Threat Matrix: January 2007

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[Cindy]

PERSECUTION.ORG
http://www.persecution.org

[Cindy]

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_1161.html

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
This information is current as of today, Mon Jan 22 2007 03:13:48 GMT-0800.

Worldwide Caution

October 11, 2006

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=ahmadinejad
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=IRAN

===

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3355436,00.html

Iran denies IAEA inspectors access to facilities

Published: 01.22.07, 12:59

An Iranian source said that Iran has decided to deny access to its nuclear facilities to 38 International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors.

The source said that this was due to the United Nations Security Council's resolution to place sanctions on Iran for its nuclear plan. (AFP)

[Cindy]

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_922.html

Travel Warning
United States Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Washington, DC 20520

This information is current as of today, Mon Jan 22 2007 03:21:50 GMT-0800.

ISRAEL, THE WEST BANK AND GAZA

January 17, 2007

[Cindy]

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_3072.html

Travel Warning
United States Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Washington, DC 20520

This information is current as of today, Mon Jan 22 2007 03:23:08 GMT-0800.

LEBANON

December 22, 2006

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=yemen
http://www.yementimes.com

===

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467787335&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Jan. 22, 2007 12:12
"Yemen Jews forced to flee due to al-Qaida threats"
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The Saudi newspaper Al Watan reported on Monday that 45 Jews in Yemen were forced to leave their homes due to threats from radical Muslims."

[Cindy]

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_936.html

Travel Warning
United States Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Washington, DC 20520

This information is current as of today, Mon Jan 22 2007 03:30:04 GMT-0800.

YEMEN

October 13, 2006

[Godzilla]

placemark

[Oorang]

Interesting story Cindy. Also interesting that the taxi driver told Sadiqullah not to go to the police.

[Oorang]

Nine Indonesian militants killed
Monday Jan 22 20:06

An anti-terror squad raided an Islamic militant stronghold in central Indonesia, touching off a gunbattle that killed nine suspected fighters and one policeman.

The local police chief said security forces arrested 18 other alleged militants and seized a large haul of bombs and weapons in the three-hour exchange, a sharp escalation in the fight against terrorism in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Excerpted

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=178841

Tigers’ explosives-laden boat slams ship
COLOMBO, Jan 21

Tiger rebels rammed an explosives-laden boat against a private merchant vessel operated by foreign crew in Sri Lanka's northern waters on Sunday, sparking a land, sea and air battle, the navy said. The MV City of Liverpool, which is chartered by a Sri Lankan company, was taking in water after the attack and was being towed to the port of Kankesanthurai in the Jaffna peninsula, a navy spokesman said.

He said one Tiger suicide craft exploded against the ship, damaging the hull and one crew member was wounded. Two soldiers on board the ship for security fired at the rebels. The merchant vessel was unloading wheat flour for the half a million civilians living under virtual siege conditions since the only land access to the Jaffna peninsula was cut off due to fighting since August.

The navy deployed 12 Dvora-class fast attack craft to hit the flotilla of 20 rebel boats and two more suicide craft were blown out of the water before they could reach the merchant vessel, spokesman D. K. P. Dassanayake said.

Excerpted

http://www.dawn.com/2007/01/22/int2.htm

3 Pakistani soldiers die, 9 injured in suicide car bomb attack
Islamabad, Jan 22, 2007

At least three security men were killed and nine others injured when a suicide car bomb exploded near an army convoy in Pakistan's tribal region on Monday, the army said.

The bomber or bombers exploded a white car near the army's administrative convoy in North Waziristan tribal region at 10:30 am, director-general of the army's Inter-Services Public Relations, Major General Shaukat Sultan, said.

Excerpted

http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0701227072133223.htm

[Oorang]

Large Arms Cache Found In Chechnya

GROZNY, January 21 - Police found two caches full of arms and ammunition in the Republic of Chechnya in Russia's troubled North Caucasus region, a source in the local law-enforcement bodies said Sunday.

Although the Kremlin has declared an end to the anti-terrorism campaign in Chechnya, sporadic fighting still occur in the North Caucasus republic, hampering efforts to revive the economy, create jobs and bring life in the republic to normal after a decade of warfare.

"One cache was found three kilometers (1.86 miles) away from the village of Braguny in the Gudermes district [in eastern Chechnya] during a search operation," the source said. The cache contained an RPG-18 grenade launcher, eight mortar mines, two F-1 grenades and a large amount of explosives, the source said.

The other cache was found on the edge of the village of Vinogradnoye in the Grozny district in central Chechnya, the source said. The cache included an RPG-18 grenade launcher, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, rounds for grenade launchers and 120 cartridges of various calibers, the source said.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070121/59438722.html

Military gets ready for reprisal attacks (Philippines)
Jan.22.07

Military intelligence agents went on high alert yesterday to thwart revenge attacks by Muslim extremists after the government confirmed the death of the leader of the Abu Sayyaf group.

