Posted on 08/07/2006 3:43:15 PM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT
Corrected url for my last post:
http://terrorfinance.typepad.com
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/9/18/93724.shtml
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Monday, Sept. 18, 2006 9:34 a.m. EDT
Al-Qaida in Iraq: Pope and West are 'Doomed'
Al-Qaida in Iraq and its allies warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that he and the West were "doomed" and proclaimed that the holy war would continue until Islam dominates the world.
The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups that includes al-Qaida in Iraq, issued a statement on a Web forum about the pope's remarks last week on Islam. The authenticity of the statement could not be immediately independently verified.
"You infidels and despotic, we will continue our jihad (holy war) and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism when God's rule is established governing all people and nations," the statement said.
The group said Muslims will be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshipper of the cross" saying "you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed by) the sword."
Islam forbids drinking alcohol and requires non-Muslims to pay a head tax to safeguard their lives if conquered by Muslims. They are exempt if they convert to Islam.
The statement said that the Quran tells Muslims in many occasions that "jihad continues and should never stop until dooms day where this religion ends victorious."
The group also accused U.S. President George W. Bush of initiating the "new Crusades campaign against Islam by his invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq while the servant of the cross, the pope of the Vatican, is continuing this path by his blatant attack on Islam, its prophet . . . and especially his talk about jihad."
Benedict on Tuesday in Germany had quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and an educated Persian on the truths of Christianity and Islam.
"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the pope said.
"He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached,'" he quoted the emperor as saying.
The pope on Sunday said that he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction and said the remarks came from a text that didn't reflect his own opinion.
© 2006 Associated Press.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/9/18/160906.shtml?s=icp
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Monday, Sept. 18, 2006 4:02 p.m. EDT
Iran's Khameini: Target Pope, U.S. With Attacks
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used the recent comments by Pope Benedict XVI to call for protests against the United States. He argued that while the pope may have been deceived into making his remarks, the words give the West an "excuse for suppressing Muslims" by depicting them as terrorists.
"Those who benefit from the pope's comments and drive their own arrogant policies should be targeted with attacks and protests," he said, referring to the United States.
The anger recalled the outrage earlier this year over cartoons depicting the prophet published by a Danish paper. The caricatures, which Muslims saw as insulting Muhammad, set off large, violent protests across the Islamic world.
So far, protests over the pope's comments have been smaller. However, there has been some violence: Attackers hurled firebombs at seven churches in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the weekend, and a nun was shot to death in Somalia.
Some 200 Khamenei loyalists in the Syrian capital, Damascus, held a protest Monday at an Islamic shrine, dismissing the pope's apology. "The pope's sorrow was equivocal," read one banner.
Dozens protested outside the Vatican Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, and schools and shops in the Indian-controlled section of Kashmir shut their doors in protest.
"His comments really hurt Muslims all over the world," Umar Nawawi of the radical Islamic Defenders' Front said in Jakarta. "We should remind him not to say such things which can only fuel a holy war."
Islamic countries also asked the U.N. Human Rights Council to examine the question of religious tolerance. Malaysia's foreign minister, Syed Hamid Albar, said Benedict's apology was "inadequate to calm the anger."
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood said the anger should not be allowed to hurt ties with the Middle East's Christian minorities. But worries among Christians in the region are high.
Guards have been posted around some churches, and the head of Egypt's Orthodox Coptic Church, Pope Shenouda III, disassociated himself from Benedict's statements.
The Dominican mission in Cairo also criticized Benedict's words, saying he chose a text for his speech that "revived the polemics of the past."
"These comments, seen by many Muslims as hurtful, risk encouraging extremists on all sides," it said in a statement, "and put in danger all the advances in dialogue made in recent decades."
© 2006 Associated Press.
A collection of the important OBL and al-qaeda reports:
http://www.rickross.com/groups/alqaeda.html
[How many did they bring across the border? Jan, 2006]
http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3386933
Report: MS-13 gang hired to murder Border Patrol
By Sara A. Carter and Mason Stockstill, Staff Writers
Mexican alien smugglers plan to pay violent gang members and smuggle
them into the United States to murder Border Patrol agents, according
to a confidential Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by the
Daily Bulletin.
