Canada/United Kingdom – Canada and Britain will work together to persuade other nations to stop the flow of ransom payments to terrorists, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on the 26 Apr 16. “Canada does not and will not pay ransom to terrorists, directly or indirectly,” Trudeau told reporters in Alberta. His statement came one day after Canadian hostage John Ridsdel, a former mining executive, was killed by Islamist Abu Sayyaf militants in the Philippines. He was killed within hours after the Canadian government did not respond to the group’s ransom demand. The Globe and Mail reports that Ridsdel’s death has focused debate on whether nations should negotiate with terrorist groups over ransom demands. On the 26 Apr Trudeau argued that ransom payment merely fund terrorism and criminal activity, while also setting a dangerous precedent. “Paying ransom for Canadians would endanger the lives of every single one of the millions of Canadians who live, work and travel around the globe every single year,” Trudeau said. He said he had spoken with David Cameron, the British prime minister, earlier in the day. The two leaders also discussed their shared opposition to paying ransoms. “We agreed that it is something we are going to make sure we do bring up with our friends and allies around the world as we come to grips with the fact that the world is a dangerous place,” Trudeau said. In 2013 major Western countries agreed on a policy on not paying ransom to terrorist groups. Officials from the governments involved admitted that the policy would put a target on the nationals of certain countries and inflate ransoms to a point where families or employers would not be able to pay. The commitment has not always been followed by the governments which were part to the agreement, as France, Italy, Spain, and Germany exchanged money to terrorist groups for the release of their citizens. There were reports that in 2009, the Canadian government paid C$1 million to secure the release of two Canadian diplomats kidnapped in Niger by al-Qaeda. Trudeau said on the 26 Apr that Canada was in close contact with Filipino authorities in hopes of pursuing Ridsdel’s killers. Abu Sayyaf, a small group of Islamic militants which has made a name for itself for kidnappings, beheadings, bombings, and extortions, also continues to hold another Canadian captive. Several other foreigners from countries including the Netherlands, Japan, Malaysia, and Indonesia are also being held hostage by Abu Sayyaf.
Columbia/national Liberation Army (ELN) – Fighting between left-wing ELN guerrillas and Colombia’s military on the 28 Apr 16 left two guerrillas dead and six injured, according to the military. Following the face-off that started on the morning of the 27 Apr 16 in the small town of Caceres, Antioquia in northern Colombia, six alleged ELN fighters were taken into custody, three of whom were underage. The army did not any casualties or injured on their side. The military also said it seized several weapons including rifles, grenade launchers, and over 60 grenades. The ELN fighters belonged to the Dario Ramirez Castro unit, and they faced off with soldiers from the Mobile Brigade 25. According to the army, this specific ELN unit is responsible for murdering four members of the National Police during an ambush on a mobile police squad in 2014, attacking an army platoon in 2012, and murdering a soldier and wounding three others. Fighting between the military and illegal armed groups like the leftist FARC and ELN and neo-paramilitary group “Los Urabeños” in the Bajo Cauca region has already displaced hundreds over the past few months. The region is of strategic importance because of its coca fields and illegal gold mines. These displaced will add to the more than 6 million citizens who are already internally displaced in Colombia — the second highest number in the world after Syria. The ELN is Colombia’s second-largest rebel organization with an estimated military force between 2,000 and 3,000 fighters. According to the rebel group’s twitter account, they will be entering into peace talks with the Colombian government next month, following in the footsteps of Colombia’s largest rebel group the FARC, which began peace talks in 2012. If successful, the upcoming peace process would allow the ELN to enter Colombia’s political system as a political party, and would end a 51 year conflict that has left over 260,000 innocent civilians dead.
