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Locked on 11/03/2004 12:43:19 AM PST by Admin Moderator, reason:
Thread #21: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1268023/posts |
Posted on 10/12/2004 8:58:00 PM PDT by nwctwx
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This is interesting...
http://www.techcentralstation.com/100704G.html
"Why al-Qaeda Will Dominate the European Union"
By Pavel Kohout
October 07, 04
Chemical Blast Wounds 2 at Kenya Airport
NAIROBI, Kenya Oct. 17, 2004 — An explosion went off Sunday at an airport in Kenya's capital, wounding at least two people Sunday and prompting authorities to seal off the facility to air traffic, witnesses said.
Pilots monitoring communications over short wave radio said emergency personnel indicated the blast at Wilson Airport was caused by mishandling of explosive chemicals or a gas canister.
Police spokesman Superintendent Jaspher Ombati said that he received reports of an explosion at the airport and was trying to get more details.
At least two people were evacuated by ambulance from the airport, witnesses said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A reporter with The Associated Press saw fire fighters at the scene, with part of the roof at the departure lounge destroyed by the explosion.
Both the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority and Kenya Airports Authority refused to comment.
The airport is one of the busiest in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, serving as a hub for tourist and cargo charter flights. The airport is used mostly by helicopters and light- and medium-sized aircraft.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=173003
from Mutter's
CTV News
Chemical suspected after students fall ill (Ontario, Canada)
CTV.ca News Staff
Close to 100 students and staff from an Ontario high school were taken to hospital Friday, after ingesting what might have been a chemical in the second such incident in weeks.
Fourteen hundreds students were having lunch at Barrie's North Collegiate High School, located north of Toronto, when the alarm bell rang.
An odourless and invisible chemical had apparently seeped through the school's north wing, causing students and staff to report sore throats, nauseous and headaches. None of the illnesses were serious.
Outside the school, students were stripped and scrubbed in decontamination tents. Students were then dressed in white gowns and put on buses to Royal Victoria Hospital, where a second decontamination was carried out.
Suzanne Legue, a spokeswoman for Royal Victoria Hospital, said 75 per cent of those brought in suffered minor symptoms.
This is not the first incident of its kind. Two weeks ago, the exact same scenario played out at another Barrie high school. Fourty-seven people were sent to hospital.
The source of that odour was never found.
Earlier this year, almost identical situations struck high schools in Toronto, London, Ont., and Vaughan, Ont.
Police have interviewed students and will review videotapes inside the school.
North Korea situation...
Japanese official says North Korea holds nuclear weapons: report
(AFP)
17 October 2004
TOKYO
North Korea has already completed the development of plutonium-based nuclear weapons with the help of Pakistan, a senior Japanese official said in comments published Sunday.
The remarks by Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda represent the first time a Japanese official has confirmed North Korea’s claim to have manufactured nuclear weapons, the Sankei Shimbun said.
“North Korea is near finalising development of nuclear weapons,” Hosoda told a ruling party meeting in the western town of Shimane on Saturday, the Sankei said.
Pyongyang has not finished developing uranium-based nuclear weapons, but has completed the development of a plutonium bomb similar to the one dropped by the United States on Nagasaki at the end of World War II, Hosoda said.
“It is urgent to make (North Korea) abandon them,” Hosoda said, without giving any evidence to back up his claims.
Hosoda said North Korea and Pakistan had cooperated in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. “It is disgraceful,” he said.
Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan publicly confessed in February to leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Pakistan has refused to allow he International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s atomic watchdog, to interview Khan to discuss the international nuclear black market he used to run.
A North Korean foreign ministry spokemsan said last month the Stalinist state would never dismantle its nuclear weapons unless the United States drops its “hostile policy” towards the country.
