Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat

TOTALLY OFF TOPIC:

THANKSGIVING (Updated)
http://www.truthusa.com/ThanksGIVING.html

Ain't God great?!

City and F.B.I. Reach Agreement on Bioterror Investigations
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/nyregion/21protocol.html?oref=login

The New York Police Department, the F.B.I. and the city's health department have agreed for the first time on a set of rules that will govern investigations of suspected biological attacks in the city, detailing the roles the agencies will play as well as how confidential medical information is to be shared.

The "protocol," a six-page document that officials regard as something of a remarkable cooperation agreement, resulted in part from lessons learned in New York during the 2001 anthrax letter attacks, which killed five people in Florida and the Northeast and infected more than a dozen others in the months after the Sept. 11 strikes.

The anthrax investigations, and several subsequent inquiries into suspected germ attacks, were strained by tension between health and law enforcement officials over turf and procedures.

The accord, which was worked out in confidential, sometimes contentious meetings over the last two years, states that while law enforcement officials have the lead in investigating any terrorist crime, such investigations must be conducted jointly with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene since physicians are likely to be the first to identify a victim of a germ attack.

To aid that effort, the protocol agreement details some novel compromises among agencies that sometimes have competing interests.

For instance, law enforcement officials, in the course of a bioterrorism investigation, will have access to the once typically confidential medical information of those who might have become infected. But the police and F.B.I. must keep such information confidential. And to encourage sick people to seek medical help, law enforcement agencies have agreed essentially to overlook a sick person's immigration problems or minor criminal activities.

The agreement also lays out some minor but still meaningful tactics. For example, law enforcement officials involved in interviews of patients will, by design, not wear uniforms, to avoid intimidating possible victims. And while patients will be interviewed jointly by teams of medical and law enforcement officials, physicians will be authorized to ask police and federal agents to leave the room.

"This is a groundbreaking agreement in uncharted waters," said Michael A. Sheehan, the Police Department's deputy commissioner for counterterrorism. "Both law enforcement and the public health community have made some tough compromises on what they consider sacred ground. But New Yorkers will be safer and healthier for it."

With the agreement, which was signed a month ago by Thomas R. Frieden, the health commissioner; Raymond W. Kelly, the police commissioner; and Pasquale J. D'Amuro, the assistant director of the F.B.I.'s New York office, New York becomes the first city in the nation to have adopted such a formalized protocol.

Richard A. Falkenrath, President Bush's former deputy homeland security adviser, said that he knew of no comparable agreement at the federal level and that New York was ahead of other cities in trying to systematically sort through the roles of public health and law enforcement officials in a potential bioterrorist attack. "This is in the public interest to do," Mr. Falkenrath said.

A copy of the internal protocol was provided to The New York Times. It provides for joint training of law enforcement and public health officials that is scheduled to start in January.

The agreement has not solved all outstanding issues. For instance, it does not state when and how quickly public health officials must notify the F.B.I. and police if they come across someone who may be infected with a dangerous germ. Officials said that law enforcement and health officials were still discussing which germs should require immediate notification and joint investigations as part of a separate agreement, a so-called "annex" to the broader agreement.

According to a draft of the annex, the city's health department is to provide immediate notification of the detection of illnesses that could involve nine pathogens, including germs that cause anthrax, plague, and such virally induced, highly infectious diseases as smallpox and Ebola. But the Police Department is trying to broaden that list to include germs that also cause Q fever and tularemia, which though naturally occurring, have also been studied by several countries for use as potential germ weapons.

In areas of disagreement concerning the specifics of how the joint efforts will work, law enforcement and health personnel may rely on what one official called the document's "creative ambiguity."

"A lot of this has to do with trust that has developed between the people who have worked together on bioterrorism investigations," said Dr. Dani Margot-Zavasky, a physician with the Police Department who helped draft the accord.

Phil T. Pulaski, assistant chief of the Police Department's counterterrorism bureau, said the accord reflected an effort to institutionalize that trust, along with the techniques and procedures that have developed over time. The accord was filled with qualifiers because of what he called the "knucklehead factor" - the "one-in-one-hundred chance that someone will try to wave this document around to assert authority in a spirit that was not intended."