Mexico/United States/Cartels/Terrorism – Mexican drug traffickers help Islamic terrorists stationed in Mexico cross into the United States to explore targets for future attacks, according to information forwarded to Judicial Watch by a high-ranking Homeland Security official in a border state on the 26 Apr 16. Among the jihadists that travel back and forth through the porous southern border is a Kuwaiti named Shaykh Mahmood Omar Khabir, an ISIS operative who lives in the Mexican state of Chihuahua not far from El Paso, Texas. Khabir trained hundreds of Al Qaeda fighters in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen and has lived in Mexico for more than a year, according to information provided by JW’s government source. Now Khabir trains thousands of men—mostly Syrians and Yemenis—to fight in an ISIS base situated in the Mexico-U.S. border region near Ciudad Juárez, the intelligence gathered by JW’s source reveals. Staking out U.S. targets is not difficult and Khabir actually brags in an Italian newspaper article published last week that the border region is so open that he “could get in with a handful of men, and kill thousands of people in Texas or in Arizona in the space of a few hours.” Foreign Affairs Secretary Claudia Ruiz, Mexico’s top diplomat, says in the article that she doesn’t understand why the Obama administration and the U.S. media are “culpably neglecting this phenomenon,” adding that “this new wave of fundamentalism could have nasty surprises in store for the United States.” This disturbing development appears on the Open Source Enterprise, the government database that collects and analyzes valuable material from worldwide print, broadcast and online media sources for the U.S. intelligence community. Only registered federal, state and local government employees can view information and analysis in the vast database and unauthorized access can lead to criminal charges. Updated data gathered on Khabir reveals he’s 52 years old and was ordered to leave Kuwait about a decade ago over his extremist positions. Khabir is currently on ISIS’s (also known as ISIL) payroll and operates a cell in an area of Mexico known as Anapra, according to the recently obtained information. A year ago Judicial Watch reported on an ISIS camp in this exact area, just a few miles from El Paso. JW’s April 14, 2015 report identified Anapra as the location of the ISIS base, details that were provided to JW by sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector. Anapra is situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. At the time JW reported that another ISIS cell was established to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas to target the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming. Sources told JW that, during the course of a joint operation, Mexican Army and federal law enforcement officials discovered documents in Arabic and Urdu, as well as “plans” of Fort Bliss – the sprawling military installation that houses the US Army’s 1st Armored Division. Muslim prayer rugs were recovered with the documents during the operation. A few months later JW reported that Mexican drug cartels are smuggling Middle Eastern terrorists into a small Texas rural town near El Paso and that they’re using remote farm roads—rather than interstates—to elude the Border Patrol and other law enforcement barriers. The foreigners are classified by the U.S. government as Special Interest Aliens (SIA) and they are transported to stash areas in Acala, a rural crossroads located around 54 miles from El Paso on a state road – Highway 20. Once in the U.S., the SIAs wait for pick-up in the area’s sand hills just across Highway 20. At the time JW’s government sources revealed that terrorists have long entered the U.S. through Mexico and in fact, an internal Texas Department of Public Safety report leaked by the media documents that several members of known Islamist terrorist organizations have been apprehended crossing the southern border in recent years. Earlier this year, as part of an ongoing investigation into national security risks in the porous southern border, JW obtained evidence that proves the U.S. government has known for more than a decade about the partnership between terrorists and Mexican drug cartels. State Department documents made public by JW in January say that for at least ten years “Arab extremists” have entered the country through Mexico with the assistance of smuggling network “cells.” Among them was a top Al Qaeda operative wanted by the FBI. Some Mexican smuggling networks actually specialize in providing logistical support for Arab individuals attempting to enter the United States, the government documents say. The top Al Qaeda leader in Mexico was identified in the September 2004 cable from the American consulate in Ciudad Juárez as Adnan G. El Shurkrjumah. The cable was released to Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Columbia/national Liberation Army (ELN) – Fighting between left-wing ELN guerrillas and Colombia’s military on the 28 Apr 16 left two guerrillas dead and six injured, according to the military. Following the face-off that started on the morning of the 27 Apr 16 in the small town of Caceres, Antioquia in northern Colombia, six alleged ELN fighters were taken into custody, three of whom were underage. The army did not any casualties or injured on their side. The military also said it seized several weapons including rifles, grenade launchers, and over 60 grenades. The ELN fighters belonged to the Dario Ramirez Castro unit, and they faced off with soldiers from the Mobile Brigade 25. According to the army, this specific ELN unit is responsible for murdering four members of the National Police during an ambush on a mobile police squad in 2014, attacking an army platoon in 2012, and murdering a soldier and wounding three others. Fighting between the military and illegal armed groups like the leftist FARC and ELN and neo-paramilitary group “Los Urabeños” in the Bajo Cauca region has already displaced hundreds over the past few months. The region is of strategic importance because of its coca fields and illegal gold mines. These displaced will add to the more than 6 million citizens who are already internally displaced in Colombia — the second highest number in the world after Syria. The ELN is Colombia’s second-largest rebel organization with an estimated military force between 2,000 and 3,000 fighters. According to the rebel group’s twitter account, they will be entering into peace talks with the Colombian government next month, following in the footsteps of Colombia’s largest rebel group the FARC, which began peace talks in 2012. If successful, the upcoming peace process would allow the ELN to enter Colombia’s political system as a political party, and would end a 51 year conflict that has left over 260,000 innocent civilians dead.
