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Locked on 06/02/2005 9:39:58 PM PDT by Admin Moderator, reason:
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Posted on 04/14/2005 4:02:23 PM PDT by nwctwx
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Saudi take on President's visit with Price Abdullah
ON THE NET...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/photo_gallery/3155334.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4468315.stm
===
===
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1394335/posts
""University of Jihad" in Pakistan"
BBC ^ | 2 October, 2003 | Haroon Rashid
Posted on 04/30/2005 11:34:25 AM PDT by arun
ARTICLE SNIPPPET: "Its students and principal call it the University of Jihad (Holy War).
Last week the religious seminary of Darul Uloom Haqqania in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province turned out another class of young Pakistanis and Afghans ready to wage holy war against the enemies of their religion.
Among them was 15-year-old Afghan refugee, Javed Ullah.
"I wish to fight the infidels," he said as he left the seminary in Akora Khattak, 50 kilometres (31 miles) east of the provincial capital, Peshawar.
Javed is among 600 students who have completed studies in different fields over the past year.
I will dedicate my whole life for jihad. I will kill enemies of Islam
Wearing white turbans and dress, all the new graduates looked satisfied and seemed to brim with hope for a bright future.
"I want to go back and fight the Americans," Javed said wearing a garland. "I can't wait anymore."
His Pakistani classmates had a similar desire.
"I will dedicate my whole life for jihad. It is compulsory for Muslims. I will kill enemies of Islam," said student Minhaj Uddin.
The whole convocation was full of slogans in support of Afghanistan's ousted Taleban regime, al-Qaeda's leader Osama Bin Laden and holy war."
Note: The following text is an exact quote:
===
===
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2005/04/005953print.html
April 30, 2005
Egypt: Bomber duo on the run
"Bomber duo on the run: Egypt," from Reuters, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
CAIRO: Egyptian investigators have identified two more suspects from a deadly Cairo bombing this month and said they may be planning more attacks, a newspaper said yesterday.
The daily Al-Gomhuria reported both men had “embraced the ideas of jihad (holy war)” and were on the run, bringing to three the number of suspects evading capture for the blast that killed three tourists and the bomber on April 7....
Ah. More Misunderstanders of Islam. It's amazing that this kind of thing can be reported day after day after day and yet Islamic apologists and their allies still insist with a straight face that jihad is a spiritual struggle and that any military application of it is secondary, remote, and rare, if it exists at all. How did so many Muslims get a wrong idea of jihad? They don't answer that one, except to blame the bad old Wahhabis -- which outrages the amply documented historical fact that jihad warfare has been waged from the beginning of Islam, and by the Prophet Muhammad himself, long before Wahhabism was even a gleam in Wahhab's eye.
Al-Gomhuria published pictures of the three fugitives and named the latest two as commerce graduate Ihab Yousri Yassin and teacher Gamal Ahmed Abdul-Aal.
It said Abdul-Aal had left a letter for his family, later handed to police, saying he was leaving for “jihad”....
The ministry previously said the bomber, Hassan Raafat Bishindi, was part of a jihadist group and was tricked into thinking he had five minutes to escape after setting a bomb made from about 3kg of explosives and nails....
Posted at April 30, 2005 07:52 AM
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1394327/posts
"Angola Marburg/Ebola Growth Rate Plots"
Free Republic | April 30, 2005 | 2ndreconmarine
Posted on 04/30/2005 10:51:57 AM PDT by Covenantor
re post no. 1342
To lurkers: The opinion expressed is NOT an endorsement to tampering or filling airbags with anything. It is an opinion-speculation expressed regarding WHAT MIGHT TERRORISTS DO with airbags.
Thanks to MamaDearest for pointing to this article.
===
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http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/11530494.htm
Posted on Sat, Apr. 30, 2005
"Immigration enforcement tough battle
N.C. officials deal with less staff as population increases"
By Jim Morrill
Knight Ridder
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "North Carolina has an estimated 300,000 illegal immigrants, including nearly 3,000 classified as fugitives by immigration authorities.
And the number of federal deportation officers?
One. His main job: Find and deport undocumented immigrants who have been ordered to leave the country. He has among fewer than 10 people in the state, and a handful in South Carolina, who work for the Department of Homeland Security's Detention and Removal Operations."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1394342/posts
"20,000 to join March of the Living in Auschwitz"
Radio Polonia ^ | 30.04.2005
Posted on 04/30/2005 11:57:43 AM PDT by lizol
20,000 to join March of the Living in Auschwitz 30.04.2005
NEWS BRIEF: "More than 20,000 people are expected to take part in this year’s March of the Living at the site of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, southern Poland. The march, commemorating victims of the Holocaust, will be the largest in the 18 year history of the event. Delegations from almost 50 countries are expected to arrive in Auschwitz on May 5. Alongside thousands of young people and the camp survivors, there will be prime ministers of Poland and Israel Marek Belka and Ariel Sharon.
