Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - Thread Fifteen

CNN ^ | 07/25/04 | N/A

[JustPiper]

Credit: The Cabal

The title refers to a daily report given to the president of the United States detailing the most serious terrorist threats against the country. To tackle those threats, the government has formed a top-notch task force to infiltrate the terror cells and cut off the danger.

"Every morning, the president receives a list of the top ten terrorist threats - this list is known as the threat matrix."

We here at FR are trying to be in conjunction with the daily reports around the world that involve threats. We try to provide a storehouse of information that takes hours of research.

YOU be the Judge and get informed.


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

Group linked to al Qaeda warns of 'columns of car bombs'

Australia and Italy have received warnings through a statement purportedly from militants linked to al Qaeda that demanded those countries withdraw troops from Iraq.

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



Meet It!
Greet It!
Defeat It!

LINK TO THREAD FOURTEEN

[jerseygirl]

This is from the final phase forum- and it really makes me angry. I'm heading out to Dunkin Donuts for a caffeine fix- but check this out!!!

"Breaking Silence over a Possible Imminent Threat

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Yeah, I know... It's from Pravda, but...





Breaking Silence over a Possible Imminent Threat
07/23/2004 11:34

A sobering and scary development is allegedly taking place along the southwest border of the United States.

In Arizona, in the area the many refer to as the Naco Strip, our international border with Mexico has become a primary route of illegal entry by significant numbers of Arab-speaking males. The porous frontier, harried U.S. government officials say, is beginning to look a lot like the left lane on a European Autobahn.

It doesn"t take a master spy to conclude that we may be seeing a large-scale influx of al Qaeda terrorists into the country.

This stunning disclosure has been made by a small-town newspaper in Arizona, the Tombstone Tumbleweed, whose editor, Chris Simcox, posted an article on the paper"s website last week revealing the presence of Arab-speaking males amid the waves of illegals recently captured.

The article is based on separate, first-hand interviews with three U.S. government agents who confirmed that males of possible Syrian and Iranian descent have been detained in the past few weeks.

I have acquaintances who are Border Patrol agents in the southern Arizona region. Based on their take of ground truth, I believe the problem stems from distance, assets, manpower and equipment. I am personally convinced that our overworked Border Patrol agents are doing all they can with what they have.

Their patrol area is massive. It extends easterly to the New Mexico line. By the time agents can act on a request for assistance and get to the scene, hours have passed - again, because of the vast distances involved.

One might say, "So what is new?" Mexican illegals have been jumping the border for years. Even Pancho Villa and his bandit Army launched armed incursions into the American southwest in 1916. Today, in deference to his aggression, the City of Tucson honors the bandit with a life-size statue. In a Tucson city park, Villa reigns from a full gallop, not un-reminiscent of how he spread havoc and fear in southern Arizona, for an eternity to observe and apparently admire.

But today we are at war with an ideology that poses a far deeper peril to our national security than the Mexican revolutionary ever did. The Islamofascists of al Qaeda seek to kill men, women and children without distinction and ultimately overcome and ultimately destroy the concept of American freedom itself.

The task of securing our borders from the porous history of the past is absolutely critical. And it is not happening.

The influx of thousands of illegal aliens, including members of the infamous drug cartels, is bad enough. But others are slipping into the United States as well.

A Border Patrol spokesman has confirmed that since Oct. 1, 2003, 5,510 illegal aliens designated as "Other Than Mexican" (OTM) have been apprehended while crossing the rugged terrain in southern Arizona.

The term actually means "other than Mexico or other central and South American countries," the spokesman said.
So just who are, and from where, is this invading force of encroachers coming from?

"Can"t tell you that", said Border Patrol spokesman Andy Adame when queried by the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper yesterday.

Agent Adame declined to say what countries the OTM illegals are from, although he admitted detainees include "people from all over the world." Adame added, "We apprehend them, process them, and turn them over to [the U.S. Department of] Homeland Security and the FBI and that is all I can say."

Fasten your seatbelt: It gets considerably worse!

Three independent sources within the Border Patrol's uniformed division - agents who patrol the Arizona outback in the dark of night - told the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper that a significant amount of the OTMs are of Middle Eastern extraction.

When confronted with this information by the newspaper, Agent Adame denied that anybody of Middle Eastern origin was a part of the figure of 5,510. But Border Patrol sources are adamant that this is indeed the case.

Editor Simcox of the Tombstone Tumbleweed could not identify his sources, but told DefenseWatch they are serving Border Patrol agents who were involved in the apprehension and detention of OTMs, suspected to be Iranian or Syrian nationals.

