Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - Thread Thirteen

WND ^ | 7-11-04 | N/A

[JustPiper]

Picture credit: TheCabal

"I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat"

LINK TO THREAD TWELVE

LUCKY THREAD NUMBER:

HOMELAND INSECURITY

Backup electrical systems failed to kick in

A mysterious power failure at Logan Airport that delayed dozens of flights for more than five hours has still not been explained – six days later.

Airport officials insist airline security was not compromised during the blackout Monday at Logan International's Terminal E, but backup electrical systems failed to kick in as they are programmed under such circumstances.

We are the "Stotters" who make ourselves aware of the enemy who wishes to do us harm

Meet It!
Greet It!
Defeat It!

[HipShot]

So they may consider 9/11 a tactical failure then. That speaks volumes.

[Godzilla]

Here is my first attempt at maintaining the running summary of threat understanding since getting back home.

1. Reevaluation of the July 11-15 window. No attack made during the window, however, recent announcements by AQ related groups seem to indicate that the window did mark the end of the truce with Europe and that probably the calendar method used was our standard calendar, not lunar. Secondly, the ‘truce’ period was probably legitimate, since follow-up messages from terrorists were published. Jihadist chatter indicates a heightened expectancy of something about to happen ‘soon’. We have no good window for Italy attack - See #2 below.

2. Threat Target(s).
A. Out recently by the same folks who claimed responsibility for the Madrid attacks is a threat to Italy. The communique states that this is Italy’s last warning, the next ‘communication’ will be the actual attack itself. This is still following the sequence identified earlier, that is Italy would be hit prior to the US. Furthermore, focus of the attack is still suspected to be Rome and very likely the Vatican.
*******TM HELP - how many days prior to the Madrid attack did the terrorists issue their final warning. Could refine potential attack window. Secondly, is Italy scheduled to have elections soon? When?

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B. There is some question if England will be hit prior to or simultaneously with the US. Fact that England is still in the top 3 targets continues to confirm earlier summaries of the desirability to strike them.

3. Attack method.
A. The threat is for something big, devastating to hit US. This has been a common theme, with significant discourse on whether AQ has small nukes or the capability to deploy them. However, a dirty bomb is not out of the question - mass panic as a goal.

B. Discussion in TM and from national news sources indicate continued AQ interest in aircraft hijacking. Thoughts range from using far more people to putting together a ‘weapon’ of some sort in a toilet. This weapon could be an explosive device or a chemical of some sort. One piece of the puzzle missing is how the terrorists would get past the reinforced doors to the cockpit.

4. Significant meetings canceled:
A. OPEC’s meeting in Vienna Austria has been canceled, unprecedented.
B. Secty Tom Ridge’s trip to Israel canceled

5. Security has been heightened in specific cities - NYC, Philly, Seattle, LA, DC. Trains and buses searched - Significant development in east coast towns. Seaports and those many crossing over our borders in the news. Ports are getting a lot more security scrutiny. Diving teams are activity looking for mines, Coast Guard turning away ships as necessary.

6. Military operations. No change. The fleet and F117s are deployed. However, their deployment appears to have been planned to a certain extent. May be a coincidence. Haven’t heard if the B1s and B2s have been forward deployed.

7. Dept of Homeland Scty. Nothing new since congressional and public briefings. Sen Tommy Dachel says that the report (classified) is very serious and could not conceive it being used for political purposes. Very concerning that the Minority leader would make such a statement in the midst of a heated campaign season.

[jerseygirl]

He was telling them also get these guys under control because we will still hold you responsible because it was done under your watch in your country, because we can trace it back to you.


Yes, he was. I recall he said that- if WMD is launched against the US- we will retaliate- no investigations-no questions asked. I believe he was referring to Iran, North Korea possibly, Syria.

Russia used to say that they had lost track of some of their nuclear material and needed our help securing it. Well, low and behold- about a week or so ago- Putin suddenly declares that they NEVER had a problem with securing their WMD....Now that tells me he is getting a tad anxious. He knows that we know that Russia gave/sold AQ the nukes. So IMHO- he is doing everything he can to avoid responsibility.

Meanwhile- Russia has mobilized and is on full alert. IMO they expect the US would strike them if nukes fall on US soil.

The space-based weapons were activated weeks ago.

IMO we are on the verge of a (possibly) global nuclear war.

[BagCamAddict]

And where have you been Cam? Hmmmmmmm...?