The idea of the March of the Living originated 20 years ago, when voices could be heard doubting that the Holocaust took place. A group of people decided to organize the march to let young people see what happened in Auschwitz, where over 1 million people, mostly Jews, were exterminated by the Nazis during World War II."
Note: The following text is an exact quote:
===
===
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_central_asia.html
UBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
This information is current as of today, Sat Apr 30 2005 12:50:49 GMT-0700.
Central Asia
April 29, 2005
This Public Announcement is being issued to alert Americans to ongoing security concerns and the potential for terrorist actions in Central Asia. U.S. citizens are reminded to maintain a high level of vigilance and to take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness. This Public Announcement expires on October 28, 2005.
The U.S. Government continues to receive information that terrorist groups in Central Asia may be planning attacks in the region, possibly against U.S. Government facilities, Americans or American interests. Elements and supporters of extremist groups present in Central Asia, including the Islamic Jihad Group, Al-Qaida, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), and the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, have expressed anti-U.S. sentiments in the past and have the capability to conduct terrorist operations in multiple countries. Previous terrorist attacks conducted in Central Asia have involved the use of improvised explosive devices and suicide bombers and have targeted public areas, such as markets, local government facilities, and the U.S. and Israeli Embassies in Uzbekistan. In addition, hostage-takings and skirmishes have occurred near the Uzbek-Tajik-Kyrgyz border areas.
U.S. Embassy personnel in Central Asia continue to observe heightened security precautions at work, as well as in public places, such as markets and bazaars. Terrorists do not distinguish between official and civilian targets. As security is increased at official U.S. facilities, terrorists and their sympathizers seek softer targets. These targets may include facilities where Americans and other foreigners congregate and visit, such as residential areas, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, hotels, schools, outdoor recreation events, resorts, beaches, maritime facilities, and planes.
U.S. citizens in Central Asia are urged to register and update their contact information at the nearest U.S. Embassy or through the Department of State’s travel registration website at https://travelregistration.state.gov.
For more country-specific security information, U.S. citizens planning to travel to or remaining in Central Asia despite this Public Announcement should consult the Department of State’s country-specific Travel Warnings, Public Announcements, Consular Information Sheets, and the Worldwide Caution Public Announcement, available on the Department of State’s website at http://travel.state.gov.
Updated information on travel and security in Central Asia may also be obtained from the Department of State by calling 1-888-407-4747 within the United States, or, from overseas, 1-202-501-4444.
Spelling Correction in previous post:
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/04/30/suspected_militants_strike_twice_in_cairo/
"Two women open fire on tour bus in Cairo"
By Paul Garwood, Associated Press Writer | April 30, 2005
CAIRO, Egypt --
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Ehab Yousri Yassin was being sought in connection with that attack when he set of the Saturday blast near a five-star hotel frequented by foreigners and behind the Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo.
A group calling itself the Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for the twin attacks in a statement posted on a Web forum used by Islamic militants. It said the attacks were in revenge for the deaths of those who carried out the Sinai bombings last year and for the subsequent arrests of thousands of people.
The claim's authenticity could not be verified.
"The crimes you committed against the people of Sinai ... will not pass lightly," the statement said, addressing President Hosni Mubarak. "The time for your removal has come."
The group -- whose name refers to a Palestinian militant who worked alongside Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and died there in 1989 -- was one of several that claimed responsibility for the Sinai attacks at the resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan.
In the Saturday bus shooting, the Interior Ministry identified the two women attackers as Yassin's sister, Negat, and his fiancee, Iman Ibrahim Khamis.
The two women followed the bus in their car, then stopped their vehicle and opened fire, pumping three bullets into the back window before turning their weapons on themselves, the ministry said. One died immediately, the other died in the hospital."
ON THE NET...
http://alansar.6te.net
"007"
"ZIMAS"
"zimas.alansar@gmail.com"
http://alansar.6te.net/audio.htm
http://alansar.6te.net/alqa3eda.htm
http://alansar.6te.net/images/468.gif
http://ansar4.narod.ru/up/al-3adl.rmvb
http://ansar4.narod.ru
"007"
"ZIMAS"
"zimas.alansar@gmail.com"
May 1, 2005
http://www.timesofoman.com/newsdetails.asp?newsid=14753
Sunday, May 01, 2005
AFP
Start a discussion on this topic
"Zarqawi aide calls for attacks on Vatican, White House"
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "DUBAI — The deputy to Al Qaeda’s frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, has asked for orders to attack the White House and the Vatican, according to an audiotape posted on the Internet yesterday.
