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Locked on 01/30/2005 12:18:25 AM PST by Lead Moderator, reason:
Thread Twenty-four here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1331735/posts |
Posted on 12/23/2004 10:30:10 PM PST by nwctwx
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Buoy transmitters to extend Coast Guard’s port security system
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Dozens of buoys bobbing off U.S. coastlines, transmitting signals to Coast Guard officials, will be the newest addition to an anti-terrorism system that monitors large vessels heading in and out of American ports.
The Coast Guard plans to test the buoy transmitters early in 2005, probably off Florida’s Gulf coast, said Jeff High, a director of the Guard’s Maritime Domain Awareness Program in Washington, D.C.
They will connect to a communications network that this year began receiving signals from all large tankers, barges and cruise vessels heading in and out of major U.S. ports. To legally enter a U.S. port, each vessel must be equipped with a machine that automatically radios information — its cargo, crew list, recent ports of call — to the Coast Guard.
bookmark
Follow-up on the Riyadh bombings. A busy nite there.
Seven militants were killed in the gunbattle with police in a northern district of Riyadh (search ), Al-Arabiya television reported. The clash broke out about the same time as the two car bombings — a remote control blast near the Interior Ministry and a homicide attack on the recruitment center.
From Foxnews.com
Boogity-boogity-bookmark
FBI investigating laser beam directed into airplane cockpit
CLEVELAND (AP) — Authorities are investigating a mysterious laser beam that was directed into the cockpit of a commercial jet traveling at more than 8,500 feet.
The beam appeared Monday when the plane was about 15 miles from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, the FBI said.
“It was in there for several seconds like (the plane) was being tracked,” FBI agent Robert Hawk said.
The pilot was able to land the plane, and air traffic controllers used radar to determine the laser came from a residential area in suburban Warrensville Heights.
Hawk said the laser had to have been fairly sophisticated to track a plane traveling at that altitude. Authorities had no other leads.
There have been several reports of lasers directed at commercial flights in the past year, the FBI said. The beams can distract or temporarily blind a pilot.
The Federal Aviation Administration mandates that laser light shows must register their locations and the lights cannot be directed above 3,000 feet. Lasers are also often used by construction companies to line up foundations.
Interfering with a commercial flight is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Piper is this 'cough' wide spread. I have this 'cough' for weeks. Hubby and I both had bronchitis which I have never had before. Got well now I am getting it again.
I didn't have a cough, but I was violently ill on Monday morning. Still don't know what caused it.
My family had a long term cough throughout most of August and September. For me it would stop at night, but kick in in the day. Went on for about 5 weeks for myself and all but my youngest were affected. Saw the doc, got chest xrays (previous year had a partial lung collaspe, not diagnosed, due to a broncial attack). He just prescribed some antibiotics as a preventative measure, same for my wife. Lots of others around us had the same.
4 detained for filming power plant (Pennsylvania)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1310489/posts
Federal authorities have determined four men found videotaping footage near the Limerick nuclear plant were not involved in terrorist activities.
Williams said authorities determined that three of the men were illegal aliens. They are currently being held by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Office in Philadelphia, she said.
The fourth man is not an illegal alien and was released following the investigation, she said.
No criminal charges will be filed against the four men, whose names are not being released.
===
Just exactly WHY were they videotaping the nuclear plant???
Thank you Jelly Jam.
That is interesting.
"There were several non-nuclear test explosions in Russia in 2004"
Did they cough or wink when they released this tidbit?
EMP?
No, I haven't heard about it, nor have I listened to other than local news and weather. Inform me please! Thanks!
PS: Tom Tancredo for Homeland Security chief would be good! Trouble is, President Bush has an agenda that fits his friend Vincente's needs. No wonder so many appointees in Homeland Security are jumping ship. Their hands are tied and their eyes are wide open to the danger we face! I know President Bush is a great man, but on this issue, he is letting us down when he should be putting barriers up.
So many goodies availabe on the net, it is just incredible. Lots of interesting goodies for sale on E-Bay and on Government Surplus Auction sites on occasion as well.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — An Islamic civil rights group Wednesday accused U.S. border agents of religious profiling after dozens of American Muslims were searched, fingerprinted and photographed on return from a religious conference in Toronto.
Some of those stopped said they were held at the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge for six hours or more with no explanation.
A spokeswoman for Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection said agents stopped anyone who said they attended the three-day convention, titled “Reviving the Islamic Spirit,” based on information that such gatherings can be a means for terrorists to promote their cause.