Unfortunately, I have an actual "job" now, so I can't Freep full-time like I was able to last year. :-(( So I'm barely able to keep up with the headlines, and I can only read the really juicy articles, and I infrequently get to read an entire thread and interact. Plus, I only found out there was a Threat Matrix thread about a week ago! And when I went to it, and it was thousands of posts long, I didn't even try... the days of the live threads during the "war" were hard enough to keep up with, and I was Freeping about 20 hours a day back then!

So, I'd LOVE to be active on the Threat Matrix thread, but I don't feel right about jumping into threads w/o reading everything first (I hate asking questions or making comments that have already been covered -- I hate it when someone jumps in at Post 347 and posts a comment to Post 1 that has been said forty times already, and has been answered forty times already... so I don't want to be one of those. ;-)

Maybe I'll try to keep better tabs on the Threat Matrix thread... and maybe someday I'll be able to participate. Hope you are well, and that you're having fun on the thread!

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

Senior Sunni cleric calls for holy war against US forces in Iraq

Fri Jul 16, 1:31 PM ET Add Mideast - AFP to My Yahoo!

RAMADI, Iraq (AFP) - A senior Sunni cleric called on his followers to launch a holy war against the US forces in Iraq (news - web sites) and threatened to turn the hotspot city of Ramadi into a "graveyard" for American troops.

"I ask US President (George W.) Bush to withdraw from Iraq or else Ramadi will become a graveyard for US soldiers," declared Sheikh Akram Ubayed Furaih at weekly prayers in the city, 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad.

"I call upon my brothers the Shiites and on all other religious groups to embark on a Jihad (holy war) against the US military to force them out of Iraq," said the cleric, who spent three months in a prison after being arrested by the US military and whose home was also raided last week.

"I urge all the Iraqi people to fight a holy war against the Americans," said the cleric, among the most respected figures in this Sunni rebel bastion.


Using slightly more moderate tones, two other Sunni clerics from the Muslim Scholars' Association spoke out against conditions in military detention centres run by the US-led coalition.


"We have received messages from inmates at Um Qasr (detention centre on the border with Kuwait) describing their suffering during this hot weather," said Ahmed Abdel Gafur Samarrai, addressing a crowd at the Um al-Qura mosque in Baghdad.


He called on the United Nations (news - web sites) to intervene on behalf of the detainees.


"The United Nations must do something because it granted a legitimacy to the occupation, but this legitimacy has been lost due to the actions that have taken place," said Samarrai, referring to the thousands of Iraqis locked up on suspicion of involvement in the persistent insurgency that has dogged the 14-month US-led occupation.


Among Iraq's majority Shiite community there also came condemnation of the interim Iraqi government and fresh demands for the death of jailed dictator Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).


"We refuse to submit to terrorists and the occupiers are the worst of all the terrorists ... We denounce anything that is named by the occupier," said Sheikh Jaber al-Kafaji, speaking in the name of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, in reference to the new administration.


Kafaji said he suspected the United States of wanting to release Saddam Hussein.


Washington "has started to prepare this by saying that he had no weapons of mass destruction and nothing to do with what took place in the United States," Kafaji said, referring to the terrorist attacks there on September 11, 2001.


In the holy city of Karbala, a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani launched a harsh attack against Arab lawyers who have offered to represent the ex-president.


"It sickens us to see them rushing to defend this fallen man taking the dollars of his wife (Sajida Saddam Hussein). You have to cut off his head and this is the minimum that we want," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040716/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_sunni_040716173131

[BagCamAddict]

By the way, I hope everyone here had a chance to send an email of condolences and gratitude to the Bulgarian Embassy... condolences for the murders of the Bulgarian hostages, and gratitude for their continued support of the Coalition, and their refusal to bow to terrorists' demands. If you haven't had a chance, please do so... there is another thread on it, with the email addresses posted. Do a search for "Murdered Bulgarians."

I received a PERSONAL email reply from the Bulgarian Ambassador to the US -- not a canned auto-response.

[jerseygirl]

EVEN MORE REASONS US MIGHT LAUNCH ON IRAN

www.time.com/time/nation/...67,00.html

9/11 Commission Finds Ties Between al-Qaeda and Iran
Senior U.S. officials have told TIME that the 9/11 Commission's report will cite evidence suggesting that the 9/11 hijackers had previously passed through Iran
By ADAM ZAGORIN AND JOE KLEIN




Friday, Jul. 16, 2004
Next week's much anticipated final report by a bipartisan commission on the origins of the 9/11 attacks will contain new evidence of contacts between al-Qaeda and Iran—just weeks after the Administration has come under fire for overstating its claims of contacts between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

A senior U.S. official told TIME that the Commission has uncovered evidence suggesting that between eight and ten of the 14 "muscle" hijackers—that is, those involved in gaining control of the four 9/11 aircraft and subduing the crew and passengers—passed through Iran in the period from October 2000 to February 2001. Sources also tell TIME that Commission investigators found that Iran had a history of allowing al-Qaeda members to enter and exit Iran across the Afghan border. This practice dated back to October 2000, with Iranian officials issuing specific instructions to their border guards—in some cases not to put stamps in the passports of al-Qaeda personnel—and otherwise not harass them and to facilitate their travel across the frontier. The report does not, however, offer evidence that Iran was aware of the plans for the 9/11 attacks.

