Chirac. Christian Bouchet had previously been a member of Nouvelle Résistance (NR), an offshoot of Troisième Voie (Third Way) which described itself as “nationalist revolutionary”. Although Nouvelle Résistance at first opposed the “national conservatives” of Jean-Marie Le Pen‘s National Front, it changed strategy, adopting the slogan “Less Leftism! More Fascism!^[61] ” Nouvelle Résistance was also a successor to Jean-François Thiriart‘s Jeune Europe neo-Nazi Europeanist movement of the 1960s, which had participated in the National Party of Europe, along with Oswald Mosley‘s Union Movement, Otto Strasser and others. The French government estimated that neo-Nazi groups in France had 3,500 members.^[62] In 2011 alone, 129 violent actions were recorded in France against Jewish pupulation., with 60.5% of those those cases occurred in the Île-de-France region. The CNCDH notes that in 19 cases, these violent actions could be imputed to persons of ‘Arab origin or Muslim confession’, with 15 others relating to neo-Nazi ideology, mainly consisting of displaying swastikas. In relation to these violent actions 36 persons were arrested, 28 of whom were minors. Of the 129 violent actions recorded, 50.4% were for degradations, 44.2% for violence and assault and battery, and the remaining 5.4% for arson. In France in 2011, 260 threats were recorded, with 53% of those (138 cases) occurring in the Île-de-France region. Of these threats, 15% related to neo-Nazi ideology, with another 14% imputable to persons of ‘Arab origin or Muslim confession’. Thirty-two persons were arrested in relation to these threats, nine of whom were minors. Of the 260 threats, 44% consisted of speech acts and threatening gestures and insults, 38% of graffiti and the remaining 18% of pamphlets and emails.^[63]

Germany

Main article: Far right in Germany

Anti-Nazi demonstration in Dresden, Germany, February 13, 2012

In Germany, immediately after World War II, Allied forces and the new German government attempted to prevent the creation of new Nazi movements through a process known as denazification. The West German government had passed strict laws prohibiting Nazis from publicly expressing their beliefs, as well as barring them from politics. Displaying the swastika was an offense punishable by up to one year imprisonment. There was little overt neo-National Socialist activity in Europe until the 1960s, although some former National Socialists retained their political beliefs and passed them down to new generations. After German reunification in the 1990s, post-National Socialist groups gained more followers, mostly among disaffected teenagers in the former East Germany.^[64] They have expressed an aversion to people from Slavic countries (especially Poland) and people of other national backgrounds who moved from the former West Germany into the former East Germany after Germany was reunited.^{[citation needed]}

According to the annual report of Germany’s interior intelligence service (Verfassungsschutz) for 2012, at the time there were 26,000 right-wing extremists living in Germany, including 6000 neo-Nazis.^[65] Neo-Nazi organizations, related and derivative symbols and Holocaust denial are outlawed in Germany according to the German Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch § 86a) and § 130 (public incitement).

Greece

The far right political party Golden Dawn (Chrysi Avyi) is often labeled as neo-Nazi, although the group rejects this label. A few Golden Dawn members participated in the Bosnian War in the Greek Volunteer Guard (GVG) and were present in Srebrenica during the Srebrenica massacre.^[66]^[67] Another Greek neo-Nazi group is the Strasserist “Mavros Krinos” (Μαύρος Κρίνος – Black Lily).

In the elections of 6 May 2012, Golden Dawn received 6.97% of the votes, entering the Greek parliament for the first time with 21 representatives. Due to no coalition amongst the elected parties so as to form a Greek Government, new elections were proclaimed.

In the elections of 17 June 2012, Golden Dawn received 6.92% of the votes, entering the Greek parliament with 18 representatives.

Netherlands

The Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism reports that on 17 May 2011 in Leek (Groningen), antisemitic graffiti were found at a Jewish school. The graffiti consisted of a swastika and the text “C18”, or Combat 18, a neo-Nazi organisation active throughout Europe. The number 18 refers to the initials of Adolf Hitler, A and H being the first and eight letters of the alphabet, respectively.^[68]

Russia

Main articles: Racism in Russia and Radical nationalism in Russia

Neo-Nazism in Russia: The photograph was taken at a anti-homosexual demonstration in Moscow in October 2010

Many Russian neo-Nazis openly admire Adolf Hitler and use the German Nazi swastika as their symbol. Russian neo-Nazis are characterized by racism, antisemitism, homophobia, Islamophobia and extreme xenophobia towards people from Asia.^[69] Their ideology centers on defending Russian national identity against what they perceive as a takeover by minority groups such as Jews, Caucasians, homosexuals, Central Asians, Roma people and Muslims. Russian neo-Nazis have made it an explicit goal to take over the country by force, and have put serious effort into preparing for this. Paramilitary organizations operating under the guise of sports clubs have trained their members in squad tactics, hand to hand combat and weapons handling. They have stockpiled and used weapons, often illegally.

Observers have noted the irony of Russians embracing neo-Nazism, because one of Hitler’s ambitions at the start of World War II was to exterminate, expel, or enslave most or all Slavs from central and eastern Europe (i.e., Russians, Ukrainians, Poles etc.).^[70] At the end of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, over 25 million Soviet citizens had died.^[71] In a 2007 news story, the ABC News reported, “In a country that lost more people defeating the Nazis than any other country, there are now an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 neo-Nazis, half of the world’s total.”^[72]

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 caused great economic and social problems, including widespread unemployment and poverty. Several far right paramilitary organizations were able to tap into popular discontent, particularly among marginalized, lesser educated and unemployed youths. Of the three major age groups — youths, adults, and the elderly — youths may have been hit the hardest. The elderly suffered due to inadequate (or unpaid) pensions, but they found effective political representation in the Communist Party, and generally had their concerns addressed through better budget allocations. Adults, although often suffering financially and psychologically due to job losses, were generally able to find new sources of income.

