Al Qaeda again threatens America (Thread 3) Daily Terror Threat

World Tribune ^ | Thursday, February 5, 2004

[freeperfromnj]

Could this be an AQ test run in Iran?

I had that exact thought when I read that article this morning.

[rickylc]

My thoughts too. Particularly with the big Heads of Terror meeting going on there.

The news story I read said the train was started moving by an earthquake, yet siesmologist reported no activity in the region.

hmmmmmmmmmmm.

[freeperfromnj]

Utah Capitol Evacuated for Bomb Threat; Police Call
It 'Credible' and Bring in Dogs

The Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY Feb. 18 — The Utah Capitol was evacuated Wednesday morning and police surrounded the building after a "credible" bomb threat was made, the Utah Highway Patrol said.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040218_916.html

[tmp02]

Utah Capitol Evacuated for Bomb Threat

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/7981383.htm

SALT LAKE CITY - The Utah Capitol was evacuated Wednesday morning and police surrounded the building after a "credible" bomb threat was made, the Utah Highway Patrol said.

The patrol made a recording of the threat that was called in, patrol spokeswoman Kat Dayton said. After reviewing it, officials said it was "credible."

It was not immediately known what office took the phone call, which was made around 8:30 a.m. The state office of Homeland Security refused to comment and referred questions to the state patrol.

Troopers turned away workers and people arriving at the Capitol for the day's legislative session.

Patrol troopers wearing bulletproof vests and carrying guns surrounded the Capitol, waiting for the arrival of bomb-sniffing dogs and for the last stragglers to leave before they entered the building.

Senate President Al Mansell estimated it would take at least an hour to search the building.

Gov. Olene Walker herded people out of the Capitol, initially leading workers and lawmakers into a nearby state office building before she and about five key legislators were ordered to take shelter in a heavily secured bunker in the Capitol basement.

"She's always concerned about everyone around her," said Walker's spokeswoman, Amanda Covington.

Many of the state's 104 lawmakers walked through an underground garage into the state office building.

The day's legislative session had not been scheduled to start until 10 a.m., but some lawmakers were already in committee hearings when the threat was made.

"This is a huge waste of time," Mansell said as he stood outside in 40-degree weather. "All you have to do is look around here at the people doing nothing."

[freeperfromnj]

This thread is awfully quiet during the daylight hours.

Ammonia leak forces evacuations in Ohio

By JOHN NOLAN
The Associated Press
2/18/2004, 12:38 p.m. ET

PLEASANT PLAIN, Ohio (AP) — Someone trying to steal anhydrous ammonia from a fertilizer plant early Wednesday released a stinging cloud of the chemical that led to the evacuation of about 300 residents, fire officials said.

No injuries were reported. Most residents were allowed to return about an hour after a hazardous materials team closed a valve on an ammonia tank, Harlan Township Fire Chief Andy Mitten said.

The leak at the Southwest Landmark plant was reported about 4:30 a.m., officials said.

"It's definitely criminal activity," Mitten said. Anhydrous ammonia is produced as a farm fertilizer, but it's also a key ingredient in methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug.

The company has had break-ins before, Mitten said. Plant manager Mike Young has asked authorities to investigate. Firefighters arriving at the plant found a thick, gray cloud hovering about two feet off the ground.

Fire officials evacuated 280 residents from this southwest Ohio village, located 25 miles east of Cincinnati, along with about 20 other families who live nearby. Among the evacuees were 63-year-old Gary Copen and his uncle, 91-year-old Willis King.

"We went outside. There was a very strong smell," Copen said, adding that the fumes irritated his uncle's eyes. Ammonia vapor can burn skin on contact and if inhaled can caused fatal lung damage.

Southwest Landmark has about 40 tanks that hold 300 to 400 gallons each of liquid ammonia. http://www.nj.com/newsflash/national/index.ssf?/base/national-18/107712624674100.xml

[all4one]

"The network, blamed for the Sept 11, 2001, attacks that killed 3,000 people, seeks targets that would strike a blow to the U.S. economy, Hutchings said in a Jan. 14 speech to the International Security Management Association in Arizona, the text of which was posted on Feb. 4 on the NIC's Web site."

