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Somalis in U.S. draw FBI attention War at home seen as lure The FBI is expanding contacts with Somali immigrant communities in the U.S., especially in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, fearing that terrorists are recruiting young men for suicide missions in their homeland. FBI Special Agent E.K. Wilson, spokesman for the Twin Cities FBI field office, described the effort as community outreach. Many members of the Somali community are concerned over disappearances, he said.

Cheney warns of new attacks Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed. In an interview Tuesday with Politico, Cheney unyieldingly defended the Bush administration’s support for the Guantanamo Bay prison and coercive interrogation of terrorism suspects. And he asserted that President Obama will either backtrack on his stated intentions to end those policies or put the country at risk in ways more severe than...

The Age of 'Celebrity Terrorism' Quite apart from the scores murdered and the hundreds injured, what the Mumbai terrorists really wanted was an exaggerated - and preferably extreme - reaction on the part of governments, the media and public opinion. In these terms, the attackers received as much attention as they could possibly have hoped for, and the Mumbai outrage can only be described as a very significant terrorist success. The attack received saturation coverage in the world's media from the outset. Read More Mumbai Terrorist Attack May Affect U.S. Foreign Policy Nuke, Bioterror Attack Called Likely Zawahri Hails...

Dec. 7 was once a significant date on the American calendar. But sometime in the past 20 years it faded almost entirely out of view. Partly this was generational and partly it was historical, as the end of the Cold War drew a line under the era that began with the day of infamy. And partly it was a matter of indifference and neglect. With that in mind, here's a forecast for tonight's result: Starting around the time the returns from Pennsylvania and Virginia are announced, 9/11 becomes another Dec. 7. [snip] The way in which we've chosen to remember...

Expanding Afghan War Awaits New President An expanded U.S. military involvement awaits a new U.S. president in Afghanistan where the unfinished business of September 11 has flared over the past three years into a major insurgency. A raft of assessments and reviews now underway in Washington point to a fundamental rethinking of the Afghan war. But whoever is elected Tuesday will face choices on the size of the military buildup, how to strengthen the central government, how far to go in dealing with insurgent sanctuaries across the border, how to help stabilize Pakistan, and whether and how to reconcile...

Nuclear and biological terrorism is the emerging threat the next US President should focus on, the US security chief has told Sky News. In an exclusive interview, homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff said sources of radioactive and biological materials must be properly secured "at all costs". He warned terrorists are actively seeking to acquire such materials. Mr Chertoff said he did not think a weapon of mass destruction, like a biological or nuclear bomb, was a danger that could be just months away. But he warned: "It may be years away and we can't afford to waste this time waiting...

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton announced Wednesday that he believes Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden might try to influence next month's U.S. presidential election through a terrorist attack or some less dramatic tactic. "With so much at stake in these elections, Bin Laden will probably attempt to make his opinion count," wrote Bratton in an article published on the opinion page of the New York Daily News. Bratton co-wrote the article with R.P. Eddy, former director of counter-terrorism at the National Security Council.

Movie shows 'war you don't know about' PREMIERE: "The Third Jihad," a documentary about radical Islam, was screened at Harkins theater in Scottsdale. Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, left, narrated the film and was on hand to take questions after the showing. By Ari Cohn "We all know about terrorism. This is the war you don't know about," Dr. Zuhdi Jasser intones from the movie screen over images of radical Islamists burning the American flag after Sept. 11. Jasser, who lives in Scottsdale and practices medicine in Phoenix, is the narrator of the documentary "The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision for America,"...

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

Note: For those of you who are missing TM; the webmaster, admin mod, and nwctwx has been notified. The files from April to September 2008 are missing. FR had a malfunction and the webmaster is working on bringing the system back up to speed. Meanwhile, I'm posting my stuff here until it's back up. http://www.truthusa.com/september12.html

(VIDEO) Newt Gingrich, Ph.d., a brilliant student and teacher of history, puts Sarah Palins's answer to ABC's Charley Gibson's condescending and smug "gotcha" question in historical context. The liberal MSM should see Gingrich's video and learn something about America and the role faith plays among great wartime leaders.

Homeland Security Advisory System Current Threat Level September 15, 2008 — The United States government's national threat level is Elevated, or Yellow. The U.S. threat level is High, or Orange, for all domestic and international flights. Only small amounts of liquids, aerosols and gels are allowed in carry-on baggage. See the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Web site for up-to-date information on items permitted and prohibited on airlines. There is no credible, specific intelligence suggesting an imminent threat to the homeland at this time. Still, we are closely assessing potential threats and response planning leading into and following the electoral process...

