Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - Thread Ten

Yahoo News ^ | 6-10-04 | AP

[JustPiper]

Picture credit: TheCabal

"I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat"

LINK TO THREAD NINE

U.S. Charges Australian Linked to al-Qaida

WASHINGTON - An Australian held at the Navy's prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will face a military tribunal for allegedly training and fighting alongside members of al-Qaida in Afghanistan (news - web sites), the Pentagon (news - web sites) announced Thursday.

We are the "Stotters" who make ourselves aware of the enemy who wishes to do us harm

[bored at work]

We have 3 reports of large unexplained explosions within a few days of each other amongst a very very small population of widely dispersed people.

I can add to that. Last night at 2:38 am (according to my clock)there was an explosion, KABOOOOM, outside of my window. Literally made me jump right out of my sleep. It was so loud that it set off my car alarm. By the time I woke up and shut off the alarm I'm sure the whole neighborhood was awake. . .No storm. . .No fire. . .No smoke. . .No sirens. . .Nothing but silence.

[milkncookies]

"LeBoutillier, a former U.S. congressman with friends close to the Reagan White House and Nancy, said Nancy feels that President Clinton stained the image of the Oval Office."

Let's not forget that he stained the rug in the Oval Office as well.

[freeperfromnj]

MAN WITH HISTORY OF TRANSIT ARRESTS CAUGHT IN QUEENS RAIL YARD

8:59 am EDT June 14, 2004

NEW YORK -- A man who has been arrested 20 times for illegally posing as a subway motorman, bus driver and transit token taker has been arrested again -- this time for walking through a Queens rail yard carrying several sets of transit keys and wearing a worker's vest and hard hat, police said.

Darius McCollum, 39, was on parole after serving prison time for his last arrest when transit police found him in the Long Island Rail Road's Hoban Yards on Friday. He was arraigned on charges of attempted grand larceny, criminal impersonation, possession of stolen property, trespassing and possession of burglar tools, according to the Queens District Attorney's office.

Tom Kelly, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said it was unclear how McCollum got the uniform and several sets of keys, including ones that would give him access to trains.

"There is an investigation into how he came into the possession of some of the instruments that he had," Kelly told The New York Post for Monday editions.

In 2001, McCollum pleaded guilty to an incident the previous year in which, posing as an transit supervisor, he tripped a switch that caused a Queens-bound subway train to stop. He was sentenced to 21/2 to five years in prison and was released on parole in April.

Although he has not been officially diagnosed, some experts believe McCollum suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, a mental condition characterized by obsessive and anti-social behavior.

One of his former lawyers, Alvin Schlesinger, told the Post that McCollum would probably continue to impersonate transit workers unless his condition is treated.

McCollum has never worked as a paid transit employee. His mother, Elizabeth, once said that by the time her son was 8, he had memorized the entire New York City subway system and could direct a person to any point on it without consulting a map or guide.

[freeperfromnj]

BREAKING NEWS

A look at some of the East Africans suspected of joining al-Qaida's ranks

By ANDREW ENGLAND
The Associated Press
6/13/04 1:02 PM

MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) -- One chewed a semi-narcotic leaf known as khat, and occasionally smoked marijuana. The other, a keen swimmer and soccer player, slotted into midfield for a local team named Black Panthers.

Both teenage dropouts from large Kenyan families, they became friends who allegedly grew into holy warriors after training together in Afghanistan, returning home both deeply religious and dangerous.

The men -- Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan -- are among suspected homegrown Islamic terrorists recruited in East Africa, making the FBI's list of 13 most wanted terrorists for alleged involvement in the 1998 bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Since al-Qaida put down roots in Kenya a decade ago, Osama bin Laden's terror group has recruited young Kenyans and Tanzanians to help with logistics while the foreigners laid low.

Recruits tend to have similar backgrounds: They had something missing in their lives and the terror cell helped fill the void, a Western intelligence official said.

Both Msalam, 28, and Swedan, in his 30s, were born into large families -- Msalam as one of five children and Swedan as one of nine. Swedan's father, a mason, died in 1985. Msalam's businessman father died in the mid-1990s.

Swedan dropped out of school after finishing his primary education and was known for using khat and pot. Msalam was the athlete, but, like Swedan, he never finished his education, stopping after two years of high school.

The pair grew up in Majengo, a neighborhood of small houses and shops jammed along muddy, potholed streets. They became friends after growing more devout in the mid-1990s. It was around then that both allegedly trained together in Afghanistan, according to FBI reports.

Msalam's father, Mohammed Ally, was a well-off businessman of Yemeni descent. After Msalam dropped out of school, his father thought it best to send him to Yemen to "become a real man," Ali Mbarak, Msalam's uncle, told The Associated Press. His father died around 1994, shortly before Msalam returned to Kenya, Mbarak said.

