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Threat Matrix: 2010
Freerepublic.com ^ | 12/31/2009 | Freeper TMers

Posted on 12/31/2009 10:06:46 AM PST by Velveeta

:::FreeRepublic's Threat Matrix:::
Critical Threats: Blank When None
Al Qaeda’s Yemen Connection, America and the Global Islamic Jihad

December 30, 2009 — The attempt to destroy Northwest Airlines flight 253 en route from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day underscores the growing ambition of al Qaeda's Yemen franchise, which has grown from a largely Yemeni agenda to become a player in the global Islamic jihad in the last year. Since merging with the al Qaeda franchise in Saudi Arabia last January and renaming itself Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), it has stepped up operations in Yemen itself, struck into Saudi Arabia, and now operates on the global stage. The weak Yemeni government of President Ali Abdallah Salih, which has never fully controlled the country and now faces a host of growing problems, will need significant American support to defeat AQAP.

Al Qaeda has long been active in Yemen, the original homeland of Osama bin Laden's family, and one of its first major terror attacks was conducted in Aden in 2000, when an al Qaeda cell nearly sank the USS Cole. A year ago, the al Qaeda franchises in Saudi Arabia and Yemen merged after the Saudi branch had been effectively repressed by the Saudi authorities under the leadership of Deputy Interior Minister Prince Muhammad bin Nayif. The new AQAP showed its claws last August, when it almost assassinated the prince with a suicide bomber who had passed through at least two airports on the way to his attempt on Nayif.

(snip)

The attack on the Amsterdam-Detroit flight also shows that al Qaeda remains obsessed with striking the American airline industry, a target it has gone after repeatedly since 1999. If AQAP has now been told by the al Qaeda core leadership to take on the job, we can probably assume that other al Qaeda franchises in North Africa, Iraq, Southeast Asia and elsewhere have also been pressed to attack.

The Brookings Institution



Threat Matrix:
2010
Click for Color Code Information

Threat Matrix: Since November 3, 2003
"No matter where you live in the world, this is a message that bears repeating:
Your assistance is needed to prevent terrorist acts."
From TM'er and Freeper ~appalachian_dweller~
Submit Information Online: FBI Tips & Public Leads
CDC ::::: CIA ::::: DHS ::::: DOJ ::::: DOD ::::: FBI ::::: NSA
Government Web Sites
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News & Information
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Click here to send a message to the troops!

"America Supports You" spotlights what Americans are doing in support of the military all across the land, encourages others to thank the troops and allows all to tell their stories by giving voice and visibility to their efforts.

Being prepared is a good thing, no matter where one lives; no matter what alert level we are on.
From TM'er and Freeper ~Cindy~
Intelligence is the best weapon against terrorism.
National Commission on Terrorism: 1999



TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: cranswick; lacklancranswick; terror; terrorism; threatmatrix; tm; wot
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To: caww; All


Israelification: The Way to Secure Air Travel

On January 5, 2010 President Obama in a now-famous speech attributed our failure to stop Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to our inability to “connect the dots.” This insufficiency, he assured a worried American public, would soon be corrected though he was a bit vague on details. Fortunately for nervous Americans unsure of the administration’s plan, I am a psychic{tease} able to peer into the future and so let me offer a yet-to-happen history of how this connect-the-dots plan came to pass.

The White House Helps Connect the Dots

1,161 posted on 01/11/2010 11:15:26 AM PST by JustPiper (The AUDACITY of DOPES)
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To: appalachian_dweller; caww; All

“America loves a winner, and will not tolerate a loser, this is why America has never, and will never, lose a war.” General George S. Patton.

Preparing for the Next Attack - As in Israel, our citizens must become the first line of defense.

1,162 posted on 01/11/2010 11:21:14 AM PST by JustPiper (The AUDACITY of DOPES)
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PREVIEW! 24 - NEW Season begins in 6 days....

Who is still with me?

1,163 posted on 01/11/2010 11:31:10 AM PST by JustPiper (The AUDACITY of DOPES)
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To: All

The Khost Attack and the Intelligence War Challenge

By George Friedman and Scott Stewart | January 11, 2010

As Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi exited the vehicle that brought him onto Forward Operating Base (FOB) Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan, on Dec. 30, 2009, security guards noticed he was behaving strangely. They moved toward al-Balawi and screamed demands that he take his hand out of his pocket, but instead of complying with the officers’ commands, al-Balawi detonated the suicide device he was wearing. The explosion killed al-Balawi, three security contractors, four CIA officers and the Jordanian General Intelligence Department (GID) officer who was al-Balawi’s handler. The vehicle shielded several other CIA officers at the scene from the blast. The CIA officers killed included the chief of the base at Khost and an analyst from headquarters who reportedly was the agency’s foremost expert on al Qaeda. The agency’s second-ranking officer in Afghanistan was allegedly among the officers who survived.

