Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - Thread Twenty-Nine

[nwctwx]

Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat

Thread Twenty-Nine (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!

Was Bomber's "New York" Shirt A Message?
Full Story

It's hardly a unique fashion statement for a mass transit rider: a Yankees-style cap, and a "New York" sweat shirt.

But the New York Police Department is teaming with British authorities to determine whether those items were worn by suspects in the London terror cases to send a "purposeful message" to the city, according to an NYPD officials.

David Cohen, the NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence, raised the concern earlier this week at a security briefing for business leaders at police headquarters in Lower Manhattan.

Related:
New assessments warn of Qaeda suicide attacks in U.S.
Still Not Ready in The ER | Cell Phone Number: ICE
Where bin Laden is, why he's still alive

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

TM Terrorism Handbook	Link to Thread Twenty-Eight "Code Red Implications: Code Red - Stay Home and Await Word." From Tm'er and Freeper ~MamaDearest~	Arabic Links and Resources
TM 'Be on the Lookout'		ExSoldier's Invaluable Tips
Threat Matrix Book List		Godzilla's Summaries
Tracking the Chatter with TM		TM Code of Conduct

Threat Matrix HTML designed by: Ian Livingston

[Cindy]

Note: The following video clips (with links to transcripts) are playing on the current front page of memritv.org.

===
===

http://www.memritv.org

Reactions to London Bombing


#792 - British and French Al-Qaeda Terrorists Promise to Slit the Throats of Americans and Jews in a New Film Showing Military Activities in Afghanistan
Al-Arabiya TV (Dubai) - 8/5/2005 - 00:02:58


#797 - Syrian MP Muhammad Habash: Modern Jews Are Partly Responsible for the Killing of the Prophets by Their Forefathers
Al-Deera TV (UAE) - 8/4/2005 - 00:02:08


#796 - Polygamy in Egypt
MBC - 7/31/2005 - 00:03:19


#794 - Captured Iraqi Terrorists Stage a Beheading, Another Tells How He Participated in the Murder of a Policeman
Al-Iraqiya TV (Iraq) - 8/2/2005 - 00:01:35

[Cindy]

http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=792

8/5/2005 Clip No. 792

"British and French Al-Qaeda Terrorists Promise to Slit the Throats of Americans and Jews in a New Film Showing Military Activities in Afghanistan"

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The following are excerpts from a report about Al-Qaeda's anti-American military activities in Afghanistan. Al-Arabiya TV aired this report on August 5, 2005"

[Cindy]

ON THE NET...

http://www.memri.org/jihad.html
http://www.memri.org

[backhoe]

This may be in China, but something to think about.

Exactly- as I have told many people, "This is what's coming to America. We can either be brutal, ruthless, and unflinching striking down those who will do us harm, and have a little of it-- or we can be weak, vacillating, and concilliatory, and get a lot of it. No 'third way.' No second-place winner in a gunfight."

[backhoe]

"British and French Al-Qaeda Terrorists Promise to Slit the Throats of Americans and Jews in a New Film Showing Military Activities in Afghanistan"

Yes, I saw that, and I'll tell you what-- I'm so sick & tired of this Jihadist Jive-talk-- all the childish, hyperbolic rhetoric, threats, and boasts-- that I'm ready to spit nails, or lead.

I've got to put the house to bed, but maybe I can find later a thing I either wrote or did links to-- can't recall which, but the title was "Don't goose the ( American ) Eagle."

We are a bad people to anger-- just look around for that "Thousand-Year Reich..." We can do it again, easier this time.

[nw_arizona_granny]

August 09, 2005

Extremist preacher flees to Lebanon

The London Times

By Daniel McGrory
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1727277,00.html

THE extremist cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed has fled Britain amid
fears that he could be arrested for his support of the London suicide
bombers.

Scotland Yard is understood to have been considering bringing charges
against the controversial leader of the al-Muhajiroun group, who
reportedly flew to Lebanon at the weekend.