In Yemen -- bin Laden's ancestral home -- Msalam was recruited into the army. Then the family heard Msalam "went to Pakistan for training," Mbarak said.

When he returned to Kenya, the changes were stark.

"We found him to be very religious. We found him to be a real man ... somebody who was willing to face life head on," Mbarak said. "He told his mother he did not want her to work in (her clothes) shop anymore; he was willing to look after them."

Msalam had learned to speak and read Arabic, discouraged his mother from driving and watching television because it wasn't religious and stopped his sister from going to a secular school.

"He talked that he wanted an Islamic way of life, like bin Laden, he wanted people to be strict," Mbarak said.

The uncle said Msalam also became secretive, "elusive" and spent time with Swedan.

Days before the embassy attacks, Msalam told his family he was leaving for Yemen. They haven't seen him since.

Swedan gave his relatives a similar story.

In 2001, as U.S. warplanes bombarded the Taliban in Afghanistan, Msalam's mother received a call from a man she didn't know who said Msalam had been killed in Afghanistan, Mbarak said.

http://www.nj.com/breakingnews/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?a0486_BC_Terror-HomegrownRecru&&news&tradecentercrash

[freeperfromnj]

Potatoes mean hand grenades in al-Qaida parlance

The Associated Press
6/13/04 1:02 PM

Code words used by al-Qaida's East Africa cell in plotting attacks, according to FBI and Kenyan police statements:

1998 BOMBINGS OF U.S. EMBASSIES IN KENYA AND TANZANIA:

--Tools: weapons.

--Working: jihad.

--Potatoes: hand grenades.

--Soap: TNT.

--Papers: fake documents.

--Goods: Fake documents from particular country, as in: "How are the `goods from Yemen."'

2002 BOMBING AT ISRAELI-OWNED HOTEL, ATTEMPT TO SHOOT DOWN ISRAELI JETLINER IN KENYA:

--Rain: "All is well."

--Dry: "Police operations or security is tight."

--Njuluku: money.

--Wedding: operations or attacks on targets.

--Telephone number code: 19, 28, 37, 46, 55, 64, 73, 82, 91, 00.

[freeperfromnj]

Link to post 845. This may be useful for your archive list

http://www.nj.com/breakingnews/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?a0485_BC_Terror-CodeWords&&news&tradecentercrash

[ExSoldier]

I lost forty pounds on the South Beach Diet in the last year. I have kept it off and continue to lose. My goal is to weigh two hundred pounds. Only thirty five pounds to go. This diet is the easiest I have ever done. Add exercise...even just a little and it comes off even faster. But I lost most of that 40 just by the diet and changing my eating habits in the long term.

[StillProud2BeFree]

You owe me a new keyboard - I didn't expect this while I was drinking my coffee LOL

[ExSoldier]

"I suspect the major reasons things have not erupted horribly here, yet, are:

1) God has not allowed it yet.

2) the puppet masters have not given the wholesale go ahead.

3) they are struggling to manage it with all our intensified security and more watchful citizens because they want to have a masssively wholesale BUNCH of attacks all over at the same time.

WOW! Cogently put and I agree with you 100%!

[Velveeta]

LOL!

[eastforker]

Let me remind everyone that the man they arrested here in East Texas after the package he mailed was delivered to the wrong person. His storage builging had many types of bombs,fake ID's and explosives. Anyway, he had been arrested before somewhere in the south and he had a book with similar codes.This was a white arian type guy BTW.We not only have muslims to worry about we also have the anti-american domestic kooks.

[Velveeta]

Cripes! Now that makes 4 of us from this thread alone!

Where do you live?

[freeperfromnj]

3 GE workers, 2 others killed in Baghdad

The Associated Press
6/14/2004, 9:23 a.m. ET

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Three General Electric employees and two security contractors were killed Monday in a fiery car bombing in central Baghdad, a company spokeswoman said.

The three killed worked for Granite Services Inc., a wholly-owned GE subsidiary, said Louise Binns, a GE spokeswoman in Brussels.

The two others killed were security contractors, Binns said.

"Nothing is more important than the safety of our employees and those supporting our efforts," Binns said in a statement. "We have taken extraordinary measures to keep them safe and we will continue to work with the Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraqi authorities to protect our people. We remain committed to the reconstruction of Iraq."

[bored at work]

Where do you live?

Pewaukee WI. Just north of Waukesha. . .

[ExSoldier]

"I'm not buying it. There's been way too many chances, and nothing has happened. They may hit us with homicide bombers. They won't hit us with nukes - suitcase, or any other variety, IMNSHO."

