Threat Matrix- Daily Terror Thread (4):

By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press Writer

ABYAN, Yemen - Security forces have arrested a leading al-Qaida member in their pursuit of militants in the south Yemeni mountains, security officials said Thursday.

Abdul Raouf Naseeb was one of more than a dozen militants captured Wednesday night in a security force operation in the mountains of Abyan province, 292 miles south of the capital San'a, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Naseeb was sought by Yemeni police and U.S. officials and is believed to have survived the November 2002 attack by a CIA-operated drone that killed al-Qaida's chief agent in Yemen, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, said the officials. At the time of the attack, Yemeni officials did not say that any al-Qaida operatives had survived.

Naseeb allegedly planned the breakout of 10 militants who escaped from an Aden prison in April 2003, the officials added. The militants had been detained in connection with the suicide attack of the destroyer USS Cole in 2000, which killed 17 American sailors.

Security forces with tanks and helicopters surrounded a group of militants in the mountains late Wednesday. On Thursday, officials told reporters that the area had been cordoned off and the security forces were giving the militants a chance to surrender.

The crackdown came amid reports of planned attacks in Yemen. Security has been noticeably tightened in the capital, San'a, around embassies, foreign companies and government institutions.

On Wednesday, the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat reported that Sayed Imam el-Sharif, a leading member of Egypt's Islamic Jihad, had been arrested in Yemen. Yemeni officials did not confirm the arrest Thursday.

El-Sharif, founder of the Islamic Jihad, moved to Yemen in 1996 and turned over control of the group to Ayman al-Zawahri, now al-Qaida's No. 2 leader.

Officials say the security forces are searching for Yemeni and Arab fighters, mainly Egyptians and Saudis, who took refuge in Yemen after fighting in Afghanistan alongside Osama bin Laden in the 1980s.

Yemen has allied itself with the U.S. war on terrorism, allowing American forces to enter the country and train its military. The country, which long has tolerated Muslim extremists, is the ancestral homeland of bin Laden.

http://money.cnn.com/2004/03/04/news/companies/martha/index.htm?cnn=yes

This is the closest I've seen yet about train delays due to that fire yesterday.

>>>Panel's deliberations delayed Thursday by transit difficulties in New York City.<<<<

I still don't see any trains running. And the Amtrack site doesn't indicate anything is wrong.

Fire yesterday? Was there another? The stories I'm finding are refering to an incident that happened Saturday night? Some guy throwing junk on the tracks? Is this the story you are refering too?

Strange that there is nothing on it. NJ.com always covers NJ Transit problems.

yes. See my post here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1084291/posts?page=2318#2318

Even stranger is the online website doesn't show delays.

Thanks Cal.

I had seen your post and even read the story about the fire, but didn't realize it was affecting transportation around New York significantly. Not connecting the dots very well this morning :)

What is the extent of the effect in your opinion?

There is hardly any info out on that fire. If it was really just a fire....I don't understand why dogs where sniffing all the cars being allowed down the street to pick up our kids from school. The school was just 2 blocks over and closed to normal traffic.

The train station is 2 blocks over from the fire too.

This is the best I could do on "what they look like" Not like Coco. :-)

The features of Maldivians range from the Mongoloid to Arabic, African and Asian.

http://www.visitmaldives.com/maldives/history.html

Islam was introduced to the Maldives in the 12th century, and in 1155 the whole nation was converted after the decree of the king who took the title of sultan. Old temples were demolished and mosques built on their foundations. The rites of new religion were followed from early times: ablutions and prayer-times, pilgrimage to Mecca and recital of the Quaran. Islamic law and moral codes were imposed upon the population much later, mainly in this century. Physical punishment used to be uncommon (as Ibn Battuta records) and women's dress light, not covering the upper body.

http://www.saunalahti.fi/penelope/Feminism/Maldives.html

The island was populated with people of Indian ancestry, like in Maldive Islands, only in the case of Maldive, the island's residents were all forced at sword-point to accept Islam by Arab pirates and feudal lords who had occupied the island from time to time. A full account of the episode has been given by Thor Heyerdahl of the Kon-Tiki fame in his book The Maldive Mystery. There he tells us how the Buddhist residents of the Maldive Island were slaughtered and converted to Islam. However, the book may be difficult to procure today as organized Islamic interests have bought up all unsold copies of the book to hide the truth from public knowledge

http://www.swordoftruth.com/swordoftruth/archives/oldarchives/depopul-1.html

U.S. Soldier Being Investigated in Iraq

By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer

TIKRIT, Iraq - The U.S. Army is investigating a soldier in connection with the killing of an Iraqi man who was shot when he resisted arrest, an Army spokeswoman said Thursday.

The man was killed during a Feb. 27 patrol to round up suspected terrorists in al-Huwijah, southwest of Kirkuk, U.S. Army Maj. Josslyn Aberle said.

It wasn't clear what role the soldier — from the 25th Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment — played in the shooting. The soldier, who has not been identified, has been confined to his barracks at the U.S. Army post in Kirkuk.

Aberle said a separate investigation cleared U.S. soldiers involved in a Feb. 18 shooting near Kirkuk that killed an Iraqi girl and wounded her mother and sister.