The Officer Safety Alert, dated Dec. 21, warns agents that the
smugglers intend to bring members of the international Mara
Salvatrucha street gang also known as MS-13 into the country for the
deadly mission.
"Unidentified Mexican alien smugglers are angry about the increased
security along the U.S./Mexico border and have agreed that the best
way to deal with U.S. Border Patrol agents is to hire a group of
contract killers," the alert states.
MS-13, which has a strong base in El Salvador, is considered by the
FBI to be one of the most dangerous gangs in the United States, with
more than 20,000 members.
Gang members have been found in 33 states and connected to murder,
racketeering, assault, rapes and extortion. Last January, Immigration
and Customs Enforcement raided six cities and made more than 100
arrests of MS-13 gang members.
Intelligence officials last year reported that MS-13 gang members had
been linked to terrorists seeking entry into the country.
Michael Friel, a representative with the Department of Homeland
Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said he could not
comment directly on the memo, but noted "this wouldn't be the first
time agents' lives have been threatened.
"It's no surprise that these smugglers, these criminals, would be
threatening our agents," he added. "And that would be a huge mistake
on their part if they try."
The alert was labeled "for official use only," meaning that while it
does not contain classified information, it is not to be made public
or released to the media. It also is required to be stored in a locked
container and "burned or shredded" when it is no longer needed.
The memo was issued based on information from a report issued by the
FBI. An FBI spokesman reached by telephone in Washington said he could
not comment on that report.
A Border Patrol agent who spoke on condition of anonymity said agents
in the field have been worried since the release of the alert in
December.
"It's not just people coming over here to pick lettuce. These gang
members, criminals, are endangering American lives," the agent said.
"Our vests won't stop a rifle bullet, and many of us out here feel
like sitting ducks," he added.
Over the past year, Border Patrol agents have warned they are facing
more danger than ever before along the divide between the two
countries. Many believe stepped-up enforcement by the United States
has led to a similar increase in violence by drug smugglers and border
crossers.
Last week, agents in Texas reported two separate incidents in which
someone fired on them from the Mexican side of the border. Officers in
Arizona were issued pocket-sized cards last year with suggested
maneuvers in case they encounter Mexican military troops while on
patrol.
On Dec. 30, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed an 18-year-old
Mexican man agents said had thrown a rock at U.S. officials after
crossing the border.
Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, chairman of the House Rules Committee
and one of the GOP's immigration reform advocates, said security for
Border Patrol agents is essential.
"First of all, we need to provide Border Patrol agents with all the
resources they need to protect themselves, we need to hire more
agents, and we need to make sure we're tracking and targeting gangs
coming across the border," Dreier said Monday night. "The security of
our agents is of the upmost concern."
T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, an
association representing agents, said Monday that the Homeland
Security alert is more proof agents often are putting their lives at
risk. Assaults on agents doubled last year, according to Bonner.
"MS-13 has shown that its members have very little regard for human
life," he said. "Some of the atrocities they have committed are truly
unspeakable, and it worries me to know that our agents on the line are
now the targets. I don't know what it's going to take to wake up the
folks in Washington."
Some anti-illegal immigrant organizations blame the Bush
administration for what they say is a lackadaisical attitude about
border security.
"The president still acts like Mexico is a friendly neighbor, when in
reality it's the complete opposite," said Andy Ramirez, chairman of
Friends of the Border Patrol, a Chino organization that supports
border agents. "Border Patrol agents' lives are in extremely high
danger, and yet the public isn't notified. When are they going to
realize that threats against our law-enforcement officers are threats
against this nation?"
Milford sent this:
[under-investigation] Amen Ahmed Ali - Arrested for Stolen Def. Secrets Sale - CA
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,214058,00.html
Prosecutors: Man Charged in Stolen Secrets Case Tied to Terrorists
Friday, September 15, 2006
FRESNO, Calif. — A California man accused of trying to supply
stolen U.S. military equipment and defense secrets to Yemen was
denied bail Friday after a prosecutor said he had ties to a
terrorist financier who plotted to help Al Qaeda and Hamas.
