Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - Thread Ten

Yahoo News ^ | 6-10-04 | AP

[watchwoman]

This reminds me of a recent local news story in the Dallas Fort Worth area. A guy holed up in a conversion van at a Walmart parking lot. When police went to the van to investigate why the van was sitting there so long, the guy fired at the officers, killing one and seriously injuring the other. There was a police standoff for a few hours, but they eventually determined the guy was dead -- not sure if he killed himself or if one of the officers shot him. Anyway, weapons, a pipe bomb and bomb-making parts were also found in the van.

Evidently this guy was a veteran, and received a disability discharge due to terminal cancer. Relatives think he just went off the deep end due to his illness. But why would he shoot the police officers and why would he have a pipe bomb?

[CJ Wolf]

Bootids pose satellite threat

Spaceweather.com reports that the Earth is heading for the Bootids - a cloud of dust shed by Comet Pons-Winnecke in the 19th century.

The Bootid meteor shower is active each year in late June with this year’s peak expected to occur on June 23rd.

Normally the shower is weak, but occasional surges produce dozens to hundreds of meteors per hour. The potential exists for such a surge this year, posing the threat of physical damage to satellites.

http://continuitycentral.com/news01317.htm

[Labyrinthos]

I've been on edge a lot of late. Too many trips into NYC over the last several weeks and over the next few weeks looking forward. How's your back?

[CJ Wolf]

http://lists.meteorobs.org/pipermail/meteorobs/2004-June/thread.html

Here are some interesting posts about numerous meteor sightings over the past month.

[milkncookies]

Eye-witnesses speak about terrorist attack in Ingushetia
06/22/2004 19:36

Witnesses of the attack in Nazran, Ingushetia are speaking on their details. The terrorists planned every minute of their attack, said the Head of Administration of Karabulakh District Abraham Arsamakov.  In the evening the terrorists dressed in civilian clothes, silently entered the city from different directions, and laid an ambush in the three spots - around the buildings of Ingush Interior Ministry, the City Police Administration and Nazran Border Guards Unit. Simultaneously the terrorists entered the villages of Karabulak and Sleptsovskaya. Some walked, others went there by car. At 10:30 pm the militants started attacking all their three targets in Nazran, 30 minutes later the terrorist units in villages Karabulak and Sleptsovskaya continued the assault.

The terrorists cut off the electricity and the phone line and started the attack. The unit of the policemen being inside the Interior ministry building, was defending the building long, the policemen fired back at the terrorists. Even if the phone line worked, no reinforcement could be called as the building of the special police units was blocked by the terrorists as well. "There was real fight all night long", said Argamakov. According to him, the reinforcement arrived only in the morning, and the terrorists were finally dispersed. However, no terrorist was detained. They were setting fire to the vehicles of the police and civilians while retreating in the neighboring areas.  "Currently the situation has become stable", said the Head of Karabulakh District.

He failed to name the exact number of the terrorists, but estimated their number as "several hundreds because they conducted successful operations in the three districts". Each of the terrorists was well-armed, many wore expensive uniform. One of the found militants was wearing "new uniform of the US Army Marine". In Nazran, only using heavy weapons helped to stop the terrorists" attack. Many building in the downtown were damaged, the building of the Interior Ministry had major damages as the militants fire from grenade cup discharges to it.

Local resident, the lady named Rosa said that her neighbor was had been killed by the terrorists. According to Rosa, the man worked as a post office chief, and after late meeting he was going home with his colleagues. The terrorists met them and killed on the road. "They killed them without saying a word. Innocent people!"

About 1pm the terrorists encountered the vehicle of NTV company crew. After hearing that there were reporters in the vehicle, the terrorists did not kill them and said that they are combatants who took over the power in the republic, and were going to fight against Russian military. Later it became known that 9 policemen were ambushed by the terrorists on the spot where they met with the reporters.

[KylaStarr]

Home safe from the Phoenix trip. Not a trip I want to make again for a very long time.

Now to try and catch up on the thread. I heard the news about the South Korean this morning. Also have heard that there are more hostages being held and that some of our own servicemen are amongst these.

Anger, sadness, outrage, so many emotions at the same time. It's time for us and our allies to hit harder and harder and stop this! Where oh where are the gurkha's??? They want to behead us? Send in the gurkha's and let them experience what it's like.

[ExSoldier]

""The danger is so imminent... so the sooner that we start, the better for everybody involved."

So what's the first RAT idea? Why, BAN those evil .50 cal RIFLES, of course!

[jerseygirl]

Re: NYC- I know what you mean.

Emerging from Penn Station- to find it surrounded by barricades, police, fire trucks, ambulances, and "Mobile Command Centers"-- while predators and AWAC's circle above- tends to put a damper on the shopping spirit.

[WestCoastGal]

We're becoming more like Israel every day. Reactive instead of proactive!! We wait for them to kill us or another beheading happens and then we bomb where they are.

I'm sure we knew where they were before today........they should have been taken out when we discovered their safehouse. For that matter Fallujah should be surrounded, every person checked on their way out and the rest not willing to say who they are will be reduced to dust shortly thereafter. The innocent citizens can be relocated somewhere else. Make an example of this city. If we don't scare the terrorislam out of them we are finished.

