Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat

Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat

Thread Twenty-Two (Index)

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The Threat Matrix

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!

Connect these dots, now
Full Story

"We should have secured the Mexican border."

That could be the pitiful lament we hear from negligent U.S. officials if Al Qaeda pulls off an attack on the United States using weapons of mass destruction smuggled across our southern frontier.

Were that horrendous event to happen, leaders in the administration and Congress would be justly hit with the same question that was perhaps unjustly cast at them and their predecessors after the unprecedented Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks: Why didn't they connect the dots?

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

Threat Matrix "TM'er" Tips

Link to Thread Twenty-One

"Code Red Implications:
Code Red - Stay Home and Await Word."
From Tm'er and Freeper ~MamaDearest~

Cindy's Links of Interest

TM Code of Conduct

ExSoldier's Invaluable Tips

TM's 'Be on the Lookout'

Godzilla's Summaries

Threat Matrix Book List

Arabic Image Links

"Tariq-al Qods"

http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/december/12_07_2.html

IRAN LAUNCHES BIGGEST GROUND EXERCISE EVER

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Iran has launched what officials termed its largest military exercise ever.

Officials said the Iran Army began the exercise on Dec. 3 in western Iran near the border with Iraq. They said the aim of the exercise was to demonstrate ground force capabilities and weaponry in an effort to deter any attack from the United States.

The exercise was said to have tested a range of indigenous missiles, rockets, armored personnel carriers, main battle tanks and unmanned aerial vehicles developed over the last decade. Officials said many of these weapons and platforms were introduced into service over the last two years.

Officials said the exercise included 10 infantry divisions as well as artillery, missile and electronic warfare units. They said the air force was providing support for ground units as part of a demonstration of the interoperability between the services.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6941047&src=rss/topNews

U.S. General Warns Iran Against Exploiting U.S.
Mon Nov 29, 2004 07:20 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. commander in Iraq warned Iran and others in comments published on Monday to think twice before trying to take advantage of the U.S. military at a time when it is fighting in both Iraq and Afghanistan. "Why the Iranians would want to move against us in an overt manner that would cause us to use our air or naval power against them would be beyond me," Army Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, said in an interview with USA Today.

Abizaid, who was speaking in Qatar, was asked about concerns in Congress that a shortage of U.S. troops might tempt nations such as Iran or North Korea, both accused by Washington of trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Abizaid, the top U.S. military commander for Iraq and Afghanistan, said the armed forces were not overextended.

The United States has 138,000 troops in Iraq and more than 18,000 in Afghanistan, with others deployed in Kuwait, Japan, Germany, Africa, South Korea and Bosnia.

"We can generate more military power per square inch than anybody else on Earth, and everybody knows it," Abizaid said. "If you ever even contemplate our nuclear capability, it should give everybody the clear understanding that there is no power that can match the United States militarily."

Washington and some Iraqi officials have accused Iran of supplying Iraqi insurgents with money, arms and militants, but on Sunday Tehran said it was ready to co-operate with Iraq to stop militants crossing their mountainous 1,000-mile border.

"We have no intention of interfering in Iraq's state matters. Iraq's stability is necessary for Iran's security," Iran's deputy interior minister for security affairs, Ali Asghar Ahmadi, said in Tehran.

He told a news conference Iran was ready to help train Iraqi security forces.

Al-Qaeda on the march

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1296348/posts

The Islamic militant attack on the US Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Monday is evidence that a major showdown with the Saudi government is in the works. The Saudi rulers are now at the receiving end of what al-Qaeda-practiced militant jihadism has in mind: to bring down that dynasty, and an end of the era in which the birthplace of Islam sounded nothing more than the personal fiefdom of the Saudi family.

What al-Qaeda wants to achieve is a contradiction of the compact of 1745 between the Saudi dynasty and Mohammad Abdel Wahhab [1]. Al-Qaeda seems to have concluded that the focus of its objective on the Arabian Peninsula is to bring an end to Saudi rule. Tactically speaking, al-Qaeda appears bent on carrying out such operations periodically, largely to demonstrate to its supporters in the kingdom that it can strike at will and at points of its own choosing. In this sense, the selection of the US Consulate contains a huge symbolic message.

Three powerful forces operate on the Saudi rulers today. The first one is related to Wahhabism. The aforementioned compact of 1745 obligates them to remain loyal to the ideals of Islamic purity delineated by Wahhabism. That is not a problem if the doctrine of militant jihad is not applied on the Saudi government itself. Any attack on the Saudi government and its personnel becomes a violation of the spirit and letter of the compact. The second force operating on the Saudi government is the United States. In this instance, the pressure is on it for moderation and even revision of militant jihadi doctrine in order to make it least hostile toward the US and the West, to put it rather simplistically. The third force is al-Qaeda, which is the product of Saudi political and social milieu. Yet its global vision is heavily influenced by the militant doctrine of jihad promoted enthusiastically by Washington in the 1980s in order to oust the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden received his first practical lessons on Islam's role and place in the world in Pakistan and Afghanistan during that decade.

/snip/

Thanks for the info. I did not know the truly enormous scope of the Iranian "exercise".

Part of the background for all this, of course, is the near term nuclear capability of Iran (if they do not already have it), and the possibility that the U.S. or Israel may launch a preemptive strike.

Having an army already on the border, ready to invade, may be an attempt to head off an attack on their nuclear facilities. They would threaten to invade if we (or Israel) strikes at their facilities.

Another possibility is that they intend to invade Iraq, regardless of what happens to their nuclear program, with deterence merely the pretext for positioning their troops. Since one of the first things we would do if Iran attacked is level all of their nuclear facilities, I would not expect them to invade unless they already had at least some nukes.

If they invade Iraq, they will lose unless they can also hit us at home at the same time. It would have to be a lot more than destroying a few buildings if they hope to interfere with our ability to destroy their invading forces.

We live in very interesting times (an ancient Chinese curse...).

SACRIFICE
Troop cradled grenade to save others

SAN DIEGO — Sgt. Rafael Peralta is dead, but the story of his sacrifice to save fellow Marines will live long in Marine Corps lore.

In the fierce battle for the Iraqi town of Fallujah, Peralta, with gunshot wounds to his head and body, reached out and grabbed a grenade hurled by an insurgent, cradling it to his body to save others from the blast.

The explosion in the back room of a house injured one Marine, but four others managed to scramble to safety.
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=48001

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