Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - Thread Ten

Yahoo News ^ | 6-10-04 | AP

[Quix]

OH, GOODNESS,

Alright already yet!

How about a

TMF

Not for Taiwan Missionary Fellowship

BUT

TMF--JIC

for

THREAT MATRIX FOIL--JIC [JUST IN CASE]

My name is already black enough around here.

Anyone brave enough to start/host it?

I suppose it should start out in Chat???

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

So where was it filmed?

US General Doubts Terrorist Video was Taped in Afghanistan
Alex Belida
Pentagon
17 Jun 2004, 16:48 UTC


A senior U.S. military commander says he doubts the accuracy of a videotape broadcast by the Arabic-language TV network al-Jazeera purporting to show terrorist training still taking place in Afghanistan.
Lieutenant General David Barno is commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He tells reporters at the Pentagon he is skeptical that a videotape of alleged al-Qaida training broadcast by al-Jazeera was made in a remote, mountainous area of Afghanistan.

"I take those reports with a great deal of skepticism and I think from my perspective it is fairly unlikely that that tape was made in Afghanistan," he said.

Responding to questions in a satellite link-up between the Pentagon and his headquarters in Kabul, General Barno says there is a significant U.S. military presence in the rugged border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He also notes that on the Pakistani side of the frontier, government forces are currently engaged in a renewed assault on suspected al-Qaida linked militants.

All-in-all, General Barno believes any al-Qaida or Taleban remnants in the area are on the defensive.

"Between operations here in Afghanistan which have been very aggressive in the last three months with Operation Mountain Storm and the current Pakistani operations, which are the most robust that they have ever executed with large number of forces, over 10,000 members of the Pakistani military, working now over a number of targets throughout South Waziristan, I think al-Qaida and its network is under tremendous pressure here," he said.

General Barno says al-Qaida and its allies are no longer able to mount attacks on coalition or Afghan forces. Instead, he says they are launching what he terms "cowardly" attacks on civilians and aid workers in an attempt to intimidate the Afghan people. He maintains this terrorist effort is failing as momentum builds for Afghanistan's coming elections.


http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=A49CE48C-4B78-481A-98A5DCA2DDC21A38#

[freeperfromnj]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1154467/posts

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

Janitors find bottle bombs at White Pine
Thursday, June 17, 2004
JOE SNAPPER
THE SAGINAW NEWS
At Saginaw Township's White Pine Middle School, the janitors cleaned up more than just dust and candy wrappers.

Police said custodians turned up two bottle bombs during their daily rounds about 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Both devices, made with a liquid cleaner and other household items, had exploded, said Township Police Chief Stephen C. Renico.


From Our Advertiser




Renico said the bombs did not appear to target anyone.

Fewer than 10 people were on campus Wednesday, said Saginaw Township Superintendent Jerry L. Seese. Students began summer vacation last week.

Janitors found one in a grassy field southwest of the school, 505 N. Center, and another near the edge of the parking lot, Renico said.

The incident resurrects old concerns over improvised explosives. Saginaw Township police dealt with a spate of the home-made bombs in the late 1990s, Renico said.

"They were popping up all over the place," he recalled.

A chemical reaction between the ingredients creates a gas build-up that touches off the bottled bomb, the chief said.

After containers are capped, detonation can occur as quickly as 15 seconds or as slowly as 15 minutes later, Renico said.

Explosions have a range of 10 to 15 feet, he said.

Renico said police will step up patrols near the school and urged anyone who sees such a device to stay clear and call 911.

"There have been a number of (bottle bombs) around in the community," Seese said.

"We're always blaming kids, but it could have been adults. We hope not to see any more of them." t


http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1087485600309690.xml

[Cindy]

http://www.qal3ah.net/vb/showthread.php?s=04eb4602df59ba2cce7da2239ebcf6b3&threadid=97950&perpage=10&display=&pagenumber=1

http://www.qatta3.i8.com/

[freeperfromnj]

AMERICAN SHOT DEAD IN DOMINICAL REPUBLIC

6/17/2004, 6:12 p.m. ET
The Associated Press

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — An American executive at a U.S. energy company in the Dominican Republic was shot to death Thursday afternoon in a coastal town, officials said.

The executive worked at a Cogentrix power generating plant in San Pedro de Macoris, said Ed Canaday, a company spokesman.

Canaday declined to identify the man or provide details on the killing.

A Dominican police spokesman, Winston Porto Real, said the victim was a 55-year-old American working as the plant's general manager, but he was unable to provide any details on the shooting.

Private television network CDN reported that the executive was in a vehicle on a main avenue when two gunmen opened fire from a passing motorcycle. The report, on CDN's Web site, came from a journalist in the town but cited no sources.

Cogentrix Energy, Inc., based in Charlotte, N.C., sells power to a local utility for distribution throughout the Dominican Republic, Canaday said.

The company's plant in San Pedro de Macoris has a 300-megawatt generating capacity and began commercial operation in 2001, according to Cogentrix's Web site. It employs about 30 people.

