Threat Matrix: June 2007

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[nwctwx]

British Intelligence: Al-Qaida Expanding
-Full Story-

British intelligence officials said they believe that al-Qaida has a secure base in Pakistan's Waziristan region and is planning terrorist operations.

The group is reaching out to Muslims in North Africa, The Telegraph reported. Last year, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, an Algerian terrorist group, merged itself into al-Qaida, a move announced by Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a tape promising action against the "apostates" in the Algerian government and "the treacherous sons of France."

Al-Qaida is also believed to be planning expansion into Lebanon and Syria, the newspaper report said.

	U.S. Battles al-Qaida in Baghdad
	U.S. Terror Expert Says Nuclear Risk Low
	Is North African Militant New Face of al-Qaida?

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[PGalt]

Placemark bump. Thanks to all linkers!

[Oorang]

Local Radicalized Muslim Man At Center Of Plot
Jun 2, 2007 11:52 pm US/Eastern

NEW YORK As a cargo handler at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Russell Defreitas watched military parts be shipped to Israel and believed they would be used to kill Muslims.

He seethed with rage against the U.S. and Israel for more than a decade after retirement before finally deciding, authorities said, that he wanted to “get those bastards.” Drawing on his inside knowledge of the massive airport, Defreitas conspired with three men to blow up the airport’s underground jet fuel tanks and its pipeline in a spectacular attack designed to kill thousands in the populous neighborhood, authorities said.

Excerpted

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_153200552.html

Alleged plot casts light on radical Islam in the Caribbean
June 2, 2007

MIAMI - The alleged terror plot against JFK airport in New York has cast a spotlight on radical Muslim elements in the Caribbean, including a group that launched the hemisphere's only Islamic revolt and a former Broward County, Fla., man wanted by the FBI. In 1990, Yasin Abu Bakr, a Muslim leader on the twin-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, led a six-day coup attempt the government with his 113-member Jamaat al Muslimeen organization. The prime minister was shot and wounded and 24 others killed.

In an indictment unveiled in New York on Saturday, the U.S. government accused the four men of conspiring to plant explosives at the airport of trying to contact Abu Bakr personally to seek his support. Two of them failed, but one of them claimed to have talked to Abu Bakr, the indictment said. Three of the men are from Guyana and one is from Trinidad. Two of the men were arrested last week in Trinidad and police are searching for a third suspect there. The fourth man was arrested in Brooklyn Friday night.

John Jermie, Trinidad's attorney general, told The Miami Herald that his Caribbean nation is not a hot spot for terrorism activity, '' but it is the home of the Jamaat movement and that is a movement which has caused us in law enforcement considerable difficulty over the last 15 years in this country. But we have managed to keep them contained.''

Abu Bakr and his followers received amnesty after the coup attempt, but he was later accused of ordering the murders of two expelled members of his group. The first trial ended with a hung jury, and a judge later dismissed the charges after key witnesses recanted their testimony against him. He is now preparing to stand trial on terrorism charges based on televised statements he made during a sermon at his mosque in which he threatened war against those Muslims who refuse to commit part of their income as a tithe to his mosque. If convicted, he could face up to 25 years in jail.

Abu Bakr also was investigated in a string of bombings that injured 28 people between July and October 2005 in the capital city of Port-of-Spain, but he was never charged. Trinidad and Tobago's population is nearly 6 percent Muslim.

Jermie said while the investigation into the alleged JFK plot is still early, ''We do have some indication there is a connection,'' to Abu Bakr's group. ''We are still working on it and we are cooperating with the U.S. Department of Justice, we've done some good work.''

Muslims, mostly Sunnis, make up about 9 percent of Guyana's population of about 770,000. Though Guyana has not had the same level of l activity as Trinidad, the FBI has been looking for Adnan Gulshair Muhammad el Shukrijumah, a former Broward County resident and one of the few alleged al-Qaida members known to have been in Latin America - in his case, Trinidad, Guyana and Panama. The Saudi Arabia-born el Shukrijumah lived with his parents in Miramar, Fla., until four months before the Sept. 11 attacks. An FBI statement at the time said he was ''possibly involved with al-Qaida terrorist activities and, if true, poses a serious threat.''

Panamanian officials have confirmed he visited there for 10 days in 2001, using a legitimate Guyana passport. He was also reportedly spotted in Guyana in late 2003. Part of his family still lives there. A Honduran government assertion that he was spotted there in 2004 was discounted by U.S. intelligence.

Federal investigators told the Miami Herald in 2003 that el Shukrijumah's aliases came up during interviews with alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed after he was captured in Pakistan in 2003. They also were found in documents of the Oklahoma flight school where Zacarias Moussaoui, convicted of conspiracy in the attacks. There have been media reports that Mohammed visited Latin America in the 1990s. Agents had no proof el Shukrijumah received flight training in Oklahoma, according to Herald reports. Thirteen of the Sept. 11 hijackers lived and trained in South Florida.