Security forces were monitoring urban centers, especially in southern Mindanao, where members of the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiyah network are known to operate, a military spokesman said. “Intelligence [are] monitoring to prevent any retaliatory attacks,” Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said over dzBB radio.

Excerpted

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=news1_jan22_2007

Hafiz Saeed’s brother in US immigration trouble
Monday, January 22, 2007

WASHINGTON: A controversial imam at a Massachusetts mosque, with his visa status already in question, has been given notice to leave his residence on the grounds of the Sharon mosque, headquarters of the Islamic Centre of New England.

Imam Muhammad Masood is the brother of Hafiz Saeed, founder of the Pakistan-based Markaz Dawaatul Irshad and Jammatud Daawa. Attorney George Garfinkle has said that the Pakistani cleric has been asked to leave “sometime soon”, though not by a specific date. “The government is leaning on them, and they’re trying to do the right thing legally,” Garfinkle told the newspaper Patriot Ledger.

Garfinkle also confirmed that some former Islamic Centre board members have been called before a federal grand jury in Boston over the past month in connection with the investigation of Imam Masood’s alleged visa violations. He did not identify who was called. Board president Rashid Noor has declined comment about the grand jury appearances. Imam Masood is expected to have a visa hearing within the next few months. He could be deported at that time.

Imam Masood, his son, Hassan, and a Chelmsford imam were picked up by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents on November 15 as part of a multi-state sweep of 33 mostly Pakistani immigrants. Most of those in other states were charged with having fraudulent religious-worker visas.

Imam Masood has led the Sharon mosque since 1998. He and his family have continued to live on the mosque property since his release on bail, but he hasn’t led prayer services or performed other duties since then.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007/01/22/story_22-1-2007_pg1_5

[Oorang]

Bomb threat investigated for plane at Intercontinental Airport (Texas)
1/22/07

Some type of bomb threat was reportedly communicated about the airport in Tyler, Texas. A small regional jet, Continental flight 9553, left Tyler and landed as scheduled in Houston. After landing, however, the plane was kept isolated on a remote runway and treated as if a bomb was on board.

The details of the threat are sketchy, but it apparently applied to Tyler airport in general, not this aircraft specifically. Out of an abundance of caution, the situation was carefully checked out.

Emergency crews were called in, and a bomb-sniffing dog reportedly checked out the plane. Passengers remained on the plane during the investigation. A few dozen people were on board, but we're told everyone remained calm.

After about 30 to 40 minutes, the plane was checked out and allowed to taxi to the terminal. Passengers will be rescreened and allowed to continue on to their destinations.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&id=4959116

[Oorang]

Algeria: Terror Group Posts Video Of Attack On The Internet

Algiers, 22 Jan. - Algeria's Salafite Group for Preaching and Compat (GSPC), a terror group that has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, has posted a video on the internet of what it claims was its latest attack. The video, which was released on Sunday, shows the bomb attack on a bus carrying employees of a US oil company, a subsidiary of Halliburton. The attack on 10 December killed two people, an Algerian and a Lebanese, and wounded another eight, including a US citizen and a Briton.

The video showed that the militant group used satellite pictures and other advanced technology to carry out the attack.

Excerpted

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=

Spain: Non-Renewal Of Muslim Soldiers' Contracts Sparks Row

Ceuta, 22 Jan. - The army's decision not to renew the contracts of a number of minority Muslim soldiers deployed in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on the north Moroccan coast - sparking a row - was based on military intelligence, according to El Pais daily. The intelligence services suspect that a number of the soldiers who have been "let go" were in contact with radicals from cells smashed by anti-terror police in December in an operation that led to eleven arrests, the paper reports.

There are fifteen Muslim soldiers serving in Ceuta whose contracts have not been renewed, although the Democratic Union of Ceuta (UDCE) party, a much higher number of troops are involved. UDCE leader Mohammed Ali, has been distributing leaflets outside Ceuta's mosque, slamming "the persecution of Spanish Muslim soldiers" on the basis of "classified intelligence."

The army has denied it is guilty of any form of discrimination and says that half of the soldiers whose contracts were not extended are Roman Catholic.

Around 30 percent of the 2,300 soldiers stationed in Ceuta are Muslims. Last week, defence minister Jose Antonio Alonso reiterated that there is no discrimination in the Spanish army and said there is no need for concern over the increase in the numbers of Muslim soldiers serving in Ceuta and the other enclave in Morocco, Melilla. "The army does not ask anyone what their religion is," Alfonso was quoted as saying.

Police suspect the 11 people arrested on 12 December in Ceuta during 'Operation Duna' have ties to a Moroccan group that has been linked to the deadly 11 March 2004 bombings of commuter trains in the Spanish capital, Madrid's Atocha station, as well as to the May 2003 attacks in Casablanca, Morocco, El Pais reported.

