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Posted on 03/12/2004 8:23:06 PM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
That's something I've noticed on both Sean and Jill's sites. They don't update daily. The next day has passed several days over about the tents on Sean's site and Jill's posts are often several days apart. In all fairness Drudge also posts things as "developing" and I never see anything more about the story. That's why I am waiting for SP2BF to translate for us. It seems we learn just as much from the excellent work of several of our best here on this thread (I am thankful every single day for all of the hard work my fellow-FReepers do on this thread - you are each just as important as Sean and Jill for your posts, thoughts, ideas and questions)
Blowguns are readily available and relatively easy to use, although I do need to practice with my new handgun and my husband as well with his new rifle. These sleeper cells in our own country are exactly the reason we have the right to bear arms.
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
March 24, 2004
Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - Australia's opposition leader, who is riding a wave of popularity in opinion polls, says he will pull out the country's troops from Iraq if he defeats Prime Minister John Howard in elections due late this year.
Labor leader Mark Latham's comments drew a warning from the government Wednesday about the dangers of signaling to terrorists that their campaign is succeeding.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer noted that Latham's position had shifted since the March 11 train bombings in Madrid. Following that attack, Spain's pro-U.S. government lost an election to a Socialist party whose leader announced he would withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq.
Downer said the Spanish Socialist decision "leads the terrorists to conclude that terrorist attacks achieve political results, and I don't think we should ever transmit a message to terrorist organizations that they can achieve political results."
Because of that concern, he said he hoped to persuade Latham to change his mind, and so ensure bipartisan support for Australia's role in Iraq.
Howard's government last year fended off significant domestic opposition and sent ships, aircraft and 2,000 troops in support of the U.S. and British forces fighting to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
Support for the policy grew as the military campaign continued.
Australia now has around 850 army, navy and air force personnel in Iraq, as part of the post-war rebuilding operation, and the government has not set a deadline on the deployment.
Previously, Labor policy had left open the possibility of Australian troops remaining in Iraq under a U.N. mandate, following the handover to an Iraqi administration at the end of June.
But Latham said Tuesday that, should a Labor government be in power by year's end, he would work to bring the troops home by Christmas. No date has yet been set for the election, but it's likely to be in September or October.
The policy shift comes at a time Latham and Labor are riding high in the polls.
In a Newspoll survey, 42 percent of respondents picked Latham as "preferred prime minister," just one point below Howard at 43 percent.
It's the highest result for Latham since he became Labor leader last December, and the highest for any Labor leader since Howard first became prime minister in 1996.
The poll also gave Labor a 46-41 point lead over Howard's conservative coalition.
Sixty-five percent of respondents in an accompanying poll said they believed their country's role in Iraq had increased the risk of terrorist attack against Australians.
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has threatened Australia by name in past years, in warnings that condemned Australia for its role in East Timor - Canberra led a peacekeeping mission that oversaw the territory's independence from Muslim Indonesia - and more recently, for its support for the war in Iraq.
Following the Madrid bombings, another message warning to Australia, along with Japan, Britain, Italy, Norway and the U.S. itself, came from a group purportedly linked to al-Qaeda, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades.
Manipulating electorates
Downer raised another concern about Latham's plan to pull Australian troops out of Iraq, pointing out that some of the personnel there were tasked with protecting civilians working at Canberra's embassy in Baghdad.
"I don't want to see those Australians left unprotected in Baghdad and I'd like Mr. Latham to stop and think about that and perhaps consider the policy rather more carefully," he told journalists Wednesday.
"I don't think this is a time in history where we should just be jumping around in a populist way. I think this is a time in history when we should be focusing very much on persuading the public about what's in the national interest."
In the view of the veteran Australian political commentator, Paul Kelly, the legacy of recent events in Spain is that political parties, both those in power and those in opposition, "must decide whether to lead or merely to follow public opinion."
Writing in The Australian daily, Kelly noted that Britain's opposition Conservative Party leader had warned al-Qaeda not to think it could manipulate Britain in the way it had Spain.
"Whatever my disagreements with Tony Blair, any government that I lead will not flinch in its determination to win the war against terror where it has to be fought," Kelly quoted Conservative leader Michael Howard as saying.
