Here I explained that the Islamic Jihad Union was first heard of in the context of bombings in Uzbekistan which were not in fact bombings, as I can testify from direct personal observation conducted officially for the British government. I believe the “Islamic Jihad Union”, like the “bombings”, was concocted by the Uzbek security services.
http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2007/09/the_mysterious.html#comments
We now hear from the German authorities that the IJU has claimed responsibility on the web for the alleged bomb plot there. Peculiarly, extensive research by the BBC in Uzbek, Russian, English and Arabic has failed to identify this claim, or any Islamic Jihad Union website. What would it prove anyway? I could get up a posting somewhere claiming to be Santa Claus and taking responsibility,
Let me repeat again:
I never met anybody in Uzbekistan, including from Islamist groups, who had heard of the IJU. I researched this intensively. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, of whom the group is allegedly a cooperative offshoot, have never referred to it anywhere. Nobody in Islamist circles in the UK, or Uzbek exile circles worldwide, has ever heard of the IJU. Nobody can name a single member, let alone leader.
The secuirty services intercept an astonishing number of electronic communications between extremists and suspected terrorists. There has never been a reference to the IJU in any intercepted conversation.
I do not say that the IJU does not exist. It may do. It may be a real terrorist organisation. It may be an agent provocateur operation. It may be a simple invention by the Uzbek security services. But it was first heard of in the context of “bombings” which were not what the Uzbek government said they were, on which JTAC accepted my reporting as correct. The IJU has been seized upon by the US and Germany successively as justification for their alliance with the appalling and totalitarian Uzbek regime, possibly the most vicious in the world.
I shall be following the case in Germany very carefully indeed. I am going to attempt to get my official reports of my investigations of the alleged IJU “Bombings” in Tashkent, and the JTAC responses, released to the German courts.
Yep, stand by to see ever more press reports of the 'shadowy IJU' whose 'origins remain shrouded in mystery' etc, etc.
And by the way, Craig, is it true that you are the one true Santa Claus?
This already draws circles. Spiegel Online features an article with pictures of IJU members. (http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,505188,00.html)
Nowadays it's getting somewhat hard to know what to believe and what not.
More on the fishy background to this story in the NYT:
Intelligence Chief Admits Error
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (AP) ? Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, on Wednesday recanted his claim that the new surveillance powers recently given to the government helped foil a terrorist plot in Germany.
"Information contributing to the recent arrests was not collected under authorities provided by the Protect America Act," Mr. McConnell said in a statement issued late in the day.
Mr. McConnell had told the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Monday that powers granted by the act, hastily approved by Congress in early August before a monthlong break, helped stop the planned attacks. The law, which amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, had been pushed strongly by Mr. McConnell and the White House.
Mr. McConnell's assertion that the new powers helped foil the plot in Germany had been disputed by Representative Silvestre Reyes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Mr. Reyes, Democrat of Texas, said on Tuesday that the intelligence used to capture the would-be terrorists was collected under the old version of the surveillance law, not the new one.
"In fact, F.I.S.A., which you repeatedly claim is 'outdated,' was precisely the tool that helped disrupt this plot," Mr. Reyes said. "The new law did not lead to the arrests of the three terrorist plotters, as you claimed."
The new surveillance law expires in six months. Many Democrats want to change it sooner, arguing that it gives the government far more power to eavesdrop than Congress initially understood.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/washington/13in…
Although german authorities are not daring yet to produce false flag terrorism events in a 911-like manner and scale, they do not hesitate to construct the IJU/Al Kaida connection, to dramatize the whole matter. This serves well as a catalyst to get forward the efforts of the current government to cut civil rights and install new laws (or change existing). It creates an atmosphere of Angst in which a common consent for more restrictive laws will be much easier to achieve.
A quite subtle strategy which is obviously working well!