Some type of bomb threat was reportedly communicated about the airport in Tyler, Texas. A small regional jet, Continental flight 9553, left Tyler and landed as scheduled in Houston. After landing, however, the plane was kept isolated on a remote runway and treated as if a bomb was on board.
The details of the threat are sketchy, but it apparently applied to Tyler airport in general, not this aircraft specifically. Out of an abundance of caution, the situation was carefully checked out.
Emergency crews were called in, and a bomb-sniffing dog reportedly checked out the plane. Passengers remained on the plane during the investigation. A few dozen people were on board, but we're told everyone remained calm.
After about 30 to 40 minutes, the plane was checked out and allowed to taxi to the terminal. Passengers will be rescreened and allowed to continue on to their destinations.
Algiers, 22 Jan. - Algeria's Salafite Group for Preaching and Compat (GSPC), a terror group that has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, has posted a video on the internet of what it claims was its latest attack. The video, which was released on Sunday, shows the bomb attack on a bus carrying employees of a US oil company, a subsidiary of Halliburton. The attack on 10 December killed two people, an Algerian and a Lebanese, and wounded another eight, including a US citizen and a Briton.
The video showed that the militant group used satellite pictures and other advanced technology to carry out the attack.
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Spain: Non-Renewal Of Muslim Soldiers' Contracts Sparks Row
Ceuta, 22 Jan. - The army's decision not to renew the contracts of a number of minority Muslim soldiers deployed in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on the north Moroccan coast - sparking a row - was based on military intelligence, according to El Pais daily. The intelligence services suspect that a number of the soldiers who have been "let go" were in contact with radicals from cells smashed by anti-terror police in December in an operation that led to eleven arrests, the paper reports.
There are fifteen Muslim soldiers serving in Ceuta whose contracts have not been renewed, although the Democratic Union of Ceuta (UDCE) party, a much higher number of troops are involved. UDCE leader Mohammed Ali, has been distributing leaflets outside Ceuta's mosque, slamming "the persecution of Spanish Muslim soldiers" on the basis of "classified intelligence."
The army has denied it is guilty of any form of discrimination and says that half of the soldiers whose contracts were not extended are Roman Catholic.
Around 30 percent of the 2,300 soldiers stationed in Ceuta are Muslims. Last week, defence minister Jose Antonio Alonso reiterated that there is no discrimination in the Spanish army and said there is no need for concern over the increase in the numbers of Muslim soldiers serving in Ceuta and the other enclave in Morocco, Melilla. "The army does not ask anyone what their religion is," Alfonso was quoted as saying.
Police suspect the 11 people arrested on 12 December in Ceuta during 'Operation Duna' have ties to a Moroccan group that has been linked to the deadly 11 March 2004 bombings of commuter trains in the Spanish capital, Madrid's Atocha station, as well as to the May 2003 attacks in Casablanca, Morocco, El Pais reported.
In a video posted to Internet sites in December, al-Qaeda's second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri called on Muslims to rise up against Spain's "occupation" of Ceuta and Melilla and the "occupation of other Muslim lands by non-Muslim governments." Local press had already reported the presence of Islamic extremist operatives in Ceuta and Melilla ready to wage Jihad.
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