Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - Thread 5

CNN ^ | March 12, 2004

[thecabal]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- This week's deadly train bombings in Spain will not lead to a rise in the U.S. color-coded terror threat alert system, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said Friday.

"Based on the current intelligence, we have no specific indicators that terrorist groups are considering such an attack in the U.S. in the near term," said department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.

[freeperfromnj]

Peace Deal Sought With Pakistan Militants

Pakistan Forces Let Tribal Council Enter Battlezone to Seek Peace Deal With al-Qaida Fighters

The Associated Press

WANA, Pakistan March 21 — Pakistani forces agreed Sunday to allow a 25-member tribal council free passage into a battlezone in an effort to negotiate a peace deal with local elders sheltering hundreds of al-Qaida fighters, but insisted they would never back off a demand that the militants be handed over.

The military believes a "high-value" target is hunkered down in the besieged area in South Waziristan, but says its uncertain if it is Osama bin Laden's Egyptian deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, or another terrorist.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040321_277.html

[freeperfromnj]

US Official: Taliban Still Plotting Attacks From Pakistan

KABUL (AP)--Senior Taliban are still plotting attacks on Afghan and U.S. targets from safe havens in Pakistan, the U.S. ambassador in Kabul said Sunday, urging Islamabad to clamp down on Taliban fugitives, as well as al-Qaida leaders.

"We know several key Taliban figures are there and there is some sense that some of the remaining al-Qaida leaders are in the border area on the other side," Zalmay Khalilzad told The Associated Press.

"It doesn't serve Pakistan's interest for them to operate in Pakistan and to come across and attack Afghanistan or the coalition forces here," Khalilzad said in an interview.

The remarks keep up the pressure on Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf - a key ally in the U.S. war on terror - as he tries to make good on a pledge to rid semiautonomous tribal areas along the Afghan border of al-Qaida militants.

Khalilzad said the U.S. was "very encouraged" by an ongoing Pakistani offensive against hundreds of foreign fighters and allied Afghan tribesmen in villages in South Waziristan.

He said he couldn't discuss intelligence on whether the thousands of Pakistani troops using helicopters and mortars to pound the area had cornered al-Qaida's No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahri, but said he hoped it was true.

Khalilzad said key commanders of the Taliban regime ousted by U.S.-led forces in late 2001 for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden were operating out of Pakistan.

He said they included Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Brader, Taliban commanders believed to be orchestrating attacks in southern Afghan provinces including the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

Khalilzad also cited a statement by Afghan President Hamid Karzai late last year that Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar had been spotted in a mosque in the Pakistani city of Quetta - a remark that drew strident denials from Islamabad.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 21, 2004 09:13 ET (14:13 GMT)

[judicial meanz]

I personally think the step up by Pakistan is all smoke and mirrors. When its the end of the day and the smoke has cleared, I doubt Zawahiri or any other AQ heavies will be found in the rubble.

Musharraf has the Sword of Democles hanging over his head in three directions.

1) If he makes America any madder, he will have some real problems to deal with ( especially if one of Khan's creations make it here)

2) He has serious opposition and competition in the Pakistani goverment from a guy who has equal capability to kill him and take over. ( this guy- Ghul is his name- is also very radical and capable of making Pakistan another Taliban style government with nukes)

3) Anything he does to aggravate India could blow into a full scale war with nuclear weapons. Anything a terrorist does to aggravate India from Pakistani soil could do this too.

It behooves him to do just enough not to get labeled as a pro-terrorist, and not enough to aggravate his internal opposition, especially since his internal opposition and Khan were allied and the internal opposition is now suffering with the Khan affair.

[WestCoastGal]

Hi Montana. Thanks for posting the info, please check in now and then and let us know how things are going up there. We need to have eyes and ears in every state and you're in one of my favorite places.

I agree on Yellowstone, it will probably still be there after a lot us are gone (hopefully of natural causes). There are some unusual things going on with the elk. Please let us know if you hear anything.

[WestCoastGal]

That first article re: the convoy of trucks carrying illegals in Tucson (165 people).......6 vehicles stopped and 6 vehicles escaped!!!!!!!!

Sounds like Iraq where those trucks came in from Iran and most escaped.

What is going on there? Our borders are wide open for the most part. We're no better than a third world country and that's what we will become socially if we don't stop this, not to mention a nation of drug addicted good for nothings.

Hello Homeland Security~~How many terrorists are coming through?

Probably more than the 100 they boast of in their threats for the next attack.

Sorry for yelling, but this subject makes me so angry!!

