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This week, New Jersey Transit officials joined the New York Police Department in performing hapless random searches of Granny's knitting bag and Junior's Thomas the Tank backpack to prevent the next al Qaeda attack. But not everyone is fighting the War on Terror blind. Some U.S. military personnel have been given a very clear and un-p.c. mission: Be on the lookout for Middle Easterners carrying rocket launchers. Yup, that's right. Many readers have e-mailed me about a recent report floating on the Internet that reveals military concerns about a suspicious trio of Middle Eastern men who apparently pointed a rocket...

The following "REAL WORLD" notice was just received from an SFTT supporter. The full notice is a 2-page document posted below. The danger to US commercial & military aircraft in CONUS appears to be very real. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REAL WORLD TEAM TINKER BATTLE STAFF DIRECTIVE (BSD) BSD # 41 DTG 140825L Jul 05L OPR: All SUSPENSE: Upon receipt SUBJECT: BSD# 40 Amendment SITUATION: On 14 Jul 05, three individuals were observed outside of the perimeter of Tinker AFB, OK. They were looking through binoculars, taking pictures and one appeared to be holding a large weapon at chest level. The weapon appeared...

http://www.globalterroralert.com/islamicarmy1204.wmvhttp://www.globalterroralert.com Globalterroralert.com (12/10/04): The Islamic Army in Iraq (IAI)--which has openly worked in conjunction with the Ansar al-Sunnah Army and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Al-Qaida faction in Iraq--has released a new full-length propaganda video featuring footage of IAI guerilla training courses, the fabrication and use of improvised explosive devices as roadside bombs, and even several failed attempts to shoot down U.S. military cargo aircraft with mobile, shoulder-launched Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) launchers. The missiles used appear to be SA-7 Strellas.

Press Releases Fact Sheet: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Programs Countering Missile Threats to Commercial Aircraft The Department of Homeland Security has announced it is awarding contracts for the final engineering, prototype development, and deployment testing of a protective system for U.S. commercial aircraft against shoulder fired missiles, known as Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS). Two teams, one led by BAE Systems and one led by Northrop Grumman, are receiving funding of approximately $45 million each for this 18-month final prototype phase of the program. While there is no credible, specific intelligence information about planned MANPADS attacks against U.S. commercial...

<p>WASHINGTON — Overshadowed by the debate over passenger screening is a terrorist threat as real and elusive as a hijacking — the possibility of terrorists using shoulder-fired missiles (search) to down a commercial jet, either on the tarmac or in the air.</p>

The United States won agreement from Asian and Pacific Rim governments to sharply restrict the use and transfer of shoulder-fired missiles that could be used terrorist groups to shoot down passenger planes. Meeting with Asian foreign ministers, Secretary of State Powell called for joint action to control trade in the American-made Stinger, Russian "Strela" and "Igla" MANPADS (Man-Portable Air Defense Systems). These are shoulder fired missiles that weight under 30 pounds. The United States government had previously resisted formal international restrictions on the transfer of shoulder-fired missiles. The regional press is already misinterpreting the initiative as a "ban on purchasing"....

<p>Last week's arrest of a man charged with trying to sell a Man-Portable Air Defense (MANPAD) weapon system appears to have been a wake-up call for most of America. While the profile of the MANPAD threat is startling to many Americans, MANPADs have been considered a serious threat to aviation, both military and civilian, for quite some time by the intelligence community. MANPADs are an excellent example of the growing number of weapons of mass murder our country faces in a 21st-century world in which a growing number of small enemies are focused on total war with the United States.</p>

A British arms dealer and two other men were arrested Tuesday in an FBI sting after they tried to sell a shoulder-mounted missile to an undercover agent. Several congressmen used the news to promote their efforts to put missile defense systems on all commercial aircraft. What kind of missile defense can you put on a civilian jet? There are tens if not hundreds of thousands of shoulder-mounted surface-to-air missiles available on international arms markets, including many Stinger missiles the United States provided to Afghan mujahideen in the 1980s. The arms dealer caught on Tuesday had planned to sell 50 such...

developing...

<p>The Department of Homeland Security is evaluating about a dozen overseas airports to determine their vulnerability to attacks with shoulder-fired missiles.</p> <p>"There is no intelligence that there are al Qaeda cells actively planning or in the execution phase to carry out some sort of attack" in the United States or overseas, a department official said Thursday, adding that the Kenyan incident was "a wake-up call."</p>

Testimony last Thursday at a closed-door hearing before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has revealed the growing worry of the threat that commercial planes face to shoulder fired surface to air missiles. According to Gary Burns, a spokesperson for the Committee’s Chairman John Mica (R-FL), the Bush Administration has become increasingly concerned about the threat civilian airliners face from the missiles that are in the hands of terrorists across the world, including al Qaeda. Last November, the Bush Administration convened a working group made up of intelligence, law enforcement and other experts, as well as members of the National...