Posted on 12/26/2008 2:22:42 AM PST by FocusNexus
Homeland Security: Beware instability in Middle East, Africa
The terrorism threat to the United States over the next five years will be driven by instability in the Middle East and Africa, persistent challenges to border security and increasing Internet savvy, says a new intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press.
Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks are considered the most dangerous threats that could be carried out against the U.S. But those threats are also the most unlikely because it is so difficult for al-Qaida and similar groups to acquire the materials needed to carry out such plots, according to the internal Homeland Security Threat Assessment for the years 2008-2013.
The al-Qaida terrorist network continues to focus on U.S. attack targets vulnerable to massive economic losses, casualties and political "turmoil," the assessment said.
Worries about biological attack
Intelligence officials also predict that in the next five years, terrorists will try to conduct a destructive biological attack. Officials are concerned about the possibility of infections to thousands of U.S. citizens, overwhelming regional health care systems.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
This article says that terrorists are not sophisticated enough for cyber attacks.
But there was an article a few years back, which demonstrates the opposite:
Cyber-Attacks by Al Qaeda Feared
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/12/AR2006061200711.html
Late last fall, Detective Chris Hsiung of the Mountain View, Calif., police department began investigating a suspicious pattern of surveillance against Silicon Valley computers. From the Middle East and South Asia, unknown browsers were exploring the digital systems used to manage Bay Area utilities and government offices. Hsiung, a specialist in high-technology crime, alerted the FBI’s San Francisco computer intrusion squad.
Working with experts at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the FBI traced trails of a broader reconnaissance. A forensic summary of the investigation, prepared in the Defense Department, said the bureau found “multiple casings of sites” nationwide. Routed through telecommunications switches in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Pakistan, the visitors studied emergency telephone systems, electrical generation and transmission, water storage and distribution, nuclear power plants and gas facilities.
Unsettling signs of al Qaeda’s aims and skills in cyberspace have led some government experts to conclude that terrorists are at the threshold of using the Internet as a direct instrument of bloodshed. The new threat bears little resemblance to familiar financial disruptions by hackers responsible for viruses and worms. It comes instead at the meeting points of computers and the physical structures they control.
U.S. analysts believe that by disabling or taking command of the floodgates in a dam, for example, or of substations handling 300,000 volts of electric power, an intruder could use virtual tools to destroy real-world lives and property. They surmise, with limited evidence, that al Qaeda aims to employ those techniques in synchrony with “kinetic weapons” such as explosives.
” it is so difficult for al-Qaida and similar groups to acquire the materials needed to carry out such plots, “
Whistling past the graveyard.....
DEFENSElink.mil (AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE): Washington - "CHENEY CALLS ABSENCE OF POST-9/11 ATTACKS 'REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT'" (SNIPPET: ""The threat's still out there, and still [is] very real," Cheney said.") (December 22, 2008) (Read More...)
PETROLEUM WORLD (AFP, December 21, 2008,13:28 GMT): Rome - "IRAN USING VENEZUELA TIES TO DUCK UN SANCTIONS: REPORT" (SNIPPET: "Citing US and other Western intelligence agencies, La Stampa said Iran is using aircraft from Venezuelan airline Conviasa to transport computers and engine components to Syria for use in missiles.") (December 22, 2008) (Read More...)
JIHAD WATCH.org (TIMES ONLINE.co.uk): "U.K.: COUNTERTERROR ADVISOR TO METROPOLITAN POLICE IS ON INTERPOL WANTED LIST" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Mohamed Ali Harrath has been the subject of the Interpol red notice since 1992 because of his alleged activities in Tunisia, where he co-founded the Tunisian Islamic Front (FIT). Tunisia has accused Mr Harrath, the chief executive officer of the Islam Channel in Britain and an adviser to the Scotland Yard Muslim Contact Unit, of seeking help from Osama bin Laden. It says that the FIT wants to establish "an Islamic state by means of armed revolutionary violence".") (December 15, 2008) (Read More...)
LONG WAR JOURNAL.org - blog (THE WEEKLY STANDARD): "AL QAEDA'S ANTHRAX SCIENTIST" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The government of Malaysia made a curious announcement this week: Yazid Sufaat, a known al Qaeda operative, and four other alleged terrorists have been released from jail.") (December 12, 2008, 1:16 pm) (Read More...)