American soldiers opened fire on the three Iraqis when they ran from an area where a roadside bomb had exploded near a U.S. patrol. There was no indication that the three were involved with the bombing.

Aberle said an investigation found that the soldiers, also from the 25th Infantry Division, followed the military's rules of engagement. She said the U.S. Army had paid compensation to the girl's family for her death.

The 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment is in charge of security in the Kirkuk. It arrived in Iraq (news - web sites) from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii last month to replace the outgoing 173rd Airborne Brigade.

Probe response to Subway Psycho (Man w/Explosives in NY Subway)

By PETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Police have launched an investigation into whether a communications breakdown hampered efforts to stop a madman before he set off explosions and a fire in a subway tunnel Sunday night, officials said yesterday.

Transit sources said cops were first alerted about a man running wild in a Greenwich Village subway tunnel nearly 40 minutes before Bonergy Quelal sparked the chaos.

"It's being investigated - what was said, who interpreted or misinterpreted the information and what needs to be corrected - if there was a problem," a high-ranking police source told the Daily News.

The transit sources said that the agency told police at 5:38 p.m. that a man was spotted hurling debris onto tracks north of the Broadway-Lafayette St. station.

The Transit Authority command center requested police go to the next stop up the line - the W. Fourth St. station - so a train could take them toward the man in the tunnel, sources said.

The TA repeated the request that police go to W. Fourth St. four more times, and each time was told that cops were on the way, the sources said.

By 6:17 p.m., Quelal had done his damage - throwing TA equipment at the third rail just south of the W. Fourth St. station, igniting explosions and a fire that caused more than 1,000 straphangers to be evacuated, the sources said.
"Because of a lack of a timely response, this escalated to a situation where it became necessary to evacuate people because of a fire," one transit source said.

The high-ranking police official said the information relayed to cops was to head to the Broadway-Lafayette station, not W. Fourth St.

A Transit Police Bureau unit in a car was assigned the job but reported officers were transporting a prisoner.

A sergeant at Grand Central Station heard the transmissions and took the assignment, arriving at the Broadway-Lafayette station by car at 6:05 p.m., the official said.

The official said that police are assigned to the W. Fourth St. station around the clock, and police there heard an explosion about 6:20 p.m. and called for assistance.
Quelal was then quickly nabbed.

"We did our best with the resources we had, based on the information that was supplied," the police official said.

Originally published on March 3, 2004

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/170002p-148274c.html

Are these what he says they are? Daleel is OBL's distributer now?

Not sure, I can't speak or read Arabic. StillProud2BeFree may be able to give us an idea what the doc/audio is all about.

New Baghdad blast leaves at least three dead

Many of those gathered Tuesday when bombs went off were Iranian pilgrims like this man, who returned Thursday to Iran via ambulance.

MSNBC News Services Updated: 11:32 a.m. ET March 04, 2004BAGHDAD, Iraq - A large blast hit a Baghdad neighborhood near a telephone exchange Thursday, killing at least three people, Iraqi police said.

Wednesday, a bomb exploded at another telephone exchange in Baghdad, sparking fears that guerrillas were targeting Iraq’s communications system in a new form of sabotage. The country’s energy infrastructure has been frequently attacked.

Click on link to read article in its entirety.

Guys I'm working on it - it's 46 minutes! That takes time to translate! I promise I'll let you know as soon as I'm done.

We're waiting patiently

:)

Keep up the good work, we are all deeply appreciative of the translations you provide us!!!

Information war in progress in Iraq

Jordanian Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi and Al-Qaeda emerged as prime suspects in the deadly attacks on Shiite shrines that killed around 170 Iraqi worshippers.(AFP/File/Marwan Naamani)

Leaflet Says Extremist Al-Zarqawi Is Dead

By LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A Jordanian extremist suspected of bloody suicide attacks in Iraq was killed some time ago in U.S. bombings and a letter outlining plans for fomenting sectarian war is a forgery, a leaflet signed by a dozen alleged insurgent groups said. A senior U.S. official denied that claim.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in the Sulaimaniyah mountains of northern Iraq "during the American bombing there," according to the eight-page leaflet circulated this week in Fallujah, a city 30 miles west of Baghdad that is a hotbed of anti-U.S. insurgency activity.

There was no way to verify the authenticity of the leaflet. It was signed by 12 groups, including several cited by U.S. officials in the past including the Ansar al-Sunna Army and Muhammad's Army.

It said al-Zarqawi was unable to escape the bombing because of his artificial leg.

The leaflet did not say when al-Zarqawi was supposedly killed, but U.S. jets bombed strongholds of the extremist Ansar al-Islam in the north last April as Saddam Hussein's regime was collapsing.

A senior U.S. official said the claim al-Zarqawi is dead was false and that the United States had information showing the Jordanian militant was alive well after the bombing campaign.

In al-Zarqawi's hometown in Jordan, an associate of his family told The Associated Press that according to the family, al-Zarqawi had been in contact with his mother until four months ago, when the communication ended after police came to question the mother.