Al-Balawi was a Jordanian doctor from Zarqa (the hometown of deceased al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi). Under the alias Abu Dujanah al-Khurasani, he served as an administrator for Al-Hesbah, a popular Internet discussion forum for jihadists. Jordanian officers arrested him in 2007 because of his involvement with radical online forums, which is illegal in Jordan. The GID subsequently approached al-Balawi while he was in a Jordanian prison and recruited him to work as an intelligence asset

http://bit.ly/4w15tQ


1,164 posted on 01/11/2010 11:39:37 AM PST by WestCoastGal
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To: WestCoastGal; All
Steve Alert!

Egypt Deports Galloway; Viva Palestina Convoy Attracts Hamas Leadership

1,165 posted on 01/11/2010 11:49:27 AM PST by JustPiper (The AUDACITY of DOPES)
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To: Candor7; All
President Obama's end-of-the-year deadline for the mad mullahs to make a deal on uranium enrichment came and went, but not without incident. There were three, none good.

Tehran is about to blow! Where's Obama?

1,166 posted on 01/11/2010 11:56:13 AM PST by JustPiper (The AUDACITY of DOPES)
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To: Quix; All
The Islamic Antichrist

The Shocking Truth about the Real Nature of the Beast

On September 17, 2005, the newly elected president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, addressed the United Nations National Assembly in New York City. Concluding his speech, Ahmadinejad openly prayed and pleaded to Allah to speedily bring forth the emergence of the mysterious Islamic messiah figure known as the Mahdi. Journalists and scholars scrambled to understand exactly what this meant.

In "The Islamic Antichrist", Christian author Joel Richardson breaks new ground with this devastating account of the possible connection between the Biblical Antichrist and the Islamic Mahdi.

Not allowed to make link to buy book but you can find it in a search

1,167 posted on 01/11/2010 12:27:40 PM PST by JustPiper (The AUDACITY of DOPES)
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To: JustPiper; blackie
Coastal, nothin' wrong with that. I grew up on the shore just West of Eugene, it is my old stomping grounds.

If/when SHTF, that is an area where folks could expect the least amount of trouble surviving, because it is so full of bounty. My bugout plan tilts heavily in that direction.

My vacation two weeks ago was "back home" (actually about a hundred miles North) and it was such a refreshing experience - right on the beach, maybe a hundred feet from the high tide line. The sights, sounds, and smells bring peace and comfort, and I would go back to stay in a minute!

1,168 posted on 01/11/2010 12:39:34 PM PST by Clinging Bitterly (MMM MMM MM!)
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To: JustPiper; blackie
I think on the Del Norte coast they were concerned more about a wave than direct quake damage. It was almost 50 years ago Crescent City was inundated by one caused by a quake in Alaska, and no doubt it remained fresh in some memories. Seems odd to me, how it more or less focused on that one small area from such a distance, but that is how it goes sometimes.

But that is an extremely rare occurrence on any U.S. coastline. Blackie could probably tell ya the Loma Prieta quake was a lot worse, and something like that can happen almost anywhere.

1,169 posted on 01/11/2010 1:01:34 PM PST by Clinging Bitterly (MMM MMM MM!)
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To: Clinging Bitterly; JustPiper

Love salt air, the only thing it isn’t good for, is metallic articles. ;)

My wife and I love Depoe Bay. Gracie’s Sea Hag has great food, especially the crab omelette:

http://www.theseahag.com/BreakfastPage.aspx


1,170 posted on 01/11/2010 1:02:17 PM PST by blackie (Be Well~Be Armed~Be Safe~Molon Labe!)
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To: JustPiper

Don’t know if this is anything but.....

CEO of Cyprus media group murdered - police
2010-01-11 20:56:28 GMT (Reuters)

NICOSIA, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Andis Hadjicostis, the CEO of one of Cyprus’s largest media groups was murdered outside his home in Cyprus on Monday evening, police said.

“Two shots were heard and the victim was found dead outside his home” in a suburb of the capital Nicosia, police spokesman Michalis Katsounodos said.

“It is believed there were two assailants.”

The area outside Hadjicostis’s home was cordoned off and police were conducting enquiries, Katsounodos said.

Hadjicostis, 43, was chief executive officer of the Dias Media Group, which ran Sigma, a highly successful private television station, a newspaper, a radio station and a host of magazines.