Russian National Unity (RNE), founded in 1990 and led by Alexander Barkashov, has claimed to have members in 250 cities. RNE adopted the swastika as its symbol, and sees itself as the avant-garde of a coming national revolution. It is critical of other major far right organizations, such as the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR). Historian Walter Laqueur calls RNE far closer to the Nazi model than the LDPR. RNE publishes several news sheets; one of them, Russky poryadok, claims to have a circulation of 150,000. Full members of RNE are called Soratnik (comrades in arms), receive combat training at locations near Moscow, and many of them work as security officers or armed guards.^[73]

On August 15, 2007, Russian authorities arrested a student for allegedly posting a video on the Internet which appears to show two migrant workers being beheaded in front of a red and black swastika flag.^[74] Alexander Verkhovsky, the head of a Moscow-based center that monitors hate crime in Russia, said, “It looks like this is the real thing. The killing is genuine … There are similar videos from the Chechen war. But this is the first time the killing appears to have been done intentionally.”^[75] A Russian neo-Nazi group called the Russian National Socialist Party claimed responsibility for the murders.

Serbia

Sweden

Neo-Nazi activities in Sweden have been limited to white supremacist groups, none of which has more than a few hundred members.^[77] The main neo-Nazi organization is the Swedish Resistance Movement.

Switzerland

Asia

Israel

Neo-Nazism activity is not common or widespread in Israel, and the few activities reported have all been the work of extremists, who were punished severely. One notable case is that of Patrol 36, a cell in Petah Tikva made up of eight teenage immigrants from the former Soviet Union who had been attacking foreign workers and homosexuals, and vandalizing synagogues with Nazi images.^[78]^[79] These neo-Nazis were reported to have operated in cities across Israel, and have been described as being influenced by the rise of neo-Nazism in Europe.^[78]^[79]^[80] Widely publicized arrests have led to a call to reform the Law of Return to permit the revocation of Israeli citizenship for – and the subsequent deportation of – neo-Nazis.^[79]

Mongolia

Flag of the Dayar Mongol, a neo-Nazi party in Mongolia

Neo-Nazism is a growing political force in Mongolia. From 2008, Mongolian Neo-Nazi groups have defaced buildings in Ulan Bator, smashed Chinese shopkeepers’ windows, and killed pro-Chinese Mongols. The Neo-Nazi Mongols’ targets for violence are Chinese, Koreans,^[81] Mongol women who sleep with Chinese men, and LGBT people.^[82] They wear Nazi uniforms and revere the Mongol Empire and Genghis Khan. During World War II, the invading Nazi Germans also recruited Mongol Kalmyks to fight for them against the Soviet Union. Though Tsagaan Khass leaders say they do not support violence, they are self-proclaimed Nazis. “Adolf Hitler was someone we respect. He taught us how to preserve national identity,” said the 41-year-old co-founder, who calls himself Big Brother. “We don’t agree with his extremism and starting the second world war. We are against all those killings, but we support his ideology. We support nationalism rather than fascism.” Some have ascribed it to poor historical education.^[81]

Myanmar

The Straits Times writes that the 969 Movement, which it says “is described as as Myanmar’s ‘neo-Nazi group'”, is facing scrutiny for “its role in spreading anti-Muslim sentiment“.^[83]

The Americas

Brazil

Further information: Racism in Brazil

Brazilian neo-Nazi is led away from the stadium

Several Brazilian neo-Nazi gangs appeared in the 1990s in Southern Brazil and Southeastern Brazil, regions with mostly white people, with their acts gaining more media coverage and public notoriety in the 2000s.^[84]^[85]^[86]^[87]^[88]^[89]^[90] Some members of Brazilian neo-Nazi groups have been associated with football hooliganism.^[91]

Their targets have included African, South American and Asian immigrants; Jews; Afro-Brazilians and internal migrants with origins in the northern regions of Brazil (who are mostly brown-skinned or Afro-Brazilian);^[89]^[92] homeless people, prostitutes; recreational drug users; feminists and — more frequently reported in the media — homosexuals, bisexuals, the third-gendered and the transgendered.^[88]^[93]^[94] News of their attacks has played a role in debates about anti-discrimination laws in Brazil (including to some extent hate speech laws) and the issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.^[95]^[96]^[97]

Recently, neo-nazi groups were caught by police inside the crowd of Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense. ^[98]

Canada

Neo-Nazism has existed in Canada as a branch of right-wing radicalism and has been a source of considerable controversy during the last 50 years. As Adolf Hitler was assuming control of Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, Adrien Arcand’s National Social Christian Party dominated the white supremacist front.^[99] After World War II, racism and Nazism lost popularity, and far-right white supremacist movements faded into the background. Contemporary Neo-Nazism in Canada began with the formation of the Canadian Nazi Party in 1965. In the 1970s and 1980s, Neo-Nazism continued to spread as organizations including the Western Guard and Church of the Creator promoted white supremacist ideals.^[99] Neo-Nazism in Canada was revitalized in 1989 with the institution of the Heritage Front organization and the rise in popularity of skinhead music. However, controversy and dissention has left many Canadian Neo-Nazi organizations dissolved or weakened in the last few years.^[100] On April 12, 2012 Several Jewish-owned summer homes in Val Morin were broken into and defaced with Swastikas and anti-Semitic messages. Three major Neo-Nazi orginastions in Canada include: |Nationalist Party of Canada, which is a political party established in 1977 by Don Andrews. The Party affirms to promote and maintain European Heritage in Canada, but is known for its anti-Semitism. Many influential Neo-Nazi Leaders such as Wolfgang Droege affiliated with the party but after the formation of Heritage Front in 1989, the majority of radicals left to join the new and promising Heritage Front.^[100] The |Heritage Front, which was a Neo-Nazi organization created by Wolfgang Droege in 1989 in Toronto. Leaders of the white supremacist movement were “disgruntled about the state of the radical right” ^[100] and wanted to unite and intensify the unorganized groups of white supremacists into an influential and efficient group with common objectives. Plans for the organization began in September 1989 and Heritage Front was formally announced a couple of months later in November. And the Church of the Creator, which is a religion established by Ben Klassen in 1973.^[101] The church teaches that the Aryan race is the chosen race and calls for Rahowa, or Racial Holy War to be raged against Jews and other races.^[101] Although Creativity is religion, it acts as political organization and promotes and organizes neo-Nazi and skinhead functions. Nonetheless, Creativity endorses legal and non violent demonstrations.^[102] In Canada, the Creativity movement was made popular by George Burdi.^[103]

