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Locked on 12/01/2007 8:51:55 PM PST by Admin Moderator, reason:
New thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1933472/posts |
Posted on 11/01/2007 8:43:53 PM PDT by nwctwx
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Bin Laden = Black Leaves. Thanks Vel.
Doctor who offered to treat al-Qaida fighters is sentenced in NY
NEW YORK - A defiant doctor convicted of conspiring to treat injured al-Qaida fighters was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison by a judge who said a sentence to deter others was needed because terrorists cannot carry out their deadly aims without help.
U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska noted Dr. Rafiq Sabir, 53, showed no remorse after his May conviction for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists by agreeing to treat injured al-Qaida members so they could return to Iraq to battle Americans.
The judge said there was “no reason to believe that this defendant has abandoned any criminal intentions.”
She said terrorism offenses were among the most serious crimes prosecuted and required stern punishments.
“If not for assistance to terrorists, then terrorist acts would not take place,” she said.
Just before the announcement of the sentence in a crowded courtroom, Sabir, of Boca Raton, Fla., insisted he was “completely innocent.”
He said a co-defendant, jazz musician and martial arts expert Tarik Shah, had duped him into taking an oath with an FBI agent who posed as an al-Qaida recruiter, never explaining that he was pledging loyalty to al-Qaida or its leader, Osama bin Laden.
“I’m an extremely gullible man,” he said. ~snip~
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny—terrorismarrest1128nov28,0,1822625.story
“under the black leaves”
Thank you Velveeta.
More than 1,000 reports of possible terrorist activity have been made by UK banks and financial institutions during the past year.
The National Terrorist Finance Investigation Unit received 1,088 tip-offs of suspicious transactions from alert financial workers. Among them were 153 reports connected to a police investigation into an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic jets that was smashed in August 2006.
The vast majority of terrorism-linked tip-offs came from banks and building societies but solicitors, accountants and even casino workers also provided information.
Excerpted
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=77398&in_page_id=34&ito=newsnow
Passenger takes a kilo of fireworks with her on flight from Moscow to Málaga
Nov 28, 2007
A traveller on a flight from Moscow to Málaga has been found to be carrying a kilo of fireworks with her in the passenger cabin of a private flight. The fireworks were mostly rockets and were taken onboard the flight in a box, and police say the slightest movement could have set off the explosives as they were not correctly packed.
There were a total of 33 rockets and 26 bangers which were removed and destroyed by the Guardia Civil on their discovery on arrival in Málaga.
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_13860.shtml
The chairman of Lloyd's of London, one of the world's oldest insurance firms, told a Toronto business audience on Wednesday that Canada is becoming a credible target for terrorism, as he drums up awareness of the company's insurance products.
“Canada's risk profile has changed in recent years and while no stranger to terrorism, intelligence suggests that its role is shifting from a hub for fundraising and planning attacks outside the nation – for example in the U.S. – to a credible target in its own right,” said Lord Peter Levene. “We are told that, by this year, there were thought to be some 60 groups operating within Canada's borders that support an extremist jihadi ideology,” he added.
Lloyd's is the seventh largest insurer in Canada, Mr. Levene noted, and a “very significant provider of insurance for terrorism risks in Canada, and we are also at the forefront in providing terrorism coverage for Canadian interests abroad. “The real estate, hotel and transportation sectors are amongst those we cover, and the 2010 Winter Olympics is already buying terrorism coverage from Lloyd's.”
Mr. Levene believes that instability is an issue of rising importance for 21st Century business leaders, and said that about 20 per cent of international terrorist attacks are directed against business, meaning between 150 and 200 attacks per year. “By all accounts, Canada's domestic security services have done a first-class job. But that should not lead to complacency,” he said.
http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071128.wlloyds1128/GIStory/
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/071128madison.htm
Wisconsin man sentenced for smuggling aliens into U.S. to work at motels
MADISON, Wis. - A Wisconsin man was sentenced Tuesday to 21 months in prison for smuggling illegal aliens from Guatemala into the United States to live and work at two local Super 8 Motels. The sentence is the result of an investigation by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Siddhartha “Sam” Shah, 51, of Pleasant Prairie, Wis., was sentenced Nov. 27 by U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb to 21 months in prison and a $20,000 fine for smuggling and harboring four illegal aliens at Shah’s Super 8 Motels in Wisconsin Dells and Pleasant Prairie from 2005 to 2007. Shah pleaded guilty to this charge Aug. 23.
Shah traveled to Guatemala and arranged to smuggle workers to the United States so that they could work at his motels. One of the workers lived in a utility closet at one of Shah’s motels. In sentencing Shah to the high end of the applicable sentencing guideline range, Judge Crabb found that the seriousness of the offense warranted the relatively high sentence.
“Employers who take advantage of illegal labor to gain a competitive advantage for their own profit will be prosecuted,” said Elissa A. Brown, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Chicago. “ICE has no patience for employers who tolerate or perpetuate a shadow economy.”
ICE was assisted in the investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General, and the Wisconsin Dells Police Department. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen P. Sinnott, Western District of Wisconsin, successfully prosecuted this case.
