8/9/2008: Intel News Brief: Commentary: Islamic Party of Turkistan
Threatens Olympics:

An outfit calling themselves the Islamic Party of Turkistan released a
video threatening to attack the Olympics (about a week ago). You will
find the threat video and others from the IPT here: http://www.youtube.com/user/tipawazi.

The breathless speaker in the Olympic threat video may, in fact, be a
Uighur, but it's kind of hard to say with certainty based on what
little we see of him. This gentleman, who stars in 7 of the 11 videos
at the tipawazi YouTube site is very definitely not a Uighur. In
short, the threat to the Olympics seems to be part of a broader, pan-
Turkic insurgency, rather than something rooted particularly or
exclusively in Xinjiang/East Turkistan. The pidayi usama turkiy5 video
may be of particular interest to explosives experts. I'm curious if
this particular method of constructing a bomb in the back of a pickup
truck has been seen in the field.

The IPT's site (tipislamyultuzi.com) is currently suspended, and the
cleric's site (kanzhassan.com) is inactive.

The involvement of the al-Fajr Media Center can be taken as a sign
that the IPT enjoys a positive working relationship with the al-Qa`ida
Home Office in Waziristan (or wherever it actually is). It appears
that someone launched a successful attack in Kashgar, Xinjiang, but it
remains to be seen if the people who issued the threat can actually
manage to pull off an attack in Beijing during the Olympics.
A quick look at a map of "greater Turkistan" illustrates that no
matter what the Chinese do in Xinjiang, there are numerous countries
nearby where Uighurs and other Turkomen can regroup and prepare to
launch a fresh round of attacks.

I would expect this problem to persist for the foreseeable future. An
interesting question is whether Uighur or other Turkic expatriates in
Europe and the United States will be inspired to take up jihad
themselves.
Since I don't expect the YouTube site discussed here to survive very
much longer, I suggest viewing the videos on it now.
There is what appears to be a more recent video from IPT regarding the
Olympics here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sufKQ_t5NfA

It features the same breathless guy who spoke in the earlier video
threat.
Alternative location for the second video threat against the Olympics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wl0OoowUfA

Note: This site, as stated above, seems to have the largest collection
of "official" videos from the IPT. How well connected any of the
operators of these accounts are to the group itself is anyone's guess.
http://www.youtube.com/user/tipawazi

Please take note: As with all of these particular sites, make sure
your anti-virus programs and fire-walls are up to date.