"Al Qaeda has looked at derailing trains, perhaps carrying hazardous materials, to attack U.S. interests, he said"

There have been 38 Train Derailments in the U.S. since January 11, 2004. I have been keeping track via Google searches; some of which are listed in the following previous posts:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1072462/posts?page=2123#2123>

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1072462/posts?page=2021#2021>

[Aggie Mama]

Lunchtime check-in bump

[tmp02]

How many derailments for the same period before Sept. 11 2004? This would be a good comparision to see if derailments have gone up.

[rickylc]

Minor updates to powder list, some all clears, some new and already all clear!

Feb16, 2004

Boone, IA
FBI Investigates Suspicious White Powder In Mail Iowa National Guard Helps Patrol Area

Official says suspicious powder from mail wasn't harmful

Suspicious White Powder Is 'Not Dangerous' Another "common household product"

White Powder Investigation Gets Boost Investigators Say Envelope Mailed From New Jersey

Beaumont, Tx Again! Cookies
Haz-Mat Investigating Suspicious Cookies

Feb. 17, 2004

BRUSSELS, Netherlands
Civil protection teams were called to Schuman metro station in Brussels on Tuesday morning after a passenger found a small amount of white powder ...

Anthrax Scare Closes Brussels Train Station - It Was Sugar

San Antonio, TX (again)
Suspicious Envelope Found At Brooks City Base 8 People Possibly Exposed To White Powdery Substance

9 People Quarantined At Brooks City-Base White Powdery Substance Found On Flyer

Olympia, Washington
Harmless powder creates major stir

Hagerstown, MD- Again!
Powder on mail harmless

Poughkeepsie, NY
Anthrax scare delays opening of court building Anonymous calls initiate investigation

[Mossad1967]

http://www.nypost.com/cgi-bin/printfriendly.pl

QAEDA'S CHILLING NEW TERROR PLANS

By NILES LATHEM

February 18, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - Al Qaeda has deployed an army of fresh terrorists to launch airplane-hijack attacks, derail trains carrying hazardous materials, and bomb financial centers, a top intelligence official warned yesterday.
In a frightening assessment delivered in a recent speech to the International Security Management Association in Arizona, Robert Hutchings, chairman of the National Intelligence Council, warned that the terror group remains a major threat to national security.

"The terrorists we face are patient, resilient and sophisticated. The fact that we have not seen a successful major attack against the U.S. homeland [since 9/11] should not cause us to relax our vigilance," Hutchings said in the Jan. 14 speech.

Hutchings lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding the recent cancellations of flights between Europe and the United States as he warned that Osama bin Laden and his henchmen have deployed terrorists to launch 9/11-style strikes.

"Although we have disrupted several airline plots, we have not eliminated the threat to airlines," Hutchings said. "There are still al Qaeda operatives who we believe have been deployed to hijack planes and fly them into targets."

Hutchings also said the United States has information that al Qaeda has looked into the possibility of derailing trains carrying hazardous chemicals. And it is seeking to use toxic or radioactive materials in its powerful truck bombs.

With bin Laden publicly marveling at the financial impact of the 9/11 attacks, Hutchings warned that al Qaeda is likely to aim to destroy "soft targets" like banks and big buildings.



"My biggest worry is how far al Qaeda might have progressed in being able to deploy a chemical nuclear or biological weapon against the United States or its allies," he said.

Hutchings said the United States and its allies have succeeded in stopping several major terror plots "that were audacious in terms of the numbers of attacks under consideration and their global scope."

Meanwhile, in other developments:

* Police in Pakistan yesterday arrested two Islamic militants, including one suspected in the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

* In Virginia, an American testified that only weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, he and two other U.S. citizens spent a month training with a militant Islamic group in hopes of fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

[TexKat]

7 Arrested in Iraq May Have al-Qaida Ties

By MATT MOORE, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops captured seven suspected militants believed linked to al-Qaida in a raid Wednesday in the central Iraqi city of Baqouba, the military said.

Also Wednesday, two trucks packed with explosives blew up outside a Polish-run base south of Baghdad after coalition forces opened fire on the suicide bombers racing toward them. Eight Iraqi civilians were killed and at least 65 people were wounded, many of them coalition soldiers.

The two drivers also were killed, according to the U.S. military, but no information about their identities was available.

In the Baqouba raid, troops from the 4th Infantry Division targeted an "anti-coalition cell" that may have ties to Osama bin Laden's terror group, a statement from U.S command said.