“I asked, ‘If I refuse to give my fingerprints, what will you do?”’ said Galeb Rizek, 32. “(The agent) said, ‘You can refuse, but you’ll be here until you do.”’
Rizek, who was born in America and whose family owns a hotel in Niagara Falls, said he is a frequent traveler across the border and has never previously been fingerprinted or photographed. “You really feel like a criminal and you haven’t done anything wrong,” he said.
FBI, Homeland Security bulletin details al-Qaida surveillance techniques
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new government intelligence bulletin describes in the greatest detail yet al-Qaida’s techniques for assessing potential targets, extolling the lethal power of flying, shattered building glass and advising that kerosene and tires are effective for a deadly arson attack.
“The focus is on maximizing the destructive and killing power of an attack,” the bulletin says.
The bulletin provides a fresh glimpse of terrorist reports found in computers and disks seized in Pakistan in July. The reports described the casing by terrorists of several buildings in the United States and prompted U.S. authorities to raise the terror threat level earlier this year for high-profile financial facilities in New York, Washington and Newark, N.J.
some tidbits ...
The excerpts, according to the bulletin, show that al-Qaida operatives go well beyond basic description of a potential target to sophisticated analysis of vulnerabilities in building construction, an examination of potential police and emergency response and recommendations for possible methods of attack.
In one report, an unidentified al-Qaida operative notes that a building “is almost completely made to resemble a glass house — which could be devastating in an emergency scenario ... that is to say, that when shattered, each piece of glass becomes a potential flying piece of cutthroat shrapnel!”
Another excerpt calculates that a particular building has precisely 67,000-square-feet of glass, adding for emphasis that it amounts to “an acre and a half of glass.”
The author provides five possible methods of attack in one scenario, leading with parking a vehicle packed with explosives next to an exposed building column. The terrorist also suggests that operatives rent space in the building or use any of several substances in an arson attack.
“Combinations with leaking gas cylinders (esp. oxygen), bleach, ammonia and tires (they burn well) could be lethal,” the al-Qaida report says. “Added to this, also be advised that kerosene burns more powerfully than an ordinarily fueled fire (although it may not be hot enough to melt steel unless used in very large quantities).”
The reports note such things as when people take lunch and smoking breaks, where surveillance cameras are positioned, what public events were scheduled near buildings and how many cars and pedestrians typically pass by per minute. Detailed descriptions of security guards included their uniforms, whether they were armed and a notation that one male guard’s weapon “appears to be a Colt .45 pistol.”
In two reports, the al-Qaida author assumed that undercover security officers are likely to be stationed near possible targets. That shows that security officials must “regularly review, refresh and reinforce” their undercover teams to prevent them from being identified, the bulletin said.
One al-Qaida operative also advises where additional reconnaissance could be performed before an attack, such as “inside the coffee shop, restaurants or bars etc. Or even on the upstairs floor of the bookshop (there is one end where people regularly sit and browse through books).”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A32285-2004Dec28?language=printer
washingtonpost.com
Nuclear Capabilities May Elude Terrorists, Experts Say
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 29, 2004; Page A01
Of all the clues that Osama bin Laden is after a nuclear weapon, perhaps the most significant came in intelligence reports indicating that he received fresh approval last year from a Saudi cleric for the use of a doomsday bomb against the United States.
For bin Laden, the religious ruling was a milestone in a long quest for an atomic weapon. For U.S. officials and others, it was a frightening reminder of what many consider the ultimate mass-casualty threat posed by modern terrorists. Even a small nuclear weapon detonated in a major American population center would be among history's most lethal acts of war, potentially rivaling the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Despite the obvious gravity of the threat, however, counterterrorism and nuclear experts in and out of government say they consider the danger more distant than immediate.
They point to enormous technical and logistical obstacles confronting would-be nuclear terrorists, and to the fact that neither al Qaeda nor any other group has come close to demonstrating the means to overcome them.
So difficult are the challenges that senior officials on President Bush's national security team believe al Qaeda has shifted its attention to other efforts, at least for now.
"I would say that from the perspective of terrorism, the overwhelming bulk of the evidence we have is that their efforts are focused on biological and chemical" weapons, said John R. Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. "Not to say there aren't any dealings with radiological materials, but the technology for bio and chem is comparatively so much easier that that's where their efforts are concentrating."
