Al Qaeda again threatens New York, Washington and Los Angeles

A new message was posted in the last few hours by the Jeddah-based al-Qaeda-linked Al-Islah (Reform) society calling on Muslims to flee New York, Washington and Los Angeles in advance of major al Qaeda attacks in those cities. This is revealed by DEBKAfile.

The message accuses the United States of predetermining its end (doom) by its policies. ?The Jews rule the Pentagon by remote control and (are the cause) of Muslims being killed in every corner of the world. The United States should therefore expect more blows.?

The message is signed on behalf of the al Bayan (The Threat) movement by ?your warrior brother, Abul Hassan al Khadrami?.

Our Muslim expert identifies the name of the signatory as belonging to a Yemeni from Hadhrameuth, the Bin Ladens? place of origin where Osama enjoys substantial tribal support.

DEBKAfile?s counter-terror sources stress that warnings appearing on these forums are taken both very seriously and with caution by the intelligence services keeping track of the terrorist network?s electronic traffic.

Last November, Jeddah-based fundamentalist forums addressed a message to an Al Qaeda member, saying whoever understands ? understands; whoever knows, knows, but we are marching towards an operation that will take us to Paradise. Three days later, the Mombasa Paradise hotel was blown up killing 12 Kenyans and 3 Israelis and a failed shoulder-launched Strela anti-air missile missed an Israeli airliner at Mombasa airport.

Found the original post about those cargo ships here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/846384/posts

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/993456/posts

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/991310/posts

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1000145/posts

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1013687/posts

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/999236/posts

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/998800/posts

More on Al Qaeda and Ships:

http://hollings.senate.gov/~hollings/statements/2002618C03.html

TRANSPORTATION:
Sen. Hollings' Floor Statement
on Port Security
November 28, 2001

Mr. HOLLINGS. Madam President, as requested by our leader, this matter of port security is really a very serious concern. Very few people realize this. The Financial Times and the Times of London, reported back in early October, almost 2 months ago, and I quote:

Intelligence actions across the world are examining Osama bin Laden's multimillion dollar shipping interests. He maintains a secret fleet, under a variety of flags of convenience, allowing him to hide his ownership and transport goods, arms, drugs, and recruits with little official scrutiny.

Three years ago, nobody paid much attention to a crew unloading cargo from a rusting freighter tied up on the quayside in Mombasa, Kenya. The freighter was part of Osama bin Laden's merchant fleet and the crew were delivering supplies for the team of suicide bombers who weeks later would blow up the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Bin Laden's covert shipping interests were revealed at the trial of the bombers, but until now security services have been slow to track down how many vessels he operates.

Going further, Madam President, we heard that a suspected member of the al-Qaida terrorist network in October tried to stow away in a shipping container heading to Toronto, Canada. The container was furnished with a bed, a toilet, its own power source to operate the heater and recharge batteries.

According to the Toronto Sun, the man also had a global satellite telephone, a regular cell phone, a laptop computer, cameras, identity documents, airport maps, security passes for airports in Canada, Thailand, and Egypt, and he also had an airline mechanic's certificate. He is being held now as a suspected member of the al-Qaida group and bin Laden's movement.

The threat is real, there is not any question about it. Let me emphasize, when the FBI said there was no threat to the Golden Gate Bridge, that was nonsense. It has been reported in the news that four of these so-called martyrs can operate an oil tanker and run it right into the bridge. So we have to be on the lookout for terrorist attacks with respect to the ports of the United States.

Fortunately, my distinguished colleague from Florida, Senator Graham, has led the fight to institute seaport security. In 1999, Senator Graham got President Clinton to appoint a commission, and they did a study on this issue. At the local level, this bill will mandate that all ports and waterfront facilities promulgate a comprehensive security plan approved by the Secretary of Transportation.

That is going to be a difficult task. There is not any question we have some 361 entities rated as ports. Some are privately operated, some are semi-privately operated and leased like in New York. Other ports are operated entirely by the State like in my own hometown of Charleston, SC. None of them has any security plan. Fifty of these three hundred and sixty-one ports account for 90 percent of all tonnage going to and from the United States.

The bill requires that the Customs Service, the port authorities, the Coast Guard, the controllers of ports, whether it be a private lessee or publicly run by the State or otherwise, get together and start coordinating and promulgating a security plan approved by the Secretary of Transportation.

The bill for the first time will require that we know more in advance about the cargo and crew members coming into the United States. The more we know about a ship's cargo and where it originated, the better our Customs agents and other law enforcement officers can target suspicious containers and passengers.

