Threat Matrix- Daily Terror Thread (4):

New York Post ^ | February 24, 2004 | By NILES LATHEM

[Revel]

February 24, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has dispatched the elite commando force that hunted down Saddam Hussein to Afghanistan for a new operation aimed at getting Osama bin Laden, officials said yesterday. Military sources confirmed that members of the shadowy Task Force 121, the unit that conducted the high-tech search for Saddam and his henchmen, have recently begun operating in the remote mountainous region along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border where bin Laden and key al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives are believed to be hiding. The Task Force is made up of highly trained Delta and SEAL commandos, as well as CIA paramilitary operators. It operates outside normal military channels.

[Revel]

Thanks for doing that. We really do appreciate it.

[cibco]

bttt

[TexKat]

Iranian vice president travels to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (AP) — An Iranian leader travelled to Pakistan for talks on trade and cooperation Thursday, only days before a key UN meeting on the nuclear scandal that emerged when a key Pakistani scientist acknowledged selling atomic materials on the black market.

First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref's visit to the capital, Islamabad, comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency's board prepares to convene in Vienna, Austria, on March 8 to examine Iran's nuclear programme amid mounting pressure from the United States and other countries that contend Tehran has been trying to build an atomic bomb. Iran has acknowledged hiding nearly two decades of nuclear activity, including importing enrichment technology linked to the black market network of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

[Indie]

"By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer"---direct descendant of Joseph Stalin

[JustPiper]

Ma, this one has me seeing RED!

Breaking News Alert
WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. won't require millions of Mexicans to be photographed and fingerprinted to enter country, congressional official says.

Report: White House to back off of border control plan
Thursday, March 4, 2004 Posted: 1:57 PM EST (1857 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration backed off plans to require that millions of visa-carrying Mexicans who make short visits to America and stay close to the border be fingerprinted and photographed to get into the country.

Asa Hutchinson, the Homeland Security department's undersecretary for border and transportation, was to publicly announce the policy change at a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday, a congressional official who was briefed on the plan told The Associated Press.

The move, a concession to Mexican President Vicente Fox, comes on the eve of his visit to President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/03/04/border.fingerprinting.ap/index.html

It is election year, this is suicide! What is he thinking just because Vincente arrives today?! This is what I would expect from Kerry!!!

[JustPiper]

FBI: 35 terrorist incidents disrupted since 9/11
'Terrorist recruiting and training efforts'
From Kevin Bohn CNN
Friday, March 5, 2004
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A senior FBI official says authorities have disrupted 35 terrorist-related incidents since the September 11, 2001, attacks.

"These include both domestic and international terrorism matters and consist of a variety of preventive actions, including arrests, seizure of funds and disruption of terrorist recruiting and training efforts and even, in certain cases, the prevention of actual attacks," said Larry Mefford, assistant director of counterterrorism for the FBI. He was testifying Thursday before a Senate judiciary subcommittee.

FBI officials declined to offer more details about the incidents.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/06/27/alqaeda.terror/index.html

[JustPiper]

I literally gasp and felt like I'd pass out!

[JustPiper]

How could he do this?!?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1091184/posts

[JustPiper]

I am in the middle of reading Hannity's news book and this attitude is explained in the first 30 pages! I am becoming more angry than I thought I could be at the liberals! I am so disenfranchised with how a man I admire as our President is caving in to Fox! I am hating DC right now!

[NewRomeTacitus]

Yes ma'am, I saw that. All I can imagine is that these visa'd people will be hauling a lot of heavy trunks and suitcases here.
Bush is actually giving the Democrats fuel they didn't have before, and he really is risking the fate of his father because of it. If you read the Dobbs transcript with Hillary you could tell that she has built a platform on every mistake the bots fail to correct.

[JustPiper]

Our country is just falling apart V!

[JustPiper]

'Virginia jihad' members found guilty
From Kevin Bohn and Terry Frieden CNN
Friday, March 5, 2004 Posted: 1:48 AM EST (0648 GMT)

A group of muslims led by Muhammad Adam Alshaikh prays outside the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia.