The allegations emerged at a hearing for Amen Ahmed Ali, 56.
In pressing to keep Ali behind bars, prosecutors said that a search
of Ali's house turned up contact information for Sheik Mohammed Ali
Hassan al-Moayad in Ali's address book.
Al-Moayad, a Yemeni cleric serving a 75-year prison sentence, was
convicted in New York last year of conspiring to support and
attempting to support Al Qaeda and the Palestinian extremist group
Hamas, and of actually supporting Hamas.
Ali was arrested Sept. 7 at his cigarette shop in Bakersfield and
charged along with two other men, all three of them Yemeni-born U.S.
citizens.
Prosecutors said Ali planned to send chemical suits and body armor
to Yemen without State Department authorization.
Click here for the latest War on Terror headlines
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013153.php
September 17, 2006
Orthodox Church Archbishop attacks 'Islamic fanaticism'
Expect more threats and murder until he apologizes also. "Orthodox
Church
Archbishop attacks 'Islamic fanatism,'" from AND
http://www.andnetwork.com/index?service=direct/0/Home/story&sp=l51985
,
with thanks to Tommy:
Johannesburg (AND) In yet another furore to grip the Christian
community,
the head of the Orthodox Church of Greece has joined the Pope
controversy by
attacking what he calls Islamic fanaticism in Africa. In a scathing
attack,
barely 48 hours after a Somali Islamic cleric called for Muslims to
kill the
Pope for his Tuesday utterances, Archbishop Christodoulos told a sermon
in
Athens that Christians in Africa were suffering at the hands of
'fanatic
Islamists'.
"Many Christians on the Black Continent (Africa) suffer from fanatic
Islamists. The example of Roman Catholic monks who were slaughtered
last
year... because they wore the cross and believed in our crucified Lord
is
still recent," said Christodoulos.
The Archbishop's remarks come as the Muslim world is seething with
anger
over Pope Benedict XVI's quoting of a 14th-century Byzantine emperor
who
said innovations introduced by the Prophet Mohammed (the Islamic
supreme
leader) were "evil and inhuman".
The Pope has already been forced in submitting that he was "deeply
sorry"
after hisremarks sparked outrage in the Muslim world, with Morocco
calling
back its envoy and Turkey casting doubts of Benedict's scheduled visit
in
November - the first to a Muslim country.
Posted by Robert at September 17, 2006 09:59 PM | Print this
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2006/09/013153print.html
Email
http://www.jihadwatch.org/cgi-bin/mt-popupemail.cgi?entry_id=13153
this
entry
Comments
I am still shaking, my mind racing.
Mike Reagan opened his program, with a breaking story:
AP
The Pope has said today, due to the fact that he has caused the muslims to be unhappy and riot, that he would step down.
Hw would move to London.
And become the iman of a muslim mosque, so that he could preach all the hate he wants to.
Took me a minute to understand that it was supposed to be a joke.
Sorry, I did not laugh, it is too close to what the muslims want.
Can you imagine if he did step down?
Can you imagine if he became a muslim?
I still have butterfly's.
JCSLink JuSt Posted
September 18, 2006
Photo American ex prisoner of war John Meyers laughs as he shares a war story with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace following a ceremony in honor of National POW/MIA Recognition Day at the Pentagon, Sept. 15, 2006. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England co-hosted the event and Connecticut Congressman Robert Simmons was the guest speaker at the event. Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen
Defense Leaders Recognize POWs, MIAs
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2006 – Military and defense leaders, former prisoners of war and families of missing servicemembers gathered here today to commemorate National POW/MIA Recognition Day and to reaffirm their commitment to ensuring a full accounting of those missing in action. Story http://www.defenselink.mil/News/NewsArticle.aspx?id=918
Photo Essay http://www.defenselink.mil/PhotoEssays/PhotoEssay.aspx?Page=1&ID=104&2104=20060915&Count=7
Visit JCSLink at www.jcs.mil
are showing a level of mental illness, that one needs to understand, in order to understand your enemy.