In fact, I heard from one port official that these measures would cause a delay. No, it is going to be delayed at the port if they do not know ahead of time what to look for. It is going to take more time.

The bill requires that ships electronically send their cargo manifest to the port before gaining clearance to enter. Since it is going to take money to enforce the provisions of this bill, the bill provides $390 million for grants to upgrade security infrastructure, another $166 million to back the issuing of $3.3 billion in loans and loan guarantees over 4 years for port security and infrastructure upgrades, another $168 million to purchase nonintrusive screening and detection equipment for the U.S. Customs Service, $145 million to increase the number of Customs personnel screening the cargo and to update the Customs computer systems, and $75 million to develop weapons screening technologies for use at the seaports.

Talk about money; we spend billions and billions for an anti-ballistic missile defense system, and a cargo container can be delivered anywhere in the United States for $5,000. The enemies of the United States can easily afford $5,000 to import a container which could contain up to 60,000 pounds, 30 tons of materials. They could bring in a container of that size uninspected at Bayonne, NJ, full of anthrax, take it on up to Times Square, and blow it there. We talk about the thousands who were lost at Ground Zero in New York. The number will go into the millions with an attack like this.

At Tijuana, agents will actually tear apart car seats searching for drugs and other items, but thousands of truck-size cargo containers are being dumped on to the docks of the United States without any inspection whatsoever.

We are not playing games. The threat is serious, and it has to be paid for.

I particularly thank Senator Graham for his leadership in this regard. It was the year before last that we introduced a bill. We had hearings last October. Following the hearings last October, we reintroduced the bill. It is a bipartisan bill.

I thank my ranking member, Senator McCain, and particularly Rob Freeman of Senator McCain's staff who worked very hard on this legislation. I think the bill is in very good shape. We have coordinated time and again with the White House on this measure. They know the contents of it. I do not know their disposition at the present time, but I do not think we ought to adjourn this year without passing this well-considered bill, which has been developed over the past 3 years. We ought to get moving on this bill.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1011527/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1000145/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1011209/posts

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=145

Massive Multi-National Naval Hunt for al Qaeda Ship

DEBKAfile Special Investigation

October 26, 2002, 4:37 PM (GMT+02:00)

Cristi`s sister-ship Karine-A and cargo

NATO, Greek and Israeli navies are scouring three seas - the eastern Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the Aegean - for a cargo ship, the 1,600-ton Tonga-flagged Cristi, which is believed to be carrying a band of al Qaeda terrorists to a fresh target.

Greek and Israeli authorities are on high alert.

DEBKAfile’s maritime and counter-terror sources report that the Cristi , like the Sara, which was detained in Italy carrying suspected Pakistani terrorists, and another suspect vessel, Twillinger, is owned by the Greek ship-owner, Dimitris Kokkos, and a Pakistani-American, Rifat Muhammed.

Kokkos, who also owned the Palestinian arms-smuggling ship Karine-A captured last January by the Israel Navy, is said to live in Romania. He is wanted by the Greek authorities for smuggling.

Our investigation reveals that the pair head Nova Spirit Inc., a company registered in Delaware, US, which runs al Qaeda’s shipping operations from the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanza and Nador on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast.

Kokkos and Muhammed both vanished after the true functions of their known fleet of four vessels came to light.

But these ships appear to be only a fraction of the clandestine terrorist naval force prowling the region. Our maritime expert has so far uncovered another at least eight made-over terrorist vessels owned by different Middle East owners, some traced to Syria, which elude discovery by constantly changing flags and identities. They are believed to be bound for terrorist missions on European and Israeli shores, as well as American naval and military targets.

The Twillinger was detained on February 19 at Trieste with 8 al Qaeda operatives aboard posing as Pakistani crewmen. American and Italian investigators are still not sure if they laid hands on the entire ring. According to certain intelligence reports, twice that number secretly disembarked before the ship docked, and is now hiding out somewhere in Europe.

Six months later, on August 5, the Sara was intercepted off the shores of Sicily. Its original name Ryno had been clumsily painted over. The 15-man crew again turned out to be an al Qaeda cell equipped with fake Pakistani papers. They also had $30,000 in cash and detailed maps of Italy’s main towns and the Vatican. DEBKAfile reported this incident on September 24.

The ship was towed to Sicily when it sent out distress signals.

Counter-terror agents now suggest the incident was staged to allow members of the terrorist cell to slip off the boat and make for their next targeted destinations. Later, the captain of the Sara reported hearing one of his “passengers” conversing with a member of the ousted Taliban in which they discussed the war against the “American Satan”.