His father, Shaykh Gulshari Muhammad el Shukrijumah, was the spiritual leader of a neighborhood mosque in Miramar. He died at home in 2004. El Shukrijumah's father studied Islam in Saudi Arabia, and the family moved to Guyana when the father was sent there as a missionary. The son spent much of his youth in Guyana and the family moved to the United States in 1995, when the son was 19. He graduated from Broward Community College with a computer engineering degree in 2001.

FBI statements in 2003 said he carried a passport from Guyana but could also have passports from Saudi Arabia, Canada or Trinidad. Media reports in 2003 said the FBI was investigating the son for possible links to Imran Mandhai, a Pakistan-born college classmate and Hollywood resident sentenced in 2002 to 12 years in federal prison for a bomb plot. Mandhai's co-defendant, Trinidad-born Shueyb Mossa Jokhan, was sentenced to five years for his part in the conspiracy to bomb electrical stations, a National Guard Armory and Jewish businesses.

http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=NATIONAL&ID=565027485206839300

[Cindy]

I was wondering today what Abu Bakr was doing.

THANKS for the articles/updates Oorang.

[Oorang]

Just as a reminder, in case anyone can glean any info from the following, here are links to Adnan Shukrijumah's brother's myspace site:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=83792461

And the site they put up for their deceased father:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=139423482

[Oorang]

You're welcome Cindy and thanks for all the excellent links you've posted.

I just finished scanning some Trinidad, a couple of Carribean and a few Central and South American news sites I've kept bookmarked. Nothing about today's arrests. Silence.

[Cindy]

Yep, I noticed that in the early afternoon today...zero reporting...maybe there’s a Caribbean holiday we don’t know about and everone’s sunning themselves and drinking those long drinks with little umbrellas in them.

Like you, I thought that was odd.

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

Thanks Much, Keep up the good fight to all.

[PGalt]

Quite a myspace link to Adnan’s brother. He has everything...from hot chicks to good rap to Viking Kitties.

Very, very interesting. Thanks so much for your links, Oorang and all.

[PGalt]

JFK terror plot commentary here...

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/016736.php#comments

Thanks to Robert Spencer and all of the outstanding posters at jihadwatch.

[Cindy]

Thank you P. Galt.

Yep, I check Jihad Watch several times a day.

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1843957/posts

“They’re Still Probing Us”
IBD Editorials ^ | 1 June 2007 | Staff

Posted on 06/02/2007 11:57:30 PM PDT by Kitten Festival

[Cindy]

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=46265
“Diplomacy Best Way to Confront Iran’s Nuclear Programs, Gates Says”

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

SINGAPORE, June 2, 2007

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###

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1843876/posts

“Rice: U.S. Not Preparing for War Vs Iran”
Associated Press by way of Forbes ^ | 01JUN07 | ANNE GEARAN

Posted on 06/02/2007 6:13:56 PM PDT by familyop

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MEMRI TV.org - Video Clips - Topic: “IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM”

http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S5&P1=148
http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S5&P1=148&P3=2
http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S5&P1=148&P3=3
http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S5&P1=148&P3=4
http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S5&P1=148&P3=5
http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S5&P1=148&P3=6
http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S5&P1=148&P3=7
http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S5&P1=148&P3=8

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Note: The following news brief is a quote:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3407568,00.html

US defense chief: Tackle root causes of terrorism to neutralize extremism

Published: 06.02.07, 09:03 / Israel News

Combating the underlying causes of extremism such as poverty and autocratic rule will help curtail suicide bombers, but it is not a panacea to end global terrorism, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday.

Gates declined to say who was winning the US-led war on terror when asked during a question-and-answer session at an Asian security conference in Singapore. (AP)

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REGARDING SUICIDE BOMBERS - HOMICIDE BOMBERS - HUMAN BOMBS:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1826963/posts?page=1468#1468

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http://www.truthusa.com/IRAN.html
http://www.jihadwatch.org/cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=iran
http://www.memri.org/iran.html

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

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

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http://off-topic.internet-haganah.com/archives/001237.html

SNIPPET: “The root cause of terrorism is that it works, in the sense that it convinces people like Mr. Gates that there is some “root cause” to which terrorism is an acceptable response, and that by responding to that “root cause” we can somehow assuage the anger of those who chose to engage in terrorism. This is appeasement, and it causes more terrorism, not less, because it provides further proof that terrorism works.”