San Pedro de Macoris is located about 50 miles east of the capital, Santo Domingo.

http://www.nj.com/newsflash/topstories/index.ssf?/base/international-3/1087504550186650.xml&storylist=

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

Is this the first time we have heard of this in a restaurant?

Restaurant Suspected In Norovirus Voluntarily Shuts Down
Texas Roadhouse Grill Cooperating With Health Investigation

POSTED: 9:15 am MDT June 17, 2004
UPDATED: 10:35 am MDT June 17, 2004

The Fort Collins restaurant where patrons may have contracted a Norovirus is voluntarily closing its doors.


KMGH-TV
People who visited the Texas Roadhouse restaurant in Fort Collins last Saturday reported extreme stomach cramps, nausea and other symptoms within 48 hours of eating there.


The sign on the Texas Roadhouse Grill states the restaurant will be closed temporarily for the safety of patrons and employees.

The Larimer County Health

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/3429525/detail.html

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

FYI

Anthrax antidote in the mail?
A federal plan would have carriers deliver antibiotics to 21 cities

BY MICHAEL MARTZ
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jun 17, 2004


First, the anthrax came in the mail. Now, maybe, the antidote.

Mail carriers may be asked to deliver antibiotics or other drugs to people in 21 major cities within 48 hours of a biological or chemical attack under a program that federal health officials plan to test.

The idea is to speed the delivery of drugs in case of widespread contamination of an urban area with a biological or chemical weapon, such as anthrax sprayed from a cropdusting plane. Mail carriers, the principal victims of the anthrax crisis in 2001, are one of the main options for doing it.

But for Virginia, the new plan means $1.1 million less in federal funding in the next fiscal year to guard against bioterrorism and nothing to show for it.

The government has committed to taking roughly $55 million from the states and giving about half of that to 21 major cities. In addition to the project for delivering drugs, the money taken from the states would be used to enhance surveillance and quarantine programs.

"We don't get anything back," said Dr. Robert B. Stroube, the state commissioner of health.

Stroube and other state officials are not happy with the federal plan, disclosed this week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with little notice. They don't like losing the money for bioterrorism programs they've already planned, and they don't see how the plan improves public safety in an emergency.

"This makes absolutely no sense," said George W. Foresman, special assistant to the governor for commonwealth preparedness.

The purpose of the initiative is to send money to cities with the biggest populations and highest ANTHRAXrisk, such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and then look for ways to speed drug delivery for everyone, a federal spokesman said.

"The postal piece is an option for states to use," said Von Roebuck at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "It's not the be-all and end-all for everyone."

However, Foresman is as concerned about the federal process as the outcome. "This was a decision that was made with minimal state and local input."

He is a member of the executive committee that oversees homeland security in the Washington, D.C., region. Federal health officials first aired the notion of using postal carriers to deliver antibiotics in an emergency to the committee this winter. The committee didn't think much of the idea and suggested further work, he said.

The Washington, D.C., region would receive $880,000, but the money would not flow through Virginia or Maryland, and state health officials don't know if they'd even be involved.

Currently, the state must have plans for distributing drugs from the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile statewide within 10 days. The pilot is intended to cut that deadline to two days in case of widespread contamination of a city.

However, Virginia health officials say they have a good record of preparing for and responding to these kinds of emergencies. "We know what the issues are," said spokeswoman Trina H. Lee.

The use of volunteer postal workers is the most specific of the three options that the government has outlined for carrying out the project. Another is dispersing the drugs from the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile at central locations, as public health agencies always have done.

The third option "would involve individual mechanisms identified and developed by cities and states," according to a fact sheet posted by CDC on its Web site.

But the states say they haven't been asked for ideas. "The first thing we knew about it was they were going to take our money," Stroube said.


http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031776097645&path=!news&s=1045855934842

[freeperfromnj]

Anthrax keeps popping up in the news lately. I think it is high on the probability list for the next attack.

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

I think we should send the Teamsters to China.

17 June, 2004
ASIA
Soon 50 percent of global economy will depend on Asia.

In India and China, the two giants of Asian economy, poverty is still a main issue.



Singapore – (AsiaNews/AP) – At the present moment, Asian economy constitutes one third of the global one. Because of the ongoing development of China and India, soon 50 percent of the world economy could depend on Asia. This is what Singapore Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo declared in Shangai. “East Asia, India and Southeast Asia together account for half of the world's population, and could well account for half of the world's economy within a few decades”. A transcript of these remarks was released in Singapore. During a conference in China’s commercial capital, Yeo affirmed that “China is likely to recover its position as the world's largest economy, which it was for most of human history”.

In the first quarter of this year economic growth in China reached 9.8 percent year-on-year. However, officials have been trying to dampen the expansion rate because of fears of overheating. In May, India's central bank forecast that the economy of the country will surge between 6.5 percent and 7 percent in the year to March 2005. The expansion springs from the estimated 8.1 percent growth in the last fiscal year. “All over Asia, the present mood is upbeat. India has become a growth story full of promise. In the last six months, the economic growth of India has rivaled that of China” Yeo said.

The Minister emphasised that the regional situation could be endangered if military tensions flare across the Taiwan Strait, or there is renewed conflict on the divided Korean Peninsula. On the other hand, he added that these potential flash points could likely be “managed”.

