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Search Results 11/01/05:

SCHOOL + THREAT:

Laguna Beach, CA:
Laguna Beach High locked down after phone threat(Registration Req'd)
Laguna Beach High School was placed under lockdown for more than an hour this morning [10/31 -LR] after a reported threat that turned out to be a prank, police said.
A school receptionist took a call after school began today, warning that six gunmen were on their way to the school.

Rogers, Akansas:
Police Looking For Author Of School Threat
ROGERS -- The Rogers Police Department has a "good idea" who penned a threat on a bathroom wall Friday at Oakdale Junior High School, a spokesman said Monday.
(...)The specific threat was not disclosed, but Cpl. Kelley Cradduck, police spokesman, said it was aimed at the general student body and involved bringing a gun to school and shooting people.

IMPORTANT: Editorial out of Indiana:
Know how to respond if terror threat is suspected
The Lake County Sheriff's Department was right to reprimand an officer who didn't follow the right procedures when he suspected a terrorist might be operating in the area of Porter Lakes Elementary School.
The officer ran a computer check on the license plate he spotted on a van he had seen outside the school a few days earlier and discovered the plate was "of interest to the FBI."
It referred to a terrorist watch list.
(...)Imagine the horror when parents learned the driver of the van, who isn't a parent of a child at the school, was picking up three Muslim children who are new to the school.
Except it was a case of mistaken identity. The driver's name was similar, but not identical, to the name of the person wanted by the FBI.
[I'm not saying this is the case in the event discussed above, but it is a proven fact that sometimes when people of Muslim persuasion have been interviewed in media reports following the OKC Bombing and OU Bombing the people have interchanged middle names and first names, as well as giving alternate spellings for their names to the reporters and such. I hope the FBI is aware of this... - LR]

Bentonville, AR:
Three students arrested in new school threat
BENTONVILLE — Three students were arrested Monday for making a threat against Washington Junior High School.
(...)"There will be criminal charges pressed, as well as a recommendation for expulsion," she said. This is the fourth bathroom threat found at a school in a week. All of the messages have been similar, leading police and school officials to believe they are copy-cat threats. Two threats were found last week at Bentonville High School, and a third threat was found at Lincoln Junior High School. A student was arrested for the second threat at BHS.(...)

South Brunswick, NJ:
Threat keeps students home
SOUTH BRUNSWICK — More than half the students at South Brunswick High School failed to show up for class yesterday after a bomb threat was scratched into a bathroom stall at the school.
(...)The bomb threat, which pointed to Halloween as the day of the supposed attack, drew a strong reaction.
(...)A half-dozen bomb-sniffing dogs and 10 police officers patrolled the school Sunday and police then locked down the building, said South Brunswick police Lt. Harry Delgado, who headed the detail.
(...)Backpacks were confiscated. Another 10 police officers patroled the school throughout the day, said Delgado, a Board of Education member with a daughter in the school. She attended classes yesterday, he said.
(...) A junior-varsity football game was canceled as a result of the mass absences. If students are absent from class, they are not permitted to participate in sports or other extracurricular activities, Matheney said.
Few faculty stayed away, Matheney said. As far as teacher attendance went, "It was about a normal day," he said.

Mount Vernon, OH:
Bomb Threat at Middle School
MOUNT VERNON — The Mount Vernon Police Department, fire department and Emergency Management Agency were all called to the Mount Vernon Middle School on Monday morning when the administration became aware of a bomb threat that was scrawled in the boy’s rest room.
According to the police report, no device was located. The threat, a message scrawled in pencil on the grout line in between pieces of tile, was allegedly found in the upper floor boy’s bathroom.

