Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat

For archival purposes - UPDATE:
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,202518,00.html
"FBI Busts 'Real Deal' Terror Plot Aimed At NYC-NJ Underground Transit Link"
Friday, July 07, 2006

PHOTOS VIDEO

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "WASHINGTON — FBI agents monitoring Internet chat rooms smashed an Al Qaeda terrorist plot to attack New York City's underground transit link with New Jersey, law enforcement officials said Friday.

The attack would have been carried out as early as the fall of this year.

"We're here today to discuss what we believe is the real deal," Mark Mershon, former assistant FBI director in New York, said during a press conference Friday. "We believe we intercepted this group early in their plotting and in fact, the plan has largely been disrupted."

The main target of the plot was the heavily traveled underground PATH train system that connects lower Manhattan and New Jersey's suburban communities, officials confirmed. The system carries more than 215,000 commuters daily. Mershon said the plot was supposed to be executed in October or November, but that it still was in the "planning stages."

Mershon said the plan "involved martyrdom and explosives.""

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NOTE: The following text is a quote:
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http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel06/transportation_threat070706.htm

For Immediate Release
July 7, 2006

Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office
(202) 324-3691

Lebanese-US Government Cooperate and Disrupt Plan to NY-NJ Transportation System

Washington, D.C. - “Working closely with the Intelligence/Information Directorate within the Internal Security Forces of Lebanon and with other foreign law enforcement and intelligence partners, we have disrupted a terrorist network that was in the planning stages of an attack against the transportation system in the New York-New Jersey area. A significant development in this investigation was the arrest of a key suspect by Lebanese authorities. This investigation is ongoing. We know al-Qa’ida continues to have an interest in attacking the United States. At this point in time, there is no specific or credible information that al-Qa’ida is planning an attack on US soil. The FBI, through the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, will continue to investigate suspected activities here and abroad with our partners from the US and international law enforcement and intelligence commu nity. At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security will continue to share information with state and local partners to ensure that they have the appropriate awareness to make decisions about how to best protect their communities.”

Just great. Now more will know the jihadi chat rooms are and have been monitored.

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Plotters Plan Mass Suicide on Train on 9/11/06
July 07, 2006 6:00 PM

Brian Ross Reports:

Federal law enforcement officials tell ABC News a plot designed to use 15 to 20 suicide bombers on one commuter train as close to Sept. 11 as possible was well underway.

The specific target was the PATH commuter trains that run in a tunnel under the Hudson River into New York City.

"This is a plot that would have involved martyrdom, explosives and certain of the tubes that connect New Jersey with lower Manhattan," said Mark Mershon, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI New York Field Office. "We're not discussing the modality behind that."

But law enforcement officials say the plotters had already accessed detailed blueprints and drawings of the PATH tunnels, available on the internet.

And like the London bombers, the plan was to load backpacks with explosives.

All 15 to 20 bombers were to board one car and detonate when the train was under the river, according to officials.

"There's no question that they are vulnerable. With the right amount of explosives, the tunnel could be compromised," said Gerry Hauer, former Director of New York City's Office of Emergency Management and now an ABC News consultant.

The FBI identified the ringleader as 32-year-old Assem Hammoud of Lebanon.

Lebanese officials arrested him in April at the request of the FBI, and he reportedly has now admitted he was about to go to Pakistan for training at an al Qaeda camp.

"We know that he has acknowledged pledging a bayat or allegiance to Osama bin Laden, and he proclaims himself to be a member of al Qaeda," said Mershon.

Security was stepped up today at the PATH tunnels.

Officials said today two other alleged plotters had also been arrested, but at least five of them remain at large.

"This shows we are able to disrupt terror plots such as this," said New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. "Secondly, it shows that New York remains in the terrorists' cross hairs."

Officials say the plot was uncovered more than a year ago by U.S. and Canadian intelligence agents watching a jihadist internet chat room.

Officials say the suspects communicated freely, thinking that no one could track them.

Similar chat rooms were used by the alleged terrorists arrested recently in Toronto and Miami.

"The chat rooms have literally exploded since 9/ll because we are now right in the midst of electronic jihad," said Jack Cloonan, former senior agent on the FBI's bin Laden squad in New York and now an ABC News consultant.

Officials say none of the plotters were in the United States but that several of them were nearby in Canada. Others had planned to travel to New York from Saudi Arabia.

Officials say even after their leader was arrested in April, the plotters continued to make plans, and officials say they can't be sure the plan is fully stopped, even now.

blog link

Via Drudge:

California Man Revealed as al Qaeda Leader
July 07, 2006 1:39 PM

Brian Ross Reports:

For the first time, a former Orange County, Calif. teenage rock music fan has revealed his role as a top al Qaeda leader.

Adam Gadahn, who disappeared from California seven years ago, appeared unmasked on an al Qaeda tape made public on the internet today.