Recently, the border patrol has stepped up its enforcement in the southeast quadrant of Arizona, which includes the area of the Huachuca Mountains in Cochise County. The Cochise County seat is in Bisbee, an artsy copper mining town, with a colorful past, located just a few miles north of the America"s southern border with Mexico.

Southeast Arizona has other high-visibility and potential high payoff targets, of profound terrorist relevance. At the foot of the Huachuca Mountains lies Fort Huachuca, the home of the U.S. Army Intelligence Command and school.

Putting yourself in the mind of a terrorist, as a good intelligence analyst must do when seeking to establish a potential "symbolic target list" that a terrorist may covet, there exists no more desirable an objective than the Army"s Intelligence School. Fort Huachuca is a modern version of a 19th Century cavalry outpost that is nestled on the western edge of Sierra Vista Arizona. Also, it is only a short distance from the Mexican border.

In fact, only a few weeks ago Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge visited Fort Huachuca to press the flesh with the troops and to get the "skinny" on the Border Patrol"s use of unmanned aerial vehicles as an aid to enforcement. (If the reader believes that the Border Patrol is employing UAV technology merely to catch some errant migrant workers then I have a bridge in Brooklyn just for you. )

According to the Tombstone editor"s sources, on June 13, 2004, Border Patrol agents from the Wilcox, Ariz., patrol station encountered a large group of illegal border crossers in the Chiricaucha Mountain foothills, just east of what is known as The Sanders Ranch. Agents estimated that the group comprised about 100 people.

Border Patrol sources who were present at this mass apprehension state that they seized 71 illegal aliens, of whom 53 were males of Middle Eastern decent. The suspects did not speak Spanish and spoke only poor English, sources told the newspaper.

In fact, after a group of the detainees had been placed in a transport van, one Border Patrol agents on the scene who speaks Arabic and Farsi, the native language of Iran, clearly overheard the detainees speaking Arabic through an air vent in the transport vehicle.

Higher-ups in the Border Patrol allegedly ordered these agents involved not to say a thing to the news media.

"But I have to," one of the agents told the Tombstone editor, obviously acting out of concern of the potential terrorism threat as every American should be.

The agents involved in the June 13th incident noted that these suspects wore garb and clothing that is normally worn by migrants: baseball caps, tennis shoes, jeans, T-shirts even with patriotic American slogans.

But the agents said what was particularly odd was that all the clothing worn by the Middle Eastern males was brand new. Each one in the group looked to have had just been to a barber shop with fresh new haircuts, all clean cut, with the exact style and cut of mustaches.

Border Patrol sources, at the risk of being in violation of orders and losing their jobs, offered a subsequent chilling revelation. On June 21, 2004, they and their colleagues from the Wilcox Border Patrol station apprehended another 24 Arabic-speaking males in the area of Pierce/Sunsites. These small towns are approximately 25 miles northeast of Tombstone and not far from the Chiricaucha foothills.

Even more worrisome, the agents say, is that the 24 men who were seized were only part of a larger group. At least half of the group apparently escaped capture and remain on the loose in the United States.

Today, the 9/11 Commission formally released its report that catalogs the "failures of imagination, policy, capabilities and management" that enabled the terrorists to kill over 3,000 Americans. Is our nation"s failure to seal up the porous border with Mexico setting us up for another 9/11-type attack?

By J. David Galland

J. David Galland is Deputy Editor of DefenseWatch Magazine

english.pravda.ru/mailbox...hreat.html

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This is absolutely incredulous:

"Putting yourself in the mind of a terrorist, as a good intelligence analyst must do when seeking to establish a potential "symbolic target list" that a terrorist may covet, there exists no more desirable an objective than the Army"s Intelligence School. Fort Huachuca is a modern version of a 19th Century cavalry outpost that is nestled on the western edge of Sierra Vista Arizona. Also, it is only a short distance from the Mexican border."

[TWhiteBear]

Good point! Perhaps some people walked a little too far into the dark forest. But now on to newer events.

[HipShot]

I've seen the Tombstone article. It should be picked up by every media outlet out there. We need to put pressure on TPTB to take this seriously.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

So it originated from their "dreams" site. We knew it was rubbish. Not that some dreams cannot come true, of course. ;) Thanks, Jill.

[nwctwx]

Interesting...

I always thought August would be the best month for a WMD attack in the US due to prevailing weather conditions. It's interesting to see that August holds so much importance in certain circles.