Shah and his co-defendant Jignesh “Mark” Jagaria, 36, of Wisconsin Dells, Wis., were arrested by ICE agents on June 11. Jagaria is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 11. Shah, a U.S. permanent resident from India, will be transferred to ICE custody for deportation after he completes his prison sentence.
— ICE —
Thanks Oorang.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=china
#
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/11272007_2.xml
“CBP Officers Seized Over $6 Million in Counterfeit Goods this Month”
(Tuesday, November 27, 2007)
NEWS RELEASE SNIPPET: “Los Angeles - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers located at Los Angeles and Long Beach ports have seized over $6 million worth of counterfeit goods arriving from China this month. This reflects a 24 percent increase from last November.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1931878/posts
#
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/26/AR2007112602043.html
“Two U-Va. Students Charged in Kidnapping
Police in Fairfax Charge U-Va. Pair With Abduction”
By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 27, 2007; Page B01
#
November 28, 2007 issue:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=31813&pid=1657
“University students charged with abduction
Fairfax County Police officials charge second-year students with abduction, intent to extort money after holding man for ransom”
by Jordan Dods, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Two second-year Engineering School students were arrested and charged with abduction with intent to extort money last Wednesday after they allegedly bound and gagged a man and held him for ransom.”
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Guanyu Lu, 19, of 1709 Jefferson Park Ave., and Baichuan Shu, 19, of 583 Brandon Ave., abducted an unidentified 20-year-old Chinese man the night of Nov. 20, according to Gotthardt.
That evening, the suspects allowed the victim to place a phone call to his host family advising of the abduction and the $500,000 ransom demand, Gotthardt said.”
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “While Fairfax County Police investigate possible motives, students who know Shu said they do not know why the pair of Chinese nationals would have committed the crime.”
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “”I never really expected anything like this,” Scates said. “From what I have gathered he is well-off in China. Both his parents are electrical engineers; he had his own place in Shanghai ... I don’t think money would be a motive.””
blog:
“Palestinian Authority TV Erases Israel from Map”
Wed, Nov 28, 2007 at 10:20:33 am PST
SNIPPET: “The day after Annapolis, Palestinian Authority Television shows viewers a world without Israel.”
#
See short video clip here:
http://www.pmw.org.il/asx/PMW_mapAnapolis.asx
This is news to me.
Awaiting updates.
Off Topic.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48256
“New Log-in Notice to Clarify Computer Use Issues”
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
SNIPPET: “WASHINGTON, Nov. 28, 2007 – Defense Department employees soon will see a new notice on their government computer screens informing them that their e-mails are subject to monitoring and that use of the computer means they recognize and consent to that monitoring.”
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48252
Troops Detain Dozens, Kill Suspected Terrorist in Iraq
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Nov. 28, 2007 – Iraqi and coalition forces captured 32 suspected terrorists and killed another in Iraq over the past three days, military officials said.
During an operation in Mosul today, coalition forces captured a wanted individual believed to be an al Qaeda in Iraq leader with connections to terrorist operations. The suspect, who allegedly received foreign funding, has waged a campaign of murder and intimidation, hijacking fuel trucks, manufacturing car bombs, and using improvised explosive devices against coalition forces, military officials said.
An IED detonated near one of the ground force’s vehicles during the operation, officials said, but no injuries were reported. The suspect identified himself to coalition troops, who detained him.
Elsewhere in Iraq today, coalition forces captured a wanted individual south of Baqouba who allegedly is an al Qaeda in Iraq leader in the Khan Bani Saad area, and is associated with several al Qaeda leaders around Diyala, military officials said. Troops detained one additional suspect.
South of Baghdad today, coalition forces captured another wanted individual believed to be a weapons and foreign terrorist facilitator in the region with numerous ties to foreign terrorists, officials said.
During operations in Iraq yesterday:
— Coalition forces detained eight suspects in central and northern Iraq while targeting terrorists allegedly associated with foreign terrorists and al Qaeda in Iraq planners and financiers. The detainees are suspected of attacking coalition and Iraqi security forces, military officials said.
— Iraqi and coalition forces captured three terrorists in the Ameriya area in an effort to disrupt a terrorist cell allegedly responsible for IED, rocket and small-arms attacks against the combined Iraqi-coalition force and Iraqi civilians. During the operation, troops shot and killed a man who tugged at his clothing as if detonating a suicide vest bomb, military officials said.
— Iraqi special operations forces and U.S. Special Forces soldiers captured a suspected extremist cell leader in Baghdad. The suspect reportedly purchased and transported weapons used in attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces, officials said.
In Iraq during Nov. 26 operations:
— An Iraqi emergency response unit advised by U.S. Special Forces soldiers captured seven suspects in the Doura neighborhood of Baghdad who allegedly are responsible for a wide range of criminal activities, including kidnapping and murder, officials said.
— The Habbaniyah special weapons and tactics team and U.S. special operations forces captured four suspects, including an individual who allegedly has housed al Qaeda terrorists and has been involved in numerous small-arms attacks, ambushes and IED attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces in Habbaniyah.
