Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - Thread 5

CNN ^ | March 12, 2004

[thecabal]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- This week's deadly train bombings in Spain will not lead to a rise in the U.S. color-coded terror threat alert system, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said Friday.

"Based on the current intelligence, we have no specific indicators that terrorist groups are considering such an attack in the U.S. in the near term," said department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.

[WestCoastGal]

Looks like we're the only ones on this thread this morning.

Did you hear Fox News said the school threat is now considered a low level threat. But, and a big but....they knew at 6am this threat existed and let the children go to school anyway?????

If my children attended any of those schools I would be hopping mad.

Hopefully it was a student who didn't do his/her homework. But someone is going to be in big trouble!!

[CJ Wolf]

Hey just last week the french had them surrounded or in their sights or something like that.

[freeperfromnj]

Hopefully it was a student who didn't do his/her homework. But someone is going to be in big trouble!!

"It's being handled as a local, one-time prank, and students are being kept inside under the shelter in place policy," District of Columbia Public School spokeswoman Prenell Neeley told The Associated Press. "We're following the lead of police."

[Indie]

If my children attended any of those schools I would be hopping mad.

I'd probably do something that would get me placed in jail. And since these are government schools, we all know there is no accountability. You can't sue city hall very easily without lots of money and who has that. And they know it.

Thank the Lord my kids are in a private Christian school and I supplement it with home schooling. Needless to say they are way ahead of the game :)) It's a financial burden since I'm a single Dad but it's worth it.

[StillProud2BeFree]

Anyone see this?
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Central/03/18/school.scare.ap/index.html

Teen found with 20 bombs at school
Charged with attempted murder
Friday, March 19, 2004 Posted: 10:38 AM EST (1538 GMT)

Police found homemade bombs in the trunk of Josh Magee's car.


MALCOLM, Nebraska (AP) -- A teenager was charged with attempted murder after police found him outside his school with 20 homemade bombs, a rifle and a note saying he wanted to injure everyone at his high school except for three friends.

Authorities believe they averted what could have been the worst school shooting since the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School.

Josh Magee, 17, was arrested Tuesday in the parking lot of Malcolm High School after a staff member saw him swigging liquor from a flask and putting on a black overcoat.

Police who searched Magee's car found a bolt-action rifle, several rounds of ammunition, small bottles of propane and rigged containers of a petroleum-based propellant.

"It had the potential of going badly," said Superintendent Gene Modernize. "With this student, at this school, on this particular day, we were successful. We got lucky."

Parents and school officials in this tiny town north of Lincoln said Magee often spoke about Columbine, where Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves.

"He asked them in class last week if they knew who Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were," said Julia Lostrah, whose daughter is Magee's classmate. "Then he said, `I know them."'

Second school incident within a week
The arrest came in the same week that authorities in another rural town in the heartland avoided a potentially violent school encounter.

Two second-grade boys and an 11-year-old schoolmate were arrested Wednesday in Forsyth, Montana, on charges that they buried a loaded handgun in a playground sandbox and plotted to shoot and stab a third-grade girl during recess. Authorities said the boys intended to harm the young girl because she had teased two of them.

No one answered the door Thursday at Magee's red-brick home just down the road from the school in Malcolm, a town so small that its downtown streets are unpaved.

School and law enforcement officials said his mother works as a chef in Lincoln, and his father is serving in Afghanistan in the military.

Magee, who has attended Malcolm schools since kindergarten, was always been on the district's radar, Neddenriep said.

"All the way through, he was just a little different," he said. "He liked to be alone, he didn't take part in many things. His enjoyment was weapons."

The superintendent said he wasn't aware of reports that Magee was a target of bullies. "There were never any incidents reported," he said.

When students began reporting to faculty that Magee bragged of making and testing explosives at home, Neddenriep said, the school paid close attention to the teen.

Magee then began showing some interest in school activities, he said.

Lostrah, who is also the school district's administrative assistant, said Magee joined the cross-country team and was an impressive musician.

"He was very talented," she said.

Magee was being held in a juvenile jail, but he was charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder.

Neddenriep said the school of about 450 students will refine its safety policies in the wake of Magee's arrest.

"There's one thing I did learn," Neddenriep said. "It can happen anywhere."

[Indie]

I think Satan has been told his time is limited and is going all out. I'm getting that Revelation feeling lately and so are a lot of folks I know that aren't even very religious.

[freeperfromnj]

His dad's over in Afghanistan. Too bad he has to come home to this news.

