Threat Matrix: January 2008

Still in Control

Pervez Musharraf was calm, confident and—despite a flurry of rumors—not about to announce his resignation. Instead, the Pakistani president's "concession" to his troubled nation was an announcement that he would allow Britain's Scotland Yard to help local law enforcement agencies with their investigation into last week's assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Speaking in a nationally televised address two hours after Pakistan's election commission announced the postponement of the ballot to Feb. 18, six weeks later than had been scheduled, Musharraf was notably deferential in his remarks about Bhutto, often invoking her "martyrdom" and extolling her liberal democratic credentials. "May she go to heaven," he said. "I stand for the same things she said." Read More

	Pakistan's Frayed Politics
	Musharraf's Dangerous Liaisons
	Pakistan after Bhutto

Threat Matrix:
January 2008

December 2007

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Pakistan: Top al-Qaeda suspect nabbed in south
29 Jan.2008

Karachi - Police on Tuesday arrested top al-Qaeda linked suspect Qasim Tori in the southern port city of Karachi after he was injured during a car chase. Tori was fleeing from police when a grenade exploded accidentally inside his car, killing one of his alleged accomplices and injuring Tori. A third man is reported to have escaped.

Tori hailed from an al-Qaeda affiliated organisation, Jundullah, formed in the lawless the South Waziristan tribal areas of Pakistan in 2003 and now works under pro-Taliban militant commander Baitullah Mehsud. The Pakistani authorities have claimed Mehsud ordered the killing of late Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on 27 December.

Jundullah carried out an attack against a Karachi corps commander in 2004. The corps commander survived but a number of army officials were killed in the attack. Several Jundallah members were arrested soon after the incident, but Tori, who was allegedly involved in the attack, remained a fugitive.

Excerpted

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1822453577

Terror chief: attack on Edinburgh inevitable
29 January 2008

The UK's leading counter-terrorism expert has warned it's only a matter of time before Edinburgh is attacked. Superintendent Brett Lovegrove said the city is an "extremely attractive" location for terrorists with the Festival Fringe a prime target.

The London Head of Counter Terrorism made the chilling assertion at an anti-terror seminar in the Capital. The Project Griffin conference was attended by more than 60 delegates and is aimed at giving city workers the expertise to spot possible threats. Supt Lovegrove said: "Edinburgh is an extremely attractive proposition to terrorists as it has many international businesses, an airport, sports stadiums and crowded streets.

"In particular the Festival ticks all the right boxes so it's essential the public are made aware of the threat and what action should be taken. "Like London and New York, it is also an iconic city which is flooded with tourists all year round. "Last year's Glasgow airport attack proved Scotland isn't immune to the threat of terrorism. "Unfortunately it isn't as case of 'if' there will be an attack on Edinburgh but 'when'."

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/latestnews/Terror-chief-attack-on-Edinburgh.3722322.jp

FBI Investigates Threat Call Involving NY-to-LA Flight
January 28, 2008

An airliner that was the subject of a threatening telephone call has been moved to a remote part of Los Angeles International Airport. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said the move Monday afternoon was strictly precautionary and that the person who made the call to a law enforcement agency is under investigation.

The threat involved United Flight 23 from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport to Los Angeles. The plane landed safely and the 71 people aboard were taken off at the airport’s west end.

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/01/28/fbi-investigates-threat-call-involving-ny-to-la-flight/

Pakistani Taliban grows bolder, taking fight to doorstep of frontier city
Monday, January 28, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Islamic militants known as the Pakistani Taliban have extended their reach across all seven of Pakistan's frontier tribal regions and have infiltrated Peshawar, the provincial capital, heightening U.S. concerns that an insurrection may be broadening in the nuclear-armed nation.

Fighting over the weekend spilled into previously peaceful parts of the tribal belt that borders Afghanistan and intensified in South Waziristan, Bajour and Mohmand. In Bannu, southwest of Peshawar, gunmen fleeing police took dozens of schoolchildren hostage for several hours Monday before tribal elders brokered a deal offering them safe passage, state-run television reported.

"It's worsening day by day," said Safraz Khan, a political scientist at the University of Peshawar. "People feel vulnerable. People feel scared." A disparate group of tribal armed militant groups, some of them linked to al Qaida, announced the formation of an alliance last month called The Taliban Movement of Pakistan. The 40-man leadership is from seven tribal agencies and eight bordering districts, underscoring the movement's reach. The group is thought to have 5,000 to 10,000 fighters and is growing steadily as it gains momentum.