[milkncookies]

Perverted Law Causes Conflict

"As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true purpose -- that it may violate property instead of protecting it -- then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder. Political questions will always be prejudicial, dominant, and all-absorbing. There will be fighting at the door of the Legislative Palace, and the struggle within will be no less furious. To know this, it is hardly necessary to examine what transpires in the French and English legislatures; merely to understand the issue is to know the answer.

Is there any need to offer proof that this odious perversion of the law is a perpetual source of hatred and discord; that it tends to destroy society itself? If such proof is needed, look at the United States [in 1850]. There is no country in the world where the law is kept more within its proper domain: the protection of every person's liberty and property. As a consequence of this, there appears to be no country in the world where the social order rests on a firmer foundation."

Frederick Bastiat

Mr. Bastiat would, in all probability, have a different opinion about the United States today.

[Labyrinthos]

What bothers me is that despite all the added security, both overt and covert, there is really nothing that we can do to stop our enemies from committing mass murder with even conventional weapons in a place like Grand Central Station or Penn Station. Literally hundreds of thousands of people pass through these places each and every work day, and many of them are carrying brief cases, gym bags, nap sacks, or luggage of some sort. Very few people are searched, and the bomb sniffing dogs are few and far between. I imagine the day when several conventional bombs go off simultaneously during rush hour -- an event which could easily kill hundreds if not thousands of people given the population density in these places during certain times of the day.

[Calpernia]

From DoctorZIn's Live Thread

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1157695/posts?page=29#29


Russia Stands Good Chance Of Being Awarded Bushehr II Contract By Iran

June 22, 2004
RIA Novosti
Novosti

MOSCOW -- Russia stands a good chance of winning the contract for the construction of a second leg of the nuclear power plant in the Iranian port of Bushehr, Rajab Safarov, Director of the Russian Center for Contemporary Iranian Studies, said at a news conference on the RIA Novosti premises Tuesday.

"This summer, the Director of Russia's Federal Agency for Nuclear Energy, Alexander Rumyantsev, is going to Iran, where he will probably sign a contract with the Iranian side for the construction...of a second leg of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, Bushehr II," Mr Safarov announced.

According to him, Western European countries and even the United States are among the bidders.

Russia is more interested in cooperating with other countries in the nuclear power industry than in arms trade, the official said. He reminded his audience that the first leg of the Bushehr project had brought to Russia as much as one billion dollars.

Mr Safarov predicted that the International Atomic Energy Agency would close its Iranian nuclear dossier in September. "September will see a session of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors and an IAEA general conference. And I think it is in the course of these two events that the Iranian dossier will be closed, " he said.

In reply to a RIA Novosti question, Mr Safarov described as absurd some of the criticisms in the IAEA's latest resolution on Iran. "To begin with, they are obliging Iran to prove to the world community the peaceful character of its nuclear programs, something that violates the principle of the presumption of innocence," he remarked. Proving the link, if any, between a country's nuclear program and the development of nuclear weapons is the IAEA inspectors' job, he pointed out.

Mr Safarov also said the most recent IAEA resolution on Iran was conflicting and that it revealed the agency's double standard policy vis-a-vis Iran.

"On the one hand, the resolution points out that Iran cooperates with the IAEA in such a way as if the Additional Protocol to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which empowers the IAEA to make surprise inspections of Iranian nuclear sites, had come into force already. The resolution also underlines that Iran has let IAEA inspectors check all facilities subject to verification, including defense industry installations even. This comes alongside allegations that Iran is not active enough and a demand that it should prove the peaceful character of its nuclear programs to the global community," Mr Safarov said.

In his opinion, only one point in the IAEA resolution is clear-cut, that which concerns the uranium trails on the centrifuge parts found in Iran by international inspectors. The Russian official believes, however, that the Iranian side has given sufficient explanations of the fact (Iran claims it has purchased the P2 centrifuge parts already with trails from a third country). Now, the IAEA will have to trace the source of the radioactive materials on the centrifuge, Mr Safarov said.

http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=4491896&startrow=1&date=2004-06-22&do_alert=0

[jerseygirl]

re: "Reactive instead of proactive"

I've been thinking the same thing, in terms of things here at home.

However, in terms of our massive deployment of aircraft carriers, etc., throughout the waters of the world- I think we are acting proactively on the international scene.

From the various things I've been reading within the past few months, I would not be the least bit surprised if we did not preemptively strike Iran and North Korea. Possibly Cuba as well.

[jerseygirl]

I know. It is really creepy. Every time I go through, I see "unattended bags". As you say, there are no searches performed on the luggage,bags,brief cases, etc. people are bringing in. That provides a perfect opportunity for a suicidal jihadi.

Another thing that troubles me is the ease with which bio could be spread in such a setting. It is mind boggling. For all we know, it could already have been done.

I don't know what the answer is.

[jerseygirl]

Well- stay safe everyone! Libe is closing.

[Quix]

AMEN!