[Oorang]

Explosion Leads to Evacuation in Savannah (Georgia)

(snip)Police were investigating a possible link between the explosion and a father and son arrested Wednesday on federal weapons charges. A search of the men's home about a block from the trash bin Thursday uncovered 10 automatic guns, including many with altered serial numbers, Burnsed said.

The men, identified as 48-year-old Broderick John Dass and his 19-year-old son Brandon Dass, were arrested by federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents. The two men were reported to the ATF by Fort Stewart after they were stopped on the nearby Army post over the weekend, Burnsed said.

"The investigation began on Fort Stewart, but they are not soldiers," said James Newman, resident agent in charge of the ATF in Savannah.

The men were found wandering through a gunnery range used by helicopters on the post, which is a restricted area, said Dina McCain, spokeswoman at Fort Stewart.

"They were found to be picking up things," McCain said, but she did not elaborate.

excerpted (copyright)

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/3568435/detail.html

[nwctwx]

Again-IMO- it was the code that did it. If the feds had it pulled from Nein....why not from TM as well?

Doubtful, the code is still up on several other forums. I think it was infighting between several posters more than anything else.

Your idea is certainly a possibility though.

[Oorang]

This is from a few days ago. Another possible test run?

Suspicious Device Shuts Road Motorist Saw Device and Called Police (Georgia)

POSTED: 11:54 am EDT July 22, 2004
UPDATED: 5:02 pm EDT July 22, 2004

SANDY SPRINGS -- Law enforcement authorities have decided to move a suspected explosive to a remote facility and detonate it there after a major North Fulton County intersection was shut down for several hours while police investigated the incident.

excerpted (copyright)

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/3564721/detail.html

[jerseygirl]

Especially with the Russkies

[Kackikat]

I think there should be more detailed warnings via Homeland Security, for instance- the melting of Liberty Bell threat. I had not even heard that one...maybe skipped over it on a thread by accident??

Anyway thanks, it helps me to know I am not out in left field by myself. The trains are too vulnerable also, because of volume of communters.

[jerseygirl]

I read that back in February and reported it to Homeland Security. I have reported the Harrisburg threats to Arlen Spector, and some of the CT threats to Lieberman here in CT.They probably think I am a nut case. I just tell them that I have read some things on arabic sites that suggest possible threats.

[Oorang]

Oh dear, this is the Presidents security???

Wrong pilot held in airspace inquiry

snip - Airport authorities mistakenly reported that the family's small plane had violated the no-fly zone near the Crawford ranch.

snip - While the confusion was being cleared up, the pilot authorities were seeking drove away.

Excerpted (copyright)

http://www.wgnx.com/Global/story.asp?S=2085644

[jerseygirl]

I just copied this from the Final Phase. This is truly troubling, folks. Could this "timing" be deliberate?

kneegroan1 (poster)
(7/24/04 19:15)
Reply Scary Stuff!!!!! Our Nuclear deterence on hold?

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story.news.yahoo.com/news...closed&e=5 By Ralph Vartabedian and Christine Hanley Times Staff Writers

Energy Department officials Friday effectively shut down part of the nation's nuclear weapons complex, fearful that security lapses discovered at Los Alamos National Laboratory had occurred elsewhere.


Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (news - web sites) ordered two dozen national laboratories and several other nuclear weapons facilities to stop using classified information stored on computer disks, portable hard drives and tapes that employees can easily remove from work.


The biggest effect will be on the Energy Department's nuclear weapons facilities in California, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Such a shutdown has already been in effect for nine days at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.


The Energy Department's doubts about security began earlier this month, when Los Alamos officials reported they could not locate two computer disks that contained classified information. So far, they have declined to say what is on the disks, though members of Congress have suggested the loss represents a serious security breach.


Officials said they had no idea how long the order would continue or how many employees would have their work disrupted. Some labs and weapons plants said that hundreds and potentially thousands of their employees would be affected by the order, which takes effect Monday.


It is also unclear how the order would affect national security. Energy officials said they were still assessing the potential disruption to their commitments with the Defense Department for technical support for nuclear weapons. Pentagon (news - web sites) officials declined to comment.


Under Abraham's order, sites cannot resume normal operations until they review security procedures, conduct inventories of all classified data stored on removable devices and can certify that the data is stored under proper security. Workers will be held accountable for any future problems, he warned.


Outside experts said Abraham's unprecedented order would curtail operations across the Energy Department's chain of laboratories, computing centers, accelerators and factories that employ more than 100,000 workers.


Abraham's order was based on growing concern that the Energy Department had a systemwide vulnerability to losing important bomb secrets stored on removable devices, known as Classified Removable Electronic Media, or CREM. Such devices allow a person to download massive quantities of data that can be easily concealed.