U of A honing online intelligence
By Ryan Gabrielson, Tribune
September 17, 2006
Hsinchun Chen goes where terrorists gather. He monitors what they say and, particularly, how they say it. He tracks who they are talking to, and whether they are spreading propaganda or providing training. “They’re hiding,” Chen said. “You need to dig them out.”
Related Links
Today's Top Stories
News
Chen is not operating undercover, or eavesdropping on nearby conversations in an unmarked van on a darkened street. He is a middle-aged, polite computer science professor at the University of Arizona, working from a closet-sized office in Tucson. A supercomputer in his building’s basement uses data-mining to scour the Internet and analyze the intelligence it gathers for the U.S. government. Chen is one of dozens of university computer researchers serving as online intelligence officers training the next generation of digital spies.
In the five years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, many academics have joined ranks with the intelligence community, said Peter Freeman, a National Science Foundation official.
“This time we’re on the front lines,” he said.
The role is unusual and, at times, awkward for academics. After building a career on the premise of publishing what they know, their funding is coming from agencies that specialize in secrets.
It also is a new course for the intelligence community which has been forced to look outside of itself to devise effective battle tactics against elusive extremist groups, Freeman said.
CONNECTING THE DOTS
Terrorists have made the Web a headquarters where they communicate largely without detection. The Internet is a veritable blizzard of electronic activity, making it highly difficult to track any one person or group, Chen said.
So agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and the Central Intelligence Agency have pumped millions of dollars into computer science research.
The work is focused on data-mining, the process used to connect the dots when there are billions of dots from which to choose. Analysts construct formulas, known as algorithms, to unearth patterns in a huge mass of data.
That data can be financial records, news articles, video files, message boards and personal e-mails.
Banks and cell phone companies have for years used it to recognize abnormal spending or calling behavior, which signals that a phone or credit card might have been stolen.
The intelligence community’s hope, Chen said, is that data-mining can streamline the digital chatter to show where and how terrorist plots are unfolding.
The tool has become so popular that in 2004, the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ watchdog agency, counted 199 data-mining programs under way or in development.
While the spy agencies’ interest has been a boon for computer science researchers, it comes with conditions. Potentially the most significant, several of the academics say, is their discoveries have to be handed to agents who might use the information in ways they oppose.
“What the government’s going to do with it after is an issue that everyone should worry about,” said Janyce Wiebe, a University of Pittsburgh computer science researcher. “We’ve already got that problem.”
SAFETY VS. PRIVACY
Government forays into using data-mining to hunt terrorists have ignited controversy and concern that citizens’ privacy rights will be violated.
The Bush administration has had to fend off questions about its warrantless surveillance of international phone calls and e-mails by the National Security Agency, disclosed in news reports last December. That operation was recently ruled illegal by a federal judge.
Three years ago, the intelligence community dismantled a massive data-mining operation dubbed “Total Information Awareness” that sought all forms of electronic information on people, including such personal information as health history and travel records, to uncover terror connections. The program came under deafening public criticism for its alleged monitoring of innocent citizens.
Because data-mining allows analysts to get the information they are looking for from a massive pile of data relatively quickly, it is becoming far easier to monitor a whole population.
Computer science is developing tools that limit online privacy, Wiebe said, and the American people “have to figure out how they’re going to deal with that.”
Using multiple intelligence community grants, Wiebe is working to develop ways for a computer to discern opinion from fact in text. Last month, she was awarded part of a $10.2 million grant from Homeland Security that, in addition to paying for research, requires her to instruct the agency’s analysts to use her technology.
SPY SCHOOLS
Most university researchers are devising better ways to find and analyze online extremist information, but do not collect it themselves. The aim of recent federal funding, in addition to advancing datamining, is to establish spy schools within universities.
Students are already receiving training in the field, said Edward Hovey, director of the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, but most of them go on to search-engine companies like Microsoft and Google.