Chile

After the dissolution of the National Socialist Movement of Chile (MNSCH) in 1938 notable former members of MNSCH migrated into Partido Agrario Laborista (PAL) obtaining high charges.^[104] Not all former MNSCH members joined the PAL, some would actually continue to form parties of the MNSCH line until 1952.^[104] A new old-school Nazi party was formed in 1964 by school teacher Franz Pfeiffer.^[104] Among the activities of this group were the organization of a Miss Nazi beauty contest and the formation of a Chilean branch of the Ku Klux Klan.^[104] The party disbanded in 1970. Franz Pfeiffer attempted to found it again in 1983 in the wake of a wave of prostest against the Pinochet regime.^[104]

“	The Chilean roto is thus Araucanian–Gothic (…) Im ready to prove it.	”
—Nicolás Palacios^[105]

The approach influenced by Palacios elevates the Chilean Mestizo in status, since he considered the “Chilean race” a mix of two bellicose master races: the Visigoths of Spain and the Mapuche (Araucanians) of Chile.^[105] Nicolás Palacios traces the origins of the Spanish component of the “Chilean race” to the coast of the Baltic Sea, specifically to Götaland in Sweden,^[105] one of the supposed homelands of the Goths. Palacios claimed that both the blonde and the bronze coloured Chilean Mestizo share a “moral physonomy” and a masculine psychology.^[106] He opposed immigration from Southern Europe, and argued on medical grounds that Mestizos derived from south Europeans lack “cerebral control”, and are a social load.^[107]

Costa Rica

Several neo-Nazi groups exist in Costa Rica, and the first to be in the spotlight was the Costa Rican National Socialist Party, which is now disbanded.^[108] Others include Costa Rican National Socialist Youth, Costa Rican National Socialist Alliance, New Social Order, Costa Rican National Socialist Resistance (which is Costa Rica’s member of the World Union of National Socialists)^[109] and the Hiperborean Spear Society. The groups normally target Jewish–Costa Ricans, Afro-Costa Ricans, communists, homosexuals and specially Nicaraguan and Colombian immigrants. The media has discovered the existence of an underground neo-Nazi group inside the police.^[110]

United States

The NSM rally on the West lawn of the US Capitol, Washington DC, 2008

There are a number of neo-Nazi groups in the United States. The National Socialist Movement (NSM), with about 400 members in 32 states,^[111] is currently the largest neo-Nazi organization in the United States.^[112] After WWII, new organizations formed with varying degrees of support for Nazi principles. The National States’ Rights Party, founded in 1958 by Edward Reed Fields and J. B. Stoner countered racial integration in the American southern states with Nazi-inspired publications and iconography. The American Nazi Party, founded by George Lincoln Rockwell in 1959, achieved high-profile coverage in the press through their public demonstrations.^[113]

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, which allows political organizations great latitude in expressing Nazi, racist, anti-Semitic, and Neo-Confederate views. A First Amendment landmark case was National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, in which neo-Nazis threatened to march in a predominantly Jewish suburb of Chicago. The march never took place in Skokie, but the court ruling allowed the neo-Nazis to stage a series of demonstrations in the Chicago area.

The Institute for Historical Review, formed in 1978, is a holocaust denial body associated with neo-Nazism.

Organizations which report upon American neo-Nazi activities include the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center. While a small minority of American neo-Nazis draw public attention, most operate underground, so they can recruit, organize and raise funds without interference or harassment. American neo-Nazis are known to attack and harass Jews, African Americans, homosexuals, Asian Americans, Latinos, Arab Americans, Native Americans, “race traitors” and people with different political or religious opinions.^[114] American neo-Nazi groups often operate websites, occasionally stage public demonstrations, and maintain ties to groups in Europe and elsewhere.^[115]

October 12, 2013

Al Qaeda is Scared and No Match to the Mafia and Organized Crime Groups

Al-Qaeda is Scared and No Match to the Mafia and Organized Crime Groups

Organized crime, Organised crime, and often criminal organizations are a group of terms which categorise transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals, who intend to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are politically motivated. Sometimes criminal organizations force people to do business with them, as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for so-called “protection“.^[1] Gangs may become disciplined enough to be considered organized. An organized gang or criminal set can also be referred to as a mob.^[2]

Other organizations like, States, the Army, Police, Governments and Corporations may sometimes use organized crime methods to conduct their business, but their powers derive from their status as formal social institutions. There is a tendency to distinguish organized crime from other forms of crimes, such as, white-collar crime, financial crimes, political crimes, war crime, state crimes and treason. This distinction is not always apparent and the academic debate is ongoing.^[3] For example, in failed states that can no longer perform basic functions such as education, security, or governance, usually due to fractious violence or extreme poverty, organised crime, governance and war are often complimentary to each other. The term Parliamentary Mafiocracy is often attributed to democratic countries whose political, social and economic institutions are under the control of few families and business oligarchs.^[4]

