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.

[appalachian_dweller]

Re #4614 & 4615

Thanks for the post JP, good info.

[JustPiper]

Tainted soil dumped at Settler's Hill
By Patrick Waldron Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Friday, March 12, 2004

Garbage haulers mistakenly dumped 12 tons of petroleum-contaminated soil at Settler's Hill landfill in Geneva last month, a move that has city leaders asking for a quick cleanup but county officials unsure what action, if any, to take.

The material, shipped to the landfill by Shell Oil Co. from a company pipeline facility in Kankakee County, contained high levels of benzene and should have ended up at a hazardous waste dump, said Tim Harbaugh, the county's environmental management director.

"Shell Oil mistakenly brought it to the wrong pile," Harbaugh said.

Officials with Waste Management, the firm that operates the county-owned landfill, said soon after the material was dumped Feb. 5, 6 and 7 Shell notified the landfill and accepted responsibility for the error.

Since then, Waste Management and county officials have been talking with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

Officials are trying to determine if the material should be removed. If asked, Shell has offered to pick up the estimated $5 million to $6 million tab to do the work, officials said.

http://www.dailyherald.com/mchenry/main_story.asp?intID=38058182

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1096504/posts

Special Operations Takes Front-Line Role in Anti-Terror War


Special operators are "taking the war to the terrorists before it can be fought on our own soil or that of our allies," Thomas W. O'Connell said in testimony before the House Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee. O'Connell is the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict.

[JustPiper]

Deadly attack a mystery
Associated Press
Posted Friday, March 12, 2004

MADRID, Spain - A series of bombs hidden in backpacks exploded in quick succession Thursday, blowing apart four commuter trains and killing at least 192 people and wounding more than 1,400. Spain at first blamed Basque separatists but a shadowy group claimed responsibility in the name of al-Qaida for the worst terrorist attack in Spanish history.

{{{The bombing came three days ahead of Spain's general election on Sunday.}}} A major campaign issue was how to deal with ETA, the Basque militant group that is seeking greater autonomy.

Campaigning for the election was called off and three days of mourning were declared.

http://www.dailyherald.com/news_story.asp?intid=38058116

[Revel]

LOL

[null and void]

I'm looking for a poem that a FReeper posted about the time the Afghanistan campaign started.

Something like:
"I want them to cower when they hear diesel engines... hide in their holes at the sounds of jets... ten generations from now I want their mothers to threaten the children with 'if you don't behave the pale destroyers will come', and that will be enough to scare them into instant obeisance"...

Anyone know where I can find it? Or who wrote it???

[JustPiper]

Tell that to little Logan ;)

[TexKat]

There was no warning or even an inkling an attack would happen in Madrid either!

Incorrect JP.

Spain foils ETA bomb attack

Posted Mon, 01 Mar 2004

Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said on Sunday that police had averted a bomb attack in Madrid that Basque extremists had planned to carry out over the next few days, as the country's March 14 general election campaign entered its final stretch.

"A terrorist attack, a tragedy with very serious consequences, has been avoided," Acebes told a press conference.

The police had earlier said two suspected members of the Basque armed separatist group ETA had been arrested as they headed for the capital in a pick-up truck carrying explosives.

"We believe they were on their way to carry out an attack in Madrid during the general election campaign," an officer said.

The interior minister said the truck intercepted by police had been carrying 500 kilograms of explosives and 30 kilograms of dynamite near Cuenca, 170 kilometres east of the capital, to be used within the next few days in Madrid.

The identity of the two suspects was not given.

Truck primed to target Madrid

"(The truck was) primed to target Madrid, imminently, within the coming days," Acebes told reporters.

The outlawed ETA movement has for 35 years been waging an armed struggle for an independent Basque homeland comprising parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. The government has blamed it for the deaths of 816 people over that time.

On February 18 ETA announced a ceasefire limited to the northeastern region of Catalonia, several days after a senior left-wing member of the Catalan government held a meeting with ETA representatives.

Both sides acknowledged the meeting while denying any agreement on ending ETA attacks had been reached.

But four days later ETA announced in pro-independence Basque newspaper Gara that the armed struggle was "crucial for the process of liberation" and would only end when the "rights of the Basque country are recognised".

The group's previous ceasefire lasted for 14 months over 1998 and 1999 and covered the whole of Spain.

[Revel]

Spooky

[StillProud2BeFree]

Thanks for the link. We studied this extensively in one of my Islamic history classes. There is a lot more to Islamic history in Europe than most people realize.