I think I have to agree. They've "blown" lol way too many possible targets (you mentioned them) to risk detection. I don't think they're at a place where they can be sure a bioterror attack will occur with the ferocity and unmistakable "fingerprint" of the attack can assure them the propaganda they need. It takes awhile for such an attack to "spool up" into a full and lethal epidemic. Nope they need something violent and immediate. The nuke scenario would've been perfect, but I think that's not quite yet on the horizon; unless as Quix says, it's been restrained by God.

OTOH, we have just entered the season where climatic conditions strongly favor the chemical scenario. It wouldn't take a lot with the right conditions of temperature and a gentle wind, to spread a nerve agent over Wall Street. Whatever it is, I still (as Han Solos says) "Have a bad feeling about this...."

[StillProud2BeFree]

Eastforker makes a good point. Here is a short article that I wrote on that subject.

What does a terrorist look like?

By now you’ve probably seen the email about who should be the target of profiling, in an attempt to protect the US from terrorists. The email is a multiple choice quiz, listing a number of terrorist actions over the past few decades, ranging from the September 11 attacks to the Olympics massacre at Munich. The answer to each of the questions is simple: “Muslim male extremists between the ages of 18 and 35”.

It sounds like the answer to all of our security issues. If it is so easy to define the demographics of a terrorist, then we should be able to screen out the terrorists.

But it isn’t as simple as that.

You can no longer assume the sex of a terrorist to be male. Israel has been attacked by both male and female homicide bombers. (Reem Raiyishi was the mother of two children, an infant and a toddler.) In fact, a few weeks ago they were attacked by a hermaphroditic homicide bomber. I suppose as time goes on, you’ll eventually see transsexual homicide bombers too, although why someone would go to the pain and expense necessary to undergo a sex-change operation, only to blow themselves up is a puzzle. But I digress.

You can no longer assume that a terrorist will fall into the 18-35 year age group. Terrorists are getting younger and younger. Children as young as twelve have attempted bombings in Israel, some willingly and others unknowingly.

So what does a terrorist look like? Most of us instantly bring to mind images of Yasser Arafat or Osama Bin Laden when we think of terrorists. Or you may think of the crazed look in the eyes of the wannabe shoe bomber, Richard Reed, who was hogtied by the passengers of the plane he tried to blow up over the Atlantic.

But Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al Shehi, and the seventeen other young men who hijacked airplanes on September 11 didn’t arouse any suspicion. They didn’t look or act crazy, at least not until they started killing people on the airplanes. In fact, you can almost guarantee that your Islamic radicals are going to be extremely polite – the kind of young man you’d want to bring home to meet the folks. (More than one young woman has fallen for that, and ended up a prisoner, trapped with her children in an Islamic theocracy, where she has virtually no rights at all.)

If we can’t count on a terrorist to look or act crazy, or even be a man, then how in the heck are we going to recognize a terrorist? That’s the problem law enforcement faces on a daily basis.

This week, a number of new Al Qaeda videos were released on the Arabic language jihadi boards, showing the new face of Al Qaeda.

These new jihadis are Muslim male extremists, but they aren’t from the middle east. The ones in the video are soft spoken, well educated young men from Great Britain. One of them is a medical student.

This is the face of Al Qaeda’s Great White Army.

This video was released with a series of other videos of training camps, which the videos claim are in Bosnia.

Much has been discussed about the ways in which the Islamists have recruited heavily among the disenfranchised populations in prisons, impoverished neighborhoods, and ethnic communities.

But the new face that Al Qaeda often sports is that of an upper middle class, or even wealthy, Causasian.

How do you recognize a terrorist? Good question. If you have the answer, please let us know.

[null and void]

This was a white arian type guy BTW. We not only have muslims to worry about we also have the anti-american domestic kooks.

Terrorism is the mother of some very strange bedfellows...

[eastforker]

Also, terror breeds more terror . If and when the attacks start you will also see it breaking out in all areas by those not even remotely related to islam. Sort of like the riot syndrome.When a crowd turns into a mob. We almost seen it happen in Florida in 2000.

[ßuddaßudd]

I was being a little sarcastic in my reply to you. I agree with you on all the coincidental things going on. I am not convinced of anything anymore. Good luck with your finals!

[StillProud2BeFree]

Can everyone please take a moment today and remember one of the early casualties of the war on terror. This young man died because he was in the US Navy, and was an American citizen.

It's been 19 years since he died. The Islamic radicals are still murdering Americans.

Please take a moment and remember Robert Stetham, who died, and the passengers and crew who went through a horrifying ordeal in Beirut nearly 20 years ago.

June 14, 1985 - Greece, Lebanon, United States
TWA Flight Hijacked To Lebanon
TWA Flight 847 was hijacked from Athens to Lebanon. The hijackers shot and killed U.S. Navy diver Robert Stetham in Beirut on June 16 and dispersed the remaining passengers throughout the city. Thirty-nine American citizens were released on June 30 in Damascus.