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- Three men charged with being part of what the government has called the "Virginia jihad network" and who allegedly trained to support terrorists were found guilty Thursday of the most serious charges facing them.

Masoud Khan, Seifullah Chapman and Hammad Abdur-Raheem were found guilty by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema on charges of supporting terrorism and specifically, of providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group fighting against India for the independence of the disputed region Kashmir.

They will be sentenced in June.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/03/04/paintball.terror/index.html

[JustPiper]

Act now to stop judicial activists and help restore the integrity of our Constitution by joining this campaign entreating the President and Congress to support "The Enumerated Powers Amendment."

As for the lawlessness of these from-the-bench legislators and the elected representatives who are tasked with keeping them in check, they all disregard the Constitution they have sworn to uphold. At its heart, such judicial activism is patently unconstitutional:
It operates in open defiance to the prescription for amendment explicated in Article V. For this reason we propose to amend the United States Constitution to mandate that its interpreters construe it in the sense in which it was originally intended, and operate with regard for Article V's dictates for the Constitution's alteration, not their own.

Please join fellow Patriots on the front lines in defense of our liberty and national sovereignty. Link to

(If you don't have Web access, please send a blank e-mail to:
sign-Amendment28@PatriotPetitions.US Each e-mail sent to this address will be counted as one signature for the petition.)

(Please forward this invitation to friends, family members and fellow American Patriots. In order to force serious consideration of this issue within the White House and Congress, we must first collect as many petition signatures as possible.)

(Circulation of this petition is being sponsored by The Federalist, the most widely read conservative e-journal on the Internet. If you have not already joined the ranks of Patriots receiving The Federalist, we encourage you to do so. This highly acclaimed conservative digest of news, policy and opinion will be delivered FREE by e-mail to your inbox each week.

Link to

If you don't have Web access, send a blank e-mail to
fedlist-subscribe@thefed.com and you will be subscribed automatically.)

Founder's Quote: "The original error [was in] establishing a judiciary independent of the nation, and which, from the citadel of the law, can turn its guns on those they were meant to defend, and control and fashion their proceedings to its own will." --Thomas Jefferson

PRIVACY POLICY: Patriot Petitions is not a commercial site and does NOT release any identifiable information on our petitioners to any third party under any circumstances, nor do we accept any third party advertising to our lists.

[JustPiper]

It astounded and scared the SH outta me too! Sometimes we go looking for info and hate what we find

[JustPiper]

The one bomb was to prove they had laid several

[JustPiper]

Did you share this with Sean I hope?

[JustPiper]

RABIES, RACCOON - USA (MASSACHUSETTS)

---

{{Everyone remember the rabies fears? This will make your hair stand up on the back of your neck!}}

International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org

Date: 4 Mar 2004

A 10-year stand by state and local health officials against rabies on Cape Cod broke down this week when an infected raccoon was found in Bourne.

State health officials confirmed the case yesterday, after testing [the brain of] the battle-scarred raccoon captured by Michael Tarlow at his residence on Monday. The barking of Tarlow's dogs did not scare off the sickly looking raccoon. Normal raccoons would be deterred from a yard with barking dogs.

Tarlow called the Bourne Department of Natural Resources, but the raccoon was gone by the time anyone could respond.

When the raccoon returned Monday morning, more listless than before and with discharge visible on the bridge of its nose, Tarlow dropped a plastic recycling bin over it and called the town for help.

A natural resources officer picked up the animal and delivered it to Robert Pritchard of Ace Wildlife Removal Services in Bourne.

The face of the captured raccoon, a 5-year-old male, was scratched and cut, indications that it fought with another animal, Pritchard said.

The animal was euthanized and the body sent to a state lab in Jamaica Plain, MA for testing.

Rabid raccoons have been lifted from the water of the Cape Cod Canal and captured on the north side of the canal in recent years, but never before on the Cape side.

"Nothing had breached the barrier until now," said Bourne Health Agent Cynthia A. Coffin. "Bourne is the sentinel of the Cape."

No domestic animals or humans are believed to have been exposed to the rabid raccoon, Coffin said. But she and other local health officials acknowledged they do not know whether this is an isolated case or if other rabid animals remain at large.

