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.

[Cindy]

Adding on to post no. 4240...

http://www.mansouraa.i8.com/video.htm (See photos)

[Cindy]

http://www.mansouraa.i8.com/kataeb1/notalone.htm (See photo)

[liberallyconservative]

Al-Qa'ida 9/11 chief reveals US got off lightly
The Australian, From The Sunday Times ^ | March 29, 2004 | Sunday Times sources

Posted on 03/28/2004 8:38:54 PM CST by KangarooJacqui

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1106919/posts

[Cindy]

ON THE NET -- PHOTOS:

http://www.mansouraa.i8.com/kataeb1/allahwithus.htm
http://www.mansouraa.i8.com/kataeb1/notalone.htm
http://www.mansouraa.i8.com/kataeb1/picsfrompast.htm
http://www.mansouraa.i8.com/kataeb1/tongue.htm
http://www.mansouraa.i8.com/video.htm
http://www.mansouraa.i8.com/kataeb1/hasad.htm
http://www.mansouraa.i8.com/kataeb1/akeda.htm

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1107012/posts

"Rumsfeld Clears Musharraf of Nuclear Trafficking"
Yahoo! News - Top Stories - Reuters ^ | Sun Mar 28, 1:25 PM ET | By Jim Wolf


Posted on 03/28/2004 11:22:55 PM PST by Bobby777

[nw_arizona_granny]

I think the first that I heard of E-coli, was in the hamburgers at a fast food chain, In Washington state.

Yes, it could be used in food and it does show up in hamburger meat every so often, on the alert e mail that I subscribe to and at Promed.

I am not betting that I am right on the Wa. bit, but that is what is floating around in my pea brain.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Lots of folks are going nuts, with you gone, missed you.

Your Yahoo box is full and has been bouncing for a week.

Hugs,
ma

[buckalfa]

In my opinion, only the large teaching hospitals with
trauma centers would have physicians savy enough to
recognize such an occurance and only these facilities
would have the staff and resources to handle victims
in mass.

[milkncookies]

Just who is driving all these 18 wheelers?

Authorities wonder how truck crashed, left driver a mile behind

Utah Highway Patrol troopers were investigating how a semi-truck and trailer crashed on Interstate 80 Sunday morning with the driver ending up on the pavement more than a mile away.
    The westbound truck and trailer were just over the top of Parley's Summit when it crossed the median then went back into the westbound lanes and crashed into a concrete barrier, said UHP Sgt. Shawn Judd. The trailer was not carrying anything toxic.
    Troopers were investigating whether the driver first got out of his truck and it rolled away, or if he lost control and jumped out. The driver apparently only spoke Russian.
    "Somehow, he got out of his vehicle. We haven't been able to speak to him and get a rendition of what occurred," Judd said.
    The male driver, age unknown, was taken to LDS Hospital. Judd said the man was in critical condition at the scene.
    -- Vince Horiuchi

The Salt Lake Tribune

[Velveeta]

Regarding the British military cavers, I hope this isn't another one of those stories without an outcome that just disappears from public view.

[freeperfromnj]

Unfortunately, all of these stories seem to end up in a blackhole somewhere. Significant enough to warrant an initial story with a red flag but then, as you said, they just disappear.

[4thygipper]

Where's Bine?

Shifts from bin Laden hunt evoke questions
By Dave Moniz and Steven Komarow, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — In 2002, troops from the 5th Special Forces Group who specialize in the Middle East were pulled out of the hunt for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan to prepare for their next assignment: Iraq. Their replacements were troops with expertise in Spanish cultures.
The CIA, meanwhile, was stretched badly in its capacity to collect, translate and analyze information coming from Afghanistan. When the White House raised a new priority, it took specialists away from the Afghanistan effort to ensure Iraq was covered.

Those were just two of the tradeoffs required because of what the Pentagon and CIA acknowledge is a shortage of key personnel to fight the war on terrorism. The question of how much those shifts prevented progress against al-Qaeda and other terrorists is putting the Bush administration on the defensive.