“To our emir (leader) Abu Musab Al Zarqawi ... we say: We are ready for your orders. We are determined to fight the infidels,” said Sheikh Abdulrahman Al Iraqi in the tape, whose authenticity could not be verified.
“If you point at the White House or the Vatican, we would make every effort so that you reach your target,” he added, in the online statement broadcast a day after a call by Zarqawi to his followers to intensify their fight against the Americans in Iraq."
Domestic Terrorist Threats Declining, Officials Say
Reports of credible terrorist threats against the United States are at their lowest level since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to U.S. intelligence officials and federal and state law enforcement authorities.
The intelligence community's daily threat assessment, developed after the terrorist attacks to keep policymakers informed, currently lists, on average, 25 to 50 percent fewer threats against domestic targets than it typically did over the last two years, said one senior counterterrorism official.
A broad cross-section of counterterrorism officials believes al Qaeda and like-minded groups, in part frustrated by increased U.S. security measures, are focusing instead on Americans deployed in Iraq, where the groups operate with relative impunity, and on Europe.
Although some officials express caution and even skepticism, 25 current or recently retired officials interviewed last week cited progress from counterterrorism operations abroad and a more experienced homeland security apparatus for a general feeling that it is more difficult for terrorists to operate undetected. The officials represent federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies, state and local homeland security departments and the private sector.
"We are breathing easier," said U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer, whose officers guard one of al Qaeda's expressed targets and who is regularly briefed by the FBI and CIA. "The imminence of a threat seems to have diminished. We're just not as worried as we were a year ago, but we certainly are as vigilant."
"I agree," John O. Brennan, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said when told of Gainer's assessment. "Progress has been made."
Brennan also said the initial post-Sept. 11 belief that there were large numbers of sleeper cells in the United States turned out to be "a lot of hyperbole." Some people believed "there was a terrorist under every rock," he said.
But some intelligence analysts caution that the drop-off in terrorist-related planning, communication and movement could be a tactical pause by al Qaeda and related terrorist groups. No one suggests that the threat has gone away.
Brennan and others fear most what they are not hearing or seeing, especially the possibility that al Qaeda has acquired chemical or biological weapons and adapted in ways that have evaded detection. Analysts also say a flood of new terrorists motivated by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq may try to travel to the United States and reverse the relative calm of today's environment, as they are doing in Europe.
But for now, most officials acknowledge a change in perception, for the better. Most of these officials declined to speak on the record, for fear, as one put it, "that something will go boom" and the public will accuse them of being complacent.
Before he stepped down as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge signaled the change in threat level during his last roundtable discussion with reporters on Jan. 6 when he was asked to explain the decline in suspected terrorist activity in the prior months.
"Your characterization of it as being a significantly different threat environment, based on what we historically have heard, is absolutely correct," Ridge replied. "So there certainly is a diminution, reduction in the amount of intelligence, and the decibel level is lower."
Evidence of this lower decibel level is pervasive.
Behind closed doors, the weekly, classified "hot spot" briefings for congressional intelligence committees are consumed less by domestic terrorist threats than they have been, said people who have attended the meetings. "It's not as forefront in people's minds," said one such official. "There's not the same concern as there was a year ago about an imminent threat."
Some federal law enforcement officials say they know of no major counterterrorism cases soon to be made public.
The House Homeland Security Committee voted this week to reopen Reagan Washington National Airport to private aircraft and to eliminate the color-coded warning system that is one of the icons the post-Sept. 11 era. The number of secure briefings for lawmakers has dropped too, said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), a member of the Homeland Security Committee who has been critical of excessive security in Washington. "That in itself is an indication there is less to report."
Life in Washington almost seems closer to normal, especially after the tightened security prior to last November's election. The validity of top officials' publicly-stated belief that terrorists wanted to attack during the pre-election period is now hotly debated within the counterterrorism community. But the rotating checkpoints around the Capitol have become less disruptive, and a booming real estate market is a concrete symbol that people are not afraid to move to a potential ground zero.
Business sectors also note a change in broader public behavior. Hotel occupancy, room rates and revenue in Washington so far this year are the highest since 2001, the D.C. Convention and Tourism Corp. reported.