The effort to draft such rules actually predate the 9/11 and anthrax letter attacks of 2001, some officials said. William A. Zinnikas, the weapons of mass destruction coordinator for the F.B.I.'s New York office, said he and Marcelle Layton, his counterpart from the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, began discussing the need for such guidelines in 1999.

"It was derived from a common acknowledgment of the problems we would all face if an incident of bioterrorism were to develop in New York City," Mr. Zinnikas said.

But the effort did not move at a "lightning pace" until after the 9/11 and anthrax attacks, Mr. Pulaski said. "Before that, there was just no immediacy."

The communication gaps, turf disputes between departments, fear of sharing information, and other complications highlighted by the anthrax letter attacks, a crime that remains unsolved, were reinforced by other, less well publicized bioterrorism scares, officials said.

Law enforcement and public health officials referred specifically to an investigation in the summer of 2003 of a suspected case of brucellosis, also known as undulant fever, a disease that can be caused by a biological attack but that is usually acquired from consuming unpasteurized dairy products.

Accounts of the tension vary, but officials said that after a Syrian man checked himself into a New York hospital and seemed to be suffering from an illness that could have been deliberately induced, the medical staff resisted turning over to the police potentially relevant information about him and his case. The police, according to two separate accounts of the case, reacted by pursuing the investigation very aggressively at the hospital.

Encouraged by the health department, the medical staff at the hospital finally began cooperating more fully. Both the medical investigators and the police eventually concluded that the man had acquired brucellosis, which is not contagious person-to-person, naturally during a vacation back home.

Some physicians continue resisting the trend in New York and at the federal level toward joint investigations by medical and law enforcement officials, and, in particular, the sharing of sensitive medical data that identify individuals by name.

Victor Sidel, a past president of the American Public Health Association and the New York City Public Health Association, expressed concern that such information-sharing might dissuade sick people from seeking medical help and hence, encourage the chances that infectious agents might spread throughout the city.

"I find the provision of such medical information inimical to human freedom and medical care," he said. Based on a reporter's description of the protocol, which has not been made public, he said he feared that the agreement negotiated between law enforcement and public health officials might jeopardize civil liberties and fail to provide the security it claims to bolster.

"There must be a balance between human freedom and counterterrorism," he said. "And an agreement like this steps over the line."

Public health and law enforcement officials disagreed, saying the accord contained many acknowledgments of the need to safeguard sensitive patient information and to underscore the fact that while physicians and police may have common goals, they continue to have separate cultures, rules, and requirements.

"We are not an agent of the police," said Dr. Frieden, the health commissioner. He noted that under the agreement, medical records would continue to be controlled by public health officials. "Our documents do not become declassified," he said. "Unless there is a bioterrorist event, that information is essentially sealed from the public, permanently and forever."

He said that "99.999 percent of the time," the health department carried out its mandate to protect public health without Police Department help. But in certain rare cases, he added, "I make the determination that police help would be valuable."

"Many of us are queasy about sharing health data with anybody, because we take confidentially of health data very seriously," said Dr. Frieden, who oversees the nation's largest municipal public health department of some 6,000 people and an annual budget of $1.5 billion. "There has never been a breach of this confidentiality as far as I know."

But after the Sept. 11 and anthrax attacks, "we all became much more aware of the circumstances in which the police and health departments must work together," he said.

The document acknowledges what Dr. Zavasky and Chief Pulaski called the differing approaches and concerns of each community. The document notes that all parties to the accord recognized the "potential chilling effect" that the presence of law enforcement officers might have on patients being interviewed and on medical professionals. It states, "it is understood that joint investigations remain essentially a public health epidemiological investigational activity," and that the health department is "not an agent of law enforcement when conducting investigations."

Nevertheless, securing access to sensitive patient data is sometimes critical, said Mr. Sheehan, the police counterterrorism deputy director, because it may help spot a bioterrorism attack more quickly and by limiting the spread of a deadly germ, save hundreds, and potentially thousands of lives.

God works in mysterious ways.

Amen to that!

Israel cannot accept a nuclear Iran. Russians and Chinese are supporting Iran. This does not sound good.