Even before the invasion, the wisdom of shifting resources from the bin Laden hunt to the war in Iraq was raised privately by top military officials and publicly by Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., and others. Now it's being hotly debated again following an election-year critique of the Bush administration by its former counterterrorism adviser, Richard Clarke.

"If we catch him (bin Laden) this summer, which I expect, it's two years too late," Clarke said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press. "Because during those two years when forces were diverted to Iraq ... al-Qaeda has metamorphosized into a hydra-headed organization with cells that are operating autonomously, like the cells that operated in Madrid recently."

The Bush administration says the hunt for bin Laden continued throughout the war in Iraq. Officials say it's wrong to speculate that he would have been captured, or other terrorist attacks prevented, if the Iraq war hadn't happened. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, speaking on ABC's This Week, called the example of the Special Forces switch "simplistic."

But the Pentagon tacitly acknowledged a problem last year, after the Iraq invasion. It created a new organization, Task Force 121, to better oversee commando operations in the region and ensure a faster response when terrorists can be struck.

Now gaps in capability are being closed as the administration puts record amounts of money into military and spy agencies. More spy aircraft such as the Predator drone are arriving. More troops are getting Arabic training at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. CIA Director George Tenet said this month that the agency is filling shortfalls, especially among translators.

Still, the question lingers: Did opening a second front hurt the main effort to defeat terrorism?

Bob Andrews, former head of a Pentagon office that oversaw special operations, says that removing Saddam Hussein was a good idea but "a distraction." The war in Iraq, Andrews notes, entailed the largest deployment of special operations forces — about 10,000 —since the Vietnam War. That's about 25% of all U.S. commandos.

It also siphoned spy aircraft and light infantry soldiers. Iraq proved such a drain, one former Pentagon official notes, that there were no AWACS radar jets to track drug-trafficking aircraft in South America.

Saddam was not an immediate threat. "This has been a real diversion from the longer struggle against jihadists," especially in the intelligence field, he says.

Stan Florer, a retired Army colonel and former Green Beret, agrees that Iraq diverted enormous military and intelligence assets. But he argues that long-standing disputes with Saddam needed to be addressed: "This was tearing at us all the time. It was a bleeding wound with Saddam calling the shots in the Middle East."

[4thygipper]

I wonder if we already have him.

[ladyjane]

No flights took off from O'Hare for an hour last night? And traffic was diverted around NYC also. Is that normal or should I say does it happen often? BTW - my friend's plane had what appeared to be two air marshalls on it last night.

[Calpernia]

bump!

[Calpernia]

>>>There should be internet policing to capture those who do it and imprison them for what they do, no matter where they do it.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1105948/posts

Black Demon targets computer hackers (USA troops bump) www.stripes.com ^ | By Marni McEntee

Posted on 03/26/2004 8:49:08 PM EST by bogdanPolska12

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany ” Air Force computer gurus are entrenched in a cyber war against themselves.

Just as Air Force pilots fly mock dogfights during their exercises, so too do network security experts battle imaginary foes to train for the real world.

This week, nine Air Force major commands and two Air Force agencies are engaged in Exercise Black Demon to root out insidious computer hackers who would seek to destroy the Air Force™s operations with but a few keystrokes.

Just like our pilots and air crews want to gain air and space superiority, we want to gain network superiority, said 1st Lt. Matthew Scott, deputy operations chief of U.S. Air Forces in Europe™s Network Operations and Security Center.

[Velveeta]

I think we're going to have to keep digging to find the answers and connect the dots.

[Calpernia]

ROFL!

[Calpernia]

>>>Art Bell had a guest who suggested that we cultivate friendships with the "bad" Muslims who don't follow the Koran to the letter.

Hence the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Combined Joint Task Force 7.

>>>>It is the fanatic "good" Muslims who take the Koran literally that are the source of trouble. The Taliban is an recent example of the latter group.

Since I'm not proficient in reading Arabic yet, I have to take the word of some that can read it proficiently and say it is the "good" Muslims who listen to the terroristic interpretations of the Quran.

Cause if the Quran really did say convert or die, kill all infidels, to the Kaliph and beyond....I would hate to have our military spilling their blood overseas for nothing.