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QUOTE:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1826963/posts?page=1470#1470

Well, golly, I’m totally shocked. (not really)

http://www.truthusa.com/IRAN.html

#

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/016712.php
(AKI)

June 1, 2007
“Iran: ‘We Are Still Anti-American’ Says Top Ayatollah”

1,470 posted on 06/01/2007 2:36:01 PM PDT by Cindy

[Cindy]

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

#

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=46266

“Gates: New U.S.-China Hotline Represents ‘Step Forward’”

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

SINGAPORE, June 2, 2007

[Cindy]

RECAP AND UPDATES

OSINT.INTERNET-HAGANAH.com (NAHARNET.com): "FATAH AL-ISLAM SUICIDE BOMBERS DESTROY MOSQUE IN NAHR AL-BARED" (June 2, 2007)

NAHARNET.com: "FATAH AL-ISLAM MILITANTS BESIEGED IN ONE SQUARE KILOMETER OF NAHR AL-BARED" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Witnesses said Fatah al-Islam militants have also booby-trapped donkeys and dogs and set them in the direction of army lines, but the animals were shot and detonated before reaching army positions.") (June 1, 2007)

JIHAD WATCH.org (AP): "LEBANESE ARMY ENTERS OUTER NEIGHBORHOODS OF REFUGEE CAMP" (June 1, 2007)

MICHAEL TOTTEN.com: "AL QAEDA IN LEBANON" by Michael J. Totten (June 2, 2007)

stepping back in time...A Discussion on FreeRepublic.com regarding a YNETNEWS.com article: "MI CHIEF: DOZENS, MAYBE HUNDREDS, OF AL-QAEDA OPERATIVE ARRIVED IN LEBANON" (January 10, 2007)

INTERNET-HAGANAH.com: "OSINT - JIHADIS WARNED THAT LEBANON IS DEPLOYING T-RAY SCANNERS TO SEE THROUGH WALLS AT NAHR AL-BARED" (June 1, 2007)

TERRORISM-INFO.org.il - INTELLIGENCE AND TERRORISM INFORMATION CENTER at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC): "THE CONFRONTATION IN NORTHERN LEBANON BETWEEN THE LEBANESE ARMY AND FATH AL ISLAM, THE AL-QAEDA OFFSHOOT IN LEBANON" (May 31, 2007)

[LibertyRocks]

Don't know if you all had seen this or not. Putin seems to want to go back to the Cold War Era... I sure wish I had been wrong about him.

Exclusive: Putin threatens to target Europe with missiles
Globe and Mail ^ | June 2 2007 | DOUG SAUNDERS
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1843887/posts

Posted on 06/02/2007 9:01:05 PM CDT by ASC2006

In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to target Europe with missiles, including potentially nuclear weapons, in a dramatic escalation of his Cold War-style showdown with the United States.

Mr. Putin, in an interview at his country residence outside Moscow, said he considers U.S. plans to build an eastern European anti-missile site to shoot down Iranian missiles a provocation aimed at Russia.

Asked what he might do to retaliate, he said he would return Russia to the Cold War status where missiles were aimed at European targets.

"It is obvious that if part of the strategic nuclear potential of the United States is located in Europe, and according to our military experts will be threatening us, we will have to respond," he said.

"What kind of steps are we going to take in response? Of course, we are going to get new targets in Europe."

He suggested that this could include powerful nuclear-capable weapons.

More at the Globe & Mail

[Cindy]

Yes and thank you Liberty Rocks.

OPINION: Puti-puti never left the “Cold War status” in his mind.

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=somalia
http://www.billroggio.com/cgi-bin/cms/mt-search.cgi?tag=Somalia&blog_id=7

#

UPDATE:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,277212,00.html
(AP)

“8 Foreign Islamic Militants Killed in Fighting With Somali Officials After U.S. Strike”

Saturday, June 02, 2007

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “MOGADISHU, Somalia — Eight foreign Islamic militants were killed during fighting with Somali government forces at a remote, mountainous northeastern Somali village, the vice president of the region said Saturday.”

###

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1843894/posts

“Danish Ship Hijacked Off Somalia”
AP via SFGate ^ | 6/2/7

Posted on 06/02/2007 7:39:04 PM PDT by SmithL

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)

~

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/06/02/international/i162014D97.DTL

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

[LibertyRocks]

Agreed Cindy. They just got themselves a face-lift, but that only lasts for a bit. Most of us could still see the scars, and knew it was merely an illusion of change.

[Cindy]

Well, I was like you, hoping Putin was something different, something special.
Time tells all — eventually.

[Cindy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6712585.stm

Last Updated: Friday, 1 June 2007, 15:10 GMT 16:10 UK

“Sister’s ‘surprise’ at jihad book”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Max Hill, prosecuting, said: “I’m suggesting, I’m afraid, that although Adel is your brother and although, no doubt, any sister would hope that she knows her brother well, there were things about Adel, particularly in 2005, which you knew nothing about.”

She replied that during that year, he was studying, as she remembered him spending a lot of time in the library.

“I know him... He has passed his exams so I’m sure he must have been in the library studying.”

The accused are Ramzi Mohammed, 25, of North Kensington, west London; Hussain Osman, 28, of no fixed address; Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, from Stoke Newington, north London; Mr Omar, 26, from New Southgate, north London; Mr Yahya; and Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 34, of no fixed address.

The case continues.”