[WestCoastGal]

Also, there is no follow up on the story of the three guys videotaping Conoco Phillips refinery in Marcus Hook. The story just stopped after they reported two were released and ONE was held for visa problems. Now if one was on visa we can assume the rest were probably foreigners also. My first question is where were they from?

Excuse me, but why would anybody want to videotape a refinery. That's certainly not at the top of my list when I'm on vacation.

Cindy, I've noticed from a lot of the links you provide that these TV and newspaper people never follow up on these stories. You would think as news people they would be curious. Or, at least they would find out, as in this instance, why they were not considered dangerous.

[Indie]

How mean and unprofessional.

Kerry and his minions are more than unprofessional...they are like spoiled brat 2 yr olds. Imgagine his arrogance with his finger on the trigger. (Heck he'd probaby throw it down a storm drain somewhere.)

[WestCoastGal]

This article you posted is interesting as well. I wonder how many "FedEx" NOT, trucks have made it through with who knows what on board!!

Thank you Cindy for all the time you spend recapping and adding new links for some very newsworthy things happening everywhere in our country.

'FedEx' doesn't fool agent

GABRIELA RICO Tucson Citizen

A Mexican man driving a fake Federal Express van stocked with food and water was arrested by a Border Patrol agent who noticed the vehicle lacked a commercial license plate. The white Ford van, traveling east on Ruby Road near Nogales, passed the agent, who became suspicious about the license plate and the amateur-looking lettering, said Andy Adame, Border Patrol spokesman.

The agent pulled the driver over, found he was in the country illegally and arrested him on suspicion of entering without inspection, Adame said. He would not release the man's name.

"Adame said that in the past 14 months, drug or immigrant smugglers have used the following counterfeit vehicles: a yellow school bus, two Border Patrol vehicles, a Phoenix news station truck, another FedEx van and a Douglas city utility vehicle."

[Calpernia]

>>>>"As far as tinfoil goes, how about the chemtrails being a defense against the woodpecker, jamming the signal and such."


http://www.floridatoday.com/news/space/stories/2004a/032104delta.htm

Military satellite safely in orbit
Florida Today, FL - 10 hours ago
CAPE CANAVERAL -- A $45 million military navigation satellite is circling the planet today after a last-minute launch Saturday aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket.


http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-03/21/content_1376850.htm

China to launch lunar probe satellite on Long March III A
Xinhua, China - 2 hours ago
BEIJING, March 21 (Xinhuanet) -- China has decided to use a Long March III A carrier rocket to launch the satellite in its lunar probe project, said sources

[WestCoastGal]

DNA tests on corpse will reveal if it is Bin Laden's deputy
Christina Lamb, Wana, South Waziristan


The capture or killing of al-Zawahiri would be an enormous breakthrough in the war on terrorism in a week when the Madrid bombings have left many feeling that it is a losing battle.

This excerpt is from the Sunday Times in England. You have to subscribe to read any more of the article which I never do. Apparently the Sunday Times article does list the communications information that was obtained by intelligence that points towards the codename for Zawahiri and what was said.


Mansoor Ijaz just on Fox, says intelligence officials are checking DNA from Zawahiris son held in Basra?? I didn't know that. It seems as though there is a struggle between what Pakistan wants and needs and our RIGHT to know if this was him. Seems like a tough situation with Musharaff being in between a rock and a hard place politically.

Ijaz says there are still 5 top Al Qaeda body guards included in those fighting on the mountain with the Pakistani army.

If anyone has a subscription, please post here what they say.

[WestCoastGal]

One more thing, a report on Fox the other days said Zawahiris family lives in FLORIDA!!!!!

[MamaDearest]

You're welcome.

[MamaDearest]

The more this stuff keeps happening in the face of the ROARING SILENCE from you good Muslims, the more non-Muslims (infidels, I believe you call us), people are going to become convinced that your religion (and those who practice it) actually condones this.

My cat shows more value to her new kittens than these people show to their own flesh and blood children, encouraging them to become suicide bombers - equally as repulsive an act as any mother who murders her own children. Indie, I could not have worded a letter any better than this one. Thanks for posting it.

[freeperfromnj]

GREEK PLANE IN BOMB ALERT

From correspondents in Athens
March 22, 2004

A BOMB alert on board an Olympic Airlines passenger plane heading for Johannesburg overnight forced it to turn back to Greece, the ANA Athens press agency reported Sunday.

The aircraft which was carrying 138 passengers and 12 crew was flying over the Greek island of Crete when a private television station received a warning that a bomb was on board, it said.