To date, data-mining has primarily been applied to solve business problems.
Teaching intelligence agents presents new complications, said Hovey, who has received a grant to establish a spy school at USC.
“Somebody comes to you and says, ‘You know, I really need this because I want to stop some guy from blowing you up tomorrow.’ It’s really hard to say no,” he said. “On the other hand, to say, ‘I’m going to go behind the curtain and do all kinds of nefarious illegal things,’ like the NSA did with the phone numbers, then absolutely I refuse to even talk there.”
The university researchers say they are not working with classified material.
A majority of computer science researchers are not American citizens, Hovey said, severely limiting how close they can become to the spy agencies.
However, public Internet data, called “opensource,” is rich with information on extremist groups, said Fred Roberts, a computer science researcher at Rutgers University.
Public Web sites and message boards allow terrorists to connect for free with those they hope to lure, mainly disaffected young men, Chen said. The UA research team found multiple extremist organizations from around the world using Yahoo and Google messaging groups to recruit.
From there, the extremists can direct each other to increasingly sophisticated Web sites that hold multimedia files explaining how to carry out attacks. Chen’s team found an online video that gives step-by-step instructions on how to execute a suicide car bombing.
“If they don’t get the tools they are just disgruntled young men,” Chen said. The UA team passes its intelligence on to spy agencies. Chen declined to name which ones.
COVERT CASH
Chen’s grant funding comes from every corner of the intelligence community.
But while the researchers’ work is to be made public, little information is disclosed about what money the spy agencies are providing the universities. The Tribune reviewed a database of federal grants for the previous three years and found that intelligence community cash is rarely handed directly to researchers.
One major program — “Knowledge, Discovery and Dissemination” — involves nine spy agencies and has funneled research money through the science foundation since 2001, government documents show. While the program’s grants are listed in the database, it was never mentioned by name.
The grant that provides much of the funding for Chen’s work came from Homeland Security for a project labeled “Border Safe,” he said. Again, the database does not include a grant from the agency for UA to search out terror groups.
Instead, Homeland Security provided almost $2 million in 2003 to the Corporation for National Research Initiatives, a nonprofit with close ties to the Pentagon, for Border Safe.
Buried deep in the nonprofit’s public tax records for 2003 is a document listing $663,566 provided to UA. The transaction is listed only as “information management.”
DATA MINE FIELD
There are several fields within data-mining. Computer science researchers are hunting for the means to analyze video as effectively as they do numbers, to understand what a text is saying regardless of its language and identify its author by how he uses his words.
Though Chen boasts his research is already netting important information on extremists, as an anti-terror tool, data-mining has significant limitations.
“It’s the hot thing to stop terrorism,” said Bruce Schneier, a computer security expert with Counterpane Internet Security in Mountain View, Calif. But, he added, “It is completely ineffective.”
The greatest flaw that Schneier sees is that datamining is likely to generate a huge number of false alarms, patterns the computer misinterprets as terror activity. Those false alarms waste law enforcement’s time and prompt unnecessary surveillance, or possibly detainment, of innocent citizens. The university researchers acknowledge data-mining’s current shortcomings. As part of her research, Wiebe said she is attempting to upgrade computers’ ability to understand how humans use language. A classic example of the problem is the phrase, “killed two birds with one stone,” she said. A computer would interpret that as an actual event where the stone was a weapon, the birds victims.
Contact Ryan Gabrielson by email, or phone (480)-
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=74284
Google Alert - bomb threat
Bomb Threat Seals off Sofia Airport
Sofia News Agency - Bulgaria
... for triggered the alarm. The signal over a possible bomb device
planted
in it was made at about 7:30 pm. It was not immediately ...
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=69802
Police investigate bomb threat at Jordan
Palo Alto Online - Palo Alto,CA,USA
... Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto, but the police are on campus
too,
to assure parents and teachers that they don't believe an e-mail bomb
threat against the ...
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=3679
Bomb threat forces evacuation of Martin County courthouse
Palm Beach Post - FL, United States
STUART — A bomb threat forced evacuation of the Martin County
courthouse
and constitutional office building this morning, sending hundreds of
employees
...