The senior official also told TIME that the report will note that Iranian officials approached the al-Qaeda leadership after the bombing of the USS Cole and proposed a collaborative relationship in future attacks on the U.S., but the offer was turned down by bin Laden because he did not want to alienate his supporters in Saudi Arabia.

The Iran-al Qaeda contacts were discovered and presented to the Commissioners near the end of the bipartisan panel's more than year-long investigation into the sources and origins of the 9/11 attacks. Much of the new information about Iran came from al-Qaeda detainees interrogated by the U.S. government, including captured Yemeni al-Qaeda operative Waleed Mohammed bin Attash, who organized the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole, and from as many as 100 separate electronic intelligence intercepts culled by analysts at the NSA. The findings were sent to the White House for review only this week. But Commission members have been hinting for weeks that their report would have some Iran surprises. As the 9/11 Commission's chairman, Thomas Kean, said in June, "We believe....that there were a lot more active contacts, frankly, with Iran and with Pakistan than there were with Iraq."

These findings follow a Commission staff report, released in June, which suggested that al-Qaeda may have collaborated with Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsors in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers, a key American military barracks in Saudi Arabia. Previously, the attack had been attributed only to Hezbollah, with Iranian support. A U.S. indictment of bin Laden filed in 1998 for the bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa said al-Qaeda "forged alliances . . . with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezbollah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States." But the Commission comes to no firm conclusion on al-Qaeda's involvement in the Khobar disaster.

Since 9/11 the U.S. has held direct talks with Iran—and through intermediaries including Britain, Switzerland and Saudi Arabia—concerning the fate of scores of al-Qaeda that Iran has acknowleded are in the country, including an unspecified number of senior leaders, whom one senior U.S. official called al-Qaeda's "management council". The U.S. as well as the Saudis have unsuccessfully sought the repatriation of this group, which is widely thought to include Saad bin Laden, the son of Osama bin Laden, as well of other key al-Qaeda figures.

[knak]

that's strange

[jerseygirl]

RUSSKIES AND IRANIANS COZYING UP ONCE AGAIN



2004/07/17

Tehran Caspian Sea summit important



Moscow, July 17

Iran and Russia will cooperate in finalizing legal regime of Caspian Sea, according to talks here Friday between Iran's ambassador to Moscow Gholam-Reza Shafeie and President Putin's special envoy on Caspian Sea affairs Victor Calioge nie.

The two sides during the meeting also exchanged viewpoints on various issues related to the Caspian Sea, including the upcoming Caspian Sea littoral states summit, due to be held in Tehran in near future.

The Russian resident's special envoy and deputy foreign minister said, "Tehran summit would be of special importance in finalizing the Caspian Sea's legal regime."

Stressing on the importance of the political will of the heads of countries having shores by the world's largest lake in solving the important issues related to finalizing a legal regime for it, Caliogenie said, "all littoral states need to do their be st to turn the Tehran summit to a big success."

It was agreed at the end of Caloigenie's talks with Shafeie that Tehran-Moscow consultations on the issue would continue aimed at reaching closer stands that could assist finalizing the issue, since the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian federati on are the two largest neighbors of the Caspian Sea.



www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.a...07427&n=32

[jerseygirl]

NEW POST BY SEAN FROM THE FINAL PHASE:RE- FLIGHTS

A return to "Terror in the Skies"

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I just recieved this article in my homelandsecurityus.com e-mail inbox. It was sent to me late last night by the webmaster for the Independence County (Batesville, ARK) Sherrif's Department.

Upon reading it I have but one question.. why did the Fed's let these terrorists go? To track them back to their source and/or paymasters?

We first reported on this kind of terrorist activity back on Janyary 7, 2004.


Quote:

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Air travelers are advised to remain vigilant even after boarding an aircraft and urged to notify flight personnel of unusual interaction between seemingly unrelated passengers.