Mystery still shrouds that episode. How did the fake Pakistani passports serve the cell’s purpose? Why the large sum of money? What mischief were the terrorists bound for in Italian cities and the Vatican? The Di Desio mosque is their known contact center in Milan. What others do they have?

Who was to supply the terrorists with weapons or explosives? And where is their arms cache located?

The pattern of al Qaeda’s maritime operations began emerging when the Romanian captain of the Sara, Adrian Pop Sorian was questioned. Small, fairly beaten-up, rusty cargo vessels sail out of Constanza for the Mediterranean carrying an innocent cargo and a Romanian crew. At Nador, Morocco, a band of operatives disguised as seamen, who are flown in from Karachi, comes aboard after collecting cash, addresses, instructions and false Pakistani papers on shore. The new “passengers” then take command of the vessel, which the crew is under orders from the owners Muhammed and Kokkos to hand over.

At sea, the ship assumes a new name and flag. Before steaming into a European port, the vessel rendezvous with a second ship and offloads the terrorists, enabling them to infiltrate a European port, masquerading now as distressed stowaway immigrants.

More facts reached DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources in the course of the multi-national naval hunt still in progress for the Cristi. An international dragnet has been set up for Kokkos and Muhammed. The latter is the al Qaeda chief of naval operations in the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean. Kokkos comes from the Greek crime scene and is willing if the pay is right to seek out old but fairly sound vessels for al Qaeda’s use.

The missing Cristi was last seen around October 18 between Crete and Cyprus heading east - either to Cyprus, Lebanon or Israel. Considering its direction, Israeli defense authorities resolved to try and capture the terrorist ship, fearing the men aboard were bent on a mega-terror strike against Israel from the sea.

In its previous report on September 24, DEBKAfile revealed that Kokkos and Muhammad were the parties with whom Mohammed Dahlan and Fouad Shubaki, representing Yasser Arafat, negotiated the acquisition of the Karine-A to carry 50 tons of illegal Iranian arms to the Palestinian Authority.

The Karine-A was a sister ship of the Cristi, the Sara and the Twillinger. It therefore provides an unmistakable operational connection between Arafat and his closest aides and the active arms of the Osama bin Laden’s global terrorist organization.

I haven't even seen one article mention or speculate if any of these ships have mobile labs.

Full article here: http://www.amo-union.org/Newspaper/Morgue/1-2002/Sections/News/terrorist.htm
(snip)
"We warned two months ago that ships could be used to transport explosives, terrorists, or worse," said ITF General Secretary David Cockroft. "I am sure that most, if not all, of these vessels will be flying flags of convenience."

Cockroft continued: "Corruption and lack of accountability are endemic in the FOC system, which is built on two pillars: no questions asked of shipowners and no questions answered to anyone else. When a ship is registered with one of these flags, a curtain of secrecy descends--as valuable if you're a terrorist as if you're a money launderer, someone who wants to sink a ship for insurance, or work its crew half to death before abandoning them unpaid in a foreign port.

"As long as governments and the United Nations turn a blind eye to the way FOCs allow criminals to operate anonymously, ships will be used to transport everything from drugs and illegal immigrants to the supplies used by the al-Qaeda men who blew up the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania."

In a related development, the London-based Lloyd's List reported Dec. 12 that "a businessman with links to Turkey" has helped arrange financing from German sources for al-Qaeda's shipping operations.
(snip)

Re post no.1417... "I predict that if they do attack in the US, it will be nothing more than a conventional bomb of some sort.. car bomb or whatever. Maybe in multiple locations. Horrible enough but I don't think they are capable of anything approaching the scale of 9/11."
===

Ambulance bomb 'was huge'
News24 via AP ^ | November 11, 2003

Posted on 11/11/2003 1:23 PM PST by Kaslin

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Baghdad - Iraqi police have discovered an ambulance packed with 450kg of explosives and United States officials on Tuesday praised the find as an indication of the potential capabilities of the newly created force.

On Monday evening, officers noticed the ambulance driving through a crowded district in the capital, became suspicious and called for the driver to stop, said Major Hakim Razak Kadim, a district commander of the Iraqi police.

The ambulance raced away, but crashed into another vehicle and its occupants fled on foot, Kadim said.

The vehicle's occupants fled before they could be arrested, Kadim said, adding that officers were still looking for them and that it was not clear if they were linked to any particular resistance group.

US forces have trained about 40 000 Iraqi policemen and are keen to hand over some of their duties to the new force.

Police rushed to the vehicle and found the back packed with explosives, including four 155mm artillery shells.

An electrical cord ran from the front of the car to the back where the explosives were located, said Colonel Kurt Fuller of the 82nd Airborne division."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1019554/posts

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