Horatio, AR:
De Queen teen accused of making bomb threat
HORATIO, Ark.—Using new technology to document a telephone call, Sevier County Sheriff’s Department has charged a Horatio High School student with making a bomb threat.
Scotty Dale Shaw, 17, of De Queen, Ark., was charged with a Class D felony for “communicating a false alarm.” The felony carries a potential sentence of up to six years in prison and a fine, said Lt. Chris Brackett of the sheriff’s department.
(...)The bomb threat occurred Oct. 4 when Horatio school secretary Rita Edwards answered the telephone call from a person making a bomb threat.

Gaithersberg, MD:
High School Students Charged With Making Bomb Threat
Police: Girls Wanted To Get Out Of Going To School Wednesday
GAITHERSBURG, Md. -- Two female students have been charged with making a bomb threat to their high school in Gaithersburg.
At about 12:30 p.m. Monday, a student discovered a note in front of a girl's bathroom at Quince Orchard High School in the 15800 block of Quince Orchard Road. The note contained a threat to bomb the school on Wednesday, police said.

Roanoake, VA:
Student arrested for bomb threat at Henry Co. school
Henry County authorities have charged a 15-year-old student with calling in a bomb threat yesterday at Magna Vista High School. The sheriff's office says the student was in school at the time and used a cell phone to call in the bomb threat around 1:20 p.m. Authorities evacuated the school and conducted a search. No bomb was found.

BOMB SEARCH RESULTS:

Williamsport, PA:
County offices receive second threat in week
For the second time in less than a week, the county courthouse was emptied Monday afternoon in response to a hoax bomb threat.
Someone called the courthouse switchboard at about 1:15 p.m. and said there was a bomb, prompting a roughly 45-minute evacuation of the building, according to the lead investigator in both cases.
Chief County Det. Lanny Reid would not comment on any parallels to a bomb threat called in midday Thursday, nor would he detail any of the threats that were made or comment on a possible motive.

Pratt County, KS:
Pipe bomb undergoing analysis
[Long article with a lot of information - LR]
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation began analysis today of an explosive device found at the curb in front of the First United Methodist Church early Saturday morning.
The device and its contents are being analyzed at the KBI West Region Laboratory in Great Bend to determine what was inside the item and any information pertaining to the origin of the device, said Pratt Police Chief Steve Holmes.

Parsippany, NJ:
Fake bomb in Chatham station derails commuters
Rail commuters were stranded for hours and a dozen trains canceled mid-day Monday while law enforcement authorities examined a device left on a Chatham platform apparently built to resemble a bomb.
(...)[Morris County Prosecutor Michael] Rubbinaccio said commuters found a device that looked like dynamite attached to batteries on the Chatham station's westbound platform at 11:45 a.m. and that the Sheriff's Bomb Squad and the Morris County Weapons of Mass Destruction Unit responded. He said they used a device called a "disrupter," which fires water under high pressure, to separate the flares from the batteries and determine that the device was not explosive.
(...)"We were worried this might be occurring in other parts of the county and the state," Rubbinaccio said. "By mid-afternoon, we were comfortable it was an isolated incident."
(...)Penny Bassett Hackett, an NJ Transit spokeswoman, said all train service between Dover and Summit was stopped for hours. She said one train heading east was delayed 2 hours and 51 minutes while another, coming from New York and heading west, was held in Summit for three hours and 20 minutes. Four trains were canceled before they left their stations, she said, and another eight trains were canceled after leaving. She did not have details on all the trains affected. She said NJ Transit took some rail commuters to their destinations by bus.

Somerset, NY
Bank receives bomb threat
AmeriServ Financial in Somerset received a bomb threat Monday afternoon that shut down part of downtown Somerset.
Officer-in-Charge Rich Appel said someone called AmeriServ Financial in Johnstown and said there was a bomb in the Somerset Branch.
(...)Somerset Borough Police emptied their office and helped state police control traffic until bomb sniffing dogs from Johnstown Police Department and Westmoreland County Sheriff's Department arrived.
Both dogs inspected the building and did not find any evidence a bomb was planted.