The news of his departure came hours after seven men appeared in court
-- three of them charged with trying to kill themselves and commit mass
murder -- accused of involvement in the failed London bomb plot on July
21.

Muktar Said-Ibrahim, Yasin Hassan Omar and Ramzi Mohammad, the alleged
failed suicide bombers, and four other men appeared at brief hearings
in a courthouse next to Belmarsh prison in southeast London. They were
remanded in custody until November 14.

Last night, a close aide of Sheikh Bakri Mohammed told The Times that
the cleric, who had managed to fly out without being noticed, would
never return to Britain.

Only days after Tony Blair gave warning that the activities of radical
preachers would no longer be tolerated, Ahmed Choudary said: "The
sheikh has left the country and I don't think he will come back. He has said
that he is willing to destroy his British documents."

Even if he did try to return, security sources suggested last night
that he would be likely to be arrested. The Times can reveal that the
Crown Prosecution Service has been studying a file on the 47-year-old
Syrian-born radical to assess whether to bring charges over his lectures to
young Muslims that they should "fight Jihad" against Britain. He has
described the July 7 bombers as "the fabulous four".

Sheikh Bakri Mohammed, a father of seven, has lived in Britain since
1982. He has received tens of thousands of pounds in benefits payments
and told followers to claim as much as they can while doing all that they
can allegedly to "wage war" against Britain.

Syrian officials have given warning that he could face prosecution if
he attempts to return to his homeland.

Even after news of Mr Blair's crackdown on extremist clerics, Sheikh
Bakri Mohammed appeared on television claiming that he would never inform
the police if he knew that Muslims were planning another attack in
Britain. He also supported Muslims who attacked British troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan.

Sheikh Bakri Mohammed claimed to have disbanded his al-Muhajiroun group
earlier this year, but his followers simply split into new
organisations with different names, while still allegedly taking their orders from
him. He had boasted at the weekend that he could "live with" being
deported.

His aides would not say last night when and how he had planned his
escape. They insisted that he was not scared of Mr Blair's new rules.

In the past, his website has boasted of sending British recruits to
fight in Afghanistan and other conflicts such as Kashmir, Bosnia and
Chechnya but stopped once anti-terror laws were brought in after the
September 11 attacks which could have seen him risk prosecution.

Many of his followers seemed suprised by his departure although Mr
Choudray, his closest confidant, said: "He is considering his Islamic
duties in Lebanon and he is looking to go on to one of the Emirate
countries. I think you should be hearing from him soon.

"He has nothing to come back for and cannot preach freely under the
regime in this country. He has never had a British passport and he was
always talking about going abroad. He has dual nationality, Syrian and
Lebanese, so has no need for British documents.

"He received his Lebanese passport last week and flew out of Heathrow
on Saturday. His wife and children are still here.

"He has two adult sons, who will look after the family. I don't know if
the family will join him."

"He is a scholar who is respected by people around the world. He will
be welcomed by Muslims who want to here him. I think he will be visiting
the UAE next month."

Mr Choudray said that Sheikh Bakri Mohammed had been "demonised for
many years" in Britain. He added: "It is an obligation on Muslims that, if
they cannot fulfil their Islamic duties in a certain place then they
need to . . . emigrate to a place where they can, where their lives and
their religion is protected."

Muslim leaders last night welcomed his departure. Sir Iqbal Sacranie,
the secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "There can
be a bit of a celebration. That is something which I think will bring a
bit of real joy and happiness to the community."

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat legal affairs spokesman, said the
disappearance underlined the need to check people out of the country.
"The blunt public reaction will be 'thank goodness for that' from most
people," he said.

"There's a slightly more sophisticated reaction which is to say, given
that he did warn that he was going to go, doesn't that reinforce the
argument for making sure we check people out as well as check people in."

---

August 09, 2005

Radical cleric kept up inflammatory rhetoric despite becoming an
outcast

The London Times
By Sean O'Neill

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1727271,00.html

OMAR BAKRI Mohammed has been feeling the pressure of political
disapproval in Britain for several months -- modifying his language in public
while taking his extremist movement underground and continuing to preach
jihad.