Seven suspects specifically targeted in the raid and 15 other people were detained, the statement said.

Baqouba is in the so-called "Sunni Triangle," north and west of Baghdad, the heartland of anti-U.S. violence in Iraq.

In the suicide assault, the Polish commander of the region, Gen. Mieczyslaw Bieniek, called the bombings near the base in Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad, a "well-coordinated attack."

U.S. officials have predicted an increase in attacks as the June 30 date for the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq approaches. Some insurgents fear their campaign could lose steam once power is returned to Iraqis, U.S. officials believe. However, major differences remain on how to choose a new government.

"The enemy's strategy is fairly clear," coalition military commander Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez told reporters Wednesday in Tikrit. "They plan to isolate us from the Iraqi people."

The bombing happened after 7:15 a.m. when two trucks loaded with explosives approached the front of the coalition base known as Camp Charlie. Guards fired at the vehicles, causing one to explode, said Lt. Col. Robert Strzelecki. The other struck a concrete barrier and exploded.

Eleven homes near the base collapsed in the blast and others were damaged, entire sides blown off. Debris littered the area.

Mohyee Mokheef, a 50-year-old cafe owner, who lives near the camp, said he was having breakfast with his family when he heard a faint first explosion and a second, louder one that shattered the windows in his home.

"I went out and walked toward the base, and I saw about eight damaged houses," he told The Associated Press. "I saw dead and injured Iraqis lying on the ground."

Men, women and children were among the dead. The wounded included at least 32 Iraqis, 12 Filipinos, 10 Poles and 10 Hungarians, officials said. One American soldier was hurt. The wounded Poles and Hungarians were all coalition soldiers; the wounded Filipinos included seven soldiers, two police officers and three civilian health workers.

Poland leads a multinational force of about 9,500 soldiers in south-central Iraq, and its troops also fought in the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein. A Polish officer was killed in Iraq last November, the first Polish soldier killed in combat since the aftermath of World War II.

Nearly 300 people have been killed in suicide attacks across Iraq since the beginning of the year, including about 100 people killed in suicide bombings at a police station in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, on Feb. 10 and an army recruiting center in the capital on Feb. 11.

Those attacks have fueled speculation that Islamic extremists, possibly linked to al-Qaida, were playing a greater role in the anti-coalition insurgency, which U.S. military officials believed had been spearheaded by loyalists of Saddam Hussein.

The violence also came as members of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council distanced themselves further from the U.S. idea of holding regional caucuses to elect an interim government after the planned June 30 handover of power.

In Baghdad, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, a Shiite Arab member of the Governing Council, said Wednesday that the idea of using caucuses was "gone with the wind," adding that the only solution palatable to Iraqis are general elections, as demanded by Shiite clerics.

"Anything else will make things worse and the results will be damaging to Iraq," he said. "Only elections will give the legitimacy needed for any future political process or body."

Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday that the United States was committed to giving the Iraqi people control of their country by July 1 but remained open to ideas from the United Nations about how to choose the interim government. The world body is expected to give a report this week.

On Tuesday, the United States also unveiled a list of 32 wanted people, including suspected cell leaders, former members of Saddam's military and regional Baath leaders thought to be helping the insurgency.

At least seven of the names were former colonels or other high-ranking officers in Saddam's military who held important posts in the Baath party.

Atop the list, with a $1 million reward, is Mohammed Yunis al-Ahmad, a former top Baath Party official. Rewards between $50,000 and $200,000 were offered for the others.

[freeperfromnj]

I am having great fun with the Kerry rumors!

So am I. For a while there, this was the only thread I'd go to.

[Try2Discern]

Trains don't just start rolling. They have brakes. That is the responsibility of the brakeman. Either they weren't set on purpose, they were faulty, or someone disengaged them.

[TexKat]

Utah Capitol Reopened After Bomb Threat

[TexKat]

Experts: Al Qaeda Maritime Threat Growing

By Stefano Ambrogi

LONDON (Reuters) - The global maritime industry, already plagued by organized crime, is increasingly vulnerable to seaborne attack by al Qaeda guerrillas, security experts said Wednesday.

"We believe al Qaeda and its associates may be planning a maritime 'spectacular'," said Dominick Donald, a senior analyst with Aegis Defense Services, a leading London-based risk and security consultancy.