At the inaugural conference for the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) back in April, presenter LTC Joseph Myers made an interesting point that deserves further elaboration. Though military studies have traditionally valued and absorbed the texts of classical war doctrine — such as Clausewitz’s On War, Sun Tsu’s The Art of War, even the exploits of Alexander the Great as recorded in Arrian and Plutarch — Islamic war doctrine, which is just as if not more textually grounded, is totally ignored. As recently as 2006, former top Pentagon official William Gawthrop lamented that “the...

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

When the terrorists attack again — as Homeland Security has repeatedly warned us they will — how many survivors will be consoled because the Supreme Court and the State Department looked out for the "rights" of terrorists before the rights of their dead loved ones? Will the dead be wrapped in a copy of the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling granting foreign detainees, whose mission is to destroy our Constitution, our country and way of life, the right to appeal to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their detention, a right that should be reserved only for American citizens? Perhaps inside the...

The Hunt for American al Qaeda The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture. Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have...

The latest audio message from al-Qaeda, reportedly from Osama bin Laden himself, is only the most recent confirmation that the jihadist threat to the West remains real and deadly serious. But the fact that it could take the form of nuclear terrorism should be most worrying to citizens and policy makers alike. Where a nuclear attack once may have been beyond the capacities of stateless terrorists, that is no longer the case. One need only consider Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM), mastermind of 9/11 and chief operating officer of al-Qaeda, who revealed under intensive interrogation -- including the much-maligned tactic of...

Professor Beres is especially pleased to present this co-authored article with Clare Lopez, Central Intelligence Agency (Ret.). Ms. Lopez, who worked on the Operations side at CIA, is currently an author and consultant. President Bush – while waging a “war on terror” − remains determined to create a Palestinian state. Yet, Palestine would quickly become a primary launching point for terrorism against the United States, as well as Israel. Gaza is already the site of expanding new forms of tactical and strategic cooperation between Hamas and Al-Qaeda. Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Lebanon are also witnessing an Al-Qaeda push...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

When it comes to fears about a terrorist attack, people in the United States usually focus on Osama bin Laden and foreign-based radical groups. Yet researchers say domestic extremists who commit violence in the name of their cause - abortion or the environment, for example - account for most of the damage from such incidents in this country. more stories like this These home-grown groups are seven times more likely than overseas groups to commit some kind of violence in the United States, a panel reported yesterday in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement...

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan? It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan, while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said. Long seen as the "forgotten war" eclipsed by Iraq in U.S. priorities, Afghanistan is in the Washington spotlight this week with the release of three independent reports concluding...

Still in Control Pervez Musharraf was calm, confident and—despite a flurry of rumors—not about to announce his resignation. Instead, the Pakistani president's "concession" to his troubled nation was an announcement that he would allow Britain's Scotland Yard to help local law enforcement agencies with their investigation into last week's assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Speaking in a nationally televised address two hours after Pakistan's election commission announced the postponement of the ballot to Feb. 18, six weeks later than had been scheduled, Musharraf was notably deferential in his remarks about Bhutto, often invoking her "martyrdom" and extolling...

Calculating the Risks in Pakistan A small group of U.S. military experts and intelligence officials convened in Washington for a classified war game last year, exploring strategies for securing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal if the country's political institutions and military safeguards began to fall apart. The secret exercise — conducted without official sponsorship from any government agency, apparently due to the sensitivity of its subject — was one of several such games the U.S. government has conducted in recent years examining various options and scenarios for Pakistan's nuclear weapons: How many troops might be required for a military intervention in...

U.S. to Offer Turkey Help on PKK The U.S. is to offer Turkey a package of measures to dissuade Ankara from mounting a large-scale military incursion into Iraq to attack PKK Kurdish guerrillas, who have killed scores of Turkish soldiers in recent weeks. Ahead of a meeting in Washington on Monday between President George W. Bush and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, U.S. officials said Ankara would have to get concrete American help to combat the PKK, which has bases in northern Iraq from where it frequently launches attacks into Turkey. “Erdogan has to go back with the...

Al Qaeda 'Re-Emerging' in Pakistan Sanctuaries The U.S. military said Tuesday it expected Al Qaeda to continue its "re-emergence" in sanctuaries in Pakistan's tribal areas from where it supported attacks in Afghanistan. Sanctuary was provided to Al Qaeda and Taliban rebels after Islamabad signed a peace deal with militants in a desperate attempt to quell the unrest in its federally administered areas in September 2006, a U.S. military official said. The militants called off the deal in July this year after Pakistani security forces raided a radical mosque in Islamabad where rebels had massed. Dozens were killed in those...

The Birth of al Qaedastan In the year 2016, the world may find itself gloomily marking September 6 as the tenth anniversary of the creation of the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan. The Emirate received de facto recognition when the Taliban used the name on the ceasefire agreement they signed with Pakistan on that day in 2006. If things go terribly wrong in the coming decade, they could come to rule a mountainous fragment of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Emirate would be a nightmare state: Osama bin Laden as sultan, Ayman al Zawahiri as vizier, and Mullah Omar the spiritual...