Six-nation talks aimed at convincing North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programs have failed to make concrete progress so far.
www.khaleejtimes.com/Disp...world&col=
Homeland Security: If Terror Strikes the Polls
A Qaeda attack is expected. So what happens if balloting is disrupted? The electoral chain of command
By Daniel Klaidman
Newsweek
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6215296/site/newsweek/
Oct. 18 issue - It's practically an article of faith among counterterrorism officials that Al Qaeda will try to hit the U.S. homeland in the run-up to the presidential election. As a result, federal authorities are at a heightened level of security not seen since the days after 9/11. On Sept. 24, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued an extraordinary emergency order to the FBI's 56 field offices, giving bureau officials the power to commandeer federal agents from across the government to respond to a terror threat. This week FBI agents are stepping up surveillance of suspected extremists and poring over millions of bits of intelligence in search of clues about a potential attack. And on Election Day, antiterror command centers at the FBI and Homeland Security headquarters will be running 24/7. "[Al Qaeda] wants to strike a blow against everything we hold dear," says one senior law-enforcement official. "What better way than to attack democracy itself? It's coming."
But if an attack does come, who would decide what to do about the election? There are nearly 200,000 polling places across the country. By tradition and law, U.S. elections have always been administered at the state and local levels. Right now, in the event of an attack on Nov. 2, the federal government would not have the power to step in and postpone voting. Only states, counties or even cities could freeze balloting. (New York, on its own, decided to postpone primary voting on September 11, 2001.) The system flows from our federalist principles; dictators halt elections, not American presidents.
But in the age of global terror and instant communications, some experts argue that the federal government should have the option to postpone. If a series of bombings in polling places across one key state shuts down voting, at least temporarily, that could alter the outcome of the national race. Even if balloting were rescheduled, those voters would know the results elsewhere, which could taint an election. And what if panic spread to polling places around the country? In addition, because there are no national standards to determine whether elections should be put off, those decisions are left to state officials who are often active partisans (think Katherine Harris). The patchwork of rules could create chaos. In the end, confidence in the contest's outcome could be fatally undermined, some experts worry.
The question is whether the federal government can play a more central role without provoking age-old fears of martial law. Under the Constitution, Congress does have authority to regulate national elections, including setting dates. Some have argued that Congress could establish a commission that would have the authority to reschedule federal elections in the event of a national emergency. But lawyers question whether such power could be delegated to a panel of individuals. For now, in any case, the debate is academic. When DeForest Soaries Jr., chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge this summer urging contingency planning for the election in the event of an attack, he touched off a storm of outraged opposition. But Soaries does not regret raising the issue. "We have not had adequate discussions about 'what if' scenarios," Soaries says. Clearly the matter won't be settled before Nov. 2.
With Mark Hosenball
© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.
Homeland Security: If Terror Strikes the Polls
A Qaeda attack is expected. So what happens if balloting is disrupted? The electoral chain of command
By Daniel Klaidman
Newsweek
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6215296/site/newsweek/
Oct. 18 issue - It's practically an article of faith among counterterrorism officials that Al Qaeda will try to hit the U.S. homeland in the run-up to the presidential election. As a result, federal authorities are at a heightened level of security not seen since the days after 9/11. On Sept. 24, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued an extraordinary emergency order to the FBI's 56 field offices, giving bureau officials the power to commandeer federal agents from across the government to respond to a terror threat. This week FBI agents are stepping up surveillance of suspected extremists and poring over millions of bits of intelligence in search of clues about a potential attack. And on Election Day, antiterror command centers at the FBI and Homeland Security headquarters will be running 24/7. "[Al Qaeda] wants to strike a blow against everything we hold dear," says one senior law-enforcement official. "What better way than to attack democracy itself? It's coming."
But if an attack does come, who would decide what to do about the election? There are nearly 200,000 polling places across the country. By tradition and law, U.S. elections have always been administered at the state and local levels. Right now, in the event of an attack on Nov. 2, the federal government would not have the power to step in and postpone voting. Only states, counties or even cities could freeze balloting. (New York, on its own, decided to postpone primary voting on September 11, 2001.) The system flows from our federalist principles; dictators halt elections, not American presidents.
But in the age of global terror and instant communications, some experts argue that the federal government should have the option to postpone. If a series of bombings in polling places across one key state shuts down voting, at least temporarily, that could alter the outcome of the national race. Even if balloting were rescheduled, those voters would know the results elsewhere, which could taint an election. And what if panic spread to polling places around the country? In addition, because there are no national standards to determine whether elections should be put off, those decisions are left to state officials who are often active partisans (think Katherine Harris). The patchwork of rules could create chaos. In the end, confidence in the contest's outcome could be fatally undermined, some experts worry.