Criminal activity targeting media figures in Cyprus is extremely rare. Police did not say what the motive for the killing may have been but said the investigation was still at an early stage. (Writing by Michele Kambas, editing by Jon Boyle)


1,171 posted on 01/11/2010 1:08:13 PM PST by WestCoastGal
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To: Clinging Bitterly; JustPiper; blackie

Grandma and I were in that neighborhood Thanksgiving week.

SUPER nice along the coast, especially for old High Desert Rats like us.

Stuff hits the fan too bad in Montana, just look for our little diesel MH around Oceanside; The snowplow attachment is a dead giveaway.


1,172 posted on 01/11/2010 1:20:49 PM PST by Unrepentant VN Vet (1104 and a wakeup)
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To: Unrepentant VN Vet; Clinging Bitterly; JustPiper

I know what you mean, I had a Bounder from ‘95 until I wrecked it on highway # 20 on our way to Newport in ‘01.
Also totaled the Baja Bug I built, to tow behind it.

Depoe Bay had the best RV park, they sold the land on the cliff over looking the bay for time share apts. Bah Humbug!


1,173 posted on 01/11/2010 1:31:11 PM PST by blackie (Be Well~Be Armed~Be Safe~Molon Labe!)
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To: blackie
We still need to give the Sea Hag a try. One of my favorite eating spots is The Landmark at Yachats. Nothing real special about the food (great but not fancy), but the view is fantastic.

This last go around we were up at Rockaway Beach. We and the girls and their families all stayed at one of those big party houses on the beach, and did all of our eating "home cooked" at the house. It was a great time though - even with five toddlers running around it was very relaxing.

1,174 posted on 01/11/2010 1:32:08 PM PST by Clinging Bitterly (MMM MMM MM!)
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To: Unrepentant VN Vet
Not a lot of snowplows at the beach around here. In my lifetime (just short of 52 years), one could have been used about three times.

And that is a sign of one of the major benefits of Oregon coast living. Not a lot of energy is needed for heating, and none at all for air conditioning. Crops of some kind can be grown year round, though most larger tracts of flat land (which have not yet become golf courses) seem to be used for cattle grazing.

1,175 posted on 01/11/2010 1:55:42 PM PST by Clinging Bitterly (MMM MMM MM!)
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To: Clinging Bitterly

Both Grandma and I remarked about the Tillamook area; Almost like falling into a time warp, except for the odd Prius here and there.

I really got excited about the aircraft museum in the old Blimp hanger south of town.

The popscicleplane out by the highway needs some maintenance, though. My old Leading Chief would have had a coronary if he saw anything with a NAVY stencil that looked like that, display or not. Almost stopped and broke out the toolbox.


1,176 posted on 01/11/2010 2:05:39 PM PST by Unrepentant VN Vet (1104 and a wakeup)
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To: Unrepentant VN Vet
Ya we went by there two weeks ago, Rockaway is about 20 miles North. The plane is looking real bad.

Have not been to the museum itself since 1994. They had a nice collection at the time - and is that hangar not huge? Sadly, it's twin burned down about 20 years ago. Before the fire it was used for hay storage for the dairy farms. That had to be a heck of a fire.

1,177 posted on 01/11/2010 2:55:31 PM PST by Clinging Bitterly (MMM MMM MM!)
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To: WestCoastGal

I’m not that familiar with dealings in Cyprus, enlighten me?


1,178 posted on 01/11/2010 4:22:51 PM PST by JustPiper (The AUDACITY of DOPES)
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Whenever you think general incompetence by those who purport to serve by the consent of the governed can’t get any worse, think again

1/11/10

"'Jihad' jitters at Met

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art censors its own collection, lest displaying images of Muhammad offend Muslims

Announcement

CAIR loses round in attempt to quash book exposing its ties to jihad (Muslim Mafia)

1,179 posted on 01/11/2010 4:25:10 PM PST by JustPiper (The AUDACITY of DOPES)
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Quote of the Day

A person who wants to blow himself up in an airplane over Detroit is not looking to shave some time off in the big house. I have no doubt he will welcome the world stage of a federal courtroom. -- Former Guantanamo Bay prosecutor Lloyd Meyer, questioning whether suspected would-be airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab would seek a plea deal.

A history lesson:

"In late 1492 King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castille succeeded in driving the Muslims from Spain"

Fitzgerald: What really happened in 1492

The president establishes intelligence death panels

Obama's havoc to the intel system

The President's Weakness Is Provocative, And Dangerous

Obama, the Weak Horse

Talk about an inability to connect the dots.

Terrorism and Health Care – Connecting the Dots Star Parker

1,180 posted on 01/11/2010 4:32:35 PM PST by JustPiper (The AUDACITY of DOPES)
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