7 January 2004-- Information obtained exclusively by the Northeast Intelligence Network provided additional insight into the terrorists' operational plans involving at least one and perhaps more of the recently grounded flights. According to these sources, the following method of operation is "continuing" and will likely result in additional international flights being grounded.



It is already well known that women are being used as "mules" to smuggle explosive material onto airplanes. The other undisclosed aspect of these plans, according to information confirmed by intelligence officials, is that each woman is "accompanied" by 1-2 other people onto a targeted aircraft.

The other passengers do not appear to have any connection to the female passenger whatsoever and even carry passports from other countries.

These covert associates carry other electronic items that alone, appear harmless (such as a personal CD player, for example) but are actually intended to be used as components for the explosive device. These items are checked and pass through security as they are operational.



Once aboard the aircraft, there is "quiet" interaction between operatives to pass all of the necessary bomb-making components to the delegated operative who assembles the device in the bathroom of the aircraft.

At that point, they have "successfully" breached the intense security and have a workable and deadly explosive device that has been assembled at 30,000 feet.
www.homelandsecurityus.com/Airtravel.htm#AT01

[jerseygirl]

US CAREFULLY MONITORING NORTH KOREA FOR LAUNCH OF MISSILES TOWARD THE us




US DESTROYERS TO KEEP TABS ON PYONGYANG




Six Navy warships are being modified for deployment in Sea of Japan to detect launch of nuclear missiles directed at US

WASHINGTON


Defence contractor Lockheed Martin is modifying six US Navy destroyers for use in the Sea of Japan to provide early warning of North Korean nuclear missiles fired at the US.

The modifications to radar and computer signal processors on the Aegis-class destroyers in the waters separating Japan and the Korean peninsula will allow detection and tracking of medium- and long-range missiles, said a Lockheed spokesman.


Tracking information will be converted into targeting information for interceptor rockets. The one-ship patrols will start in September on a rotating basis.

'Having them way up forward means you can track the target longer and the more information you have, the better if you have to take a shot,' the spokesman said yesterday.

The US Navy confirmed in a statement that a destroyer for tracking missiles will be deployed to the Sea of Japan as of September 'and on a virtually continuous basis thereafter'.

Earlier this month, Air Force Lieutenant-General Ronald Kadish, then head of the Defence Department's Missile Defence Agency, said in an interview that North Korea had 'significantly' improved the capability of its long-range missiles.

And the Central Intelligence Agency has said in public testimony that a Taepodong-2 missile could carry a nuclear payload to Alaska, Hawaii and parts of the continental US.

The Pentagon said the deployment of destroyers should not prompt North Korea to withdraw from talks with the US and other countries aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear programme. -- Bloomberg


straitstimes.asia1.com.sg...5,00.html?

[Quix]

I wonder . . .

any way we could engineer a collective

LOUD TMMMMER SCREAM

into a weapon!?

This is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo outrageous!

[Cindy]

NOTE: THIS IS NOT TERRORISM RELATED. FYI.

http://www.joyjunction.org/bulletin/modules.php?s=866fb053d33919949c8a6ade8a82e229&name=News&file=showarticle&threadid=737

[Cindy]

"I have a feeling they continued that discussion via FReepmail; oh to have been a little fly on those cyberwalls..."

Some things are best unsaid (in public).
(Wry smile.)

[Cindy]

Call me cyncical and you know I apprecite the FBI efforts; but the only thing that comes to mind is...

A day late and a dollar short.

[Cindy]

LOL!

[Cindy]

I agree.
I was being cynical, sarcastic, etc.

[ExSoldier]

"I read somewhere that the US was going to turn Iraq into the worlds communication center."

You know the Biblical history of Iraq, correct? I'm right in the middle of the Left Behind series of books. New Babylon is the capital of the world, in the books. Right outside Baghdad.

BTW, I have had many friends who were stationed in SK over the years. Do you have any idea of the logistical support needed to keep an infantry division of 17,000 + folks supplied in that environment? The number of troops and units in that theatre of operations is no secret, except for the SpecOps presence and that is tiny compared to the conventional folks there. Plus, remember that America is assigned a sector to patrol of the DMZ and we're not alone. Besides SK there are other UN units assigned to "keep the peace." the reality is that we're not there to deter the NK's from coming south, but to keep the SK's from going north! The troops actually on the DMZ are not powerful enough to stop any attack unless they use nuke artillery and that would have to be okayed all the way to DC. No time. No, their function is to give a warning to the meat of the units in the south. They get to "Yell BANG and die."

[Cindy]

You're right.
We need more of that.

[Cindy]

Good morning Little Jeremiah.
It's going to be a good weekend.