"The situation at [Los Alamos lab] suggests that we must minimize the risk of human error or malfeasance to a much greater extent," Abraham said in a statement. "Thus, while we have no evidence that the problems currently being investigated are present elsewhere, we have a responsibility to take all necessary action to prevent such problems from occurring at all."


The Energy Department is responsible for as many as 8,000 nuclear warheads in the Pentagon's inventory that require periodic inspections and maintenance. Abraham's statement did not address how the department would cope with the lost work.


"Because we do not know the exact duration of the stand-down, it is not possible to provide information on the exact impact on our work for DOD," said Jeanne Lapotto, Energy Department spokeswoman.


Los Alamos' missing disks were supposed to be in a safe accessible by 11 employees, who along with eight others were suspended from their jobs Thursday by Lab Director George P. "Pete" Nanos. On July 15, Nanos halted all classified operations at the lab, and he suspended all regular work activities July 16.


Since then, top Energy officials have been reviewing operations across the nuclear weapons complex.


The use of computers by Energy Department scientists has grown more critical since the U.S. stopped testing nuclear weapons in 1992. Scientists today depend on computer simulations to ensure nuclear bombs are reliable and safe.


The department is spending nearly $800 million a year on computing and is building several computing sites the size of football fields, according to a recent analysis by Chris Payne, a nuclear weapons expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council.


Scott Larson, a former FBI (news - web sites) official who investigated the Wen Ho Lee (news - web sites) security case at Los Alamos, said Friday that law enforcement officials were always concerned about the potential for employees to use CREM to walk out with large quantities of data. Larson, managing director at the Stroz Friedberg security consulting firm, added that nuclear weapons sites were under almost daily attack by hackers trying to obtain electronic data.





Energy labs were trying to assess the order's effect Friday.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has 876 employees who use portable devices. The effect on Livermore would depend on the length of the suspension, which lab officials were still trying to clarify with Washington officials, said spokesman David Schwoegler.

The lab has 12,000 pieces of CREM, ranging from items that are seldom used to those used every day by several people, Schwoegler said. To tighten up operations, the lab destroyed 3,000 pieces of CREM last year.

At the Oak Ridge Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, where nuclear weapons are dismantled and radioactive materials stored, officials expected it would affect all of its 4,700 employees even though the site is not a research center and not all of them are directly involved in classified projects, said spokesman Steven Wyatt. He said it was too early to say how long it might take to carry out the order. "We consider this a prudent decision by the department. We want to make sure this kind of information and data is properly safeguarded and protected," Wyatt said.

Officials at the Energy Department's Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas, the main assembly and disassembly site for warheads, said they were still assessing the effect on their 3,500 employees. "Everybody will be working, but some operations will be shut down," said spokeswoman Brenda Finley.

Billy Stair, spokesman for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, said less than 10% of the $1 billion in research involved classified projects. He estimated that a few dozen of the lab's 3,800 employees would be affected, and that it should not take more than a few days to comply. The lab did not expect to find any problems.

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and its 1,600 employees are spared because they do not do any classified work, said spokesman Neil Calder.

The Savannah River Site in South Carolina expects minimal disruption, because only a small portion of the plant's work involves classified operations, said spokesman Jim Giusti.

Before the Los Alamos breach surfaced, Abraham recognized the vulnerability of classified information stored on removable devices. In a May 7 speech, he outlined a number of security upgrades and called for the elimination of all classified information stored on the portable devices.

Under the plan, scientists could work only on computer terminals that did not have their own storage devices, but instead relied on a central computer system in a secured area.

Outside watchdogs, such as the Project on Government Oversight, advocated such a transition three years ago and said it could be done in six months for less than $15 million.

"We knew the recurring breaches at Los Alamos were not isolated incidents," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, "but symptomatic of a wider security

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I'm not sure, but I think the missing discs had information on how to deal with Russian and Chinese weapons.

[jerseygirl]

IMPORTANT---PLEASE READ


I have to get off the computer now, but NOT before posting this from Sean Osborne Lomax on the Final Phase. I know people have varying opinions of him, BUT I BELIEVE HIM!

"Re: AQ & bin Landen Willing Fall Guys or Dupes?"

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Quote:

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If they have been here for a while what are OBL and co. waiting for? The nukes that is.

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BB007,

I see this question of yours asked by many, many people.

It is a question which of late has been on the mind of many people. I myself have considered it.