The question is whether the federal government can play a more central role without provoking age-old fears of martial law. Under the Constitution, Congress does have authority to regulate national elections, including setting dates. Some have argued that Congress could establish a commission that would have the authority to reschedule federal elections in the event of a national emergency. But lawyers question whether such power could be delegated to a panel of individuals. For now, in any case, the debate is academic. When DeForest Soaries Jr., chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge this summer urging contingency planning for the election in the event of an attack, he touched off a storm of outraged opposition. But Soaries does not regret raising the issue. "We have not had adequate discussions about 'what if' scenarios," Soaries says. Clearly the matter won't be settled before Nov. 2.
With Mark Hosenball
© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.
They know Soldier, I was beside myself Harley died in my arms, about a month later our oldest did the same thing, matter of fact she is sitting right next to the keyboard right now, she is trying to comfort and compensate
L.A. hit hard by West Nile virus
By Troy Anderson
Staff Writer
As the West Nile virus season winds down, health experts say the mosquito-borne disease caused far more serious health problems than initially expected, especially among an alarming number of healthy, young and middle-age adults.
While experts originally were most concerned about the potential for deaths among the elderly and those with immune deficiencies, they now say the virus also caused paralysis and other serious neurological complications among a significant number of people who were expected to suffer little more than flu symptoms.
"It's the new polio," said James J. Rahal, a professor at the Cornell University Weill College of Medicine in New York. "It's a devastating complication. The West Nile virus can cause the same paralysis and pathology as polio."
Of the 1,951 people infected this year in the United States, 37 percent developed paralysis, encephalitis and meningitis -- complications that can lead to death.
/snip/
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2471295,00.html
More problems developing (Debka report)
DEBKAfile reports exclusively: Syrian mortar fire against US and Iraqi border patrols in key smuggling al Qaim region knocks hole in brand-new Syrian-US military cooperation accord. Syrian 82 mm mortar cannonade prevents US-Iraq patrols from approaching border. Smuggling of fighters and weapons continues unabated.
Washington is responding with fresh Security Council motion on Syrian troop presence in Lebanon and economic pressure, including threat to freeze assets of senior Syrian and Lebanese officials.
Saudi Arabia bans tinted car windows
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17660835.htm
RIYADH, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia banned tinted car windows on Sunday in a move aimed at preventing militants escaping detection on the kingdom's roads.
An Interior Ministry statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency said drivers will have a maximum of a year to clear their windows -- except for one behind the driver's seat.
Many cars in the deeply conservative Muslim Gulf state have darkened windows to protect the privacy of passengers, particularly women. But officials say militants may have used tinted windows to avoid being spotted by security forces.
Sunday's decree specified that even remaining shaded passenger window must be 70 percent transparent.
Saudi Arabia has been battling a 17-month wave of violence by al Qaeda supporters who have bombed residential compounds housing foreigners, shot several Westerners on the streets and attacked state security forces.
De facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah, who said in August the kingdom had defeated the militants, described them on Sunday as "chickens with iron beaks".
Security forces arrested four suspected militants on Saturday in two separate raids in Riyadh and a village about 90 miles (140 km) north-west of the capital. One of the suspects captured in Riyadh was lightly injured in an exchange of fire.
Officials said none of the men were on Saudi Arabia's list of most wanted militants.
Web Site: Zarqawi Pledges Allegiance to Bin Laden
http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6521512
DUBAI (Reuters) - A group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and said it was in contact with al Qaeda over operations in Iraq, according to an Internet statement posted Sunday.
"We announce that the Tawhid and Jihad Group, its prince and soldiers, have pledged allegiance to the sheikh of the mujahideen Osama bin Laden," said the statement, dated Sunday and posted on several Web sites often used by militants.