"We think there are enough indications now that al Qaeda would like to do this, is thinking hard about it, and is probably beginning to prepare for it," said Donald, speaking at an oil and transport security conference in London.

He said oil and gas tankers and cruise ships were prime targets for al Qaeda -- blamed for the September 11 attacks -- because of their respective economic and "iconic" importance.

Donald acknowledged the threat was not new but said it was growing more acute as militant Islamist groups became more adept at sharing information on how to carry out seaborne attacks.

"There is no doubt about it: the industry is vulnerable and more attention is focused on it as a likely target," said Chris Austen, formerly a counter-terrorism specialist with Britain's Royal Navy and now managing director of Maritime Underwater Security Consultants.

Citing a surge in piracy attacks and ocean crime, he said the building blocks for an attack were already in place, particularly in little-patrolled waters around the Horn of Africa and in Southeast Asia.

"Terrorism is imitative; it learns from other terrorists, and from organized crime. If organized criminals are using the maritime environment, terrorists will follow," he said.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB), the world's top ocean crime watchdog, said last month that piracy attacks jumped 20 percent in 2003 to 445.

Violent crime also jumped with 21 seafarers killed, 88 injured and 71 crew or passengers listed as missing.

The IMB has said it has not found any evidence linking militant groups to acts of piracy and ocean crime but said the growing lawlessness could help militant groups to gain a foothold.

Donald said militant groups could learn how to use a merchant ship as a delivery vessel for a "dirty bomb" by interrogating kidnapped mariners.

"Piracy is the perfect mask for maritime terrorism," he said.

[TexKat]

At Least 183 Die in Iranian Fuel Wagon Blast

By Parisa Hafezi

NISHAPUR, Iran (Reuters) - A runaway train laden with fuel and fertilizers plowed off the rails in northeastern Iran and blew up Wednesday, killing at least 183 people.

Many more may have died and nearly 300 more were injured.

The dead were mainly curious local residents, as well as firefighters who had rushed to the scene to douse an initial blaze before the wagons exploded, state news agency IRNA said.

Nearby village homes were razed to the ground.

At dusk, columns of black smoke could still be seen belching from the wreckage of the unmanned train of 51 wagons. An acrid smell of sulphur hung in the air hours after the blast that shattered windows for six miles around.

"The earth shook. We thought it was an earthquake. We were so scared," said Ali, 42, from Nishapur, a town 13 miles from the scene in the saffron-growing province of Khorasan, bordering Afghanistan (news - web sites) and ex-Soviet Turkmenistan.

IRNA said tremors in the quake-prone region might have set the wagons moving but officials said it was too early to say what caused the disaster.

"Some 183 bodies have been recovered and others still may be buried under the rubble of a nearby village," said Hassan Hadiani, a spokesman from the governor's office in Nishapur.

The disaster comes amid political uncertainty, two days ahead of elections overshadowed by a bitter dispute over the mass disqualification of reformist candidates.

The country is still recovering from a December earthquake that killed over 40,000 people in the ancient city of Bam, some 400 miles further south.

DAZED ONLOOKERS

A cordon of officers from the elite Revolutionary Guards stopped people approaching the blast scene. One fire chief, who declined to be named, said he feared more explosions.

"Three wagons full of gasoline have not exploded," he told Reuters. Police said they too expected further blasts.

Mangled pickup trucks littered the crash site and dazed onlookers stood around in one village on a dusty plain, with snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Overturned carriages lay jumbled beside the tracks, with homes just yards away. IRNA said homes five villages were badly damaged by the blast.

Many of the at least 260 wounded had severe burns and doctors were appealing for blood donors, state media said.

IRNA said the governor general of Nishapur was killed in the blast along with the head of the city's electricity board, the fire chief and a 26-year-old IRNA journalist.

One official told the agency the dead included villagers and some of the more than 200 firefighters who were on the scene.

In the worst rail crash of the last quarter century, at least 575 people died in June 1989 when two passenger trains in Russia's Ural mountains were engulfed in an explosion from a leaking gas pipeline.

[TexKat]

Britain Shuts Damascus Embassy to Public

LONDON - Britain has closed its embassy in Damascus, Syria, to the public for security reasons, but Syrian authorities said Wednesday that the move was unnecessary.

The embassy has been shut to the public since Feb. 10 but continues to function, the Foreign Office said, declining to give details of the security threat.