OBL and Zawahiri have certain links to Russia. Hmmmm. Check this out:

news.telegraph.co.uk/news...ortal.html

Russia hankers after the old world order

By Julius Strauss in Moscow
(Filed: 20/11/2004)

It was a moment of vintage Cold War defiance. Addressing the annual congress of Moscow's Red Army, the leader of the world's largest country announced the development of a secret nuclear weapon.

It would give the Kremlin the edge over its rivals. It would be a weapon that "other nuclear powers do not and will not possess".

Such tub-thumping boasts may have been standard fare during the nuclear arms race of the 1960s and 1970s. This announcement, however, was part of an address by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, in Moscow earlier this week.

The pugnacious rhetoric comes amid signs of a tougher line in the Kremlin. It also indicates that a Russia growing in confidence is seeking to re-establish its status as a superpower.

Kremlin insiders say that one of Mr Putin's dreams is to re-establish a Russia-dominated empire on the ashes of the old Soviet Union. He hopes that by harnessing the region's political and economic resources Russia can attain new global prominence.

During the first four years of his rule Mr Putin concentrated on his domestic agenda - gathering the levers of power and reining in the tycoons who virtually ran Russia under Boris Yeltsin.

Only yesterday the government announced that the core asset of Yukos, the beleaguered oil company once owned by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, would be sold next month. Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, is reported to be facing a £400 million tax bill.

But nearly five years into a maximum eight-year tenure as Russian leader, Mr Putin appears now to be concentrating his energies on international policy.

No one suggests that the Kremlin wants a new Cold War. Even Russian analysts say the announcement of the nuclear breakthrough is more an attempt to impress the domestic audience than international sabre-rattling.

But evidence of Russia's new confidence, and propensity to interfere, can be found throughout the region. In the central Asia republics of Kyrgystan and Tajikistan, Mr Putin has countered the deployment of US soldiers with a build up of Russian forces.

In Georgia and Moldova, Mr Putin has stalled on pulling out Russian forces, which Moscow committed to withdrawing in an agreement in 1999. The Kremlin has given no new date.

In Abkhazia and South Ossetia, breakaway regions of Georgia, the Russian government is openly abetting rebels. Moscow is also seeking to rope Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan into a "single economic zone" that it will effectively control. Only the Baltic states, now members of the EU and Nato, seem beyond Moscow's control.

Some Russian analysts argue that the Kremlin's ambitions are natural. Andrei Neshadin, of the Moscow-based Expert Institute, said the area of the former Soviet Union had been "the normal area of Russian interests, economically and militarily, for centuries".

But there are worries elsewhere that the demise of the Soviet Union, which Mr Putin has called "a national tragedy", may have been only the precursor to a new form Russian imperialism.

Dmitry Oreshkin, head of the Merkator think-tank at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said: "Putin's mentality and values remain deeply Soviet. To him the gathering of the Soviet states in his hand is a deep psychological and political need.

"The policy is to play on the imperial ambitions of the Russian people. Many are willing to pay a high price if they can feel like a superpower again."

This time, analysts say, the Russian advance will not be led by political commissars backed up by tanks and planes, but by oil and gas salesman with billions of petro-dollars bartering discounted energy for influence.

Zbigniew Siemiatowski, the former head of Polish intelligence, told a parliamentary inquiry last month: "We are facing a restoration of the Russian empire through economic means."

Not all Russians are in favour of such neo-imperialist aims. Many would prefer to see the country's new wealth spent on ageing infrastructure, improving health care and cutting poverty.

Others argue that America's enormous financial resources mean that trying to compete for global influence only makes Russia look foolish.

Mark Ournov, head of the Expertiza think-tank, said: "It's high time Russia became reconciled to the fact that it is no longer a superpower. But imperial thinking dies hard."

courtesy of Mutter's

Report: Pentagon May Target Iranian Leaders

11:06 Nov 21, '04 / 8 Kislev 5765

(IsraelNN.com)

According to a report in the British Observer, Pentagon officials are giving thought to military action against Iran and its leaders in the event Tehran fails to comply with its announced decision to cease uranium enrichment efforts beginning tomorrow, November 22nd.

Responding to White House and European Union pressure, Iranian officials recently announced that, as of tomorrow, all uranium enrichment efforts would cease.