In a video posted to Internet sites in December, al-Qaeda's second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri called on Muslims to rise up against Spain's "occupation" of Ceuta and Melilla and the "occupation of other Muslim lands by non-Muslim governments." Local press had already reported the presence of Islamic extremist operatives in Ceuta and Melilla ready to wage Jihad.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.378534475&par=0

[Oorang]

Off Topic:

IRAN: WOMAN, TWO CHILDREN BLOCKED AT MOSCOW AIRPORT

Tehran, 22 Jan. - Zahra Kamalfar and her two children have reportedly been living for the past 130 days at Moscow's international airport after they were denied entrance in the country and their political asylum application was rejected. Russian authorities have given them no assistance, reports said Monday.

Kamalfar reportedly decided to leave Iran after her husband disappeared a year ago. A political opponent of the Iranian government like her husband, Kamalfar also spent eight months in jail in 2004 for taking part in a demonstration, reports say.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.378682545&par=0

[Oorang]

British Police Identify Suspected Killer of Poisoned Ex-Russian Spy
Sunday, January 21, 2007

LONDON — Police have identified the man they believe poisoned Alexander Litvinenko. The suspected killer was captured on cameras at Heathrow as he flew into Britain to carry out the murder. Friends of the ex-spy say that the man was a hired killer, sent by the Kremlin, who vanished hours after administering a deadly dose of radioactive polonium-210 to Litvinenko.

He arrived in London on a forged EU passport and reportedly slipped the poison into a cup of tea he made for Litvinenko in a London hotel room. Litvinenko was reportedly able to give vital details of his suspected killer in a bedside interview with detectives just days before he died on November 23 at University College Hospital.

Police have decided not to publish pictures of this man, who was seen on CCTV cameras as he flew in from Hamburg on November 1, the day that Litvinenko fell ill. He is described as being tall and powerfully built, in his early thirties with short, cropped black hair and distinctive Central Asian features.

Excerpted

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245298,00.html

[freeperfromnj]

ABC NEWS: DOCS SEIZED IN IRAQ REVEAL INSURGENT PLAN FOR ATTACK IN U.S.(Update with story)

www.drudgereport.com ^

Posted on 01/22/2007 12:16:37 PM PST by maquiladora

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1771793/posts?q=1&&page=93#93

[Oorang]

Thanks ffnj, very interesting. Hopefully more details will be forthcoming.

[Oorang]

Preacher quizzed over al Qaida link
Jan 21 2007

The firebrand Midland Islamic preacher at the centre of a controversial TV documentary was questioned by the FBI in America about alleged links with an al Qaida operative, the Sunday Mercury can reveal.

Abu Usamah At-Thahabi, who was secretly taped by undercover reporters as he delivered extremist lectures at a Birmingham mosque, was quizzed by US agents just months after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

The New Jersey-born Muslim convert was an imam at the Islamic Center of Peoria in Illinois when federal agents swooped in December 2001 and arrested Qatari student Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, who was a regular worshipper. Abu Usamah was questioned by federal agents who believed he may have had some influence on the student - but he was never arrested.

Al-Marri was later charged with using false documents to open bank accounts. He was also in possession of a telephone credit card which he had used to call a number in Dubai. The FBI said the number was linked to reputed Al-Qaida financier and September 11 organiser Mustafa al-Hawsawi. Al-Hawsawi, a Saudi known as 'the paymaster' reportedly filtered more than $325,000 (£165,000) to the September 11 hijackers, and is currently being held at the US base in Bagram, Afghanistan. Al-Marri, meanwhile, remains in custody and is awaiting trial by a military tribunal as an enemy combatant.

Among the evidence reportedly seized by federal agents was his computer, which contained a folder labelled 'jihad arena'. According to court documents, the folder contained information on hydrogen cyanide - used in chemical weapons - and the teachings of Osama Bin Laden. The Joint Intelligence Task Force for Combating Terrorism said the information about hydrogen cyanide on the computer 'far exceeds the interests of a merely curious individual'.

The task force report also alleges that Al-Marri was instructed by Al-Qaida to hack into the American banking system to wreak havoc on the US economy.

Last week, Abu Usamah hit the British headlines after being featured on a Channel Four documentary exposing extremist preachers at the Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham, where he now lives. He was filmed saying: "If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy dogs who should be murdered, that's my freedom of speech, isn't it?" The black Muslim later offered an explanation of his sermons, which he posted on the internet website YouTube.

Sources in the US said that although Abu Usamah's public teachings there were moderate, he occasionally stepped over the line into anti-Semitic rhetoric. Just prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, he called President Bush a "pathological liar" and constantly argued to his followers that "Jews controlled the media."

http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/sundaymercury/news/tm_headline=preacher-quizzed-over-al-qaida-link%26method=full%26objectid=18513803%26siteid=50002-name_page.html

[freeperfromnj]

Student visas...... I hope we're monitoring our universities.

[Cindy]

"Also interesting that the taxi driver told Sadiqullah not to go to the police."

Yes, and that's a common phraseology among rapists and pedophiles who let their victims go.

As an aside, it's not uncommon to surf in on a jihad propaganda site and find one of the links (usually at the bottom of the page) is linked to porn.