"Although the U.S. remains militarily dominant, we are seeing increasingly a multi-polar world with Europe, Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa becoming centers of global or regional power," Yeo said.

In Asia poverty is still co-existing with economic welfare. A UN document, the Human Development Report 2003, clearly shows that booming Asia is not defeating poverty. In India and China a large amount of the population live in meager conditions without having access to essential services. Between 1990 and 2001, 34.7 percent of Indians lived on less than $ 1 a day, and 79.9 percent on less than $ 2. Analogously, 16.1 percent of Chinese lived on less than $ 1 and 47.3 percent on less than $ 2. Between 1998 and 2000, 24 percent of Indians and 9 percent of Chinese was underfed. Between 1995 and 2001 10 percent of Chinese children, and 47 percent of Indian children (under the age of 5) was underweight. In 2000, 25 percent of Chinese population (of which 34 percent was from the countryside) had no drinkable water. In India 16 percent of the population (of which 21 percent lived in the countryside) had the same problem. 60 percent of Chinese people and 72 percent of Indians had no access to any kind of health program. In 2001 in China 31 newborn babies out of 1000 died. In the same year in India died 67 infants out of 1000. 39 out of 1000 children under the age of 5 died in China and 93 in India. According to some UN analysts, the economical growth is not the only thing that must be considered in measuring the development of an area. It is more urgent to look at the real situation and the poverty of people.

http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=994

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

FYI

The oil that troubles US-China waters
By Travis Tanner

Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing.

Early this month, crude oil futures prices peaked at a 21-year high, reaching US$42.45 a barrel. In conjunction with terrorist risk premiums, China's surging demand for oil is a major driver behind the soaring prices. In fact, since the beginning of 2000, China has accounted for 40% of the growth in world oil demand.

Oil is an essential ingredient in China's successful formula for economic growth. It is critical for driving industrial activity, generating power, constructing infrastructure projects and fueling the rapidly growing number of automobiles on China's roads. Today, imports comprise one-third of China's total oil consumption, growing 31% last year, and by 2020 some estimates put China's dependency on foreign oil as high as 70%.

Oil consumption in the United States, the world's largest consumer of petroleum, is expected to grow nearly 50% over the next 20 years. Beijing, also on the fast track to oil dependency, is on a search to secure energy sources across the globe. This quest, in addition to China's heavy reliance on Middle Eastern oil, suggests a potential rivalry between the US and China over access to oil-rich regions. Many analysts argue that the trajectories of the world's two most voracious oil consumers will inevitably lead to a clash over the scarce resource.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FF18Ad04.html

[Quix]

For those not interested in not being interested in the unmentionable,

There's a somewhat interesting flick starting on the SciFi channel on the unmentionable topic.

I suppose it could be watched in one's unmentionables if that were more comfortable.

Just so one avoided discomforting the easily uncomfortable.

LOL.

[Quix]

Ahhhhh, China and Syria sign an agreement.

Sounds like The Bible to me.

Oh, that's right.

That's an unmentionable.

Dear me. I'll have to go wash my fingers out with soap.

:)

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

Pakistani military pounds al Qaeda positions

The Pakistani military has deployed thousands of troops, attack helicopters and fighter jets in attacks on al Qaeda insurgents in its most significant offensive ever in the tribal border areas.

The United States military commander in neighbouring Afghanistan, Lieutenant General David Barno, says the al Qaeda network is now under enormous pressure.

General Barno says US and Pakistani forces will continue to pressure al Qaeda fighters on both sides of the border.

Pakistani officials say the latest target is Baghar, between the South Waziristan tribal district capital, Wana, and the frontier.

Earlier in the year, Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, estimated 500 to 600 foreign fighters were hiding in the remote northwest tribal belt.

A 12-day offensive in March, also just west of Wana in Azam Warsak, killed 65 militants.

The region is home to Pashtun tribes known to have sympathies with the ousted Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives.


18/06/2004 08:53:56 | ABC Radio Australia News

http://www.abc.net.au/ra/newstories/RANewsStories_1134530.htm

[milkncookies]

A post by SOL over at the TFP board:

"Welll... I have just gotten confirmation that the Egyptian president is indeed dead. The reported TV appearance was a replay of a Monday night appearance. US intelligence saw Mubarak's body being removed from where he was when he died by six military men in full uniform. I believe either Minister Tartawi or the Egyptian military will assume control of the country in the face of a possible Islamic insurgency at this time. This has been a clear cut case of OPDEC."

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

You are a nut! ROFLOL

[Quix]

Sorry. I don't have any fitting docs to add.

All mine are 2,000 years old or modern but of similar ilk.

[all4one]

As I read Mossad1967's post I kept wavering between U.S., EU and finally with the mention of Al Saud and other clues; I agree with you that Saudi Arabia seems the most likely target. Pretty detailed.

[Quix]

I suggest you brace yourself and put on your hazmat suit--bracing yourself for the tinfoil patrol.

Warning: They take no prisoners.

[milkncookies]

I forgot about Egypt....

Mubarak has allegedly died and the rest of his government is resigning the end of this month.