Still, the sheer magnitude of the danger posed by a nuclear weapon in terrorist hands -- and classified intelligence assessments that deem such a scenario plausible -- has spurred intelligence and military operations to combat a threat once dismissed as all but nonexistent. The effort includes billions of dollars spent on attempts to secure borders, retrain weapons scientists in other countries and lock up dangerous materials and stockpiles.
"The thing to keep in mind is that while it is extremely difficult, we have highly motivated and intelligent people who would like to do it," said Daniel Benjamin, a former National Security Council staff member and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Each type of weapon of mass destruction -- nuclear, biological and chemical -- presents special challenges for the groups seeking to acquire them, but also opportunities that can be exploited by people determined to unleash their awesome destructive powers. This is the first of three articles aimed at exploring those risks and challenges.
Difficult Course
Without sophisticated laboratories, expensive technology and years of scientific experience, al Qaeda has two primary options for getting a bomb, experts say, both of which rely on theft -- either of an existing weapon or one of its key ingredients, plutonium or highly enriched uranium.
Nuclear scientists tend to believe the most plausible route for terrorists would be to build a crude device using stolen uranium from the former Soviet Union. Counterterrorism officials think bin Laden would prefer to buy a ready-made weapon stolen in Russia or Pakistan, and to obtain inside help in detonating it.
Last month, Michael Scheuer, who ran the CIA's bin Laden unit, first disclosed in an interview on CBS's "60 Minutes" that bin Laden's nuclear efforts had been blessed by the Saudi cleric in May 2003, a statement other sources later corroborated. As early as 1998, bin Laden had publicly labeled acquisition of nuclear or chemical weapons a "religious duty," and U.S. officials had reports around that time that al Qaeda leaders were discussing attacks they likened to the one on Hiroshima.
A week after his CBS appearance, Scheuer said at breakfast with reporters in Washington that he believed al Qaeda would probably seek to buy a nuclear device from Russian gangsters, rather than build its own.
There were as many as a dozen types of nuclear weapons in the hands of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, but Russian officials have said that several kinds have since been destroyed and that the country has secured the remainder of its arsenal. The nature and scope of nuclear caches are among the most tightly held national security secrets in Russia and Pakistan.
It is unclear how quickly either country could detect a theft, but experts said it would be very difficult for terrorists to figure out on their own how to work a Russian or Pakistani bomb.
Newer Russian weapons, for example, are equipped with heat- and time-sensitive locking systems, known as permissive action links, that experts say would be extremely difficult to defeat without help from insiders.
"You'd have to run it through a specific sequence of events, including changes in temperature, pressure and environmental conditions before the weapon would allow itself to be armed, for the fuses to fall into place and then for it to allow itself to be fired," said Charles D. Ferguson, science and technology fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "You don't get it off the shelf, enter a code and have it go off."
The strategy would require help from facility guards, employees with knowledge of the security and arming features of the weapons, not to mention access to a launching system.
Older Russian nuclear weapons have simpler protection mechanisms and could be easier to obtain on the black market. But nuclear experts said even the simplest device has some security features that would have to be defeated before it could be used.
"There is a whole generation of weapons designed for artillery shells, manufactured in the 1950s, that aren't going to have sophisticated locking devices," said Laura Holgate, who ran nonproliferation programs at the Pentagon and the Energy Department from 1995 to 2001. "But it is a tougher task to take a weapon created by a country, even the 1950s version, a tougher job for a group of even highly qualified Chechen terrorists to make it go boom."
Transporting a weapon out of Russia would provide another formidable obstacle for terrorists.
Most of the ready-made bombs that could be stolen would be those made with plutonium, which emits far higher levels of radiation and is therefore more easily detected by passive sensors at ports than is highly enriched uranium, or HEU.
"I wouldn't rule out plutonium altogether, but if one were a terrorist bent upon demonstrating a nuclear explosion, the HEU route is technically much easier," said William C. Potter, director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California.
Building a Bomb
Such difficulties have led some nuclear experts to believe bin Laden would be more likely to try to build an improvised nuclear weapon using a combination of uranium and conventional explosives. That design, known as a gun-type device, was used in the atomic bomb over Hiroshima.
While the technology is relatively simple and has been described in dozens of published scientific studies and policy journals, the path to development is filled with technological and logistical challenges -- the most significant of which is obtaining at least 50 kilograms of bomb-grade uranium. That amount would yield a slightly smaller device than "Little Boy," the code name for the Hiroshima bomb, but would be enough to obliterate any life or structure within a half-mile radius of the blast zone.
