Posted on 11/21/2003 6:08:45 PM PST by TexKat
The heightened threat of suicide bombings was last night forcing UK embassies around the world to re-evaluate their defences against what an al-Qaida statement described as its "cars of death".
The explicit warning of fresh "martyrdom operations" was published as police in Istanbul detained seven suspects in connection with the devastating blasts at the British consulate and the HSBC bank.
All are understood to be Turkish passport holders.
Two of them, tentatively identified by the Turkish media as Azad Ekinci and Feridun Ugurlu, were close friends of Mesut Cabuk and Gokhan Elaltuntas, the men who carried out the suicide bombings of two synagogues in Istanbul last Saturday.
Ekinci, who fought in Chechnya and Bosnia, and Ugurlu, who trained in camps in Pakistan, reportedly hired the cars used in the synagogue attacks.
All four came from Bingol, in south-eastern Turkey and had connections to an Islamist paramilitary group renowned for killing liberal opponents.
The size of the car bombs assembled by the men could force an extensive rethink about the perimeter security of embassies and consulates.
The device which levelled two buildings in the Istanbul consulate is understood to have contained at least 225kg (500lb) of explosives.
Because of constricted road space near the consulate, a protective concrete block had been placed inside the main gates. Lessons about where barriers should be placed in future will now be studied by the security officers in every mission around the world.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We have instructed all departments, particularly those in the region, to review security practices".
It would be impossible for Britain to carry out its diplomatic, consular and visas responsibilities if security was the only consideration, she added. "Balancing the operational requirements against risks is very difficult."
In Jakarta, for example, the British ambassador, Richard Gozney, said that his mission was "trying to guard most of all against car bomb or parcel bomb attacks". The security at the consulate general was being "further tightened".
A Whitehall source warned that because al-Qaida had struck British interests abroad rather than at home did not imply that Britain was safe from attack.
The intelligence services and Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch have consistently advised that an al-Qaida atrocity in the UK is a matter of when, not if. "We share that sentiment", said the source. "We can do our very best, but it is difficult. We must be prepared for it."
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, who inspected the ruined HSBC building yesterday and met the widow and elder daughter of Roger Short, the murdered British consul general, said the bombings were evidence of a "global threat" to the civilised world. "We who represent the civilised world are facing a global threat, and we have to deal with it in a global way."
One leading Turkish commentator last night said he believed al-Qaida had targeted Istanbul because it was the ultimate "symbolic city" that bridged the east and west, Islam and Christendom.
"The attacks send a message to the Islamic world that those countries which reform and acquire democratic values, like Turkey, will be a target of Islamic radicalism," Hussein Bagdi, a security expert at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, said.
A group close to the heart of al-Qaida yesterday claimed to have deliberately assassinated Mr Short. The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades posted a statement on its website saying it had targeted him because he was the "mastermind of the British policy in Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran because of his extensive experience in... combating Islam".
In what amounted to a highly unusual apology to Muslim victims, the statement - outlining Operation Islamic Iron Hammer, a sarcastic reference to the US military clampdown on guerrillas in Iraq - said: "We admit that the cars of death that targeted the British bank were put in an inappropriate place, which caused some casualties among innocents." But it promised further "cars of death".
The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack on the UN offices in Iraq in August.
A uniformed U.S. Secret Service officer scans the White House grounds from the roof of the executive mansion during a temporary evacuation November 20, 2003. The U.S. government has issued an advisory warning of al Qaeda's 'continued desire' to plot a terrorist attack on American interests abroad, but there has been no change in the U.S. terror threat level, officials said on Nov. 21. (Win McNamee/Reuters)
U.S. Warns of Possible Al Qaeda Plot on U.S. Interests
By Deborah Charles
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has issued an advisory warning of al Qaeda's "continued desire" to plot a terrorist attack on American interests abroad, but there has been no change in the U.S. terror threat level, officials said on Friday.
A senior intelligence official said a classified advisory was sent to law enforcement and security personnel late on Thursday regarding "al Qaeda's continued desire to plot or plan terrorist attacks with an emphasis on U.S. interests abroad."
A Homeland Security spokesman said there was no change in the color-coded threat level, which remained at "yellow" or an elevated risk of attack.
"Based on assessment of current intelligence, we have no plans to raise the threat level," department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.
Another official said the advisory mentioned increased fears of violence when the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan ends early next week. He said the government was concerned because suicide bomb attacks in the Middle East had been occurring steadily over the past weeks.
"We're not seeing a downplaying of (the attacks) and particularly with Ramadan coming to an end ... out of an abundance of caution the advisory was issued," the second official said.
In an interview with PBS' "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said the action was related to a "very significant" amount of "chatter" -- communications from al Qaeda suspects picked up by intelligence agencies -- and the end of Ramadan.