On television and in press interviews Sheikh Bakri Mohammed, 47, has
claimed recently that he has restrained young British Muslims from
mounting terrorist attacks in the UK.

But on the internet and at private meetings in parks and homes he has
advocated terrorism, praised the 9/11 hijackers as the "Magnificent 19"
and told his followers that Britain was a "land of war".

Last weekend a Sunday Times undercover reporter who infiltrated his
Saviour Sect group said that Sheikh Bakri Mohammed had described the 7/7
suicide bombers as "the fantastic four". It was exactly the kind of
outrageous and offensive remark that has characterised his 19-year career
on the Islamist fringe.

For many years he was dismissed as a buffoon. But in the aftermath of
September 11 it became clear that Sheikh Bakri Mohammed and other
radical preachers had influenced small numbers of impressionable youths to
travel to Afghanistan and Kashmir to wage jihad.

In 2003 Omar Sharif from Derby and Asif Hanif from Hounslow, West
London, two of his followers, died in Tel Aviv after taking part in a Hamas
suicide bombing of a seafront bar.

Omar Bakri Fostock, to give him his birth name, was born in the Syrian
city of Aleppo in 1958 and from the age of five was immersed in strict
religious schools. He is said to have trained as a printer and
bookbinder but also claims to have attended at the Sharia (Islamic Law)
Institute at Damascus University.

His autobiography, published as a foreword to several of his
fundamentalist books, claims that he also studied at universities in Cairo and
Beirut. Sheikh Bakri Mohammed also joined many Islamist movements
including the Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest fundamentalist political group in
the Arab world. But his career was characterised by falling out with
those groups and setting up new movements with himself as the leader.

In 1985 he was one of a number of Islamist dissidents expelled from
Saudi Arabia. He came to Britain where he claimed asylum and was granted
indefinite leave to remain here because of the risk that he would face
political persecution if deported back to Saudi Arabia.

Sheikh Bakri Mohammed became leader of the first British branch of Hizb
ut Tahrir (Islamic Liberation Party) and preached firebrand sermons --
mostly on an anti-Israel theme -- across Britain.

He targeted university campuses to win recruits, aping the tactics of
revolutionary left-wing sects. The allegedly anti-Semitic literature
distributed by the group attracted widespread concern and it was banned
from many colleges.

It was not until the mid-1990s that many mosques began to realise that
the guest speaker addressing many of their young people was such an
extremist. He began to be expelled from many mosques.

In 1991 he was arrested and questioned for two days after suggesting
that John Major, the Prime Minister, was a legitimate target for
assassination.

He split with the international leaders of Hizb ut Tahrir in 1996 and
set up al-Muhajiroun (the emigrants) in a technology business park in
North London. He became known as the Tottenham Taliban. Sheikh Bakri
Mohammed, who has a close relationship with the Saudi dissident Muhammad
al-Massari, was among the first in the Islamist world to realise the
value of the internet in spreading his message.

Al Muhajiroun developed branches around the world, notably in Pakistan,
where its leaders claimed in 2001 to be recruiting hundreds of young
British Muslims to fight against the US invasion of Afghanistan.

But as knowledge of his activities became more widespread, Sheikh Bakri
Mohammed's constituency began to shrink. He became a pariah in the
Muslim community and there was a growing clamour for legal action to be
taken against him.

He has been the subject of a number of police inquiries and the Crown
Prosecution has been studying a case against him for a number of months.

[MamaDearest]

Those pictures were indeed graphic. The concept of this happening in the US in the coming days is unfortunately real.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Amtrak Beefs Up Security in Northeast

Monday, August 08, 2005

Associated Press
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,165086,00.html

NEW YORK -- Police forces along the East Coast are teaming up to
protect Amtrak trains traveling between New York and Washington.