Rabies is a virus that affects the brain and the central nervous system of mammals. It is fatal if not treated quickly. [Animals are not treated to cure rabies, as there is no cure in animals. Animals believed to harbor the
disease are euthanized and the brains tested. Humans who have been exposed may be given immunoglobulins, as a post exposure prophylaxis, which is not actually a treatment. - Mod.TG]

County and state health officials are worried that if rabies encroaches into animal populations on Cape Cod, it could pose a risk to domestic pets and, eventually, people. [Hopefully, they are vaccinating domestic animals
against rabies on a regular basis. This would certainly decrease the risk of spread in both animals and humans. - Mod.TG]

The issue also has "enormous" economic implications for town animal control and health departments, since they will have to investigate, track, and capture animals suspected of being infected, according to Dr. Steven
Rowell, hospital director at Tufts Veterinary School in Grafton. Rowell is the director of the 10-year-old Cape Cod Oral Rabies Vaccination Program, in which researchers have dropped vaccinated bait along both sides of the
Cape Cod Canal to try to keep the disease at bay. [It becomes an economic issue because the Cape Cod area has tremendous tourism income. - Mod.TG]

It is recognized around the nation as a model prevention program, he said.

While there has never been a case of a land mammal with rabies on Cape Cod, rabid bats have lived on or visited the Cape for years, according to Coffin.

Rabies in raccoons and skunks was first seen in Massachusetts in 1992. Rabies in bats has been in the state for much longer.

Since 1992, 3893 animals have tested positive for the disease statewide. Most were raccoons and skunks, followed by far fewer cases in cats, foxes, and woodchucks.

There have been no reported cases of human infection during that time in the state. One case was reported in 1983 in a person infected by a dog in Africa. From 1992 to 2002, 32 cases of rabies in humans from 18 states were
reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This week's confirmed rabies case comes 9 months after state budget cuts trimmed $40 000 from the $100 000 annual Cape Cod oral vaccination program.

State Sen. Robert O'Leary, D-Barnstable, yesterday called the cuts "penny wise and pound foolish," and said the confirmed case proves the full funding was necessary to keep rabies off Cape Cod.

The lab informed Bourne officials yesterday morning the raccoon had tested positive for rabies, according to Dr. Bela Matyas, medical director of the state health department's epidemiology program. Rowell surmised the rabid raccoon walked across one of the bridges spanning
the canal, either foraging for food or because it was already sick and disoriented.

Rowell yesterday said he was not about to concede the region to rabies because of one animal. "I'm not ready to give up yet," he said. "My hope is (other possibly infected animals) will come into contact with animals we
vaccinated last year and it will die out."

Even so, local officials are not taking any chances.

A contingency plan the county and the state have had in place ever since the oral vaccination program began will be implemented. Possibly as early as today, O'Brien, Rowell and a group of volunteers will toss from cars
3500 of the vaccinated 1-square-inch fish meal baits in the area where the sick raccoon was found. If possible, they will go as far as Sandwich and Falmouth, he said.

On Monday, health agents and animal control officers from the Cape's 15 towns will meet to coordinate a Cape-wide response.

Health officials urged residents to make sure their pets' rabies vaccinations are current.

[JustPiper]

General: Planned attacks apparently thwarted
Coalition warned Shia community of attacks
Thursday, March 4, 2004 Posted: 9:55 PM EST (0255 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The commander of U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq said military officials had "indications" that terrorists were plotting a series of attacks across Iraq Tuesday on a Shiite holy day but that because of advance warning more attacks may have been thwarted.

"We had indications that an attack would come," said Gen. John Abizaid in an interview with "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" on PBS. "We warned responsible members of the Shia community, we coordinated with Iraqi security institutions. We took additional measures ourselves."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/03/04/sprj.nirq.main/index.html

For those who didn't see this:

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) Egypt acknowledges for first time it has brother of al-Qaida's No. 2 man in prison.

[JustPiper]

I'm sorry Cal, Bush encourages it with his big business connections ;(

[JustPiper]

Didn't Germany order a retrial?