Adding on to post no. 4300...
MEMRI.org - MIDDLE EAST MEDIA RESEARCH INSTITUTE:
http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=jihad&ID=IA15603 "Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 156"
December 30, 2003
No.156
"Assessing Islamist Web Site Reports Of Imminent Terror Attacks In The U.S." By Yigal Carmon*
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Recently there has been an increase in postings on Islamist Web forums regarding imminent large-scale terror attacks in the U.S. However, beyond their general religious leanings, it is not known whether these forums are actually affiliated with Al-Qa'ida. In order to assess the credibility of these threats, there is a need to examine their content. The following are three examples:"
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NOTE: This article is dated December 29, 2003 and is posted intact with the permission of the author Jeremy Reynalds.
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Jeremy Reynalds
P O Box 27693
Alb., NM 87125-7693
Tel: (505) 400-7145
Prolific Self- Proclaimed Internet Terrorist Back on Line with More Threats
Says "The Sound of Truth Never Shuts Down."
A self-proclaimed al Qaeda operative known for issuing a number of threatening pronouncements on the Internet against the United States, has returned to his "pulpit" with a new on-line name.
Daleel Almojahid is now using the address
caveofdarkness@yahoo.com after his previous account was apparently shut down by his Internet service provider. Referring to his continuing ability to remain on line, Almojahid commented "the sound of truth never shuts down."
Last week Almojahid (also apparently known as Salah Aldeen) issued yet another letter to the Bush Administration. That document made reference to a letter supposedly sent to the White House about a couple of weeks ago containing a laundry list of requirements for the government.
In the initial document, the writer warned of deadly consequences if those demands were not met. After the original letter was published, the Department of Homeland Security ratcheted up the terror alert to orange, fearing that terrorists may be attempting to attack the United States using weapons of mass destruction.
Asked if his threats were in any way related to concerns by the U.S. Dept. Of Homeland Security about a feared new year's eve terror attack, Almojahid responded by e-mail, "If any one tells you he knows the exact timing of the coming strike, know that he's lying. All what you're seeing now from heightened security is just a show to make people think that if there was anything they will catch it. Just like Christmas and the French planes; that was the joke of the day! The coming strike will be nothing like you could possibly imagine. The coming strike will come in the right timing. Don't worry about the timing."
At his Yahoo group site (
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/daleelalmojahid/messages), in addition to the demands issued to the Bush administration, Almojahid has a number of other less threatening, but nonetheless still disturbing, messages.
One is headlined "Yellowstone Super Volcano"
(
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/daleelalmojahid/message/8). Written in Sept. 2003 and authored by Dr. Bruce Cornet, it reads in part "Ground temperatures in the northwestern part of the park are apparently on the rise (up to 200 dg F in some places), killing the vegetation. Large areas of the park are now closed, including areas with geysers, because their water temperature is now scalding and dangerous for visitors.
"If more steam vents appear, that means a continuous pathway for pressure release has been established to the magma chamber. If that happens, the pressure in the magma chamber will continue to drop until it reaches a critical stage when the superheated water within the
magma explodes. When that happens the super-volcano will blow violently, blowing out a chunk of its cap-rock and sending millions of cubic feet of ash into the atmosphere in a Pompeii-like explosion, but 100,000 times worse."
According to the report, there will be about a two day window before a devastating eruption. The document continued, "That 600 km radius around the caldera will experience total devastation. The next 600 km out may receive as much as five- 10 feet of ash, depending on wind direction. The thickness of ash will decrease away from the super-volcano, but will reach the crop belt in the Midwest (Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, etc.), destroying most of the fertile crop lands of the United States. California will be hit hard by falling ash, with its central wine valley severely damaged (the French will love it). Agriculture will have to shift east of the Mississippi for years. The Garden State will once again live up to its name."
Following the report, Almojahid commented "Wake up America before you get God's revenge!"
However, in a telephone interview Cornet (www.monmouth.com/~bcornet/sow.htm) was distressed to learn that his comments were being used in such a manner. He said, "I don't like it one bit and it certainly makes me not want to say anything more about such events unless there is a real time immediate danger. Hypotheticals are not necessary."
Cornet explained the origin of his statements about Yellowstone Park. After watching a British Broadcasting Corporation report on Yellowstone, he quoted some of the information he had seen in the the documentary and sent it to a friend by e-mail. Cornet said his friend immediately put the information on his web site and it soon made its way onto many other sites as well.
Cornet said, "I then did my in- depth research and found out there was an alternative viewpoint–a very scientific one. The more I looked into this, I saw Yellowstone has more bark than bite. It is a dying super volcano."
Cornet said with the exception of those people living in the immediate vicinity of the park, the public is fairly safe. Cornet said while there could be a few more minor eruptions occurring in the future he does not anticipate they will be "tomorrow or next week." He said that any bigger eruptions should be considered as being somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 years away.
The time frame was the missing part in the BBC report, Cornet said. While the documentary talked much about what could happen, it neglected to mention that it would be many years in the future, he said.
The director of Jihad Watch (www.jihadwatch.org), Robert Spencer, is not very impressed with Almojahid's on line threats. Spencer, a writer and researcher who has studied Islam for more than 20 years said (www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2003/12/000472print.html) "I do not take the threats above seriously, although there seem to be other threats that have led to the heightened threat level. Aaron Weisburd at Internet Haganah has discovered that Daleel Al-Mojahid is posting from Dubai, and doesn't seem to have any real connection with Al-Qaeda. I present his ravings above not as the contents of a real threat, but (as I said above) as a glimpse into the jihadist mindset, which, alas, is shared by millions today. (One other thing: are real terrorists using the Internet? Sure.)