It's the latest in a series of security measures begun since last
month's deadly London transit bombings.

Officials say they have no information about a specific threat against
the route, which is the most heavily traveled in the Amtrak system. But
a New York Police Department spokesman says recent security reviews
have raised concerns that a route involving "two high profile cities"
might be a target.

The increased security -- which starts today -- involves police
officers from New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington and other
jurisdictions.

A spokesman says officers will be on the lookout for suspicious
packages and activity on trains and tracks. The team effort also includes the
use of police helicopters and bomb-sniffing dogs

[MamaDearest]

Grrrrrrr! I just paid $2.49/gal for regular unleaded.

It's $2.46 here and rising every day. We've cut back our driving severely. Check out this link from 2000 - it's a shame automobile manufacturers have not fine-tuned their production to today's reality instead of marketing gashogs and guzzlers:

GM concept car gets 108 mpg

[nw_arizona_granny]

War Plans Drafted To Counter Terror Attacks in U.S.
Domestic Effort Is Big Shift for Military

By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 8, 2005; A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/07/AR2005080700843.html

COLORADO SPRINGS -- The U.S. military has devised its first-ever war
plans for guarding against and responding to terrorist attacks in the
United States, envisioning 15 potential crisis scenarios and anticipating
several simultaneous strikes around the country, according to officers
who drafted the plans.

The classified plans, developed here at Northern Command headquarters,
outline a variety of possible roles for quick-reaction forces estimated
at as many as 3,000 ground troops per attack, a number that could
easily grow depending on the extent of the damage and the abilities of
civilian response teams.

The possible scenarios range from "low end," relatively modest
crowd-control missions to "high-end," full-scale disaster management after
catastrophic attacks such as the release of a deadly biological agent or
the explosion of a radiological device, several officers said.

Some of the worst-case scenarios involve three attacks at the same
time, in keeping with a Pentagon directive earlier this year ordering
Northcom, as the command is called, to plan for multiple simultaneous
attacks.

The war plans represent a historic shift for the Pentagon, which has
been reluctant to become involved in domestic operations and is legally
constrained from engaging in law enforcement. Indeed, defense officials
continue to stress that they intend for the troops to play largely a
supporting role in homeland emergencies, bolstering police, firefighters
and other civilian response groups.

But the new plans provide for what several senior officers acknowledged
is the likelihood that the military will have to take charge in some
situations, especially when dealing with mass-casualty attacks that could
quickly overwhelm civilian resources.

"In my estimation, [in the event of] a biological, a chemical or
nuclear attack in any of the 50 states, the Department of Defense is best
positioned -- of the various eight federal agencies that would be involved
-- to take the lead," said Adm. Timothy J. Keating, the head of
Northcom, which coordinates military involvement in homeland security
operations.

The plans present the Pentagon with a clearer idea of the kinds and
numbers of troops and the training that may be required to build a more
credible homeland defense force. They come at a time when senior Pentagon
officials are engaged in an internal, year-long review of force levels
and weapons systems, attempting to balance the heightened requirements
of homeland defense against the heavy demands of overseas deployments
in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Keating expressed confidence that existing military assets are
sufficient to meet homeland security needs. Maj. Gen. Richard J. Rowe,
Northcom's chief operations officer, agreed, but he added that "stress points"
in some military capabilities probably would result if troops were
called on to deal with multiple homeland attacks.

Debate and Analysis

Several people on the staff here and at the Pentagon said in interviews
that the debate and analysis within the U.S. government regarding the
extent of the homeland threat and the resources necessary to guard
against it remain far from resolved.

The command's plans consist of two main documents. One, designated
CONPLAN 2002 and consisting of more than 1,000 pages, is said to be a sort
of umbrella document that draws together previously issued orders for
homeland missions and covers air, sea and land operations. It addresses
not only post-attack responses but also prevention and deterrence
actions aimed at intercepting threats before they reach the United States.

The other, identified as CONPLAN 0500, deals specifically with managing
the consequences of attacks represented by the 15 scenarios.