"There is a high threat to western, including British interests, from terrorism in Syria, as there is in other countries in the Middle East," said the travel advice section of the Foreign Office Web site.

Syrian authorities said the move was uncalled for.

"Syrian authorities regard the British measure to be unnecessary, particularly in view of the Syrian Foreign Ministry's response to all reasonable and logical requirements that guarantee preserving the security of the embassy and its staffers," a Syrian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said in Damascus.

Britain's Foreign Office did not say how long the embassy closure would last, but it said security measures are under constant review.

Members of the public who need the services of the Damascus embassy can phone it for advice, the Foreign Office said.

___

On the Net:

Foreign Office: www.fco.gov.uk

[all4one]

I have checked on the railroad accident report info. from the NTSB, the information is not sufficiently updated. I will be doing searches this evening to check for derailment reports for 2003. If anyone knows of a good site to check for accident/incident reports for 2003, please let me know.

[TexKat]

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, watches the launch of the 'Molniya M ' booster rocket with a military satellite in Plesetsk cosmodrome, Russia, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2004. Behind Putin is Anatoli Bashlakov, commander of Plesetsk. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)

Russian Missile Fails to Launch Again

Wed Feb 18,10:12 AM ET

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW - A Russian ballistic missile self-destructed moments after taking off from a submarine Wednesday, the second failed test launch in two days of maneuvers meant to display the country's military might.

President Vladimir Putin didn't mention the failure, but said Russia would soon get new strategic weapons that would protect the country for years to come. He also said the Moscow might develop a missile defense system.

Putin didn't offer specifics about the new weapons — presumably a new generation of missiles — but said they will be "capable of hitting targets continents away with hypersonic speed, high precision and the ability of wide maneuver."

The massive exercises have been described as the largest in more than 20 years, and come less than a month before a presidential election Putin is expected to win. They are broadly seen as part of campaign efforts aimed at playing up Putin's image as a leader determined to restore Russia's military power and global clout.

But two launch failures in as many days were an embarrassment for Putin and further tarnish the image of the Russian military, which has been plagued by chronic funding shortages, low morale and frequent crashes and accidents.

The missile launched from the Karelia submarine on Wednesday veered from its flight path less than two minutes after take-off, triggering its self-destruct system, Russian Navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo told The Associated Press.

No one was hurt, he said in a telephone interview.

That came a day after a missile failed to launch from the Novomoskovsk submarine. Russian officials and media had conflicting statements about the reason for the failure. The naval chief, Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov, ended up saying Tuesday that the navy had never planned a real launch and successfully conducted what he described as an imitation "electronic" one.

Many Russian newspapers assailed what they described as a clumsy cover-up of Tuesday's failed launch, saying that Kuroyedov's statement resembled official lies about the August 2000 sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, which killed all 118 aboard and hurt the navy's prestige.

"Apparently they decided not to smear President Vladimir Putin's participation in the exercise with negative information," the Kommersant newspaper said.

Putin had gone to the Barents Sea on board the giant Arkhangelsk submarine Monday to observe maneuvers set to involve numerous missile launches and flights of strategic bombers.

Putin, who donned naval officer's garb complete with white scarf and gloves for his two-day submarine cruise, changed into the green uniform of an officer of the Strategic Missile Forces on his visit Wednesday to the Plesetsk launch pad in northern Russia.

In Plesetsk, Putin watched the successful launch of the Molniya-M booster rocket, which carried a Kosmos military satellite into orbit. Via video hookup, he also watched the trouble-free liftoff of an RS-18 ballistic missile from the Baikonur cosmodrome, which Russia leases from the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.

Russian state-run television channels, which are lavishly covering the daily activities of Putin, ran footage of the president watching the launches and congratulating officers in Plesetsk, but said nothing about the failed launches.

Russian television stations broadcast Putin's statements Wednesday in which he promised that the nation's strategic forces would soon receive new potent weapons. Putin said their development wasn't aimed against the United States.

"Modern Russia has no imperial ambitions or hegemonist strivings," he said.

He said that he had informed President Bush about Russia's latest military achievements, and added that the Russian military would provide more information to its American counterparts.

Putin also said that Russia would continue to research defenses against ballistic missiles and might build a missile shield in the future, the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies reported.

Those moves are a response to U.S. efforts to develop an deploy missile defenses that would protect against attack from ballistic missiles armed with weapons of mass destruction.