"There's a general feeling that the end of Ramadan might be a season in which some terrorists might like to inflict injury on us. So this is the better part of wisdom, to button up as best we can," he said.
The classified advisory followed recent violence in Turkey where bomb attacks in Istanbul have killed more than 50 people and wounded hundreds since Saturday.
WORLDWIDE CAUTION UPDATED
The State Department, which has a legal obligation to warn U.S. citizens abroad of any threats, updated its worldwide caution to include mention of the Turkish attacks.
"We therefore assess that other geographic locations could be venues for the next round of attacks," added the caution, using language identical to that in its Sept. 26 warning.
A statement purported to come from a unit of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network said the unit carried out twin truck bomb attacks on British targets in Istanbul, five days after two similar attacks on Istanbul synagogues.
The United States blames al Qaeda for the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked airline attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The United States joined Britain in warning its citizens to defer nonessential travel to Turkey, reflecting fears of further attacks there. The U.S. Consulate in Lagos also issued a warning on Friday, advising American citizens not to travel to an upscale commercial area of Nigeria's biggest city.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told Reuters on Thursday the department had no plans to raise the terror threat level in the United States despite the recent violence abroad.
The Department of Homeland Security created its color-coded terror alert warning system in March 2002 to help Americans prepare better for future attacks.
The alert level has generally remained at "yellow" -- the middle of the five-color scale -- but has been raised to "orange" -- signaling a "high" risk of attack -- on four occasions. The last time it was at orange was in May, after deadly suicide bombings in Morocco and Saudi Arabia.
My specially trained Studebaker Guard Dog continues to monitor the car, just in case.
Fri Nov 21, 9:56 AM ET
SINGAPORE - The al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist network is training new leaders and likely planning more suicide attacks similar to those in Bali and at Jakarta's Marriott Hotel, Singapore's home affairs minister said in remarks released Friday.
The recent arrests of key Jemaah Islamiyah leaders have only temporarily set back the group, and a new generation of leaders is being trained in Pakistan and Indonesia, Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said.
Jemaah Islamiyah "as an organization, is only disrupted. It is by no means eliminated," Wong told a security conference in Hawaii on Thursday. His speech was released in Singapore on Friday.
The group, a loose network of Islamic militants extending across Southeast Asia, has been blamed for the Marriott blast in August, which killed 12 people, and the Bali nightclub bombings in October 2002 that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
"Our intelligence assessment is that (Jemaah Islamiyah) elements are on the run," he said. They "are likely to plan more suicide bomb attacks along the lines of Bali and the recent Hotel Marriott bombing in Jakarta."
More than 200 Jemaah Islamiyah members have been arrested in five countries since the Bali blasts and other attacks. The group suffered one of its biggest blows in August with the arrest in Thailand of Hambali, its alleged operations chief.
Wong singled out as a serious threat Azahari bin Husin, a British-educated Malaysian mathematician and master bomb maker who is believed to have played a key role in the Bali blasts.
Guess we don't have to worry about them taking one anywhere . . . they'd have to carry it, and that's bound to attract attention . . .
Weird . . . even my Stude looks better than that . . . what WERE they thinking?
Mohammed Ali Saleh Nabhan who is charged with 15 counts of murder for the car bombing of a Kenyan hotel in November 2002 stands in the Nairobi High Court on Friday, Nov. 21, 2003. The al-Qaida attack killed 15 people, including three Israel tourists. His trial date has not yet been set. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim))
Kenya Charges 9th Suspect in Hotel Attack
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG, Associated Press Writer
NAIROBI, Kenya - A court charged a ninth man with murder Friday for the car bombing of a Kenyan coastal resort hotel filled with Israeli tourists, an attack claimed by al-Qaida.
Mohammed Ali Saleh Nabhan, the younger brother of another suspect in the attack, pleaded innocent at a hearing in Nairobi's High Court.
Judge John Osiemo ordered the defendant to appear with the other suspects on Nov. 28, the anniversary of the attack that killed 10 Kenyans and three Israeli tourists. Two suicide bombers also died.
After the hearing, prosecutor John Gacivih said there was "a lot of evidence" against Nabhan, the younger brother of suspected bomb builder Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who remains at large.
One of the defense attorneys, Moabe Mao, has called the case "entirely circumstantial" and said there was no physical evidence linking the defendants to the bombing, suggesting the men were charged because of U.S. pressure.
Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on the Paradise Hotel, north of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean coast, as well as the simultaneous missile attack on an Israeli jetliner as it took off from Mombasa airport. The missiles missed the airliner.
No, no. A fleet of Chevy Vegas, circa 1973.
And, shoot, I got you a red one, what more do you want?
Every cloud has a silver lining...
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