Although Latham's Australian Labor Party is a longstanding ally of Britain's Labor, their stances on Iraq have been diametrically opposed, even as the Howard and Blair governments - one conservative and one center-left - have became natural allies over Iraq.
That tension between the two Labor parties has been demonstrated by the fact that Latham has strongly attacked President Bush over Iraq, but has avoided similarly criticizing Blair - an apparent contradiction frequently commented on by Australian government figures.
Peter Brookes, a senior fellow for national security affairs at the Heritage Foundation, said this week it was not surprising that al-Qaeda would try to create and exploit differences in the anti-terror coalition.
"Unfortunately, they created some on 3/11 [the day of the Madrid bombings]," he said.
"In the tough days ahead, the civilized world must buck up and face this challenge. Terrorism will be beaten - but side trips to appeasement are a sure way to delay our victory and increase the costs."
25mar04
SUSPECTED people smuggler Mehmet Seriban was arrested in Sydney today and charged with 11 offences for breaching immigration laws, Justice Minister Chris Ellison said today.
He said 39-year-old Seriban, a former Turkish asylum seeker, was apprehended by Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers when he arrived at Sydney Airport this morning. Senator Ellison said Seriban, who used to work in a Manly kebab shop, was believed to have organised the arrival of a people smuggling boat which arrived on Ashmore Reef on February 17, 2000 with 14 Turkish nationals onboard.
"Seriban has been of interest to the joint AFP/DIMIA (Immigration Department) people smuggling taskforce for several years and has been charged this morning with 11 charges under the Immigration Act in relation to his alleged role in bringing a group of unlawful non-citizens to Australia four years ago," he said.
Thu 25 March, 2004 05:47
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon may cut half of the 71,000 troops based in Germany under a planned post-Cold War realignment of U.S. military forces abroad, The Washington Post has reported citing U.S. officials.
Under the draft plan, smaller bases would be set up in Romania and possibly Bulgaria and training facilities would be set up in Poland, the newspaper reported on Thursday.
Bases in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan that were established in 2001 to support the war in Afghanistan would be preserved as training sites and as quick staging areas for use in emergencies, the report said.
The Post said the Pentagon plan, which is nearing approval, also calls for new training and staging areas in Australia and expansion of military ties with Singapore and Thailand.
In addition, about 15,000 of the 100,000 U.S. troops posted in Asia would be withdrawn, mostly by streamlining administrative staffs of the U.S. military commands in South Korea and Japan, the newspaper said, citing the unnamed officials.
U.S. officials have said before that the United States would deploy fewer troops and have fewer bases in Europe.
But neither the proposed size of the reductions in Europe and Asia nor details about locations of the new sites have been previously disclosed, the Post reported.
The newspaper said that some of the troops now overseas would be brought home, while vital equipment would be dispersed more widely to permit more nimble dispatch of forces.
The report cited officials as saying that a major objective of the plan is to deepen military ties and joint training with a greater number of allies in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa and Southeast Asia.
President George W. Bush and his national security advisers were still a month or two away from approving the changes, the Post said.
Spain’s incoming prime minister has told the United States and Britain that he is committed to his vow to pull troops out of Iraq, despite their efforts to keep Spain in the occupying coalition.
Tony Blair and Spanish prime minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero briefly discussed the possibility of a new United Nations resolution yesterday, in an attempt to resolve Zapatero’s demand that the UN take control of the occupation of Iraq.
Zapatero, in his first official meetings with foreign leaders, also spoke with US secretary of state Colin Powell, who offered an immediate dialogue on the UN’s role in Iraq, according to Miguel Angel Moratinos, who attended the meetings with Zapatero and is expected to become Spain’s new foreign minister.
Powell and Blair were among dozens of foreign dignitaries in Madrid for the state funeral for 190 people killed by terrorist bombs on March 11.
The US-led invasion of Iraq was strongly supported by the conservative Spanish government of prime minister Jose Maria Aznar but vehemently opposed by Zapatero’s Socialists and the overwhelming majority of Spaniards.