JPOST.com: "INDIA WARNS THAT AL-QAIDA TARGETING GOA" by Yaakov Lappin (SNIPPET: ""Today, Goa faces serious threat from terrorists and there were specific inputs that al-Qaida would target certain [tourist] installations in Goa. Goa has a coastline of 105 km., major sea ports and beaches," the state's chief secretary, J.P. Singh, wrote in a memo, according to Indian media.") (Updated December 8, 2008, 5:21) (Read More...)
JIHAD WATCH.org: "EGYPTIAN CLERIC CALLS OBAMA TO CONVERT TO ISLAM" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Note the clear implication that if the one to whom this call is issued does not become a Muslim, his life and property will not be safe.") (December 4, 2008) (Read More...)
WHITEHOUSE.gov - News - Fact Sheet: "DEFENDING AGAINST WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION TERRORISM Commission Report Endorses Administration Initiatives and Calls for Continuation of Successful WMD Policies to Address Increasing Threat" (December 3, 2008) (Read More...)
LIFE IN ITALY.com (ANSA): Milan - "TERROR SUSPECTS 'TARGETING ITALY'" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The men are believed to have watched instructional films on terrorist attacks and researched methods on the Internet."ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Police also seized the Peace Cultural Centre in the Lombardy village of Macherio, where Ilhami worked as a preacher, during Tuesday's operation. According to investigators, small groups of fundamentalists met at the centre in the evenings after the day's official sermons were finished.") (December 2, 2008)
WEEKLY STANDARD.com: "CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER The Obama administration is about to discover that the terrorists detained at Guantanamo are there for good reason." by Thomas Joscelyn (December 1, 2008 Edition) (Read More...)
ABC News.go.com - blog - THE BLOTTER: "Exclusive: NY RAIL PLOT DETAILS BASED ON 'RELIABLE' SOURCE New Information in Last 48 Hours Led to Public Warning" by Richard Espoito (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The suspect is believed to have in the past resided in Suffolk County, Long Island. The island is a 7.5 million population peninsula that contains two boroughs of New York City - Brooklyn and Queens - as well as two suburban counties - Nassau and Suffolk, which have more than 1.4 million residents.") (November 26, 2008) (Read More...)
JIHAD WATCH.org (KSTP.com): "'TWIN CITIES MAN' BLEW HIMSELF UP IN SOMALIA SUICIDE BOMBING" (SNIPPET: "The FBI and Homeland Security are investigating whether Shirwa Ahmed had developed a terrorist recruiting network in the area.") (November 25, 2008) (Read More...)
JIHAD WATCH.org (MyFoxTwinCities): "SOMALIS LEAVING MINNESOTA, RETURNING HOME TO WAGE JIHAD?" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "They're known in the Somali community simply as The Missing. More than 20 young Somali men, between the ages of 17 and 22, who have left the Twin Cities in the last few months, without a single word to their families.") (November 25, 2008) (Read More...)
THE MEMRI BLOG.org ("Source: Egyig.com, November 22, 2008; Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, November 24, 2008"): "Following Calls For Attacks on Islamist Websites, Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya Asks Supporters To Refrain From Violent Operations To Free 'Blind Sheikh'" (SNIPPET: "In a communique, the Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiyya organization called on its supporters not to undertake any armed operation aimed at freeing Sheikh Omar Abd Al-Rahman. The communique followed official warnings in North Carolina and Minnesota about attacks to be carried out by extremists with the aim of freeing the sheikh. The warnings came in the wake of calls for attacks that appeared on Islamist websites.") (Posted November 24, 2008) (Read More...)
Here in the border states with Mexico that has already happened the illegal immigrants fill emergency rooms overwhelming regional health care systems and the system is in meltdown.
Thanks, Cindy, for your informative links!
You’re welcome Focus Nexus.
The threat forecast for the next five years?
There will be NO THREATS to the US.
Why, do you ask?
Because of the Ascension of The One (piss be upon him), who with but a wave of His hand, and a tilt of His head, shall cause the world to love one another beneath His loving gaze, yes we can.
Thanks Cindy.
5 yr terrism means i should just rape myself. It’s always better dammit...
They left out a weak and naive American president. I guess they just forgot.
“persistent challenges to border security a”
Let us be sure to thank George Bush for taking care of our persistent border problems and keeping us safe. /end sarcasm
I don’t believe they left out our new President, I believe they are making excuses for him even before he takes office.
Hmmm, looks like the mainstream media has suddenly discovered there is a terror threat out there. Imagine that. Of course, no one wants to give President Bush credit for keeping that away from us for 8 years, must have suddenly popped up out of nowhere.
Do I really need a /s?
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