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2006/09/18/0918bomb.html
See all stories on this topic:
http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&hl=en&client=google&ncl=http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2006/09/18/0918bomb.html
I agree.
I remember the baby formula incident. I do believe the situation affected the Jewish community here in the U.S. also, didn't it?
The greatest flaw that Schneier sees is that datamining is likely to generate a huge number of false alarms, patterns the computer misinterprets as terror activity. Those false alarms waste law enforcement’s time and prompt unnecessary surveillance, or possibly detainment, of innocent citizens. The university researchers acknowledge data-mining’s current shortcomings. As part of her research, Wiebe said she is attempting to upgrade computers’ ability to understand how humans use language. A classic example of the problem is the phrase, “killed two birds with one stone,” she said. A computer would interpret that as an actual event where the stone was a weapon, the birds victims.
Contact Ryan Gabrielson by email, or phone (480)-
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=74284
<<<<
As I read this, I kept thinking, fools, all they need is a team of Freepers..................
And of course the "Kill 2 birds with a stone" is code for where to strike next with cell#1...........don't need a computer to know that.
I think the Feds are still after a computer program, that reads chalk marks on the light post.
Find the light post, and the secret message will be under the third rock, to the left of the post.
train derails
Residents evacuated after freight train derails near Salem
ABC7Chicago.com - IL, USA
September 14, 2006 - Dozens of people were being evacuated in southern Illinois after multiple cars of a freight train -- including three tankers carrying ...
Train Derails In Salem, Ill.
KSDK - St. Louis,MO,USA
(KSDK) - A Canadian National train carrying chemicals derailed around 4:30 Thursday afternoon in Salem, Ill. A spokesperson said ...
Reports: Express train derails in Japan
Seattle Post Intelligencer - USA
TOKYO -- An express train derailed Sunday in southwestern Japan, injuring at least two people, news reports said. The train was ...
See all stories on this topic
I do not know about the baby formula here, it could have done so. Or the reading about the Germans making bad baby formula for the Jews, could well have frozen my mind.
There is also the date changing, and black market for the baby formula by the hezbollah, here in the US.
Baby formula is maybe the most stolen item in the stores, it is the 'money for the dope users on the street.
VENEZUELA: Guns, drugs and thugs: the threat from Plan Colombia
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/684/684p12b.htm
Cuba and Venezuela: Building an 'axis of hope’
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/684/684p24.htm
Mexico considers breaking off relations with Venezuela
Associated Press
Mexico City, September 18, 2006
Mexico said that it is considering breaking off diplomatic relations with Venezuela after President Hugo Chavez accused the Mexican government of stealing the presidential election.
"The Mexican government rejects completely the judgments expressed about the Mexican electoral process and its results, made by the President of the Boliviarian Republic of Venezuela, Mr. Hugo Chavez, in his interview with CNN en Espanol," Mexico's foreign ministry said yesterday. "Even though false, they constitute an inadmissible intervention in the internal affairs of our country."
"The Mexican government regrets this statement by the Venezuelan leader about a subject that pertains exclusively to Mexicans and their institutions," the ministry said in an e-mail to reporters.
"In light of these statements, the Mexican government is evaluating the level of relations it will maintain with the government of Venezuela for the rest of this administration," the e-mail said. Mexican President Vicente Fox hands power to the ruling party's Felipe Calderon on December 1.
Chavez said in Caracas last week that his government had not recognised Calderon's victory because of concerns about alleged irregularities.
Chavez accused Mexico's ruling party of stealing the presidential election, and said Mexican President-elect Felipe Calderon had "destroyed" the opportunity for good relations with Venezuela during his campaign.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1799642,00050001.htm
Iran president cements anti-U.S. front with Venezuela
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-09-18T002941Z_01_N17211665_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAN-VENEZUELA.xml&archived=False
http://www.timesleader.net/articles/stories/public/200609/03/04hI_news.html
PPD investigators uncover theft ring
Times Leader Staff Report staff@timesleader.net
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Three women arrested by city police officers Thursday afternoon are suspected to be part of an international ring of thieves who have previously targeted grocery stores in southern and southwestern states, police said Friday.
