Threat Matrix- Daily Terror Thread (4):

New York Post ^ | February 24, 2004 | By NILES LATHEM

[knak]

from the singapore today news Tanker blast not terrorism
COORDINATING Minister for Security and Defence Tony Tan said yesterday there was no indication the explosion and sinking of a Singapore-flagged tanker Bow Mariner off the US Atlantic coast was linked to terrorism.

He said Singapore is more worried about terrorists hijacking a tanker full of liquefied natural gas and smashing it into a Singapore port. — AFP

[Domestic Church]

Yep....Singapore as well.

[WestCoastGal]

OK, I'm up for teasing!! How come my butterfly's disappeared and yours didn't??

Here's a little news story I haven't seen before (getting back to business) ;-)

Dirty Bomb Warheads Disappear
Stocks of Soviet-Era Arms For Sale on Black Market
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 7, 2003; Page A01


TIRASPOL, Moldova -- In the ethnic conflicts that surrounded the collapse of the Soviet Union, fighters in several countries seized upon an unlikely new weapon: a small, thin rocket known as the Alazan. Originally built for weather experiments, the Alazan rockets were packed with explosives and lobbed into cities. Military records show that at least 38 Alazan warheads were modified to carry radioactive material, effectively creating the world's first surface-to-surface dirty bomb.



The radioactive warheads are not known to have been used. But now, according to experts and officials, they have disappeared.

The last known repository was here, in a tiny separatist enclave known as Transdniester, which broke away from Moldova 12 years ago. The Transdniester Moldovan Republic is a sliver of land no bigger than Rhode Island located along Moldova's eastern border with Ukraine. Its government is recognized by no other nation. But its weapons stocks -- new, used and modified -- have attracted the attention of black-market arms dealers worldwide. And they're for sale, according to U.S. and Moldovan officials and weapons experts.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A41921-2003Dec6&notFound=true

[knak]

Six tanker blast survivors identified

The Department of Labor and Employment on Monday identified six Filipino seamen who survived the explosion of a tanker off the coast of Virginia in the United States.

The six were identified as Edimar Aguilar, James Bactat, Dominador Marentes, Ramon Ronquillo, Lugen Ortillano and Reynaldo Tagle.

The chemical tanker Bow Mariner, with a crew of 24 Filipinos and three Greeks, exploded Sunday morning, killing 3 crew members.

The ship's owner, Norway's Odfjell Seachem, said 18 crew members are still missing and the U.S. Coast Guard launched a massive search and rescue operation in the cold waters roughly 80 miles north of Norfolk, a major American naval base.

Coast Guard Lt. Buddy Dye said the explosion occurred around 6 p.m. (7 a.m. Sunday, Manila time), east from Chincoteague in eastern Virginia. He said the blast almost obliterated the tanker.

The ship's cargo, industrial ethanol, is a form of fuel and gasoline additive sometimes used as a solvent in the manufacture of varnishes and perfumes.

Nick Papadeas, operational manager at Ceres Shipping Singapore Pte. Ltd. said Sunday that , built in 1982, is managed by Ceres but is owned by Norway's Odfjell Seachem.

[WestCoastGal]

More good news..................sounds more like a spy novel........................

Smugglers Enticed by Dirty Bomb Components
Radioactive Materials Are Sought Worldwide
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 30, 2003; Page A01


TBILISI, Georgia -- When police caught up with him on May 31, Tedo Makeria was headed toward Tbilisi's main rail station, his lethal cargo hidden in boxes lined with lead so thick his taxi sagged from the weight. The suspicious policeman who halted the cab had barely cracked the trunk when he noticed the boxes and the distinctive labels that warned, "Danger: Radiation."



More police arrived within minutes, and a Geiger counter was produced. As Makeria smoked nervously in the back seat, the officers flipped the instrument's "on" switch and watched the needle leap off the screen.

"At first we were just shocked," Maj. Leri Omiadze, the ranking officer at the scene, recalled later. "Then we all started backing away slowly."

Inside Makeria's boxes were two capsules of highly radioactive metals -- strontium and cesium -- of a type that terrorism experts say can be used in a dirty bomb, a device that spews radiation but does not trigger a nuclear explosion. A third container held a vial of brown liquid that Georgian police identified as the substance used in mustard gas, one of the earliest chemical weapons. Only later did police learn Makeria's role in the affair. He was a courier for criminals trading in components and materials for weapons of mass destruction.

In a scheme still not fully understood, the boxes were delivered to Makeria by another Georgian, a man with a history of drug offenses. Makeria's job was to carry the boxes by train from Tbilisi to Adzharia province, a troubled enclave on Georgia's southwestern frontier.

From there, police believe, they were to be transported by other couriers across the border into Turkey or perhaps even Iran, for delivery to an expectant customer. The buyer's identity remains unknown.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A21879-2003Nov29&notFound=true

[WestCoastGal]

OK, sorry don't mean to be a thread hog here, but I keep finding these interesting articles that I think you all may find just as interesting. This one re: bio, it's about a year old but still VERY good info. ^^^Coco^^^
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Strategic Tracking of Sniffles
Scientists on Alert for Terrorism Monitor Area Health Factors
By Avram Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 28, 2003; Page A10


Every morning, scientists gather in a secure war room in Howard County to gauge how people in the Washington region are feeling.