A British official said Blair told Zapatero he recognised the Spanish leader’s “domestic imperative” and the mandate he had received from the Spanish people.
Zapatero had campaigned with the promise to pull out Spanish troops by the end of June if the UN did not take the reins in Iraq by then.
Later, in Lisbon, Portugal, Blair acknowledged differences within the European Union over Iraq.
“First of all, every government has to take its own position,” he said.
“Of course there is a disagreement over the issue of Iraq with Mr. Zapatero. That is all known. But I think that everybody accepts that whatever their position is on the war in Iraq, the essential thing now is to help the Iraqi people.”
“I hope we can find common grounds there.”
Blair and Zapatero did not go into specifics about a new UN resolution, the British official said. A UN resolution was “touched upon as something that the Americans and British were looking toward”, the official said.
Zapatero also met French president Jacques Chirac, German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and prime minister Leszek Miller of Poland, whose troops control the southern Iraq zone where Spain’s 1,300 troops are deployed.
Schroeder, like Chirac, vehemently opposed last year’s US-led invasion.
The daily newspaper El Pais has reported that Zapatero intends to increase the Spanish contingent in Afghanistan by 125 soldiers to offset criticism of his decision to withdraw from Iraq.
Zapatero’s spokesman Julian Lacalle would not confirm or deny the report and said the prime minister-elect would not talk about specific policies before taking office.
A Spanish judge remanded two more suspects in jail in connection with the Madrid bombings, bringing to 11 the number of people charged so far.
Judge Juan del Olmo questioned Moroccans Rafa Zuher and stepsister Naima Oulad Akcha separately for more than six hours. They were arrested at the weekend.
Del Olmo charged them with collaborating with a terrorist group.
Spanish authorities have arrested a total of 15 people in connection with the March 11 railway bombings – 11 Moroccans, two Indians, one Algerian and a Spaniard. Thirteen remain in custody, of whom 11 have been charged and remanded in custody pending further investigation. One Moroccan and the Algerian have been released.
The attacks killed 190 people and injured at least 1,800.
Five have been charged with mass murder and belonging to a terrorist group and six have been charged with collaborating.
Naima Oulad Akcha was the first woman to be arrested in the case. She is sister to Khalid Oulad Akcha, who was in jail elsewhere in Spain in connection with a separate case.
Khalid Oulad Akcha and another person arrested over the weekend, Faisal Ullac, were expected to be questioned by the judge again today.
UK freezes assets of 5 Hamas leaders
March 25, 2004 08:34 IST
Britain on Thursday ordered the Bank of England to freeze assets of five senior members of the Palestinian group Hamas, including those of its new leader Abdel Aziz Rantissi.
"Chancellor [of the Exchequer] Gordon Brown today instructed the Bank of England, as agent for Her Majesty's Treasury, to direct financial institutions that any funds which they hold for or on behalf of five senior members of Hamas must be frozen," the treasury said in a statement.
"This action has been taken because the Treasury have reasonable grounds for suspecting that four of the individuals are, or may be persons who facilitate or participate in the commission of acts of terrorism and one, Abdel Aziz Rantissi, is or may be a person, who commits, facilitates or participates in such acts," the statement said.
Besides Rantissi, the other named are Musa Abu Marzouk, Imad Khalil Al-Alami, Usama Hamdan and Khalid Mishaal.
DOHA: Qatar expelled a Russian diplomat yesterday, a month after he and two other Russians were detained in Doha over the assassination of former rebel Chechen leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. The expulsion of first secretary Alexander Fetisov was an apparent swap with two Qataris held in Moscow in retaliation for the arrest of the three Russians.
UAE embassy threat
DUBAI: Police in the UAE yesterday arrested a man suspected of links to a security threat that temporarily shut down the US embassy.
"Police arrested a man after the embassy was shut due to the security threat," an embassy spokesman said. "He is being interrogated by the police in Abu Dhabi." A UAE official confirmed that a man had been arrested. The US on Tuesday warned of a heightened threat of attacks against Americans in the Middle East and North Africa after the assassination on Monday by Israel of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the leader of the Islamic group Hamas.
