Word: stratfor
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...cracking down on Jundallah, for all of Iran's own extensive intelligence networks, proved difficult. "There are a lot of ungoverned spaces along this border," says Kamran Bokhari, regional director for the Middle East and South Asia at Stratfor, a global intelligence firm based in Austin, Texas. Like other groups in the region, Jundallah exploited illicit smuggling routes between Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, possibly trading in arms and narcotics. Though there's little clear evidence, analysts suspect Jundallah received support and succor from a web of shadowy sources, including perhaps Saudi, Pakistani, Israeli and even U.S. intelligence agents...
Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical intelligence at the global consultancy Stratfor, says that no matter what type of technology is used at airports, creative terrorists will always find ways to get around it. "Look at prison systems, where searches are far more invasive - they still can't stop contraband from being smuggled into the system," he tells TIME. But when it comes to the full-body scanners, Stewart says the bigger concern is that authorities may be diverting scarce security resources away from more proven measures, like training airport staff to detect suspicious behaviors in would-be attackers before...
...militants. But al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), is a distinctly creative branch. In August a supposedly repentant member of AQAP drew close to Saudi Arabia's Deputy Interior Minister before detonating a bomb secreted in his anal cavity, according to Stratfor, a well-regarded private intelligence outfit based in Texas. Although the attacker died, his target was only slightly wounded. A Stratfor report issued five days later concluded, "The operation could have succeeded had it been better executed" - a judgment that sounds a great deal like the early verdict on Flight...
...affluent background and education of so many American Muslims who have been accused of terrorist activities comes as no surprise to experts. "We don't have the Muslim slums that you see outside Paris," says Scott Stewart, vice president for tactical intelligence at Stratfor, a private intelligence analysis organization. "Most Muslims in [the U.S.] are doing well, so those who have been radicalized tend to come from that class." (See pictures of a jihadist's journey...
...that early talk gave Iran time to prepare for new sanctions. Earlier this year, it began importing far more than it was using. Intelligence consultancy Stratfor noted last week that Iran has probably stockpiled at least three months' worth of gasoline. The National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Co. estimates that the country has some 15.7 million bbl. of gasoline - about four months' worth - stockpiled in tankers on land and off its Persian Gulf coast. After BP and Reliance halted exports to Iran, Chinese state-owned oil companies filled the gap, supplying about one-third of Iran's gasoline imports...