Elia Rodriguez, Erika Eunice Carcamo and Ana Garcia, all of High Point, N.C., were arrested at about 1:08 p.m. Thursday on charges of theft by unlawful taking over $300, Maj. R.L. Howton said.
Officers received a complaint from employees of the E.W. James & Sons supermarket on U.S. 62 West that the trio had shoplifted several containers of powdered baby formula and left the area in a green van with a North Carolina license plate.
Officers stopped the van on U.S. 62 at the Baldwin Avenue intersection and, upon investigating, recovered 210 containers of assorted brands of powdered baby formula, worth an estimated $6,000, from the vehicle.
Between 20 and 30 are believed to have been stolen from the local store, Chief Brian Ward said.
In some similar cases, police said, the stolen formula is transferred to a central location, where it is repackaged for resale.
A large amount of other possibly-stolen merchandise — from crystal figurines and picture frames to olive oil and chocolate bars — was also recovered from the vehicle.
The women reportedly carried identical empty black purses into the stores and filled them with merchandise, police said.
With the assistance of the FBI, officers were able to positively identify the three females and determine that they are illegal aliens who have had similar arrests in North Carolina.
Officers lodged the trio in the county jail on the theft charges. Other charges are possible as the investigation continues, police said.
Each of the women remained jailed on $1,500 cash bonds Friday.
Report: Al Qaeda planning nuke attack for Ramadan
Yeah, I know 4:55 pm on September 12, 2006 by Allahpundit “alarmism.
A couple of points:
1. Hamid Mir, the reporter with whom this story originated, is the only journalist to have interviewed Bin Laden after 9/11. Obviously, his sources would be in a position to know what the top ranks of AQ are thinking. He’s been consistent, too: I wrote a post in late May about an interview Mir had given in which he identified Al Qaeda’s nuclear ambitions and even the operative they’ve entrusted to mastermind the attack — Adnan al-Shukrijumah, who inspired a special national terror APB by the FBI back in 2002. Mir’s story is the same today as it was four months ago. The only difference is that now he’s got a target date for the attack. Ramadan, 2006.
2. Would AQ really leak news of a massive attack before it happened? See for yourself. It’s about 30 seconds in, right after the segment on Shanksville. I’d completely forgotten until I saw the footage again yesterday.
3. The Blotter has run not one but two stories about Shukrijumah in the past five days. The only “news” in both stories was that the FBI is looking for him but still hasn’t found him. From September 7th:
Shukrijumah is suspected to have had contacts with 9/ll hijack leader Mohammed Atta before leaving the United States shortly before the attacks…
Virtually every one of the FBI’s 56 field offices are involved in the hunt, according to Stuart McArthur, the assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Miami field office, who heads up the bureau’s hunt for Shukrijumah.
And from yesterday:
A one-time Florida chemistry student has the FBI worried and working overtime…
[A]s the clock ticks they fear he will help guide al Qaeda to another terrorist attack somewhere inside the United States. “He has a knowledge base of the U.S. that he can share with other al Qaeda operatives,” the FBI’s McArthur said.
Why would they run two stories when there’s no actual news to report?
The Blotter has good sources inside the intelligence community and likes to be ahead of the curve with terrorism scoops. Last month, they ran a piece on alleged UK terror plot mastermind Matiur Rehman the day before arrests were made and the plot was publicly revealed. Clearly they’d been tipped to the impending raids and wanted to get in on the ground floor of the story. The fact that they’re putting Shukrijumah’s name out there when there is, to all appearances, no new information about him makes me think their sources are very concerned about him right now, and Brian Ross and co. either don’t know why or they do know and are sitting on sensitive details while the feds try to break up the plot.
Keep your eye on this one. It’s still probably a false alarm, but I’d raise the worry meter from blue to yellow.