Excerpted

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/25619.html

Taliban gunmen have been allowed to walk free after they stormed a school in Pakistan and took at least 200 children hostage
30/01/2008

Security forces made no attempt to detain the seven militants after negotiators resolved a stand-off lasting several hours. This incident, combined with previous occasions in which hundreds of Pakistani soldiers have surrendered to Taliban fighters, raised new questions about the country's ability and willingness to fight Islamist militancy.

Excerpted

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/29/wpak129.xml

ADDING to post no. 1162:

Note: Includes Photo.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7215081.stm

Last Updated: Tuesday, 29 January 2008, 16:17 GMT

“Man admits plot to behead soldier”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “A man described as a “fanatic” has pleaded guilty to plotting to kidnap and kill a British Muslim soldier.

Parviz Khan, 37, an unemployed charity worker from Birmingham, intended to seize and behead the serviceman “like a pig”, Leicester Crown Court was told.

Three other men, Basiru Gassama, 30, Mohammed Irfan, 31, and Hamid Elasmar, 44, have admitted other offences connected with Khan’s plot.

The court heard Amjad Mahmood, 32, and Zahoor Iqbal, 30, denied involvement.

The jury was told how Khan, of Alum Rock, intended to use drug dealers to kidnap the soldier while on a night out, behead him in a lock-up garage and then release footage of the killing to the public.”

stepping back in time...

http://www.house.gov/list/hearing/il10_kirk/news040414_flight.html

Congressman Kirk in the News
Daily Herald, April 14, 2004
“Suburban Flight Dispatcher to Recount Worst Day”
By Jon Davis
Daily Herald Staff Writer

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Perhaps, but Kirk is adamant that Ballinger did save the passengers and crew of United Flight 23, which on Sept. 11 was about to depart from Newark, N.J., to Los Angeles. Kirk believes Flight 23 was going to be commandeered.

Thanks to Ballinger’s quick call, the flight crew told passengers it had a mechanical problem and immediately returned to the gate.

Later, Ballinger was told six men initially wouldn’t get off the plane. Later, when they did, they disappeared into the crowd, never to return. Later, authorities checked their luggage and found copies of the Qu’ran and al-Qaida instruction sheets.

“I felt good about that one,” Ballinger said.

Kirk admits it’s speculation, but said he believes “there are 200 people walking around today because of Ed Ballinger.”

The suspect passengers were never found, and are probably still at large, Kirk said.”

###

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1765390/posts

United Flight 23 on 9-11
History Channel | 1-6-2007 | Self
Posted on 01/10/2007 10:21:56 AM PST by TruthWillWin
Saw a documentary, “Grounded on 9-11” on the History Channel a few days ago that mentioned something major about 9-11 that I have not heard before.

At 9:00AM on 9-11 United Airlines sent to all planes a warning message regarding the other hijacks. On United Flight 23, that was on the runway, the captain decided on his own not to take off. He fakes a mechanical problem and returns to the gate!

When the passengers were asked to exit the plan three Middle Eastern men, or possibly as many as six, refuse to follow the request to deplane. Security is called but they flee before it arrived. Later, authorities check their luggage and find copies of the Koran and al-Qaeda instruction sheets.

TOPICS: War on Terror; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: 911; flight23; sept11; terrorism; united; Click to Add Keyword
[ Report Abuse | Bookmark ]
If the information on the documentary is accurate another hijacking may have been prevented.
Why have not we heard more about this?

What has been done to find the possible terrorists?

Were there security camera pictures of these individuals? If so why were they not shown to the public for possible identification and capture?

1 posted on 01/10/2007 10:21:58 AM PST by TruthWillWin
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Terrorism suspect Harkat rearrested
Tuesday, January 29, 2008

A terrorism suspect out on bail has been arrested in Ottawa for allegedly violating his bail conditions. Ottawa police and Canadian Border Services Agency officers raided the home of Mohamed Harkat around 3 p.m. Tuesday and took him back into custody, said his wife, Sophie Harkat. "He was actually in the shower, they even grabbed him from the bathroom," she said. "He just had a towel around." Sophie Harkat said police arrived while she was in her office preparing for a Supreme Court challenge concerning her husband's case in a few days' time. "I could see all these … officers at the door, and I knew even before I opened the door what was going on," she said, her voice rising to almost a wail.