[Calpernia]

http://www.app.com/app/story/0,21625,920581,00.html

Student, 14, arrested after explosives found in backpack


Published in the Asbury Park Press 3/07/04
By NAOMI MUELLER and JOE ZEDALIS
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
BRICK -- A 14-year-old Ocean County Vocational Technical School student was arrested Friday after police found his backpack filled with homemade explosives left unattended in the school's hallway, Brick Lt. Doug Kinney said.

The backpack was found by a group of students who were discussing its contents when a teacher overheard them. The teacher called the school's administration, which called police at 8:23 a.m., according to a news release from police.

William P. Hoey Jr., superintendent of the Ocean County Vocational Technical School, said he was told by bomb squad members that the device, which he described as looking "like large, homemade firecrackers," was actually an improvised incendiary device.

Lt. Jack Oakley of the State Police Homeland Security Brach-Technical Response Bureau said device had pyrotechnic powder inside.

"It's the same material found in fireworks like an M-80 or and M-100," Oakley said. "Instead of detonation, it is a substance that burns rapidly. If it was close enough to a combustable material, it would generate enough heat and flame to initiate a fire and cause serious damage or injury to anyone or anything in close proximity."

Oakley said information on how to build a device like the one found can be found on the Internet.

"The information is easily accessible," he said.

Students were evacuated to the neighboring Brick Township High School, while Brick police, members of the State Police bomb and K-9 squads and the Ocean County Sheriff's K-9 Unit recovered the devices and searched the rest of the school.

Meanwhile, the student, whom Hoey believed to be a freshman, was interviewed at police headquarters and eventually released to his parents' custody. Hoey said the teen will not be in school tomorrow. He said the teen "was not a disciplinary problem."

"After the police complete their investigation, then we will determine what will happen to the student," Hoey said.

Oakley said Brick police exacuted a search warrant at the student's home Friday, but could not confirm what, if anything, was found. Brick police also declined comment on the results of the search yesterday.

Kinney said "additional items" were found in the student's locker but declined to say what those items were. Police said no other explosives were found in the school. The teen's locker at Brick Township High School also was searched but nothing illegal was found there, police said.

The Ocean County Vocational School was reopened at 11 a.m., although the afternoon sessions were canceled. Hoey also said the school officials "will review and debrief on exactly what we did and what our security measures are."

The teen was charged with three counts of possession of a destructive device and three counts of risking widespread injury or damage. Kinney said the investigation is ongoing and that additional charges are pending.

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1101251/posts

Morocco to Madrid, A Bomb Suspect Grew Radicalized
The Wall Street Journal ^ | March 19, 2004 | Keith Johnson and John Carreyrou in Madrid, David Crawford in Berlin and Karby Leggett in Tangier


Posted on 03/19/2004 11:03:09 AM EST by presidio9


Three years ago, Spain's national police stormed the apartment of Jamal Zougam, a 30-year-old Moroccan immigrant who ran a cellphone business in Madrid. Among items they seized: phone numbers for suspected terrorists, a video of Islamic warriors fighting Russian troops near Chechnya, and four books in Arabic on aspects of jihad, such as how to treat prisoners of war.

The raid followed a request by a French magistrate who suspected Mr. Zougam was involved in terrorism. But the Spanish police figured the evidence wasn't strong enough to arrest Mr. Zougam, or even to seek a judge's permission for a wiretap.

Now Mr. Zougam is the prime suspect in last week's bombing of four commuter trains in Madrid, which killed 202 people and injured many more. An unexploded bomb had a trigger that used a cellphone police traced to Mr. Zougam's store, which Spanish authorities have reason to believe had long operated as part of an al Qaeda cell that provided logistical help to Islamists across Europe.

(snip)

[TexKat]

Good morning all. Hope everyone had a good nights rest.

Taiwan President Shot, Later Leaves Hospital

By Jane Macartney

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian survived an assassination attempt on Friday while campaigning on the eve of a presidential election, escaping with a bullet wound to the stomach.

Vice President Annette Lu was also wounded in the attack in the southern city of Tainan but was not badly hurt, officials said. The pair were rushed to hospital, but a hospital official said later that they had left to fly back to the capital.

Officials said Saturday's election would go ahead as planned. Opposition presidential candidate Lien Chan paid a brief visit to Chen at his official Taipei residence on Friday evening.

"He is resting," Lien told reporters afterwards. "We wished the president a speedy recovery and gave him a box of ginseng."

Chen and Lu had been traveling through Tainan streets in a red open-top jeep, waving to crowds, when unknown assailants shot at them at 1:45 p.m. local time.

Police said they believed two standard handguns had been used and at least two shots fired. City police later offered a T$3 million (US$90,000) reward for information leading to the capture of the two assailants.