Over 10,000 evacuated in Berlin as US WW II bomb is defused
Some 10,000 people were evacuated late Monday night in Berlin as explosives experts defused an American World War II bomb, DPA reported.
The 250-kilogram bomb was discovered in a high-rise residential complex of Berlin's Friedrichsfelde district.
(...)Thousands of unexploded Allied bombs dating from World War II are still strewn throughout Germany, resulting in frequent evacuations and occasional injuries.

SUSPICIOUS DEVICE/PACKAGE:

Jonesboro:
Clayton Police Probing Suspicious Device
[Not many details - story orginally posted just minutes ago. (4:20 EST) - LR]
JONESBORO -- Clayton County police blocked off some roads Monday afternoon after a suspicious device was found in front of a house, authorities said.
Police were called to the home on Lake Harbin Road near Mount Zion Boulevard shortly before 3:30 p.m. No injuries have been reported.

EXPLOSION/EXPLOSIVE:

Orlando, FL (UPDATE):
Explosion At School Was Heating Unit, Not Bomb
An investigation into an explosion that forced the evacuation of a middle school in Orlando, Fla., Monday found a heating unit was to blame for the explosion and not a bomb as originally thought, according to Local 6 News.
(...)However, an investigation found a capacitator for the heater failed causing a mechanical explosion in a heating unit.
The scene was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, according to a police report.

India:
Seven killed in explosion
Seven persons were killed and two others injured in an explosion that occurred when they were illegally making firecrackers at their home in Kasba village of Dahod district early today, police said here.

TERRORISM/TERRORISTS:

Phillipines (Related to story yesterday):
Terrorist suspect out on bail missing
THE military has lost track of a suspected Islamic extremist whose bail was allegedly paid by a TV broadcaster, the Armed Forces’ intelligence chief said Tuesday.
The suspect, Tyrone Dawud Santos, was arrested in Cubao, Quezon City, in March on a charge of gun possession and was implicated in a plot to bomb a club in Malate, Manila, during Holy Week. He was freed on bail a month later.
A military intelligence officer said the AFP had been keeping Santos under constant surveillance since his release but “that he dropped from the screen” sometime last week.

MTA's New Preventive Measures for Terrorist Attacks
(New York-WABC, November 1, 2005) - New emergency exit gates may be coming to every subway station in the city-- to give riders a quick way out if there's a fire or terrorist attack.

SBS staff told to berate 'terrorist' Bush
SBS radio presenters have been encouraged to refer to US President George W. Bush as "the world's foremost terrorist" and an "evil mastermind" by the office of a senior manager.
The recommendation came via a joke e-mail sent by personal assistant Cherrill Magee on behalf of her boss, Diane Willman, who is the national editor of SBS radio.
The leaked memo was revealed in Budget estimate hearings in Canberra last night.

AL QAEDA/AL QAIDA:

Trial begins for al Qaeda suspect in Bush plot
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors told a jury on Monday that a U.S. man plotted with al Qaeda to kill President George W. Bush but his lawyer said he confessed to such a plot only because he was tortured in a Saudi jail.
The lawyers were making their case in opening statements in the trial of Ahmed Abu Ali, 24, who has pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment charging him with conspiring to kill Bush and with providing support and resources to al Qaeda.

More coverage on the above story:
Accused Bush stalker called terrorist, traitor
A man accused of plotting to kill President Bush was a trained terrorist who betrayed his country because he was intent on "killing the leader of the infidels," prosecutors said in opening statements yesterday.
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 24, of Falls Church, is on trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, facing several felony charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life.

Web posting in name of Al-Qaeda in Iraq says Moroccan hostages to face trial
CAIRO, Egypt – An Internet posting in the name of al-Qaeda in Iraq says two kidnapped Moroccan Embassy employees are to stand trial in an Islamic court.
On Oct. 25 the Al-Qaeda in Iraq terror group claimed to have abducted the two Moroccans. The Moroccan government said the same day that two of its Baghdad embassy staff had been kidnapped while driving back from Jordan.