As previously reported by ABC News, the FBI had concluded that the masked man was Gadahn based on voice analysis of previous al Qaeda tapes. On today's tape, Gadahn is bearded, wearing a turban.

He denounces U.S. soldiers in Iraq and their alleged murder and rapes of Iraqi citizens.

"Who are the real terrorists?" Gadahn asks.

When referring to the alleged atrocities committed by U.S. Marines in Iraq, Gadahn also says, "It's hard to imagine that any compassionate person could see pictures...and not want to go on a shooting spree at the Marines' housing facilities at Camp Pendleton."

Camp Pendleton is located just south of where Gadahn grew up in California.

There was no immediate response from Gadahn's family, which still lives in California. They had previously denied he was the masked figure on al Qaeda tapes.

blog link

Lost and stolen Canadian passports in hands of terrorists, criminals

Snip: About 50,000 Canadian passports that were lost or stolen in the last four years have fallen into the hands of criminals or terrorists, a Montreal newspaper reported on Friday.

White supremacists enlisting in military

Snip: A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist and right-wing militia groups, estimated that the numbers could run into the thousands, citing interviews with Defense Department investigators and reports and postings on racist Web sites and magazines. "We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," the group quoted a Defense Department investigator from a report to be posted today on its Web site, www.splcenter.org. "That's a problem."

Pray or die - Somali sheikh tells Muslims

Snip: A leading Mogadishu sheikh said on Friday Muslims who do not pray five times a day should be put to death -- the latest sign of a fast-emerging hardline face to Somalia's newly-powerful Islamists.

Bids sought for nuclear plant

Snip: A consulting firm hired by the utility has sent letters to owners and operators of nuclear plants across the country seeking input on whether they would want to buy the plant or operate the plant on behalf of We Energies.

The letter was sent Friday by Concentric Energy Advisors, the consulting firm that has handled two recent nuclear plant sales in the Upper Midwest. Concentric, based in Marlborough, Mass., worked with Madison-based Alliant Energy Corp. in the sale of its controlling stake in an Iowa nuclear plant. And Concentric is managing the auction of a Michigan reactor by CMS Energy Corp.

The We Energies letter details an auction process that would culminate with interested firms touring the plant in late summer and submitting bids by late November.

A blueprint for Australian jihad

Snip: Lodhi also bought two diagrammatic maps of the national electricity grid from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, using the name M. Rasul, of Rasul Electrical. He said at the time he wanted to display them at his new business. The prosecution said it was Lodhi's clear intent to use the maps to attack the nation's electricity supply; defence counsel said the schematic drawings would be as useful as a Collins Atlas to the captain of a ship intending a long sea voyage.

Lodhi further downloaded aerial photographs of military installations at Holsworthy, on the fringes of Sydney, the city's Victoria Barracks, and HMAS Penguin on Sydney Harbour. He said he had worked at all three and had intended to use some of the images in a curriculum vitae.

When ASIO agents raided his home, they found what they described as a terrorism manual handwritten in Urdu by Lodhi, a disc of four US military explosives and weapons training manuals, material urging violent jihad, and CDs praising Osama bin Laden and containing footage of executions by jihadists in Chechnya.

The prosecution alleged Lodhi based his case for jihad on a text from the Koran reading: "Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the hearts of your enemy."

Muslim youth camp returns to Pennsylvania - complete with AQ linked cleric

Snip: Residents of Villanova, Pennsylvania who have opposed the expansion of a facility in which the "Foundation of Islamic Education" is housed should really be concerned over a "Youth Jihad Camp" [Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the group's summer gatherings were openly called "Jihad Camps"] planned to take place in August.

According to an article appearing in the Philadephia Inquirer - "Neighbors fight Islamic foundation's expansion" - the FIE is "... a New York non profit religious group headed by a Saudi businessman," who "agreed to to buy the campus of the Northeastern Christian Junior College , the former Morris Clothier estate, for 2.7 million.."

Beila Rabinowitz of Militant Islam Monitor, Al-Qaeda linked cleric among speakers at Muslim Youth camp at Foundation for Islamic Education in Villanova PA 8/2-6/06 has uncovered further information on the Wahhabist ties which go directly to the Saudi government:

"The foundation's trustees are based in Saudi Arabia. The president of the board is Mahmoud Abdullah Taiba, a member of the Majlis Ash Shura and former secretary of the the Energy and Electricity in Riyadh Saudi Arabia. FIE is also directly linked to the radical Islamist University, Al Azhar, a bastion of the Muslim Brotherhood. The head Imam of Al Azhar, Sheik Tantawi, sanctioned suicide attacks against Israeli civilians, characterizing them as all potential soldiers. Bin Laden's mentor, Abdullah Azzam attended the university as well. The FIE works together with the American Open University and describes itself as 'a satellite campus ' accredited to Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.

Islamic Fun Day in the UK

Snip: Something or someone calling itself 'Islamic Leisure' has come up with an 'Islamic Fun Day' at Alton Towers. Having block-booked Britain's largest amusement park, Islamic Leisure assures people that the day will be totally halal, with no gambling, beer, bacon sandwiches, or music played. And, of course, segregated rides.

