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.

[MamaDearest]

They're selling those rings like hotcakes.

And if they run out of those, there's always the mood rings...

[null and void]

and it tightly guards its supply

Ha!

[ladyjane]

4. Mysterious deaths of unidentified divers in the Hudson River, Florida and Hawaii have everyone questioning the insecurity of our harbors and coastlines.

How many in all? I think there were two in the Hudson. The other locations...? and were they all missing their tanks?

[Revel]

Oops...Now I know why I can't be trusted with secrets. Drats!!

[thecabal]

Looks like you beat me to it, thanks. I had to step out...I'll be around when I can tonight.

[Revel]

I bet you can't post an invisable link to Thread 5.

[Cindy]

That's the ink.
The best kind, too.

[Cindy]

How come my mood rings always seemed to not work after awhile?

(I know, PMS is not good for mood rings.)

[rickylc]

Really?

Is C-4 easy to obtain?

I'm asking out of complete ignorance, the largest explosive I've ever used is an M-80 on 4th of July.

[null and void]

Bingo

*ducking*

[rickylc]

I think there were 2 dead divers total, please correct me if I'm wrong, one in Hollywood, Fl. and the Hudson River diver. I think the 2 Hawaii divers remained alive, but never caught.

[null and void]

Lets just say that quite a bit of it used in training is only used up on paper.

I don't have access, but more that one current or ex-GI has a private stock...

[all4one]

I just love when the AP doesn't choose to list some of these stories until after the stock markets have closed....this is the first time I have seen this and it is almost midnight...someone earlier in the post today mentioned that the Homeland Security color code would be going up after the markets closed today...some of the lastest news leads me to believe they are correct.

Mask Protecting Against Biological, Chemical and Nuclear Agents Approved for Civilians
The Associated Press
Published: Mar 12, 2004

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Federal regulators on Friday approved the first gas mask intended to protect civilian emergency personnel from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear agents.

The company that produces the mask, Mine Safety Appliances Co., said it would begin production of the mask almost immediately following the approval by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Testing prototypes proved especially complicated because all the masks exposed to terminal agents had to be destroyed and it was difficult to determine what went wrong with those that failed, said Ron Herring, vice president and general manager of the company's safety products division.

The new masks have attached air purifiers, which make them easier to transport than their military counterparts.
Mine Safety Appliances was founded in 1914 as a developer of mine safety equipment. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the company has provided equipment for emergency responders such as police and fire officials.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAV45K5RRD.html

[all4one]

For those of us who are thinking about bible verses...well this is just one more event in the course of current events.

Periodical Cicadas to Emerge in May

Fri Mar 12, 1:24 PM ET
By DAN LEWERENZ, Associated Press Writer

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - After 17 years of relative quiet, Mother Nature is bringing the noise. Periodical cicadas, a species of the grasshopper-like insects best known for the scratching, screeching "singing" of the males, will emerge this May, filling forests in more than a dozen states. Almost as abruptly as they arrive, they'll disappear underground for another 17 years.

"Why do certain insects take only one year to develop, and others take two or three? It's just part of their genetic programming," said Greg Hoover, senior extension entomologist for Penn State University.

There are at least 13 broods of 17-year cicadas, plus another five broods that emerge every 13 years. The last to emerge, Brood IX, was seen last spring in parts of West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.

This year, it's time for Brood X, the so-called "Big Brood," to surface. Its range stretches from Georgia, west through Tennessee and to isolated pockets of Missouri, north along the Ohio Valley and into Michigan, and east into New Jersey and New York.

"This is one of those years we kind of dread," said Paris Lambdin, professor of entomology and plant pathology at the University of Tennessee. "We had an emergence a couple years ago around Nashville, but nothing like what we expect this one will be."

No other periodical cicada covers so much ground. And with hundreds of them per acre in infested areas, the noise will be hard to miss.

"In 1987, coming back from the University of Maryland on Interstate 95, when you drove through a wooded area you could hear the insects," Hoover said. "This would have been mid to late June, with the windows down, and then it would shut down when you got to a field or a non-wooded area."
In rare years, a 13-year brood can emerge to add its collective voice to that of a 17-year brood.

"Out in the Midwest is where things get really hairy," Hoover said. "Missouri, Illinois, Indiana have combinations of 17-year-brooded individuals and 13-year-brooded individuals, and they can have overlap."

There's no question that the class of 2004 will be a nuisance. The cicadas will make plenty of noise, and adults are poor fliers that tend to bump into things.
But as swarms go, these cicadas aren't that bad. Adults don't feed on leaves, so they won't strip the trees, but they do lay their eggs in twigs.

"The females, once mated, will lay pockets of eggs along twigs that will cause structural weakening of those twigs," Hoover said. "Eventually they may drop off and fall to the ground, the nymphs will drop off and fall to the soil, and that's where this species is for the next 17 years."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&e=4&u=/ap/cicadas_return

[thecabal]

Link to Thread Five

Moderator, please close this thread.

[Revel]

I really don't know what the plan on doing to the threat level. But it does appear from many articles that the government is thinking that something is comming.

[virtude]

"Quayle's site is a joke. Just wanted to make sure you heard it LOUD AND CLEAR."

And it is. And so is the other guy (forgot his name), the one with the homelandsecurity site.

I don't mind people here speculating, but to put one's trust on these rumor mongers, that's too much for me.

Thanks for having the courage for saying it loud and clear. I heard you and I'm sure others heard you too.

You're a breath of fresh air. Group-think can be dangerous to one's health.

Back to reading now...

[thecabal]

Welcome to FR. Been lurking here long?

[Mrs. Xtrmst]

Sounds to me like an Oklahoma City Syndrome.

[virtude]

"The Basque terrorist organization ETA and bin Laden's al-Qaeda cells have joined forces."

That's what it looks to me too. However, I think the ETA forces that joined Al Qaeda are a splinter group, or renegade ETA extremists.