— Iraqi special operations forces and U.S. forces detained two suspects in Mosul during a raid aimed at disrupting terrorist activities in the area.
— Fifth Iraqi Army Division and U.S. forces detained a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq terror cell leader and a second suspect while raiding a terrorist safe house in Saker village. The terrorist cell allegedly is believed to be responsible for kidnapping and assassinations, along with constructing and emplacing improvised explosive devices, military officials said.
— Iraqi security forces and U.S. Special Forces soldiers detained a suspected terrorist in Tikrit believed to be involved in several kidnappings, IED, mortar, rocket-propelled-grenade, and car-bomb attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces.
(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq and Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)
Police in Slovakia and Hungary arrest 3 trying to sell radioactive material
3 hours ago
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia - Police in Slovakia and Hungary arrested three people and seized one kilogram of an unspecified but "dangerous" radioactive material the suspects were trying to sell for $1 million, Slovak authorities said Wednesday.
The Czech news agency CTK, citing unconfirmed reports, said the material seized by authorities was enriched uranium. Slovak police spokesman Martin Korch declined to comment on the report, saying specialists were examining what he described only as "dangerous radioactive material."
Two of the suspects were arrested in eastern Slovakia, and the third was arrested in Hungary, Korch said. The suspects were not identified. Eastern Slovakia's border with Ukraine is the European Union's easternmost frontier, and authorities have spent millions tightening security in the past few years, fearing terrorists or organized crime syndicates could smuggle weapons, explosives and other contraband into the EU.
Slovak and Hungarian police worked together on the case for several months, Korch said. He would not say how long the suspects were under surveillance, or detail how they were arrested and to whom they were trying to sell the material.
Hungary's National Bureau of Investigation had no comment Wednesday. Erich Tomas, a spokesman for the Slovak Interior Ministry, said he had no information about the case. The U.S. Embassy in Bratislava, the Slovak capital, also had no immediate comment.
There have been concerns that Eastern Europe could be a source of radioactive material for a so-called "dirty bomb," which would use conventional explosives to scatter radioactive debris. Experts say such a weapon would frighten far more people than it would harm.
In 2003, police in the Czech Republic, which borders Slovakia, arrested two Slovaks in a sting operation in the city of Brno after they allegedly sold undercover officers bars of low-enriched uranium for $715,000. Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said the UN nuclear watchdog would be following up on the case. "It will be important to determine whether the material in question is nuclear," Fleming said. Such incidents are tracked in an IAEA database, she said.
The IAEA reported in August that there were more than 250 reported thefts or losses of nuclear material around the world in 2006, an increase of about 200 per cent from 2002. Concerns about nuclear smuggling have generally been focused on Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union, where security at nuclear-related industries deteriorated after the 1991 Soviet collapse.
The U.S.-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, an organization dedicated to reducing the global threat from nuclear weapons, said in a report last year that Russia remains the prime country of concern for contraband nuclear material. Matthew Bunn, a senior researcher at Harvard University's Project on Managing the Atom, said highly enriched uranium and plutonium "exist in more than 40 countries around the world, and in pretty much every country more security is needed."
Pavel Podvig, a researcher at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Co-operation, said that a kilogram of enriched uranium alone would not pose a great danger but the fact that people may be able to get their hands on it should be cause for alarm. "The biggest danger is that apparently people can still obtain a kilogram of uranium, of some degree of enrichment," said Podvig. "That means there are loopholes in some kind of a system."
In 2006, Georgian agents working with CIA officials set up a sting that led to the arrest of a Russian citizen who tried to sell a small amount of weapons-grade uranium that he had in a plastic bag in his jacket pocket.
In 1997, two men who officials said planned to smuggle five kilograms of enriched uranium to Pakistan or China were arrested in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. That uranium reportedly had been stolen from a plant in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. "There was great concern after the demise of the Soviet Union that this sort of thing was going to be on the increase because obviously there were huge amounts of nuclear materials and weapons," said Kate Hudson, chairwoman of Britain's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. "There was great concern about a black market developing."
But that has not really happened, Hudson said. "The kind of massive problem that had been envisioned hasn't come to fruition," she said.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5g9rUmYCMEiY_fujFsEhuIjjjWg1w
Thanks for that update Oorang.
Man arrested for alleged threat aboard Alaska Airlines flight
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A 38-year-old Wyoming man was arrested Wednesday for causing a disturbance on an Alaska Airlines flight.
Kirk Frederick Forest of Cheyenne, Wyo., was arrested for interfering with a flight crew, FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez said. Arraignment on the federal charge was scheduled for Thursday.
“He was kind of agitated, and he made a threat against the plane,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said the nature of the threat was still being investigated, but Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Amanda Tobin Bielawski said Forest allegedly said the word “bomb.”.....
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2007/11/28/ap-state-wy/d8t738k80.txt
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200711290941.htm
“’Cyber cold war’ developing says report”
By Rachel Williams in London
SNIPPET: “Guardian News Service: A ‘cyber cold war’ is developing as international web espionage and cyber-attacks become the biggest threats to internet security, according to a report.”
Most welcome Cindy.
Boy there’s alot of loose nuclear material out there.
Thanks for the update.
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