Who becomes an Islamic terrorist and why? How does the transformation occur? Is the terrorist threat to Americans diminishing or growing? And how can law enforcement prevent terrorist strikes within the United States? To these critical questions, the New York Police Department has proposed some controversial answers whose profound implications for police surveillance in New York have angered some Muslim activists and civil libertarians. A 90-page assessment, (pdf link), released last Wednesday, argues that the primary terrorist threat to New Yorkers—indeed, to all Americans—comes not from al-Qaida in Iraq or from the mountainous tribal region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, as...

No sooner had the New York Police Department yesterday released the report from its intelligence division on "Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat" then the Saudi-funded Arab and Muslim groups were denouncing it. The report "uses unfortunate stereotyping of entire communities" said the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's national executive director, Kareem Shora, adding that it "is un-American and goes against everything for which we stand." The Council on American-Islamic Relations accused the NYPD of "labeling almost every American Muslim as a potential terrorist" and of encouraging "hostility toward the American Muslim community."

...Al Qaeda, the report notes, "has provided the inspiration for homegrown radicalization and terrorism."... All of which makes the task of identifying terrorists- before they act- enormously difficult.... Such an understanding-based on the case histories of terrorists in about a dozen plots around the world since 9/11- will give law-enforcement officials a better chance to intervene early. The report cites four key phases: * It begins with individuals who may be inclined to latch onto "radical thought" who "usually live, work, play and pray" within ethnic Muslim enclaves. * Then, exposure to Salafi Islam (the most severe strain of Sunni...

U.S. law enforcement officials say they have identified more than two dozen "clusters" of young Muslim men in the northeast United States who are on a path that could lead to homegrown terror, ABC News has learned. "Any one of those clusters may be capable of carrying out a terrorist action that will result in fatalities," Rand Corporation terrorism expert Brian Jenkins tells ABC News. In a report to be made public today, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly concludes the 9/ll attacks were an "anomaly" and the most serious terror threat to the country comes from clusters of...

Disaster Looms in Pakistan Decorum was abandoned as accusations ricocheted between the wood-panelled walls of Pakistan's national assembly on Monday night. "Murderers! Murderers of innocent people!" screamed an MP from a religious party, his yellow turban shaking as he wagged a finger towards the government benches. Five female parliamentarians, their faces concealed behind black and white burkas, slapped the benches with open palms. Another mullah stood up and started shouting. The speaker strained to maintain order. Others were less captivated by the debate on last month's siege of the Red Mosque, in which more than 100 people died. One...

Threat Matrix: July 2007 June 2007 Threat Matrix Index Theat Matrix Handbook Theat Matrix 'BOLO' Invaluable Tips Preparedness US Steps Up Security Following Attack in Britain Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff made appearances on several television talk shows. He told ABC's This Week program there is no indication of a linkage between the events in Britain and any specific attacks on the United States. "We do not have, at this point, specific, credible intelligence that there is an attack, a particular attack, focused on this country," he said. But at the same time, speaking on CNN's Late Edition program,...

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...

U.S. Seeks Closing of Visa Loophole for Britons -Full Story- Omar Khyam, the ringleader of the thwarted London bomb plot who was sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday, showed the potential for disaffected young men to be lured as terrorists, a threat that British officials said they would have to contend with for a generation.But the 25-year-old Mr. Khyam, a Briton of Pakistani descent, also personifies a larger and more immediate concern: as a British citizen, he could have entered the United States without a visa, like many of an estimated 800,000 other Britons of Pakistani origin.American officials, citing...

Ahmadinejad Vows News Soon on Atomic Work -Full Story- Iran's president promised on Sunday Iranians would soon hear more news about the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, which the West believes is a covert effort to build atomic bombs despite Tehran's denials."The Iranian nation will soon hear fresh news about our country's nuclear transition," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying.He did not give details about any announcements or when the news would be released but Ahmadinejad is due to hold a news conference on Tuesday. Iran Warns Bush Not to Talk Unwisely Over Britons'...

NVM: Modules     Volume 5, Issue 6 (March 29, 2007) | Download PDF Version The New Issue of Technical Mujahid, a Training Manual for Jihadis By Abdul Hameed Bakier The Cover from Technical Mujahid, Issue #2 The al-Fajr Information Center, a jihadi organization, recently published the February 2007 issue of Technical Mujahid, a magazine released once every two months that is available online. The release marks the second issue of the publication. The various jihadi websites have posted links to different locations to download the publication, that way stifling any attempts by outside forces to remove the document...