In the United States, the Organized Crime Control Act (1970) defines organized crime as “The unlawful activities of […] a highly organized, disciplined association […]”.^[5] Criminal activity as a structured group is referred to as racketeering and such crime is commonly referred to as the work of the Mob. In the UK, police estimate organized crime involves up to 38,000 people operating in 6,000 various groups.^[6] In addition, due to the escalating violence of Mexico’s drug war, the Mexican drug cartels are considered the “greatest organized crime threat to the United States” according to a report issued by the United States Department of Justice.^[7]

October 12, 2013

Al Qaeda is Scared and No Match to the Chinese Triads

Al-Qaeda

Triad refers to the many branches of Chinese (Cantonese) transnational organized crime organizations based in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and also in countries with significant Chinese populations, such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Siam (now Thailand), Japan, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

October 12, 2013

Al Qaeda is Scared and No Match to the Russian Mafia

Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda (/ælˈkaɪdə/ al-KY-də; Arabic: القاعدة‎ al-qāʿidah, Arabic: [ælqɑːʕɪdɐ], translation: “The Base” and alternatively spelled al-Qaida and sometimes al-Qa’ida) is a global militant Islamist organization founded by Osama bin Laden in Peshawar, Pakistan,^[20] at some point between August 1988^[21] and late 1989,^[22] with its origins being traceable to the Soviet War in Afghanistan.^[23] It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army^[24] and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad and a strict interpretation of sharia law. It has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations Security Council, NATO, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, India and various other countries (see below). Al-Qaeda has carried out many attacks on non-Sunni Muslims,^[25] non-Muslims,^[26]^[27] and other targets it considers kafir.^[28]

Characteristic techniques employed by al-Qaeda include suicide attacks and simultaneous bombings of different targets.^[29] Activities ascribed to it may involve members of the movement, who have taken a pledge of loyalty to Osama bin Laden, or the much more numerous “al-Qaeda-linked” individuals who have undergone training in one of its camps in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq or Sudan, but who have not taken any pledge.^[30] Al-Qaeda ideologues envision a complete break from all foreign influences in Muslim countries, and the creation of a new world-wide Islamic caliphate.^[3]^[31]^[32] Among the beliefs ascribed to Al-Qaeda members is the conviction that a Christian–Jewish alliance is conspiring to destroy Islam.^[33] As Salafist jihadists, they believe that the killing of civilians is religiously sanctioned, and they ignore any aspect of religious scripture which might be interpreted as forbidding the murder of civilians and internecine fighting.^[9]^[34] Al-Qaeda also opposes man-made laws, and wants to replace them with a strict form of sharia law.^[35]

Al-Qaeda is also responsible for instigating sectarian violence among Muslims.^[36] Al-Qaeda is intolerant of non-Sunni branches of Islam and denounces them by means of excommunications called “takfir“. Al-Qaeda leaders regard liberal Muslims, Shias, Sufis and other sects as heretics and have attacked their mosques and gatherings.^[37] Examples of sectarian attacks include the Yazidi community bombings, the Sadr City bombings, the Ashoura Massacre and the April 2007 Baghdad bombings.^[38]

The Russian Mafia (Russian: русская мафия; russkaya mafiya) is a term used to refer to the collective of various organized organized crime elements originating in the former Soviet Union. Although not a singular criminal organization, most of the individual groups share similar goals and organizational structures^{[citation needed]} that define them as part of the loose overall association.

Organized crime in Russia began in its imperial period of Tsars, but it was not until the Soviet era that vory v zakone (“thieves-in-law”) emerged as leaders of prison groups in gulags (Soviet prison labor camps), and their honor code became more defined. After World War II, the death of Joseph Stalin, and the fall of the Soviet Union, more gangs emerged in a flourishing black market, exploiting the unstable governments of the former Republics, and at its highest point, even controlling as much as two-thirds of the Russian economy. Louis Freeh, former director of the FBI, had once said the Russian mafia posed the greatest threat to U.S. national security in the mid-1990s.^[2]

In modern times, there are as many as 6,000 different groups^{[citation needed]}, with more than 200 of them having a global reach. Criminals of these various groups are either former prison members^{[clarification needed]}, corrupt Communist officials and business leaders, people with ethnic ties, or people from the same region with shared criminal experiences and leaders^{[clarification needed]}.^[3] However, the existence of such groups has been debatable^{[clarification needed]}. In December 2009, Timur Lakhonin, the head of the Russian National Central Bureau of Interpol, stated, “Certainly, there is crime involving our former compatriots abroad, but there is no data suggesting that an organized structure of criminal groups comprising former Russians exists abroad”,^[4] while in August 2010, Alain Bauer, a French criminologist, said that it “is one of the best structured criminal organizations in Europe, with a quasi-military operation.”^[5]

October 12, 2013

Jemaah Islamiah is Scared to the Mexican Drug Cartels

Jemaah Islamiah ^[1] (Arabic: الجماعة الإسلامية‎, al-Jamāʿat ul-Islāmíyatu, meaning “Islamic Congregation”, frequently abbreviated JI),^[2] is a Southeast Asian militant Islamist terrorist organization dedicated to the establishment of a Daulah Islamiyah (regional Islamic caliphate) in Southeast Asia.^[3]^[4] On 25 October, 2002, immediately following the JI perpetrated Bali bombing, JI was added to the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 as a terrorist organization linked to al-Qaeda or the Taliban.^[5]

JI is a transnational organization with cells in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.^[6] In addition to al-Qaeda the group is also thought to have links to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front^[6] and Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid, a splinter cell of the JI which was formed by Abu Bakar Baasyir on 27 July 2008 and was later also added to the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.^[7] It remained very active in Indonesia where it publicly maintained a website as of January 2013.^[8]

Mexican cartels

Further information: List of Mexico’s 37 most-wanted drug lords

Origin

The birth of all Mexican drug cartels is traced to former Mexican Judicial Federal Police agent Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (“The Godfather”), who founded the Guadalajara Cartel in 1980 and controlled all illegal drug trade in Mexico and the trafficking corridors across the Mexico-USA border throughout the 1980s.^[57] He started off by smuggling marijuana and opium into the U.S.A., and was the first Mexican drug chief to link up with Colombia‘s cocaine cartels in the 1980s. Through his connections, Félix Gallardo became the point man for the Medellin cartel, which was run by Pablo Escobar.^[58] This was easily accomplished because Félix Gallardo had already established an infrastructure that stood ready to serve the Colombia-based traffickers.