Washington says Zarqawi is al Qaeda's link to Iraq but the statement was the first by the group to announce its allegiance to bin Laden's group, which carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
---
Anyone have more information on this?
My heart breaks every time you bring up your Bandit. I have a solution, though. I have a 9 week old kitten I would love to send you. Think FedEx can deliver? LOL.
No kidding. You have too much love to share. Get out there and take in some poor little daring that needs you as much as you need her. Kitten, I mean. Adoption is the loving choice!
Bin Laden bought ship ‘for terror’
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1313688,00.html
SPANISH authorities are seeking the extradition of a German-based Syrian businessman suspected of helping Osama Bin Laden buy a ship, write Peter Conradi and Justin Sparks.
Marmoun Darkanzali, 46, believed to have been close to several of the hijackers on September 11, 2001, is alleged to have helped the Al-Qaeda leader with the purchase of a freighter. A source close to German intelligence named the ship as Jennifer and said it had been bought in 1993.
Spanish authorities claimed Darkanzali had been an important figure, providing logistical and financial support to Bin Laden in Britain, Spain and Germany since 1997.
Darkanzali was first arrested in 2001 but released. He has been under investigation for some time by German federal prosecutors. He was arrested in Hamburg on Friday on a Spanish international warrant.
It was not clear to what use Bin Laden would have put the vessel but there has long been speculation that Al-Qaeda has been amassing a fleet to raise money and for use in attacks.
German prosecutors said Darkanzali will contest the extradition. In the past he has denied any links with Al-Qaeda. He faces up to 12 years in jail in Spain if convicted of charges of membership of a terrorist organisation.
Missouri group subject of FBI probe
http://springfield.news-leader.com/news/today/1017-Missourigr-203050.html
KANSAS CITY — An investigation of a Missouri-based group accused of aiding terrorists has involved almost half the FBI's domestic field offices, a spokesman said.
The FBI office in Kansas City asked 26 of the bureau's 56 field offices to interview from 80 to 90 people as part of the investigation into the Islamic American Relief Agency-USA, FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said Friday.
Also Friday, the group issued a statement saying it would not accept donations and urging its patrons to contribute to other charities.
Lanza said the interviews took place Wednesday, the same day that search warrants were served at the charity's headquarters in Columbia, Mo. and the Wolcott, Conn., home of an Islamic leader.
Majeed Sharif, president of the United Muslim Mosque in Waterbury, Conn., has acknowledged doing work for the charity.
Magdy Galal, the mosque's vice president, told reporters Friday that Sharif's efforts were entirely humanitarian. He had made several visits to Africa to help feed the poor and build wells for drinking water, he said.
No one has been arrested or charged in what the FBI has described as a criminal investigation.
The Bush administration has accused the Sudan-based Islamic African Relief Agency of helping raise more than $5 million to finance Osama bin Laden and other terrorists. The Treasury Department directed U.S. banks to block any assets found in this country belonging to the Islamic African Relief Agency and five designated officials. The department said the group, headquartered in Khartoum, Sudan, has more than 40 offices worldwide.
THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC ABOUT TO STONING A 13 YEARS-OLD GIRL
PARIS, 16 Oct. (IPS)
Almost two months after having hanged a 16 years-old girl, the ruling Iranian ayatollahs are to commit another human crime by condemning another young girl to stoning.
According to Iranian and foreign press, Zhila Izadi,
a 13 years old girl
from the north-western city of Marivan had been condemned to death by stoning
after being found that she had been pregnant from her 15 years-old brother.
http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2004/october/izadi_161004.shtml
Fullwave- was just at your site and copied this lovely message:
EOM: 'amerikkka will see fire from skies'
Source: EOM & Friends | 12:18:16 AM EST
As usual, the following message was sent in the same manner that our usual EOM Culprit follows. It was sent 5 times within the hour, obviously he/she is expressing extreme urgency. As usual, nobody knows the true identity of this sender, but the message expresses a ominous feeling that we all are experiencing now that the elections are a few weeks away.
Subject: within 48 hours
amerikkka will see fire from skies fall all in place these final
hours of prepardness slayer of infidels make final crossings
hours ago arrive to areas to begin Allah'
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