Ever since Yossef Bodansky first brought the subject up in 1999 with his book "Osama Bin Laden : The Man Who Declared War on America", but much more recently with the release Paul L. Williams new book "Osama's Revenge : The Next 9/11"

I have given much consideration to the possibility of Russian tactical nukes finding their way to American soil. Indeed, the premise goes back into the 1990's when Stanislav Lunev made an appearance on the now defunct TV program 48 Hours explaining how the Soviet GRU and Spetanaz teams had hiding places in the Hudson and Shenandoah valleys for these weapons.

He made the comment that to his knowledge the weapons were never removed, or words to that effect. Then we have the buttressing testimony of General Alexander Lebed to the adhoc committee of US Congressmen and Senators about the number and types of unaccounted for Russian tactical nuclear weapons.

The question is a very valid one.

And I have come to the following conclusion regarding it. It is a question nobody in their right mind wants to see answered... nobody in their right mind wants to see al-Qaeda - or whomever is in possession of these weapons on American soil - to detonate even one of them. Detonation is the only way of proving the validity of al-Qaeda's possession of such weapons.

Truth is, myself and several other people are sitting on information from anonymous government sources that such an event was in fact nearly a reality within the past (as of this date) 11 days!

Yes, we almost lost a significant portion of a major American east coast city to such a device being detonated.

And the threat is not yet over. Before the US election, we are told by these same white-knuckled sources, the possibility still exists of such a nuclear device detonating in a US city.

Some have re-located their families - an act which I can understand completely - but view as abhorrent in that the rest of America remains in abject darkness about the specifics of this near event in the northeast USA.

Furthermore, this news being as shocking as it is may be but the tip of the iceberg, for as one federal agent put it, if American's knew everything which was going on their local pharmacy would be distributing prozac but the truckloads.

Now I find myself considering that perhaps ignorance is bliss after all. Perhaps it is better to not know of such things, to live one's life as if it were a pre-9/11 world. I think at times that, just maybe, I would rather "go" not knowing what hit me.

Yes, I do think this at times. I'm human just like you and everybody else here on this forum. Then I wake up to the reality that I do know these things and I have an intact oath to defend against all enemies foreign and domestic and two young sons to raise into adulthood. This is my mission and, by God, I am going to complete it no matter what.

Edited by: Sean Osborne Lomax at: 7/25/04 7:25

[Kackikat]

Do Arabic sites post in English, or do you understand Arabic?

Yes, I agree you should inform them of everything you find, you would be upset if something happened and you had not given them the info you had.

[Bethshaya]

Can I ask a favor of this forums admin?

This is the fourth time in recent months when the threat level has been at an ALL TIME HIGH that they have pulled threads for at least a day when children cant get along.

PLease, if there is a problem with the forum service in banning individual IP addresses, can we look into a new forum company, or if it is possible, ban the offenders without hindering the rest of the people here who follow the rules and are nice to one another.

By pulling the entire thread, it helps the terrorists. It may even be them that are lurking and start the arguments knowing that when we are getting close to answers, all they have to do is instigate a fight and the Mod will pull the thread entirely, thus derailing the discussion.

Please dont play into their hands. Ban the offenders not the whole board.

One day soon this is going to happen and while the board is in "Time Out" something big will have happened and we wont have anywhere to discuss it, or have seen it coming because not all of us have the pieces all at once.

I dont mean to disrespect the Mods, but it is so frustrating to have the thread gone. Its like the elementary school teacher keeping the whole class after school because two people got in a fight on the playground. It doesnt make sense.

[Oorang]

Chicago news:

ABC7 I-Team Report: Missing Homeland Security Tools

Last September 11th mayor Daley unveiled a one-of-a-kind, space age communications truck that cost a million and a half dollars. Chicago was the first city in the world to own it. By Chuck Goudie

July 22, 2004 — When the Chicago 9-1-1 center was struck down by a power failure on Thursday, it was the perfect occasion to use some of the special homeland security equipment that was promised by mayor Daley last fall.

But that equipment was nowhere to be seen. Coincidentally the past few weeks, the i-team has been investigating those much-heralded counter-terrorism toys and federal funds.

excerpted (copyright)

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/072204_ns_911_truck.html

[MamaDearest]

I think that would be a very good thing. You would also have a personal handle on troublemakers and the capability to zap them away?

I don't understand the mentality of those who become cyber-nasty when they know it detracts from what we are doing. Instead of taking their battles to personal mail, they do it with the specific intent to provoke and incite. That behavior has ruined Thread 14 and previous other threads.

Would we still be able to have JustPiper and Kinetic involved in shaping the site? The thought of losing our basis of operation is overwhelmingly frightening.

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

Thank You we already knew that;)