There were no cartels at that time in Mexico. Félix Gallardo was the lord of Mexican drug smugglers. He oversaw all operations; there was just him, his cronies, and the politicians who sold him protection.^[59] However, the Guadalajara Cartel suffered a major blow in 1985 when the group’s co-founder Rafael Caro Quintero was captured, and later convicted, for the murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena.^[60]^[61] Félix Gallardo afterwards kept a low profile and in 1987 he moved with his family to Guadalajara. According to Peter Dale Scott, the Guadalajara Cartel prospered largely because it enjoyed the protection of the Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS), under its chief Miguel Nazar Haro, a CIA asset.^[62]

“The Godfather” then decided to divide up the trade he controlled as it would be more efficient and less likely to be brought down in one law enforcement swoop.^[63] In a way, he was privatizing the Mexican drug business while sending it back underground, to be run by bosses who were less well known or not yet known by the DEA. Gallardo convened the nation’s top drug traffickers at a house in the resort of Acapulco where he designated the plazas or territories.^[63]

The Tijuana route would go to the Arellano Felix brothers. The Ciudad Juárez route would go to the Carrillo Fuentes family. Miguel Caro Quintero would run the Sonora corridor. The control of the Matamoros, Tamaulipas corridor—then becoming the Gulf Cartel—would be left undisturbed to its founder Juan García Abrego. Meanwhile, Joaquín Guzmán Loera and Ismael Zambada García would take over Pacific coast operations, becoming the Sinaloa Cartel. Guzmán and Zambada brought veteran Héctor Luis Palma Salazar back into the fold. Félix Gallardo still planned to oversee national operations, as he maintained important connections, but he would no longer control all details of the business.^[63]

Félix Gallardo was arrested on 8 April 1989.^[64]

Major cartels

Los Zetas

Main article: Los Zetas Cartel

In 1999, Gulf Cartel’s leader, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, hired a group of 31 corrupt former elite military soldiers to work for him. These former Airmobile Special Forces Group (GAFE), and Amphibian Group of Special Forces (GANFE) soldiers became known as Los Zetas and began operating as a private army for the Gulf Cartel. During the early 2000s the Zetas were instrumental in the Gulf Cartel’s domination of the drug trade in much of Mexico.

After the 2007 arrest and extradition of Gulf Cartel leader, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, the Zetas seized the opportunity to strike out on their own. Under the leadership of Heriberto Lazcano, the Zetas, numbering approximately 300, gradually set up its own independent drug, arms and human-trafficking networks.^[65] In 2008, Los Zetas made a deal with ex-Sinaloa cartel commanders, the Beltrán-Leyva brothers and since then, became rivals of their former employer/partner, the Gulf Cartel.^[66]^[67]

In early 2010 the Zetas made public their split from the Gulf Cartel and began a bloody war with Gulf Cartel over control of Northeast Mexico’s drug trade routes.^[68] This war has resulted in the deaths of thousands of cartel members and suspected members. Furthermore, due to alliance structures, the Gulf Cartel- Los Zetas conflict drew in other cartels, namely the Sinaloa Cartel which fought the Zetas in 2010 and 2011.^[69]

The Zetas are notorious for targeting civilians, including the mass-murder of 72 migrants in the San Fernando massacre.^[70]

The Zetas involved themselves in more than drug trafficking and have also been connected to human trafficking, pipeline trafficked oil theft, extortion, and trading pirated CDs.^[69] Their criminal network is said to reach far from Mexico including into Central America, the U.S.A and Europe.^[69]

On 15 July 2013, the Mexican Navy arrested the top Zeta boss Miguel Trevino Morales.^[71]

Sinaloa Cartel

Main article: Sinaloa Cartel

Sinaloa Cartel Plaza Bosses as of May 2013

The Sinaloa Cartel began to contest the Gulf Cartel’s domination of the coveted southwest Texas corridor following the arrest of Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cárdenas in March 2003. The “Federation” was the result of a 2006 accord between several groups located in the Pacific state of Sinaloa. The cartel is led by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, Mexico’s most-wanted drug trafficker and whose estimated net worth of US$1 billion makes him the 1140th richest man in the world and the 55th most powerful, according to his Forbes magazine profile.^[72] In February 2010, new alliances were formed against Los Zetas and Beltran Leyva Cartel.^[66]

The Sinaloa Cartel fought the Juarez Cartel in a long and bloody battle for control over drug trafficking routes in and around the northern city of Ciudad Juarez. The battle eventually resulted in defeat for the Juarez Cartel but not before taking the lives of between 5-12,000 people in drug related violence.^[73] During the war for the turf in Ciudad Juarez the Sinaloa Cartel used several gangs (e.g. Los Mexicles, the Artistas Asesinos and Gente Nueva) to attack the Juarez Cartel.^[73] The Juarez Cartel similarly used gangs such as the La Linea and the Aztecas to fight the Sinaloa Cartel.^[73]

As of May 2010, numerous reports by Mexican and US media claimed that Sinaloa had infiltrated the Mexican federal government and military, and colluded with it to destroy the other cartels.^[74]^[75] The Colima, Sonora and Milenio Cartels are now branches of the Sinaloa Cartel.^[76]

Gulf Cartel

Main article: Gulf Cartel

Mexican Army raids a house in Matamoros, Tamaulipas in 2012.