Update: Forgot to mention that Mir thinks the nuclear material/device is already in the U.S., and was smuggled in … from Mexico. Our friends in the undocumented community had better hope that’s not true, because if it is, not even Jorge Bush will be able to resist the political pressure in the aftermath to make the southern border airtight.
Update: Dan Riehl points me to this editorial from Investor’s Business Daily a few days ago:
Detainees have told investigators that al-Qaida leaders plan to use new cells of second-generation immigrant Muslims who have lived in the U.S. and can blend in and not attract as much suspicion. They’re being held in reserve for larger attacks.
One such Americanized operative, Adnan El-Shukrijumah, has reportedly been scouting potential targets in New York, Washington and Chicago. He’s on the FBI’s most wanted list.
Update: Dan’s found a report that Shukrijumah was spotted in Trinidad, Guyana, as recently as a week ago.
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/09/12/report-al-qaeda-planning-nuke-attack-for-ramadan/
http://www.thereporteronline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17089784&BRD=2275&PAG=461&dept_id=466404&rfi=6
08/21/2006
Formula thief faces charges
JAIMEE KRAUS , For The Reporter
Dejan Ferrara‚ who is accused of stealing at least $170.40 worth of baby formula from the Giant in Montgomeryville in July‚ appeared before Magisterial District Judge David Keightly on Friday morning for his preliminary hearing.
Ferrara‚ whose last know address was in Hilltown‚ was charged with one count of retail theft‚ one count of receiving stolen property and one count criminal conspiracy.
There is an arrest warrant out for Ferrara’s alleged accomplice‚ police said.
Ferrara and another man allegedly loaded a shopping cart with at least 15 large containers of baby formula on July 24‚ wheeled it out of the store and unloaded the formula into a Jeep‚ according to the criminal complaint.
A shopper saw the incident‚ told a store manager and the police were called.
Dale Miller‚ customer operations manager of Giant in Montgomeryville‚ was a witness at Ferrara’s hearing on Friday.
He testified that‚ through footage captured by security cameras‚ he was able to watch two men load their cart with formula and wheel it out of the store.
After checking register tapes‚ Miller discovered that no large purchases had been made that evening.
“They came into the store at a very busy time (5:50 p.m.) when no one would really notice them‚” said Andrew Benner‚ a Montgomery Township police officer.
Miller said that they now have security guards at Giant.
Large amounts of baby formula may seem like an odd thing to steal‚ but according to police‚ it has become quite a trend over the past few years.
According to Lt. Mark Houghtaling of Montgomery Township‚ it was reported that baby formula was the fourth most stolen item in 2005.
“There’s always a steady demand for it‚ and there’s also a large profit margin‚” said Houghtaling‚ adding that baby formula can range from $10 to $16 a can and brings in a profit of about $8 a can.
He said that people steal it from the stores and take it to the city‚ where it is sold on the black market in exchange for cash‚ which is later used to buy drugs.
“Normally these people work in teams‚ and you sometimes see it connected to a retail theft ring in a major city‚” he said.
Sgt. Dean Miller of the Lansdale Police said that baby formula is a very popular product for thefts in his jurisdiction as well because it is easy to market and sell.
“It’s a constantly stolen item within retail stores‚” said Miller‚ adding that Lansdale police are currently working on an active case with Towamencin Police.
Police said $184.35 worth of baby formula was stolen from Clemens Market in Lansdale on July 31.
Miller said the man who stole from Clemens may be the same man who stole baby formula from Genuardi’s Market in Towamencin around the same time.
Neither municipality has made an arrest.
About five years ago‚ Lower Salford Township Police were involved with a case of stolen formula that ended up being recovered in a Philadelphia pharmacy raid.
Authorities tracked the formula confiscated in the raid back to Rann Pharmacy‚ in Lower Salford‚ by scanning codes that are printed on the labels‚ said Sgt. Tom Piatek of Lower Salford Police.
“It’s really not that uncommon‚” Piatek said about the frequency of baby formula being stolen.
Benner was aware that it wasn’t that uncommon‚ however he was surprised when he received a call about formula being stolen from Target in North Wales the night before Ferrara’s preliminary hearing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.