Are people buying lots of flu or diarrhea medicine? What are patients complaining about in doctors' offices and emergency rooms? Are doctors ordering more lab tests? How many people are calling 911? How many children missed school? What about animals -- are governments picking up more carcasses?

At the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Scaggsville, a 30-mile drive from the White House, researchers believe quick answers to those questions could save huge numbers of people in a biological attack.

Experts say outbreaks of highly contagious smallpox, starting with only 3,000 infected people in three states, could lead to 1 million deaths if not promptly contained by rapid public health measures. A cloud of anthrax spores released over a congested urban area could cause 120,000 deaths unless antibiotics were distributed at once, according to a computer model released last week. Al Qaeda leaders have obtained materials to weaponize botulinum and salmonella and the chemical poison cyanide, according to U.S. officials, and are close to a feasible production plan for anthrax.

Scientists, though, think they have found a way to use the two or more days it takes a bacterium or virus to incubate, saying their computerized surveillance could alert government officials that antibiotics, vaccines or quarantines might be necessary. More................


http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A39629-2003Mar27&notFound=true

[MamaDearest]

Thanks TexKat - I saved it to my favorite places and will read it as soon as we finish watching rental movies later tonight (it's 99 cent day for new releases) so checking in here and seeing what's new and going back to the movies!

[thecabal]

If Kerry is elected then we are screwed. He says if he wins, he will travel around the world to kiss the butts of every terrorist sponsoring nation we pissed of with our War on Terror.

Kerry Will Abandon War on Terrorism

The Democratic Party's presidential front-runner, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), has pledged that if elected he will abandon the president's war on terror, begin a dialogue with terrorist regimes and apologize for three-and-one-half years of mistakes by the Bush administration.

...

Kerry promised to spend the first 100 days of his administration traveling the world to denounce his predecessor, apologize for his "radically wrong" policy, and seek "cooperation and compromise" with friend and foe alike. Borrowing language normally reserved to characterize "rogue" states, Kerry said he would "go to the United Nations and travel to our traditional allies to affirm that the United States has rejoined the community of nations."

...

Perhaps frustrated that his radical departure from the war on terror was not getting much attention in the trenches of Democratic Party politics, Kerry ordered his campaign to mobilize grass-roots supporters to spread the word. In one e-mail message, obtained by Insight and confirmed as authentic by the Kerry camp, the senator's advisers enlisted overseas Democrats to launch a letter-writing and op-ed campaign denouncing the Bush foreign-policy record.

...

The e-mail succeeded beyond the wildest dream of Kerry's handlers - at least, so they tell Insight. It was immediately picked up by the Mehr news agency in Tehran, and appeared the next day on the front page of a leading hard-line daily there.

...

The hard-line, anti-American Tehran Times published the entire text of the seven-paragraph e-mail under a triumphant headline announcing that Kerry pledged to "repair damage if he wins election." By claiming that the Kerry campaign had sent the message directly to an Iranian news agency in Tehran, the paper indicated that the e-mail was a demonstration of Kerry's support for a murderous regime that even today tops the State Department's list of supporters of international terrorism.

[Calpernia]

[Calpernia]

Yes

[Oorang]

Many thanks for posting that TexKat. I am so behind. Had a eight hour drive today, with poor radio reception most of the drive, then a few hours of helping some folks. I hate not having the news and had no idea the President was going to speak today. For a news junkie, this is not good :-)

[Calpernia]

There was a nice accident that tied up Route 1 here in Central Jersey for 10 miles this morning. I think I heard it was a truck. No articles on the local news sites though.

[MamaDearest]

If Kerry is elected then we are screwed. He says if he wins, he will travel around the world to kiss the butts of every terrorist sponsoring nation we pissed of with our War on Terror.

Pray like you've never prayed before - if Kerry is elected we will lose all aspects of the great superpower status we once had amongst the countries of the world. We will cower to the terrorists, rogue nations and countries that spit upon us when we asked for their assistance in the War on Terror. The forefathers of this country would be turning over in their graves to know they fought and died so we could pander to people who want to kill us all and destroy America.

[Calpernia]

Kerry needs to go by property in Ireland.

[Calpernia]

Posted by freeper Yonif:

Fire at Mosque Kills 13 in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A fire broke out late Tuesday at a Shiite Muslim mosque crowded with worshippers in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 13 people and injuring 48 others, officials said. The blaze was called accidental. Eight women and five children were killed. Some died from burns while others fell to their deaths from a staircase in a stampede to escape the fire, Ahmed Khan Orakzai, a government administrator in Parachinar, said Wednesday. Most of the injured were women. Parachinar is located about 180 miles west of the capital Islamabad. The fire was apparently caused by an electrical short circuit...

[JustPiper]

And a massive transfusion

[Oorang]

That is one of the most frightening articles I have read in quite a while. Thanks, I think.

[JustPiper]

Was that the reparations for slavery my hubby was talking about?

[Oorang]

Well Indie, count me in. I'm the "lock & load" type. No way will I go down without a fight.

[JustPiper]

I was scared back in HS when the white supremacists would be standing outside with leaflets like Moonies, trying to recruit us! So you know where I stood? Right in line with the entire black student body, all 5 of them. Later one turned out to be my sister-in-law ;)