The Gulf Cartel (Cartel del Golfo), based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, has been one of Mexico’s two dominant cartels in recent years. In the late 1990s, it hired a private mercenary army (an enforcer group now called Los Zetas), which in 2006 stepped up as a partner but, in February 2010, their partnership was dissolved and both groups engaged in widespread violence across several border cities of Tamaulipas state,^[66]^[77] turning several border towns into “ghost towns”.^[78]

The Gulf Cartel (CDG) was strong at the beginning of 2011, holding off several Zetas incursions into its territory. However, as the year progressed, internal divisions led to intra-cartel battles in Matamoros and Reynosa, Tamaulipas state. The infighting resulted in several arrests and deaths in Mexico and in the United States. The CDG has since broken apart, and it appears that one faction, known as Los Metros, has overpowered its rival Los Rojos faction and is now asserting its control over CDG operations.^[79]

The infighting has weakened the CDG, but the group seems to have maintained control of its primary plazas, or smuggling corridors, into the United States.^[79] The Mexican federal government has made notable successes in capturing the leadership of the Gulf Cartel. Osiel Cardenas Guillen, his brothers Antonio Cardenas Guillen, Mario Cardenas Guillen, and Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez have all been captured and incarcerated during Felipe Calderon‘s administration.

La Familia Cartel

Main article: La Familia Michoacana

La Familia Michoacana was a major Mexican drug cartel based in Michoacán between at least 2006 and 2011. It was formerly allied to the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, but split off and became an independent organization.^[80]

In 2009-2010, a counter-narcotics offensive by Mexican and U.S. government agencies produced the arrest of at least 345 suspected La Familia members in the U.S., and the death of one of the cartel’s founders, Nazario “El Chayo” Moreno González, on December 9, 2010.^[81] The cartel then divided into the Knights Templar Cartel and a José de Jesús Méndez Vargas-led faction, which kept the name La Familia. Following the cartel’s fragmentation in late 2010 and early 2011, the La Familia Cartel under Méndez Vargas fought the Knights Templar Cartel but on June 21, 2011 Méndez Vargas was arrested by Mexican authorities^[81] and in mid-2011 the Attorney General in Mexico (PGR) stated that La Familia Cartel had been “exterminated,”^[82] leaving only the splinter group, the Knights Templar Cartel.^[83]^[84]

In February 2010, La Familia forged an alliance with the Gulf Cartel against Los Zetas and Beltrán Leyva Cartel.^[66]

Tijuana Cartel

Main article: Tijuana Cartel

Francisco Javier Arellano Félix is arrested by the DEA.

The Tijuana Cartel, also known as the Arellano Felix Organization, was once among Mexico’s most powerful.^[85] It is based in Tijuana, one of the most strategically important border towns in Mexico,^[86] and continues to export drugs even after being weakened by an internal war in 2009. Due to infighting, arrests and the deaths of some of its top members, the Tijuana Cartel is a fraction of what it was in the 1990s and early 2000s, when it was considered one of the most potent and violent criminal organizations in Mexico by the police. After the arrest or assassination of various members of the Arellano Felix clan, the cartel is currently headed by Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano, a nephew of the Arellano Felix brothers.

Knights Templar

Main article: Knights Templar Cartel

The Knights Templar drug cartel (Spanish: Caballeros Templarios) was created in Michoacán in March 2011 after the death of the charismatic leader of La Familia Michoacana cartel, Nazario Moreno González.^[87] The Cartel is headed by Enrique Plancarte Solís and Servando Gómez Martínez who formed the Knights Templar due to differences with José de Jesús Méndez Vargas, who had assumed leadership of La Familia Michoacana.^[88]

After the emergence of the Knights Templar, sizable battles flared up during the spring and summer months between the Knights Templar and La Familia.^[89] The organization has grown from a splinter group to a dominant force over La Familia, and at the end of 2011, following the arrest of José de Jesús “El Chango” Méndez Vargas, leader of La Familia, the cartel appeared to have taken over the bulk of La Familia’s operations in Mexico and the U.S.^[89] In 2011 the Knights Templar appeared to have aligned with the Sinaloa Federation in an effort to root out the remnants of La Familia and to prevent Los Zetas from gaining a more substantial foothold in the Michoacán region of central Mexico.^[90]^[91]

A map of Mexican drug cartels based on a May 2010 Stratfor report.^[92]^[93]

Tijuana Cartel

Beltrán Leyva Cartel

Sinaloa Cartel

Juárez Cartel

La Familia Michoacana

Gulf Cartel

Los Zetas

Disputed territories

Alliances or agreements between drug cartels have been shown to be fragile, tense and temporary. Mexican drug cartels have increased their co-operation with U.S. street and prison gangs to expand their distribution networks within the U.S.^[39]

Beltrán Leyva Cartel

Main article: Beltrán Leyva Cartel

The Beltrán Leyva Cartel was a Mexican drug cartel and organized crime syndicate founded by the four Beltrán Leyva brothers: Marcos Arturo, Carlos, Alfredo and Héctor.^[94]^[95]^[96]^[97] In 2004 and 2005, Arturo Beltrán Leyva led powerful groups of assassins to fight for trade routes in northeastern Mexico for the Sinaloa Cartel. Through the use of corruption or intimidation, the Beltrán Leyva Cartel was able to infiltrate Mexico’s political,^[98] judicial^[99] and police institutions to feed classified information about anti-drug operations,^[100]^[101] and even infiltrated the Interpol office in Mexico.^[102]

Following the December, 2009 death of the cartel’s leader Arturo Beltrán Leyva by Mexican Marines the cartel entered into an internal power struggle between Arturo’s brother, Héctor Beltrán Leyva, and Arturo’s top enforcer Edgar Valdez Villarreal.^[103] Meanwhile the cartel continued to dissolve with factions such as the South Pacific Cartel, La Mano Con Ojos, Independent Cartel of Acapulco, and La Barredora forming and the latter two cartels starting yet another intra-Beltrán Leyva Cartel conflict.^[103]