Mexico/United States/Cartels/Terrorism – Mexican drug traffickers help Islamic terrorists stationed in Mexico cross into the United States to explore targets for future attacks, according to information forwarded to Judicial Watch by a high-ranking Homeland Security official in a border state on the 26 Apr 16. Among the jihadists that travel back and forth through the porous southern border is a Kuwaiti named Shaykh Mahmood Omar Khabir, an ISIS operative who lives in the Mexican state of Chihuahua not far from El Paso, Texas. Khabir trained hundreds of Al Qaeda fighters in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen and has lived in Mexico for more than a year, according to information provided by JW’s government source. Now Khabir trains thousands of men—mostly Syrians and Yemenis—to fight in an ISIS base situated in the Mexico-U.S. border region near Ciudad Juárez, the intelligence gathered by JW’s source reveals. Staking out U.S. targets is not difficult and Khabir actually brags in an Italian newspaper article published last week that the border region is so open that he “could get in with a handful of men, and kill thousands of people in Texas or in Arizona in the space of a few hours.” Foreign Affairs Secretary Claudia Ruiz, Mexico’s top diplomat, says in the article that she doesn’t understand why the Obama administration and the U.S. media are “culpably neglecting this phenomenon,” adding that “this new wave of fundamentalism could have nasty surprises in store for the United States.” This disturbing development appears on the Open Source Enterprise, the government database that collects and analyzes valuable material from worldwide print, broadcast and online media sources for the U.S. intelligence community. Only registered federal, state and local government employees can view information and analysis in the vast database and unauthorized access can lead to criminal charges. Updated data gathered on Khabir reveals he’s 52 years old and was ordered to leave Kuwait about a decade ago over his extremist positions. Khabir is currently on ISIS’s (also known as ISIL) payroll and operates a cell in an area of Mexico known as Anapra, according to the recently obtained information. A year ago Judicial Watch reported on an ISIS camp in this exact area, just a few miles from El Paso. JW’s April 14, 2015 report identified Anapra as the location of the ISIS base, details that were provided to JW by sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector. Anapra is situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. At the time JW reported that another ISIS cell was established to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas to target the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming. Sources told JW that, during the course of a joint operation, Mexican Army and federal law enforcement officials discovered documents in Arabic and Urdu, as well as “plans” of Fort Bliss – the sprawling military installation that houses the US Army’s 1st Armored Division. Muslim prayer rugs were recovered with the documents during the operation. A few months later JW reported that Mexican drug cartels are smuggling Middle Eastern terrorists into a small Texas rural town near El Paso and that they’re using remote farm roads—rather than interstates—to elude the Border Patrol and other law enforcement barriers. The foreigners are classified by the U.S. government as Special Interest Aliens (SIA) and they are transported to stash areas in Acala, a rural crossroads located around 54 miles from El Paso on a state road – Highway 20. Once in the U.S., the SIAs wait for pick-up in the area’s sand hills just across Highway 20. At the time JW’s government sources revealed that terrorists have long entered the U.S. through Mexico and in fact, an internal Texas Department of Public Safety report leaked by the media documents that several members of known Islamist terrorist organizations have been apprehended crossing the southern border in recent years. Earlier this year, as part of an ongoing investigation into national security risks in the porous southern border, JW obtained evidence that proves the U.S. government has known for more than a decade about the partnership between terrorists and Mexican drug cartels. State Department documents made public by JW in January say that for at least ten years “Arab extremists” have entered the country through Mexico with the assistance of smuggling network “cells.” Among them was a top Al Qaeda operative wanted by the FBI. Some Mexican smuggling networks actually specialize in providing logistical support for Arab individuals attempting to enter the United States, the government documents say. The top Al Qaeda leader in Mexico was identified in the September 2004 cable from the American consulate in Ciudad Juárez as Adnan G. El Shurkrjumah. The cable was released to Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
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