This article has been posted to DoctorZin’s New News Blog!
Posted on 08/07/2004 6:29:35 PM PDT by aculeus
A DROP in so-called 'chatter' among suspected terrorists is raising concern among United States counter-terrorism officials, who noticed a similar fall in intercepted communications prior to the Sept 11 terror attacks.
US government sources told CNN that security experts are still trying to fathom the reason for the troubling ebb in recent days.
While there have been several similar quiet episodes in the past, the 'chatter' continued as before even after the mid-July arrest of key Al-Qaeda suspect Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan by Pakistani security forces, which was announced last week.
The fall-off in chatter comes at a sensitive time in the war on terror. Information obtained in the Pakistani crackdown on Al-Qaeda pointed to a possible attack on US financial institutions as well as British targets.
It triggered a heightened security alert in the United States and prompted anti-terrorist sweeps in Britain, which netted over a dozen suspects.
Within the past few days, security operations in Britain and Pakistan have produced thousands of leads, particularly intelligence related to two men: Khan and Abu Eisa Al-Hindi, believed to be the man behind the network's surveillance reports on American targets. Al-Hindi was one of a dozen suspects arrested last week in Britain.
Another terror suspect detained last Thursday, Babar Ahmad, was found to have in his possession a floppy disk that contained details about a US Navy battle group from April 2001.
The plans included drawings of the battle group's formation, specific assignments of individual ships and details of each ship's vulnerability.
The information noted that the USS Constellation, which at that time was assigned to enforce sanctions against Iraq and undertake operations against Al-Qaeda and Afghanistan's Taleban government, was scheduled to pass through the narrow Strait of Hormuz on April 29, 2001.
'They have nothing to stop a small craft with RPG (rocket-propelled grenades) etc, except their Seals' stinger missiles,' said an entry in the document.
Navy officials confirmed to US prosecutors that the information, which was classified at the time, was accurate.
Ahmad, a 30-year-old college employee and a cousin of Khan, appeared in a London court on Friday. The US, which is seeking to extradite him, also accused him of being a fund-raiser for the Taleban and Muslim separatist fighters in Chechnya.
Evidence offered by US prosecutors indicated that Ahmad had ties to Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, who has claimed responsibility for attacks on Russian civilians, including the 2002 Moscow theatre siege.
The US extradition request accused Ahmad of operating a series of 'pro-jihad' websites, including two that appealed to Muslims to use every possible means to undertake military and physical training for holy war. The sites also appealed for financial support and provided instructions on how to infiltrate war zones in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
The computerised data from his arrest - 500GB of data - was the result of nine search warrants and 100 subpoenas.
The US Department of Homeland Security investigators are poring over the data for clues to other Al-Qaeda suspects, plots and websites.
Copyright @ 2004 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.
These aren't roaring young lions, but old folks, some with military service backgrounds, many without, whether they were 4F or reached draft age after Vietnam. These people are aware of the stakes, and also recognise that those who would brand them anti-American are generally the threat to America.
Winning hearts and minds is not important to our enemies, but poisoning them sure is.
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"Time to modify the phalanx systems to depress enough to take out small craft. BRRRRRP! and fish food!"
Exactly. There's a reason the 23mm cannons on the Soviet ZSU-23/4 anti-aircraft gun depress below horizontal.
Okay, for them it was crowd control, but...
I still can't get over the insanity of not stopping the subway trains while he's speaking since the subway runs right under MSG! He seems to like to taunt. These insecurity measures I've read about seem more like a suicide pact.
(Uh oh, I've found my tin foil hat. Definitely time for bed.)
Look how perfectly faded his jeans are. I wonder how the butler got that look.
Bump the danger level to RED and head for the mountains !?
Pretty sure they already can. Besides which Stingers would not be much good against small craft and RPGs. The Carriers escorts are bound to have deck guns as well. One airburst from a 5" or 176mm and you get shredded terrorists.
Here's the appropriate armament from a Perry Class Frigate for example :
1 76mm OTO DP, 1 20mm Phalanx CIWS, 2 triple 12.75 inch 2 25mm Bushmaster low-angle, 2-4 12.7mm MG
(12.7mm = .50 BMG! those alone would do the job against anybody trying to get into RPG range. ) That 25 mm Bushmaster is, IIRC, the same weapon that arms the Bradley fighting vehicles.
And of course the Carrier herself mounts F/A-18s, armed with 20mm Vulcan cannon. I'm sure those Hornet drivers would love a little straffing practice.
The mountains or the desert would not seem the appropriate places to escape terrorists who have trained in Hindu Kush area (Afghanistan/Pakistan) and who may be from places like Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, etc, etc, etc. Maybe the deep woods of the lower rockies would bother them, since trees would surely be a mystery to them. Or we could chase them across the Great Plains, and harvest them like so much wheat or corn (might even be able to devise an armored combine with a special head to do the job :) )
Never underestimate all those farmers and others out here who are proficient with a scoped rifle. Whitetail at 200-300 yards is no problem.
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