This in compliance with demands against Tehran, due to fears that Iran’s achieving nuclear independence would pose a significant threat to western nations.

Published: 08:35 November 21, 2004

www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=72354

This guy has a "plan":

Popular Dutch lawmaker wants to close immigration to Muslims for 5 years

In his first interview to the foreign media since the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh on Nov. 2, Wilders said his own life has been repeatedly threatened and he has begun living under state protection, and had to stay away from his own home.

Muslims make up about six per cent of the Netherlands' 16 million people. Wilders said he was concerned about studies saying some 10 per cent of Dutch Muslims - or about 100,000 people - support radical Islamic views.

Without swift, bold action, Islamic fundamentalism will topple the country's democratic system, he said.

"The Netherlands has been too tolerant to intolerant people for too long," he said, "We should not import a retarded political Islamic society to our country. There is nothing to be ashamed of to say this. It's not Islam. I speak out against the facts."

Wilders said closing the borders isn't enough. Newcomers should be forced to integrate.

Mosques that advocate fundamentalism should be shut down, he said. "If in a mosque there is recruitment for jihad it's not a house of prayer, it's a house of war. If it's not a house of prayer, it should be closed down," he said.

The latest video threat broadcast on the Internet - in Dutch, with Arabic music in the background - condemns Wilders for insulting Islam and offers the reward of paradise for his beheading.

On Friday, he cited a report by Dutch intelligence saying recruitment for jihad is taking place in as many as 20 mosques in the Netherlands, and said they should be closed and their imams, or preachers, arrested and deported.

"If we don't do anything . . . we will lose the country that we have known for centuries," he said.

More on Iran. It seems to me that Israel will be attempting to destroy the Iranian nukes while we go after North Korea...

Washingtontimes.com/upi-b...-8532r.htm

Iran may have atom bomb-bearing missile

Washington, DC, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. intelligence officials are evaluating worrisome new information about an Iranian missile purportedly capable of carrying an atomic bomb.

The intelligence came from a "walk-in" source earlier this month and includes more than 1,000 pages purported to be Iranian drawings and technical documents, including a nuclear warhead design and modifications to enable Iranian ballistic missiles to deliver a nuclear bomb, the Washington Post reported Friday.

The documents included a specific warhead design based on implosion and adjustments aimed at outfitting the warhead on existing Iranian missile systems.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and other top U.S. officials were briefed last week on the data, which also has been shared with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

If the new data is confirmed, it would mean the Islamic republic is further along than previously known in developing a nuclear weapon and the means to deliver it.

Iran, which Sunday agreed with France, Britain and Germany to suspend its nuclear program, has denied it is trying to build atomic weapons.

Russia arrests terrorist kingpin - seizes Al Qaeda manuals

Afghan warlord calls for Jihad against US

Kuwaiti government considering giving each citizen $680 as oil revenues soar

Hello all,

I am scared to open up any of the zip files maybe because of a virus when you post those big lists of links. What are they usually off? Some audio or video or?

should i be so paranoid?

thanks and hello all, hope everyone is relaxed.

thanks a lot!

I always "save to disk" then scan with a very up-to-date virus scanner before I open the file.

no problem. my site appears to be down today. :<

"This is the page to bookmark/link to for the TM if you have a tendency to fall behind. I will be updating this more in the future."

I've clicked on this link and the one posted before this one and with each link I'm getting a message that the website isn't responding....is something going on with the site or is it me?

There is a problem right now with the site. Working to resolve it...

OFF TOPIC:

This is off topic but I think it's a cute story so I'm sharing:

My 12 year old is an actor (god help me) and in keeping his skills honed, he does a lot of community theater. Usually, the extent of his community theater is confined to his neighborhood but this year he tried something a little different and joined with a group who will be performing for a group of servicemen. He's so excited about the opportunity to perform for the group that after spending the better part of his weekend in ICU following a medical test gone crazy, he left the hospital and insisted on going to an 8 hour rehearsal.

I love kids, they're so sweet :)

should be fixed now. my webserver died.

"should be fixed now. my webserver died."

Thanks :)

Don't open up anything you don't feel comfortable opening.