The Mexican Federal Police considers the cartel to have been disbanded,^[104]^[105] and the last cartel leader, Héctor Beltrán Leyva, apparently has been inactive and remains a fugitive; the U.S.A. is offering a US$5 million bounty for information leading to his arrest,^[106] while the Mexican government is offering a US$2.1 million bounty.^[107]^[108]

Juárez Cartel

Main article: Juárez Cartel

The Juárez Cartel controls one of the primary transportation routes for billions of dollars worth of illegal drug shipments annually entering the United States from Mexico.^[109] Since 2007, the Juárez Cartel has been locked in a vicious battle with its former partner, the Sinaloa Cartel, for control of Ciudad Juárez. La Línea is a group of Mexican drug traffickers and corrupt Juárez and Chihuahua state police officers who work as the armed wing of the Juárez Cartel.^[110] Vicente Carrillo Fuentes heads the Juárez Cartel.

In 2011, the Juárez Cartel continues to weaken,^[111]^[112] however, still controls the three main points of entry into El Paso, Texas. The Juárez Cartel is only a shadow of the organization it was a decade ago, and its weakness and inability to effectively fight against Sinaloa’s advances in Juarez contributed to the lower death toll in Juarez in 2011.^[113]

On September 1, 2013, Mexican authorities arrested the alleged leader Juárez Cartel leader Alberto Carrillo Fuentes, alias Betty la Fea (Ugly Betty) in the western state of Nayarit without any resistance.^[114]

October 12, 2013

2 Comments

Muslim Brotherhood is Scared and No Match to the Mexican Drug Cartels

Muslim Brotherhood is Scared to the Mexican Drug Cartels

The Society of the Muslim Brothers (Arabic: جماعة الإخوان المسلمين‎, الإخوان المسلمون, the Muslim Brotherhood, transliterated: al-ʾIkḫwān al-Muslimūn) is a transnational Islamic political organization. Founded in Egypt in 1928^[1] as a Pan-Islamic, religious, and social movement by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna,^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] by the end of World War II the Muslim Brotherhood had an estimated two million members.^[6] Its ideas had gained supporters throughout the Arab world and influenced other Islamist groups with its “model of political activism combined with Islamic charity work”.^[7]

The Brotherhood’s stated goal is to instill the Qur’an and Sunnah as the “sole reference point for …ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community … and state.” The movement is known for engaging in political violence, claiming responsibility for the installation of Hamas.^[8] Muslim Brotherhood members are suspected to have assassinated political opponents like Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmoud an-Nukrashi Pasha.^[7]^[8]^[9]

The Muslim Brotherhood is financed by contributions from its members, who are required to allocate a portion of their income to the movement. Some of these contributions are from members who work in Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich countries.^[10]

The Muslim Brotherhood started as a religious social organization; preaching Islam, teaching the illiterate, setting up hospitals and even launching commercial enterprises. As its influence grew, it began to oppose British rule in Egypt, starting in 1936.^[11] Many Egyptian nationalists accuse the Muslim Brotherhood of violent killings during this period.^[12] After the Arab defeat in the First Arab-Israeli war, the Egyptian government dissolved the organization and arrested its members.^[11] The Muslim Brotherhood supported the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, but after being implicated in an attempted assassination of Egypt’s president it was once again banned and repressed.^[13] The Muslim Brotherhood has been suppressed in other countries as well, most notably in Syria in 1982 during the Hama massacre.^[14]

The Arab Spring at first brought considerable success for the Brotherhood, but as of 2013 it has suffered severe reverses.^[15] After some six decades of government repression, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood was legalized in 2011 when the regime of Hosni Mubarak was overthrown. As the country’s strongest political organization, the Brotherhood won several elections,^[16] including the 2012 presidential election when its candidate Mohamed Morsi became Egypt’s first democratically elected President. However one year later, on July 3, 2013, Morsi was himself overthrown by the military and the organization is once again suffering a severe crackdown.^[17]

Mexican cartels

Further information: List of Mexico’s 37 most-wanted drug lords

Origin

Félix Gallardo was arrested on 8 April 1989.^[64]

Major cartels

Los Zetas

Main article: Los Zetas Cartel

The Zetas are notorious for targeting civilians, including the mass-murder of 72 migrants in the San Fernando massacre.^[70]

On 15 July 2013, the Mexican Navy arrested the top Zeta boss Miguel Trevino Morales.^[71]

Sinaloa Cartel

Main article: Sinaloa Cartel

Sinaloa Cartel Plaza Bosses as of May 2013

Gulf Cartel

Main article: Gulf Cartel

Mexican Army raids a house in Matamoros, Tamaulipas in 2012.

La Familia Cartel

Main article: La Familia Michoacana

In February 2010, La Familia forged an alliance with the Gulf Cartel against Los Zetas and Beltrán Leyva Cartel.^[66]

Tijuana Cartel

Main article: Tijuana Cartel

Francisco Javier Arellano Félix is arrested by the DEA.