CONPLAN 2002 has passed a review by the Pentagon's Joint Staff and is
due to go soon to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and top aides for
further study and approval, the officers said. CONPLAN 0500 is still
undergoing final drafting here. (CONPLAN stands for "concept plan" and
tends to be an abbreviated version of an OPLAN, or "operations plan,"
which specifies forces and timelines for movement into a combat zone.)

The plans, like much else about Northcom, mark a new venture by a U.S.
military establishment still trying to find its comfort level with the
idea of a greater homeland defense role after the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks.

Military officers and civilian Pentagon policymakers say they
recognize, on one hand, that the armed forces have much to offer not only in
numbers of troops but also in experience managing crises and responding to
emergencies. On the other hand, they worry that too much involvement in
homeland missions would diminish the military's ability to deal with
threats abroad.

The Pentagon's new homeland defense strategy, issued in June,
emphasized in boldface type that "domestic security is primarily a civilian law
enforcement function." Still, it noted the possibility that ground
troops might be sent into action on U.S. soil to counter security threats
and deal with major emergencies.

"For the Pentagon to acknowledge that it would have to respond to
catastrophic attack and needs a plan was a big step," said James Carafano,
who follows homeland security issues for the Heritage Foundation, a
conservative Washington think tank.

William M. Arkin, a defense specialist who has reported on Northcom's
war planning, said the evolution of the Pentagon's thinking reflects the
recognition of an obvious gap in civilian resources.

Since Northcom's inception in October 2002, its headquarters staff has
grown to about 640 members, making it larger than the Southern Command,
which oversees operations in Latin America, but smaller than the
regional commands for Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific. A brief tour
late last month of Northcom's operations center at Peterson Air Force
Base found officers monitoring not only aircraft and ship traffic around
the United States but also the Discovery space shuttle mission, the
National Scout Jamboree in Virginia, several border surveillance
operations and a few forest firefighting efforts.

(this is only a part of the article - granny)

[Cindy]

$2.52/gallon and we got 19.8 gallons.

[Cindy]

"The concept of this happening in the US in the coming days is unfortunately real."

OPINION: Suiciders can happen anywhere, anytime to anybody.

because...

TERRORISM IS GLOBAL.
TERRORISTS ARE GLOBAL.
Jihad -- another day.

[Cindy]

YEP...their threats are disturbing and tiresome and their actions evil.

[Chaos]

Re: Prayers

Thanks granny. He is made it to China OK, and he's very tired. He also said he read in the China Morning Post today that the French may have developed a possible vaccine for the bird flu.

[appalachian_dweller]

Re # 310 - War Plans Drafted To Counter Terror Attacks in U.S. Domestic Effort Is Big Shift for Military

Granny, that is a truly CHILLING report you posted there. Combine that with the Executive Orders to FEMA in the event of a catastrophic event and (what's left of the) the freedoms we now know will be history.

Remember the movie 'Outbreak'. A bio release would be quarantined. Efforts to break the quarantine would be met with lethal force - by the US Military.

[Chaos]

Talked to him this morning about 11:30am our Eastern time so he would have called me after that happened I hope!

[Chaos]

Re: Prayers. Thanks!

[MamaDearest]

We clipped birds and chickens wings to keep them from flying.

This is still the procedure used for caged birds Granny. My Amazon was tolerant, but my Macaw would have bit my fingers off, so I paid to have someone else clip his wings.

Oil prices heading toward $64.00 gallon

Mohammad Khalil captured

Monkeypox outbreak shows smallpox vaccine works - one from 48 years

New ID theft ring hits 50 banks

Extremist cleric flees to Beirut

Diary of British Jihadi found

France warned to watch its Pakistani community

Terrorism could worsen in Muslim countries

[MamaDearest]

Vaccine for bird flu works well - but quantity may be a problem

[MamaDearest]

$2.52/gallon and we got 19.8 gallons.

Ouch! That hurts just to read it!