The problem with Muslim Only Days

Snip: It is equally important to note the very different social context for Muslims in the UK from the USA (which recently had its own Six Flags Muslim Adventure Day). While I still consider such an approach mistaken in the USA, it is less of infinitely less concern here due to the far more successful integration of Muslims into American life (as The Economist insightfully noted recently, "the United States has a substantial Muslim population which on the whole seems pretty comfortable there, and has produced some of the world's best Islamic thinkers.") than in Europe. Today's American social and political landscape is certainly not free of prejudice, discrimination and exclusion against Muslims, but by and large American Muslims are not struggling against the terrible demons, internal as well as external, as their British (and French and Danish) counterparts. Consequently, the risk of separatism resulting from such occurences on American soil is minute by comparison.

Senate Immigration Law would disarm local law enforcement

Snip: One of most important lessons that our country learned on 9/11 was that state and local police can make the difference between an unsuccessful terrorist plot and an attack that kills 3,000.

In the aftermath of the attack, we learned that five of the nineteen hijackers had violated federal immigration laws while they were in the United States. All five terrorists committed civil, not criminal, immigration violations. Amazingly, four of the five were actually stopped by local police for speeding. All four terrorists could have been arrested, if the police officers had asked the right questions and realized that they were illegal aliens. To see just how critical a role state and local police can play, consider two of the 9/11 hijackers. Lebanese terrorist Ziad Jarrah was the man at the flight controls of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania. Jarrah first entered the United States in June 2000 through the Atlanta airport, on a tourist visa. He immediately violated federal immigration law by taking classes at the Florida Flight Training Center in Venice, Florida. He never applied to change his immigration status from tourist to student. He was therefore detainable and removable from the United States almost from the moment he entered the country. Jarrah committed his second immigration violation six months later—when he overstayed the period he was authorized to remain in the United States on his tourist visa.

Jarrah successfully avoided contact with state and local police for more than fourteen months. However, at 12:09 A.M. on September 9, 2001, two days before the attack, he was clocked at 90 miles-per-hour in a 65 miles-per-hour zone on Highway 95 in Maryland, 12 miles south of the Delaware state line. He was traveling from Baltimore to Newark, in order to rendezvous with the other members of his team.

The Maryland trooper did not know about Jarrah’s immigration violations. Had the officer asked a few questions, such as what Jarrah’s immigration status was, or simply made a phone call to the federal government’s Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC)—which operates around the clock from Williston, Vermont—he could have arrested Jarrah. Instead, the trooper issued a Jarrah a $270 speeding ticket and let him go. The ticket would be found in the glove compartment of the car at Newark Airport two days later, left behind when Jarrah boarded Flight 93.

Or consider the case of Saudi Arabian terrorist Nawaf al Hazmi. Hazmi was the second-in-command of the 9/11 attackers, and a back-up pilot. He entered the United States through the Los Angeles International Airport on a tourist visa in January 2000. He rented an apartment with fellow hijacker Khalid Almihdhar in San Diego and lived there for more than a year. As with Jarrah, his period of authorized stay expired after six months. After July 14, 2000, Hazmi would be in the United States illegally. In early 2001, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to join another 9/11 hijacker, Hani Hanjour.

On April 1, 2001, Hazmi was stopped for speeding in Oklahoma while traveling cross country with Hanjour. Had the officer asked Hazmi a few basic questions or asked to see Hazmi’s visa, he might have discovered that Hazmi was in violation of U.S. immigration law at the time. Once again, the officer could have detained him. The officer also had the authority to detain Hanjour, who had entered the country on a student visa, but never showed up for classes.

All of the 9/11 hijackers’ encounters with local law enforcement were missed opportunities of tragic dimension. If even one of the police officers had made an arrest, the terrorist plot might have unraveled.

It is important to remember that the civil violations of the five 9/11 hijackers were similar to the actions of earlier terrorists. For example, in 1989, Kuwaiti terrorist Eyad Ismoil entered the United States on a student visa and enrolled at Wichita State University in Kansas. After three semesters he dropped out and worked with other members of his terrorist cell to prepare for the 1993 attack the World Trade Center. At that point he committed a civil immigration violation and was thereafter out of status. He ultimately drove the van that carried the bomb. That explosion killed six people and wounded more than 1,000 others.

Police departments across the country responded to the lessons of 9/11 and to the OLC opinion by exercising their inherent arrest authority with renewed determination. The number of calls to the LESC by local police officers who had arrested illegal aliens nearly doubled in the ensuing years, from 309,489 in FY 2002, to over 504,678 in FY 2005. Put differently, in FY 2005 local police were calling LESC to check an alien’s status an average of 1,383 times a day. Local police have become a crucial force multiplier in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

But Senate Bill 2611, if passed, would stop local police from protecting the American public in this way.

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