The aeroplane returned to the international airport at the Greek capital where a search failed to locate a bomb.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9038213%5E1702,00.html

[MamaDearest]

NOW THIS IS NOT NICE!

Are there translations for any of these?

[MamaDearest]

"Tish...that French!! Kiss kiss kiss kisss........

Okay, how about French braids too? ****SMOOTCH*****

[StillProud2BeFree]

The last two links are to postings calling for a Cyber-jihad against the Internet Haganah website.

According to postings made in the last day or two, they are planning trying again on March 26. Aaron has an update on his website at http://www.internet-haganah.us/haganah/

[FairOpinion]

Al Qaeda has also been using shipping containers to smuggle themselves into countries.

Palestinians and al Qaeda Bond through Ship Container

DEBKAfile Special Report

March 17, 2004, 10:19 PM (GMT+02:00)

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=807


And now, over to terror by ship’s containers.


the shock finding made early Wednesday by a port worker, who pulled a ring fixed to the wall of an incoming container and to his astonishment a secret compartment opened out.

The container had already passed inspection at the Karni crossing for transiting bulk merchandize to and from the Gaza Strip. Israeli security experts’ initial conclusion is that al Qaeda devised the Palestinians’ clever Trojan horse use of a shipping container to smuggle the two the suicide bombers into the heavily secured strategic Ashdod Port area on Sunday. Since the Madrid train bombings and the failure of Western intelligence agencies to prevent them, Israeli security agencies are as acutely concerned as any fellow services about al Qaeda tactics.


Like its commercial counterparts, “al Qaeda lines” believed in class travel.

Inferior ranks of terrorists, usually Pakistanis, went “cattle class” – in containers with little food and water. Sometimes air holes were covered by other containers and they suffocated to death.

”Operational containers” were provided for terrorists fully armed with combat gear and weapons. Their bunks could qualify as “business class” with good sleeping arrangements, chemical toilets, medicine and lots of ventilation.

And finally, the al Qaeda elite went first class all the way, treating themselves to private compartments with air conditioning, purified water and de luxe food. A crew member-accomplice usually let them out at night for a stroll on the deck.

In some of the stowaway containers, US counter-terror authorities were dismayed to find uniforms of American dockworkers and even US Coast Guards, along with the correct tags and ID for providing holders with free access to port facilities, including off-limits sections.

On September 15, 2002, DEBKAfile reported the strange case of the Palermo Senator, a Liberian-registered freighter that steamed into New York six days earlier. After unexplained sounds issued from several holds, the ship was diverted to Port Newark, New Jersey, to be checked for stowaways. But when low radiation traces were detected, it was escorted six miles (10 kilometers) out to sea for further examination by the US Nuclear Emergency Security Team – NEST -- and Navy SEALS.

It transpired that the ship had docked in the United States after taking on its container cargo at Gioia Touro on August 25. US authorities had been alerted before its arrival. Thorough searches failed to turn up the 40 terrorists reportedly aboard. But what was found was an extraordinarily sophisticated honeycomb structure whereby once the ship was out in the open sea, the stowed away terrorists, helped by accomplices among the crew, cut passageways between the containers, and paid each other visits after dark.

The Bush administration is in the process of setting up a global security system to screen containers reaching all US ports and merchant shipping in dozens of major ports in Europe, the Far East and Canada, before they set sail for American shores.

[FairOpinion]

I should have included this part to the excerpt of the Debka article:

"In DEBKA-Net-Weekly 64, on June 14, 2002, we disclosed that between 75 and125 al Qaeda operatives were known to have illegally penetrated the United States over a period of two months, mostly through American ports as stowaways in commercial sea containers. US port authority sources believed infiltrations occurred at New York, New Jersey, Long Beach, Miami and Savannah, Georgia, as well as Port Everglades, Florida. In Miami and Savanna, containers with clandestine human freight were unloaded from incoming vessels. Anti-terror squads shifted the boxes to a quiet corner of the harbor, drilled holes in their sides and filled them with gas and smoke bombs.

But the paper trail connected to the terrorist smuggling machine mysteriously disappeared along with the reports of insurance companies that issued policies for the containers. "

[Mossad1967]

From DEBKA:

Israelis warned by War on Terror Authority in Jerusalem to stay clear of favorite Passover holiday destinations, Egyptian Sinai and Istanbul, as well as parts of Bangkok, 2 Philippine islands and Kashmir. Authority head Avi Arditi cites specific intelligence of planned terrorist attacks.

Have a feeling that early April might be a very dangerous time for us as well.