Harkat, an Algerian refugee, had been released on bail under a long list of conditions in June 2006, three and a half years after he was arrested on a federal security certificate. The controversial certificates allowed authorities to hold suspects indefinitely without trial and keep evidence against them secret. Their use was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in February 2007, but the government has been allowed to continue to hold the five Muslim men already arrested on security certificates while it worked on a new law. A bill proposing a new system was tabled in the fall.

One of Harkat's bail conditions is that he must live with his mother-in-law, and his wife said that is the condition he is accused of violating. Sophie Harkat said her mother is looking for a new place to live after separating from her longtime partner but still sleeps in the house every night. She added that agents from the Canada Border Services Agency came to the house a few days earlier and took photos of some of her mother's possessions in boxes.

Harkat's lawyer, Paul Copeland, also denied the conditions had been breached and told the Canadian Press he suspects the raid might have been related to an upcoming court case in which Harkat plans to argue for a loosening of his stringent bail conditions. That federal court case will take place next week. Harkat is also taking part in a Supreme Court hearing this Friday challenging the new security certificate system tabled by the government last fall.

Harkat was arrested in December 2002. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service accused him of being an al-Qaeda "sleeper agent" and alleged that Harkat trained under Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants in Afghanistan. He has denied the allegations.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/01/29/ot-harkat-080129.html?ref=rss

Security alert after ‘ISI tells Dawood to target Advani and Modi’
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

NEW DELHI - Intelligence inputs that a senior Pakistan ISI official got in touch with fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim to get BJP leaders L K Advani and Narendra Modi assassinated have set alarm bells ringing within the country’s security establishment that’s already worried about plans being drawn by militant outfits to target VVIPs.

Advani and Modi already have the highest levels of security cover and their security apparatus have been alerted about the latest threat that is being taken seriously, official sources said. The inputs suggest that a top ISI official contacted Dawood, who was in the vicinity of Zahedan in south-east Iran near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, and told him to target the two leaders.

Excerpted

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/266924.html

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/s/content/oh/story/sports/college/osu/2008/01/29/ddn013008supernotes.html

Former Buckeye Spellman arrested in Tulsa

Click-2-Listen
Associated Press
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “TULSA, Okla. — Former NFL player Alonzo Spellman was arrested Tuesday after Tulsa police fired pepper-spray pellets into his car following a nearly 20-minute chase.

The former Ohio State star was booked into the Tulsa County Jail on complaints of eluding, assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, resisting arrest and driving without a license, jail records show. His bond was set at $10,700, and Spellman remained jailed early Tuesday evening.”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Spellman has a history of treatment for mental illness and was hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation after his involvement in a standoff with police at the home of his publicist in 1998.

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty in 2003 to interfering with the crew of a Delta Air Lines flight from Cincinnati to Philadelphia.”

Few more details...

http://www.knbc.com/news/15157834/detail.html

“FBI Searches Plane At LAX After Telephoned Threat”

POSTED: 1:51 pm PST January 28, 2008
UPDATED: 3:48 pm PST January 28, 2008

LOS ANGELES —

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “She said “the individual who made the threat is under investigation.”

Speaking to reporters at City Hall, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the threat was made by a person from Allentown, Pa., while the plane was in the air.
“The caller is known to the FBI and was not considered credible,” Villaraigosa said. “There was absolutely no evidence to indicate the flight was at any time in danger, however, out of an abundance of caution the aircraft was taxied to the west remote end of the airport, searched by law enforcement and cleared.”

“I was briefed on that threat and the nature of the threat as well as the credibility prior to United flight 23 arriving here at LAX. I want to commend the FBI, the airport police, the LAPD and all the folks who participated in that effort,” Villaraigosa said.”

This story made me smile.

The co-pilot’s name was not mentioned but AntiMullah has been giving an Iranian commercial airline pilot, flying for a Western airline, whose father was a loyal air force officer for the Shah, a bit of a scare as he (the son) was stridently pro-Khomeini as the revolution was about to take place and then came to the USA and pretended to be antimullah. Even invented a cover story for the authorities.

We checked him out and made it known to him that his real background was clear to us and we could provide evidence of his affiliations to the mullahs.

He squirmed and wiggled and pretended that we were talking about his dead uncle. Our contacts asked him to answer two pertinent questions about his uncle and his father and he immediately “disappeared” from the “conversation”.