In a telephone call Thursday to the family home, a woman answered and said, "He's not in contact with us. We don't know anything about him. Don't call again." She then hung up.

Before the Iraq conflict began last March, Secretary of State Colin Powell said al-Zarqawi received hospital treatment in Baghdad after fleeing Afghanistan.

U.S. intelligence sources said he apparently was fitted with an artificial leg. He was believed to have taken refuge in northern Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion, and then possibly moved on to Iran. It was widely believed that he then was still coordinating closely with Ansar al-Islam in Kurdish areas.

In February, the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq made public an intercepted letter it said was written by al-Zarqawi to al-Qaida leaders, detailing a strategy of spectacular attacks to derail the planned June 30 handover of power to the Iraqis. U.S. officials say al-Zarqawi may have been involved in some of the series of suicide bombings this year in Iraq.

The leaflet in Fallujah said the "fabricated al-Zarqawi memo" has been used by the U.S.-run coalition "to back up their theory of a civil war" in Iraq.

"The truth is, al-Qaida is not present in Iraq," the leaflet said. Though many Arabs entered the country to fight U.S. troops, only a small number remain, the group said.

"We had to help hundreds of them leave for their own protection because they were only a burden on the resistance. It was difficult to hide them" from Iraqi informers cooperating with U.S. forces, it said.

Leaflets by "mujahedeen" groups allegedly involved in fighting the U.S. occupation are distributed frequently in Fallujah and other cities of the "Sunni Triangle," the region north and west of Baghdad where guerrilla activity is highest. U.S. officials have said Muhammad's Army may be an umbrella groups of former Iraqi intelligence and security agents and that Ansar al-Sunna Army may be an offshoot of Ansar al-Islam.

A little over a year ago, Jordanian authorities named al-Zarqawi as the mastermind behind the 2002 murder of Laurence Foley, a 60-year-old administrator of U.S. aid programs in Jordan.

Al-Zarqawi was born Ahmad Fadeel Nazzal al-Khalayleh in the Jordanian city of Zarqa, an industrial city 17 miles northeast of Amman from which he took his nom de guerre.

The owner of a car repair shop in Zarqa said he was told by al-Zarqawi's nephew that al-Zarqawi had been in contact with his mother, Umm Sayel. In their last communication four months ago, al-Zarqawi called his mother at a Jordanian hospital where she was undergoing surgery, the garage owner told AP on condition of anonymity.

The phone was tapped and police soon arrive to question Umm Sayel, and since then al-Zarqawi has not restored contact, the man said he was told by the nephew.

He would not give the nephew's name or disclose his whereabouts. The AP repeatedly has tried to speak with al-Zarqawi's family.

Al-Zarqawi, believed to be in his 30s, left Jordan for Afghanistan in the late 1980s. He later returned and in 1992 was jailed 7 1/2 years for militant activities in the kingdom. He left Jordan in August 1999 for Pakistan.

In a German court last year, Shadi Abdellah, a Palestinian on trial for allegedly plotting to attack Berlin's Jewish Museum and a Jewish-owned disco, testified he was working for al-Zarqawi. He said they met in Afghanistan.

German authorities have reportedly said they believe al-Zarqawi was appointed by al-Qaida's leadership to arrange attacks in Europe.

Moroccan government sources said a group blamed for bombings in May that killed 45 people in Casablanca got its orders from al-Zarqawi. In Turkey, officials said he was believed to have played a role in bombings that killed 63 at two synagogues, the British consulate and a British bank in Istanbul in November.

___

AP writer Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

What???!!!! How dare you sleep, eat and breathe while we are awaiting the translation! The nerve....

Kidding, of course :)

Republicans must begin to develop leadership at the congressional level that cares more about protecting Americans than staying in office as long as it can,” said Nickell.

He's got that 100% correct and I hope he has success in pounding that into the heads of the Republicans running for office - it could make all the difference in their re-election campaigns. Getting and keeping illegals out of this country is not just a Texas issue. It's a national issue.

Russia Scientists to Leave Arctic Ice Floe

MOSCOW - An Arctic ice floe that was home to a Russian research station has broken up and the 12 scientists there will have to be rescued, officials said Thursday.

The ice floe bearing the North Pole-32 meteorological research station drifted farther south than expected and began to break up Wednesday, State Meteorological Service official Natalya Yershova said. A section of the floe disappeared beneath the surface, taking four of the station's six buildings with it, she said.

The scientists on the floe, 400 miles from the North Pole, are not in any danger, Yershova said. A helicopter will retrieve them Friday or Saturday, she said.

"The researchers have food, clothing, satellite communication equipment and two diesel-fueled generators," she said.

The drifting station was set up in April. Before the floe broke up, it had drifted some 1,710 miles, with the researchers recording weather conditions and studying climate change.

The station crew had planned to leave the ice floe — which was about a half-mile long before it began breaking up — toward the end of the month, Yershova said.

She said a search is under way for a suitable ice floe for a new expedition, North Pole-33, which is to begin in April.

U.S. administrator Bremer says it is "increasingly apparent" a large part of terrorism comes from outside Iraq.

If Bremer was following this thread daily, he would have known that a long time ago.