Knights Templar

Main article: Knights Templar Cartel

A map of Mexican drug cartels based on a May 2010 Stratfor report.^[92]^[93]

Tijuana Cartel

Beltrán Leyva Cartel

Sinaloa Cartel

Juárez Cartel

La Familia Michoacana

Gulf Cartel

Los Zetas

Disputed territories

Beltrán Leyva Cartel

Main article: Beltrán Leyva Cartel

Juárez Cartel

Main article: Juárez Cartel

October 12, 2013

Al Shabab is Scared and No Match to the Mexican Drug Cartels

Al Shabab is Scared to the Mexican Drug Cartels

Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (HSM) (Arabic: حركة الشباب المجاهدين‎; Ḥarakat ash-Shabāb al-Mujāhidīn, Somali: Xarakada Mujaahidiinta Alshabaab, “Mujahideen Youth Movement” or “Movement of Striving Youth”), more commonly known as al-Shabaab (Arabic: الشباب‎), meaning “The Youth”, “The Youngsters” or “The Boys”, is the Somalia-based cell of the militant Islamist group al-Qaeda, formally recognized in 2012.^[4] As of 2012, the group controls large swathes of the southern parts of the country,^[5] where it is said to have imposed its own strict form of Sharia (law).^[6] Al-Shabaab’s troop strength as of May 2011 was estimated at 14,426 militants.^[7] In February 2012, Al-Shabaab leaders quarreled with Al-Qaeda over the union,^[8] and quickly lost ground.^[9]

The group is an off-shoot of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which splintered into several smaller factions after its defeat in 2006 by the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the TFG’s Ethiopian military allies.^[10] Al-Shabaab describes itself as waging jihad against “enemies of Islam”, and is engaged in combat against the TFG and the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM). Alleging ulterior motives on the part of foreign organizations, group members have also reportedly intimidated, kidnapped and killed aid workers, leading to a suspension of humanitarian operations and an exodus of relief agents.^[11] Al-Shabaab has been designated a terrorist organization by several Western governments and security services.^[12]^[13]^[14] As of June 2012, the US State Department has open bounties on several of the group’s senior commanders.^[15]

In early August 2011, the TFG’s troops and their AMISOM allies reportedly managed to capture all of Mogadishu from the Al-Shabaab militants.^[5] An ideological rift within the group’s leadership also emerged in response to pressure from the recent drought and the assassination of top officials in the organization.^[16] Al Shabaab is hostile to Sufi traditions and has often clashed with the militant Sufi group Ahlu Sunna Waljama’a.^[17]^[18]^[19]^[20] The group has also been suspected of having links with Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram. The group has attracted some members from western countries, notably Samantha Lewthwaite and Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki.

October 12, 2013

Hamas and Fatah are Scared to the Mexican Drug Cartels

Hamas is Scared to the Mexican Drug Cartels

Hamas and Fatah is a Muslim Nazi and Islamic Fascist Group

Hamas is a Muslim Nazi and Islamic Fascist Group

Hamas (Arabic: حماس‎ Ḥamās, “enthusiasm”, an acronym of حركة المقاومة الاسلامية Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah, “Islamic Resistance Movement”) is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist^[5] organization, with an associated military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades,^[6] located in the Palestinian territories.

Since June 2007 Hamas has governed the Gaza Strip, after it won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament in the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections^[7] and then defeated the Fatah political organization in a series of violent clashes. Israel, the United States,^[8] Canada,^[9] the European Union,^[10]^[11] and Japan classify Hamas as a terrorist organization,^[12] while Iran, Russia,^[13] Turkey,^[14] and Arab nations do not.

Based on the principles of Islamic fundamentalism gaining momentum throughout the Arab world in the 1980s, Hamas was founded in 1987 (during the First Intifada) as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.^[15]^[16] Co-founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin stated in 1987, and the Hamas Charter affirmed in 1988, that Hamas was founded to liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation and to establish an Islamic state in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.^[17]^[18] However, in July 2009, Khaled Meshal, Hamas’s political bureau chief, said the organization was willing to cooperate with “a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict which included a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders“, provided that Palestinian refugees hold the right to return to Israel and that East Jerusalem be the new nation’s capital.^[19]^[20]

The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas affiliated military wing, has launched attacks on Israel, against both military and civilian targets. Attacks on civilian targets have included rocket attacks and, from 1993 to 2006, suicide bombings.^[21] Military targets included Israeli outposts and border crossings and rival Palestinian militias in the occupied territories.^[22]^[23]

In the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections Hamas won a decisive majority in the Palestinian Parliament,^[7] defeating the PLO-affiliated Fatah party. Following the elections, the Quartet (United States, Russia, United Nations, and European Union) conditioned future foreign assistance to the PA on the future government’s commitment to nonviolence, recognition of the state of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements. Hamas resisted such changes, leading to Quartet suspension of its foreign assistance program and Israel imposing economic sanctions against the Hamas-led administration.^[24]^[25] In March 2007 a national unity government, headed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas was briefly formed, but this failed to restart international financial assistance.^[26] Tensions over control of Palestinian security forces soon erupted into the 2007 Battle of Gaza,^[26] after which Hamas retained control of Gaza while its officials were ousted from government positions in the West Bank.^[26] Israel and Egypt then imposed an economic blockade on Gaza, on the grounds that Fatah forces were no longer providing security there.^[27]

In June 2008, as part of an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, Hamas ceased rocket attacks on Israel and made some efforts to prevent attacks by other organizations.^[28]^[29] After a four-month calm, the conflict escalated when Israel carried out a military action with the stated aim of preventing an abduction planned by Hamas, using a tunnel that had been dug under the border security fence,^{[broken citation]} and killed seven Hamas operatives. In retaliation, Hamas attacked Israel with a barrage of rockets.^[29]^[30] In late December 2008, Israel attacked Gaza,^[31] withdrawing its forces from the territory in mid-January 2009.^[32] After the Gaza War, Hamas continued to govern the Gaza Strip and Israel maintained its economic blockade. On May 4, 2011, Hamas and Fatah announced a reconciliation agreement that provides for “creation of a joint caretaker Palestinian government” prior to national elections scheduled for 2012.^[33] According to Israeli news reports quoting Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, as a condition of joining the PLO, Khaled Meshaal agreed to discontinue the “armed struggle” against Israel and accept Palestinian statehood within the 1967 borders, alongside Israel.^[34]