When your story came up, for a tiny instance I thought this was the man who broke down because his cover was blown :-))

How I wish you were a movie producer. I have a REALLY great big budget action adventure script with current political, rather anti-Jihadist, with a pro-Israel under theme showing the Palestinians are not a real people nor have any claim to the region.

This rides on the framework of an innocent 21-year old girl trapped into becoming a disposable killer for an American, self-appointed “assassin” billionaire on behalf of the unwilling President.

Israel should fund it as a subtle public relations movie.

And three other good plays, one of which is a high moral story of a 12-year old girl (or boy) and an abandoned dog in Beverly Hills and the dog steals purses, one brand only, and corrupts the girl. Till she is rescued by an adult.

I have another trilogy or quadrilogy called “History of the Future” in skeleton form ready to be fleshed out about a prominent family’s progress over the next 3,000 years of the earth’s history. They provide continuity for a whole lot of broad reaching events. Including the extinction of mankind. Or maybe, just maybe, not.

Would make a great replacement for Star Trek later on.

If ever you run into studio level prducers, do let them know. :-))

cheers,

Check out the link at the end of this snippet, Cindy...it’s an old thread on the flight in question.

As it happens there were flights lined up to take off in the UK which thankfully didn’t that day, and suspects fled from them, too.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 Tuesday around 9AM : (JFK AIRPORT ALTERCATION ABOARD UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 23 BOUND FOR LOS ANGELES, CA : ) Separately, new information emerged about Tuesday’s events. A law enforcement source told the AP that the FBI was investigating an altercation at JFK on Tuesday, and trying to understand whether that incident might have been an aborted hijacking attempt. Tuesday’s incident occurred about 9 a.m. — around the same time two hijacked jet airliners crashed into the WTC towers. After passengers had boarded UA Flight 23, bound for Los Angeles, officials told them it had been canceled. Three males refused to disembark and argued with the flight crew, who called airport security. The men vanished before security arrived, the source said. There have been persistent, unconfirmed reports that a fifth hijacking had been attempted Tuesday but somehow averted - “Suspects Removed At Gunpoint From Jets,” from AP, by John Solomon, Sept. 14, 2001. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/522936/posts

Note: The following blog entry is a quote:

http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/4906.htm

Senior Iranian Official: “When Islamic World Unites, Israel Will Be Eliminated”

At a convention of appreciation in memory of the martyrs, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, “Throughout history, no one has witnessed crimes like those that the Zionist regime is committing against the Palestinians... We must be patient and must stand on our principles, so that with God’s help this puppet regime will collapse.”

In a speech to Basij activists, Ahmadinejad praised the “culture of martyrdom” and called for instilling it in the younger generation. He said, “The fall and end of the domination regime [i.e. the U.S.] is nigh.”

Yahya Ja’fari, representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the city of Karman, told the official news agency IRNA in an interview: “When the Islamic world unites, Israel will be eliminated.”

Source: IRNA, Farda, Iran, January 29, 2008

Posted at: 2008-01-29

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=kenya

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1961860/posts

U.S. envoy: ‘Ethnic cleansing’ in Kenya
Associated Press via Yahoo! News ^ | 2008 Jan 30
Posted on 01/30/2008 1:12:19 AM PST by Wiz

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - U.S. envoy Jendayi Frazer said Wednesday the violence in Kenya’s Rift Valley was “clear ethnic cleansing,” aimed at chasing out President Mwai Kibaki’s Kikuyu people.

Frazer said she did not consider the eruption of ethnic clashes in Kenya a genocide.

The violence she saw during a visit earlier this month to the country’s western region, where the fighting has pitted Kalenjin people against Kikuyu, “was clear ethnic cleansing,” she told reporters on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Addis Ababa.

“The aim originally was not to kill, it was to cleanse, it was to push them out of the region,” she said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080130/FOREIGN/164822468/1003

“Bugging on the rise in Britain”
By James Kirkup
January 30, 2008

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “LONDON (LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH) — British authorities, including those in local municipal councils, are bugging conversations of up to 1,000 people a day, an official report said, prompting critics to warn that the country is in danger of becoming a surveillance state.

Municipal councils, police and intelligence services are tapping and intercepting the phone calls, e-mails and letters of hundreds of thousands of people every year, said the report by Paul Kennedy, the commissioner for interception of communications.”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Mr. Kennedy, who was appointed in April 2006 to oversee domestic electronic surveillance, said the use of the evidence is an “invaluable weapon” in the battle against terrorism and serious crime.”

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