"If they got less material than that, it would be really dicey that they could build such a bomb," said Ferguson, at the Council on Foreign Relations.
According to a database maintained by the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, there have been 10 known incidents of HEU theft in the past 10 years, each involving a few grams or less. Added up, the stolen goods total less than eight kilograms and could not be easily combined because of varying levels of enrichment. Most important, the thieves -- none of whom was connected to al Qaeda -- had no buyers lined up, and nearly all were caught while trying to peddle their acquisitions.
"Making the connection between buyer and seller has proved to be one of the most substantial hurdles for terrorists," said Matthew Bunn, a senior researcher at Harvard University's Project on Managing the Atom. Of the few known attempts by al Qaeda to obtain HEU, each allegedly stumbled because there was either no seller or the material on offer was fake. "Each time they tried, they got scammed," said Bruce Hoffman, a counterterrorism expert at the Rand Corporation who has tracked al Qaeda for years.
A September report on terrorism by the Congressional Research Service warned that terrorists could "obtain HEU from the more than 130 research reactors worldwide that use HEU as fuel." The report noted that the nations of "greatest concern as potential sources of weapons or fissile material are widely thought to be Russia and Pakistan."
The largest stocks outside the United States are in Russia and around the former Soviet Union, some in facilities with notoriously weak security and safety procedures.
"Once you have the fissile material, it's a matter of basic chemistry, basic machinery and a truck," said Holgate, now a vice president at the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative. "You have to have some technical capability, but once you have those skills, it's certainly within the grasp of the kind of sophisticated, planning-capable terror organizations out there."
Even so, there are a great many steps between obtaining the material and setting off an explosion. That may account for why such an attack has not materialized, despite intelligence warnings.
The uranium would have to be smuggled out of the facility and then transferred, possibly across several borders, seaports and airports, to a location where the device could be assembled. As described in unclassified literature, the gun-type bomb works when one mass of uranium is shot into another inside a tube. Such a device would be small enough to hide in a corner of a shipping container, but that would mean getting it to a port, onto a container and probably bribing a shipper or cargo crew to transport it.
An oil shipment would be optimal for a ready-made device, according to the congressional report, because the "size of the supertanker and thickness of the steel, especially with the use of double hulls," renders some detection equipment unusable.
But HEU emits low levels of radioactivity anyway, and that could be masked with lead shielding. A primitive device could be assembled in a small garage using machine tools readily available at an auto shop and concealed in a lead-plated delivery truck about the size of a delivery van, experts said.
It is also unclear how a terrorist group would know if its weapons development effort was on the right track. Nations with nuclear bombs conduct tests, including explosions that can be detected by scientists and governments. Bunn, who has published two studies on nuclear terrorism, said terrorists would not necessarily need to conduct such tests, but doing without them would increase chances that human error would foil plans or delay progress.
The most elaborate known effort by a terrorist group to develop a nuclear program was undertaken by the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, which instead of stealing enriched uranium planned to mine and enrich the material itself.
Members of Aum Shinrikyo, intent on world destruction when it began its 1993 quest for a nuclear weapon, had all the means to pull it off, on paper at least: money, expertise, a remote haven in which to work, and most important, a private uranium mine.
But the group made dozens of mistakes in judgment, planning and execution. It shifted course, launching its chemical attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995.
"There are valuable lessons in Aum's experience, and there are false lessons," said Benjamin, co-author of "The Age of Sacred Terror." "The valuable lesson is that WMD terrorism is hard to do," he said. "But given that they didn't try what would be the most efficient way to put together a nuclear bomb, we shouldn't overrate their example as a reason why it's not going to happen."
Al Qaeda has been on the run since the United States deprived it of a haven in Afghanistan, making it more difficult for the group to operate on such an ambitious scale.
"At this moment, they are less capable of carrying out an operation like this because it would require so many different experts and operatives," Benjamin said. "But even a depleted group could do it if they got the right breaks."
***Interesting to get a different perspective***
I heartily agree with ALL your comments. Tancredo would be such an asset in that position; too bad his stand on our border insecurity seems to be at odds with the US pandering to Fox's wishes.
Thanks for this update. Bits and pieces have been filtering out since the discovery/seizure of the computer and disks in July. This is the most comprehensive summary I've seen yet.
FBI, Homeland Security bulletin details al-Qaida surveillance techniques
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