Islam came very cross to encompassing most of Europe before Charles Martel met the Muslims advance from Spain outside Loire at the Battle of Poitiers. The Moors are the descendents of the Spanish Muslims. The Spanish Inquisition basically has its roots in attempts by the church to rid the region of not just Jews but also Muslims.

There are many common words between Arabic and Spanish. For example, in Arabic CAT is Al Qato and in Spanish CAT is Al Gato.

[JustPiper]

Iraqi police, not impostors, may have killed Americans

March 12, 2004

BY LEE KEATH

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. officials are worried that Iraqi police -- not just impostors in Iraqi uniforms -- may have been behind the killings of two coalition staffers and their translator, the top American general in Iraq said Thursday.

The three were the first civilians from the U.S. occupation authority to be killed in Iraq. Officials have not released their names, but relatives identified one of them as 33-year-old Fern Holland, a human rights expert from Oklahoma who worked on women's issues in the Hillah region where she was killed.

''If I die, know that I'm doing precisely what I want to be doing,'' Holland wrote in an e-mail to a friend on Jan. 21.

She met often with Iraqi women around Hillah and communicated their needs to Iraq's Governing Council, even influencing the interim constitution completed this week, said one of her colleagues.

The shooting Tuesday night raised two possibilities: that guerrillas had adopted a new tactic of posing as police to carry out attacks, or that some members of the security forces being trained by U.S. troops are turning to violence.

The Americans and an Iraqi woman working as their translator were driving 35 miles south of Baghdad, when they were stopped at a checkpoint and killed by gunmen.

The attackers then took their car, their bodies still inside, according to the Polish military. Polish troops stopped the car and arrested the five Iraqis inside.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the U.S. commander in Iraq, said it was not yet known if the attackers were disguised as police or the real thing.

''They were in police uniforms. We haven't established that it was the police,'' Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told reporters.

Also Thursday, the military said a U.S. soldier from the 652nd Engineering Battalion was killed and two others wounded the day before when a bomb went off in the city of Baqouba north of Baghdad, a center of anti-U.S. insurgent activity.

The deaths brings to 554 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the the war in Iraq was launched last March. Most have died since President Bush declared an end to active combat May 1. AP

http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/cst-nws-iraq12.html

[JustPiper]

U.S. biotech corn may threaten varieties in Mexico

March 12, 2004

OAXACA, Mexico -- Modified genes spread by imported U.S. biotech corn threaten to contaminate native varieties in Mexico, the birthplace of corn, a NAFTA watchdog panel said Thursday.

In 1998, Mexico declared a moratorium on genetically modified corn, making it illegal except at some labs. But in a 2001 study of 188 corn-growing communities, 7.6 percent of plants were genetically modified.

Seventy percent of Mexico's corn is now imported from the United States, and 30 percent to 50 percent is genetically modified. While much of the imported corn is animal feed, some has been planted and its pollen spread.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-corn12.html

[JustPiper]

Bump in Truth my friend!

[Calpernia]

That might have been Conspiracy Guy. I don't know if he did that one specifically; but I have seen his work and it could be him.

[Revel]

He says some good stuff. I think he goes a bit over board on shooting people before they are proven guilty. Sound like a real vigilanti..Innocent people would get blasted if this guy was in charge.

[Revel]

He only signed up as EOM.

[rickylc]

Bump!

[JustPiper]

The worry could be 'why' was it abandoned?

[JustPiper]

Homeland Security Issues Transit Alert
Mar 12, 2:50 PM (ET)
By LESLIE MILLER

(AP) Members of the New York City Police Department's Hercules unit patrol New York's Grand Central... Members of the New York City Police Department's Hercules unit patrol New York's Grand Central Terminal during the morning commute on Friday, March 12, 2004. Homeland Security officials were keeping close watch on developments related to the terrorist attacks that killed or wounded more than 1,500 train riders in Spain, and U.S. passenger trains were taking extra precautions.

A commuter waits at the Stamford, Conn., train station, Friday, March 12, 2004 for the Amtrak Acela train to pull into the station. Security on Metro North and other commuter rail lines across the nation is increased in the wake of Thursday's bombing in Spain.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Homeland Security officials issued a bulletin advising state officials, police and transit and rail agencies to be vigilant in light of the bombings in Spain.

They were asked late Thursday night to consider additional surveillance and to look out for unattended bags and backpacks, Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.

Full Story

[LayoutGuru2]

Daleel is not Arab.

I thought Daleel was indeed tracked down as being in the United Arab Emirates through the IP of his posting.