If he said this...it IS tin foil...or maybe asbestos suit time
Wed Mar 24,10:31 PM ET
By PAM EASTON, Associated Press Writer
HOUSTON - Four bodies found Wednesday in the Gulf of Mexico were believed to be from a helicopter that disappeared with 10 people aboard on its way to an oil exploratory ship.
Two bodies were spotted about 60 miles south of Galveston by an offshore supply vessel assisting in the search, the Coast Guard said. A lifejacket with the words "Property of Era" on it was found a little later, followed by the discovery of two more bodies.
The twin-engine Sikorsky S-76A was owned by Alaska-based Era Aviation. The flight, which left Galveston Tuesday, carried a pilot, a co-pilot and eight workers.
The Coast Guard continued to search for survivors, but the choppy conditions made recovery of the bodies a challenge, spokesman Rob Wyman said.
"We are doing everything we can ... but right now it is a very dangerous operation," he said from the search command post in New Orleans. "It is dark. It is six- to eight-foot seas."
Three of the four bodies had been recovered by Wednesday night, Wyman said.
The search had concentrated on an oil slick about 100 miles south of Galveston, but was moving northward where the bodies and debris were found. The Coast Guard Cutter Manta was to remain at the scene overnight.
"We hope to find somebody out there alive," Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Adam Wine said. Everyone on board was believed to be wearing lifejackets.
The helicopter last made radio contact Tuesday night about 90 miles south of Galveston. No bad weather was reported at the time.
The helicopter's destination was an oil exploratory ship, The Discoverer Spirit, located about 130 miles east of South Padre Island. The ship is owned by offshore drilling company Transocean.
The Coast Guard identified the pilot as Tim O'Neal of El Lago, but did not identify the co-pilot or the eight workers. The helicopter was chartered by El Segundo, Calif.-based oil company Unocal.
A patrol boat, five offshore supply vessels, two Coast Guard jets, a helicopter and two commercial aircraft joined the search.
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States and Britain asked the U.N. Security Council to approve a resolution that would ban the transfer of weapons of mass destruction to terrorists and others acting without state authority.
The complicated five-page draft, under discussion among the major council powers over the last four months, would compel nations to adopt and enforce laws prohibiting a "non-state actor" from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
It was introduced by the United States on Wednesday and co-sponsored by Britain after being promoted by President Bush in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly last September. France, Russia and China support the draft.
The measure would require all 191 U.N. members to "adopt and enforce appropriate effective laws" to prevent "any non-state actor" from being able to "manufacture, acquire, possess, develop, transport or use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their means of delivery."
"What we have to do is stop the ultimate nightmare -- of bringing together weapons of mass destruction and the terrorists," said Britain's U.N. ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry.
The document invokes Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, a provision that makes the resolution mandatory. Chapter 7 allows sanctions and military force but in this case neither applies.
It calls on governments to penalize those helping terrorists obtain weapons, but does not provide any sanctions if the states do not comply. Instead U.S. officials said they relied mainly on "name and shame" pressures on errant nations.
China insisted the original draft drop a provision on the interdiction of suspected shipments of unconventional weapons. But U.S. officials said that an existing Proliferation Security Initiative, which so far involves 15 countries, provides legal power to board ships.
John Bolton, U.S. undersecretary of state for non-proliferation, pointed to a provision in the resolution calling on nations to take "cooperative action" to prevent the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction in accordance with domestic and international law.
"We are making a political statement and confirming what we already have regarding international and national authority," Bolton told Reuters by telephone from Washington.
He said China's U.N. ambassador Wang Guangya, agreed with his interpretation.
John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the focus of the resolution was how to "fill gaps."
No date was set for a vote. But Algeria's U.N. ambassador, Abdallah Baali, said council nations wanted all 191 U.N. member states to be briefed on the measure. As a result, adoption of the resolution "will take longer."
The new draft defines a "non-state actor" as an individual or entity not acting under the lawful authority of any state in conducting the banned activities.
Under that definition, a target would be A.Q. Khan, the Pakistani scientist who smuggled nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya, and is now under house arrest.
Pakistan, a council member, said it had to seek instructions first, diplomats reported.
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