Counterterrorism officials said the atmosphere, particularly in the Washington area, also has calmed because they appear less jittery themselves. Now, they said, they are less inclined to warn the public about every vague, unsubstantiated threat, whereas in the past they feared being accused of missing something.
With three and a half years of experience, their ability to cull serious from baseless threats has matured, officials said.
"People are more hesitant to pull the trigger, and now think, 'Let's wait a day or two' to investigate," said John Rollins, former chief of staff for DHS's intelligence unit and now an analyst at the Congressional Research Service.
The intelligence community now can better identify the "unreliable and bogus threats," said Brennan of the National Counterterrorism Center. "We don't have to go into crisis mode. In the past, we had a lot of brush fires developing. Now, we can deal with it with a better filter."
There is also a broad recognition that "the sky can't be falling everyday," said one senior Washington law enforcement official.
U.S. officials, including Brennan, also express growing confidence in improved domestic security. They believe improvements in border security, countersurveillance tactics and information sharing among law enforcement agencies would make it difficult for plotters like the Sept. 11 hijackers to evade detection today.
Counterterrorism squads have also begun learning how to recruit informants and follow leads that do not necessarily result in arrests, an official in the field said.
"They thought they would be rounding up terrorists every week," said one senior counterterrorism official who helped train such a squad outside Washington. "But they weren't. There was some frustration," but the same officers are now learning intelligence tradecraft, he said.
Police are also honing counterterrorism efforts, working with businesses nationwide to screen for suspicious activity involving the acquisition of certain kinds of materials, vehicles, training and licenses that have figured in terrorist plots.
Public vigilance remains high, at least in major cities, officials said. This winter, for example, FBI agents were called to investigate when workers at a Northern Virginia hospital grew suspicious of two men who asked about nighttime staffing levels, ostensibly because they were considering whether their new doughnut shop should stay open 24 hours.
It turned out the men had, in fact, obtained a new doughnut franchise, two security officials said.
"Could what happened with the 9/11 operators in the pre-event stage happen today and nobody pick up on it? No, I don't think so," said Cathy Lanier, head of special operations for the Washington Police Department. "If they went through the same surveillance practices, forged documents, they would be picked up somehow. Along the line, there would be red flags, and I would say there is probably a good chance the red flags would have come through the public and not law enforcement or other sources."
Even if the threat has eased, officials throughout the government acknowledge major shortcomings in homeland security. Borders remain porous, chemical plants are poorly protected, the quality of airport baggage inspection is uneven and countless other vulnerabilities have not been addressed.
Some officials also express a nagging worry that analysts simply have less information to sift through, or less time to concentrate on it given the bureaucratic transitions in the intelligence community.
"There's been a kind of constant non-action, or non-tension, whatever you want to call it," one state homeland security adviser said. "There's not a whole lot of new stuff."
Several officials in urban areas that are considered prime targets said they worried most about what law enforcement is not detecting.
"I'm not so comforted" by the drop in intelligence warnings coming out of Washington, said one senior U.S. intelligence official based elsewhere. "I'm concerned about what is going on under our radar scope. And I'm worried about the radar scope."
Michael A. Mason, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office, said that as far as he is concerned, there has been no drop in the threat level.
"The desire to harm Americans is certainly still out there, whether that is wrapped around a specific threat or not," said Mason.
Washington Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, who co-chairs the homeland security committee for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, cautions that "complacency can settle in the further we get from 9/11. We tend to think everything is normal. I don't feel that way."
Ramsey said he believes the Homeland Security Department's color code will never go below its current level of yellow, which denotes that the nation's threat level is "elevated."
"We will never be at green again," Ramsey said. "Normal was redefined on 9/11. Normal is yellow."
Staff writers Sari Horwitz, Dan Eggen, John Mintz and Allen Lengel and researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
"Domestic Terrorist Threats Declining, Officials Say"
Well that's good to know nw.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1394425/posts
"Zarqawi Targeted Weapons Searcher Duelfer"
NewsMax ^ | 4/30/05 | Carl Limbacher
Posted on 04/30/2005 3:49:24 PM PDT by wagglebee
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Terrorists dispatched by al-Qaida ringleader Abu Musab al Zarqawi attacked Iraq Survey Group chief Charles Duelfer and killed two of his bodyguards, Duelfer tells U.K.'s Independent newspaper.
"A car bomb tried to get me and my follow car," Duelfer revealed Thursday. "Two of my guards were killed and one was badly wounded."
"My hearing's not been right since," the top weapons searcher added.
In an addendum to his report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that was released this week, Duelfer notes:"
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