Senior Taliban leader held in Pakistan -Full Story- Pakistani security forces have captured a high-ranking Taliban leader in the southwestern city of Quetta, a senior security official and Taliban sources said late ThursdayThe capture of Mullah Obaidullah Akhund marked the first Pakistan arrest of a senior leader of the Islamist militia since it was driven from power in Afghanistan in 2001 when thousands of its fighters fled into Pakistan.The security official and Taliban sources said Akhund, the third most senior member of the Taliban's 10-member leadership council, was arrested late on Monday, hours after a surprise visit to Pakistan...

If America Halts Its War Against Terrorism, Our Enemies Won't Return the Favor In the battle against al-Qaeda and like-minded jihadists, the West is doing a less than satisfactory job of understanding its enemy. There is a line in Sun Tzu’s famous work The Art of War that states: “If you know yourself but not your enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.” Although The Art of War was written in the 6th century BC, its message applies to the battle facing us all today. If the West truly knew its enemy, it might reconsider some...

How al-Qaida Fared in 2006 -Full Story- In 2006, agents of al-Qaida, as well as those inspired by its ideology, continued their attacks. Violence in Iraq intensified, and Afghanistan saw its bloodiest year since 2001.Despite worsening chaos on those fronts, counterterrorist forces arrested and killed high-profile terrorists and kept the West free from attack. But these actions don't appear to have weakened the appeal of al-Qaida's agenda. "Home-grown" militants around the world joined its jihad, as regional fighting heightened perceptions of a global war on Islam.Here's an assessment of some of the most significant gains and losses for al-Qaida...

Fighting Jihad: Strategic Thinking Needed -Full Story- The United States of America has some of the smartest leaders in government, military, and business in the world. Yet the American government has failed to collectively use this formidable brain-power 5+ years after the attack by Jihadists on the American homeland to develop a truly strategic plan to fight the global threat of Jihad and Islamist extremism. In one of the most complex wars in American history, rather than starting with holistic, big-picture thinking towards the challenges and prioritizing resources and actions accordingly, America has spent much of the past five...

Fighting Jihad in Cyberspace -Full Story- The setting is familiar to anyone who watches the evening news. A large, executive-style desk, a laptop perched on top, a logo in the background and a screen showing shifting images to reinforce the newsreader's message. The only difference is the presenter, who is swathed in an Arab headdress and masked to hide his identity, and the subject of the broadcast, a call for an Islamic state for Iraq and a vow to use Iraq as a launching pad to crush the "Zionists" in Israel.Welcome to the "Voice of the Caliphate", the latest...

The Price of Victory -Full Story- The "bombshell" revelation from last April's National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which was leaked to the New York Times in September, was that the war in Iraq had resulted in more terrorism, not less. As reported by United Press International's Claude Salhani, "Did we really need 16 intelligence agencies to tell us that? Ten minutes of watching the newscast of your choice, from Al-Jazeera to Fox News, would be enough to convince most observers." But the key question is why the war has provoked the global Jihad.One answer has to be the influence in...

Every weekday at 8 a.m., Kevin Brock hefts a thick white ring binder onto a sleek, oval conference table. Labeled "Read Book," the deceptively plain folder houses the "Threat Matrix," a top-secret compendium of the most troubling reports of possible terrorist activity, drawn from the nation's 16 intelligence agencies. It is thicker than usual on a recent Monday morning, packed with 66 separate items that came in over the weekend. Brock, the principal deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center, is about to brief some of the government's most senior officials on the latest threat information. -snip- Facing a wall...

Karzai Says bin Laden Not in Afghanistan -Full Story- President Hamid Karzai has insisted that Osama bin Laden is not in his country, in the latest installment in a row with the leader of Pakistan who says the Al-Qaeda chief is in Afghanistan.Other militant leaders including Islamist warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar were also not in the country, Karzai told reporters in a briefing about his visit to the United States that was overshadowed by the spat.'I can assure you they are not in Afghanistan,' Karzai said yesterday after being asked for his reaction to comments by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf...

Five Years Later, We're Still Not Safe -Full Story- In the five years since terrorists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Americans have accepted inconvenience, sacrificed personal liberties and paid billions of dollars for a security clampdown that touches virtually every aspect of their lives.And we're still not safe.A close examination of the federal government's homeland security effort shows that there have been major accomplishments since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. But it also reveals how vulnerable the nation remains to catastrophe. Hunt for bin Laden Is Chasing Shadows and Raising Tensions Homegrown...

Syria Tells Troops to Be Ready for Battle (Full Story) Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has placed his military on full alert, citing "regional challenges", and vowed to continue supporting the "Palestinian and Lebanese resistance more than ever".In a speech to mark the Syrian Army national day, Mr Assad said the volatile situation across the Middle East required "vigilance, preparation and readiness" and ordered all units of the armed forces to be on alert.The comments were interpreted by Israel as a morale booster to the Syrian armed forces and not a call to battle. Israeli intelligence chiefs have assessed that...