COLLEGE CAMPUS RELATED:

University of Oklahoma...

Police Bust Fake ID Ring [at Univ. of Oklahoma]
FR THREAD LINK
Police Bust Fake ID Ring - KOCO Ch. 5 coverage w/video
Hundreds Of Fake Texas ID Cards Surface In Oklahoma - NBC5i.com
Norman police investigate fake Texas driver's licenses - KFOR Ch.4
Students warned of fake Texas driver's licenses - NewsOK.com Ch.9 News
SUMMARY: 100s of High-Quality forged Texas Drivers Licences have been found in Norman, OK. An OU student and fraternity member is suspected or organizing this fake ID ring. His name nor that of his fraternity has been reported at this time. The student's computer has been handed over to the Secret Service and they are investigating hundreds of individuals thought to have purchased, or attempted to purchase these IDs. Students have been given till Nov. 18th to return the DLs or may possibly face federal charges. No charges have been filed in this case as of yet. - LR

If you would like on or off my "Daily Links List" ping list please drop me a freepmail! (o: - LR

http://www.nwitimes.com/site_pages/formyourop0.php
"What do you think?
What would you do if you suspected a terrorist were living or working near you?"

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Thanks to LibertyRocks for pointing to this article:
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http://www.thetimesonline.com/articles/2005/11/01/opinion/times_editorials/a55f8e7de1a3b35c862570ab007c2191.txt

"Know how to respond if terror threat is suspected"

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The issue: Terrorism
Our opinion: It's important that everyone know just what to do when a terror threat is spotted so the situation can be handled with the least public angst and the most safety."

This story ran on nwitimes.com on Tuesday, November 1, 2005 12:20 AM CST

ARTICLE SNIPPET #2: "The Lake County Sheriff's Department was right to reprimand an officer who didn't follow the right procedures when he suspected a terrorist might be operating in the area of Porter Lakes Elementary School.

The officer ran a computer check on the license plate he spotted on a van he had seen outside the school a few days earlier and discovered the plate was "of interest to the FBI."

It referred to a terrorist watch list.

The correct procedure would have been to go immediately to his supervisor at the police department to report the discovery.

Instead, the officer went to the school superintendent when the principal wasn't available."

Thanks to LibertyRocks for pointing to this article:
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November 1, 2005 Edition:
http://www.pratttribune.com/articles/2005/10/31/news/01_bomb.txt
http://www.pratttribune.com/content/articles/2005/10/31/news/01_bomb-1.jpg
http://www.pratttribune.com/content/articles/2005/10/31/news/01_bomb-2.jpg
News

"Pipe bomb undergoing analysis"

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The Kansas Bureau of Investigation began analysis today of an explosive device found at the curb in front of the First United Methodist Church early Saturday morning."

ARTICLE SNIPPET #2: "It was determined upon examination that it could explode.

"Based on what we saw from the design after it was deactivated, it was a real explosive device," Holmes said. "There was something inside but we're not sure what it is."

The device was found around 1:30 a.m. by Mark Knudson, a Pratt resident, who was walking by the church and saw the item. He notified police who in turn contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Wichita."

ARTICLE SNIPPET #3: "Anyone with information concerning the device should contact the Pratt Police Department immediately at 672-5551 or to give information anonymously call Crime Stoppers at 672-3050. Calls to Crime Stoppers are not recorded, no caller ID is used, the calls are not traced and the caller does not have to give a name.

Crime Stoppers is available 24 hours every day and the organization will pay up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest for this or any crime."

UPDATE on the OU Story - The student's name has not been released, but he was identified as a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity...

Thanks for the post LR. The hundreds of fake IDs that turned up in Oklahoma really caught my eye. I'll have to read that later when I'm home.

>> bawmark <<< LOL!

admark

Excellent list of threats, thank you for all the work.

Thanks, LR, quite the list.