More than six hours after the shooting, China's official Xinhua news agency carried a terse factual report but the Chinese authorities had no official reaction. Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province to be recovered, by force if necessary.

Chen was rushed to hospital in Tainan, his home town, where he received 14 stitches in an 11-cm (five-inch) long, three-cm (one-inch) deep wound. Television reports said the 54-year-old president was able to walk into the hospital for treatment.

Lu, 59, was hit in the right leg and had to be assisted into the building but her condition was not serious, officials said.

It was unclear if the attack would affect the election outcome. Analysts said most voters had already made their choice based on policy and were unlikely to be swayed by emotion now.

Chen's chief of staff, Chiou I-jen, told a news conference that the president had called for calm.

Both the president's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the opposition Nationalists called off campaigning after the shooting.

VOTES FOR BULLETS

In the capital on Friday night, thousands of Chen supporters gathered outside DPP headquarters, singing campaign songs and chanting: "Elect A-bian" -- the president's popular nickname.

Police put the turnout at 4,000-5,000. "We feel very proud, because our own president, our leader, asked his own supporters to be calm despite what had happened," said teacher Liao Wen-bo, 61. "We are going to use our votes as our bullets tomorrow."

Chen has a loyal following among Taiwanese whose families emigrated to the island from China centuries ago. His opponents are closely identified with the "mainlander" minority who fled to Taiwan in 1949 after the Nationalist government lost China's civil war to Mao Zedong's Communist forces.

Chen aggressively advocates independence from China while Lien favors a conciliatory approach to the island's giant foe.

The Taiwan dollar fell 0.2 percent on initial reports of the shooting but quickly recovered. Dealers said the central bank had intervened in the market to contain the fall. The bank said it would intervene if it detected unusual currency movements.

The Investigation Bureau said police were hunting two attackers amid suspicions two guns were fired.

"The shooters probably were in the crowd because the wound to the president was on an upward trajectory," an official said.

"The gunshot occurred just as firecrackers were exploded, so we don't even know how many shots were actually fired," the bureau official told Reuters.

Wang Hsin-nan, a DPP lawmaker who was traveling in Chen's motorcade, told TVBS television that a bullet hit the vice president in the knee first, and then the president.

It was not Chen's first brush with violence. His wife, Wu Shu-chen, was run over by a lorry in Tainan in 1985 and paralyzed from the waist down. She had gone to thank her husband's supporters after he lost an election for Tainan county chief. Chen accused the Nationalists of an attempted assassination.

Their close battle could be decided by just a few hundred thousand votes out of 16.5 million.

Opinion polls are banned in the last 10 days of campaigning. Underground bookies had been offering even money on a Lien victory by a margin of 850,000 votes while on Chen they were offering odds of 1.15-1 for a win by any margin.

"Maybe this will narrow down the margin, but I doubt it will be enough to get him re-elected," said George Tsai, analyst at the Institute of International Relations in Taipei.

Chen has called a controversial referendum on boosting the island's defenses, setting the vote for Saturday alongside the presidential poll. The step has enraged Beijing, which sees the move as a harbinger of steps toward independence.

Beijing views the referendum as a dry run for a vote on Taiwan independence that it says could lead to war. (Additional reporting by Alice Hung, James Peng, Tiffany Wu, Michael Kramer, Baker Li, Kirby Chien and Richard Dobson)

[null and void]

I realize we might lose intelligence but it's better than letting this person and the other islamonazis from escaping.

Maybe.

If he escapes we can visit death where ever he goes. It won't take much of this before the welcomed hero becomes the shunned pariah...

[Sean Osborne Lomax]

"Sean is that you over in Pakistan phoning in reports?"


LOL, no I am here in CONUS.

[Indie]

Excellent home page.

[null and void]

Thanks. I really need to update it. I'm not quite so pure a Libertaian since a few years of FR, and 9/11...

[Indie]

Just a suggestion :) I don't think JM and his quote deserve being posted at the top of your site any longer. I think he has shown that he is no altruist, as much as he'd like us to think he is.
cheers!

[TexKat]

Good morning, how are you?

Now what is your take on the Wana events?

Who do you think is there?

Do you think this is a Musharraff ploy, probably not with people being killed on both sides?

And what is up with the $99.00 membership charge for NEIN?

[Letitring]

Seems like Tora Bora, part 2. THROW UP! I think they let him go. Paid them off and whoops, he's gone again.

[TexKat]

The Pakistani journalist (Baghdad Bob's cousin) Hamid Mir was just on the phone with Fox News reporting that his sources informed him that 2 arabs had been captured (yesterday this journalist said there were no arabs in the area). He also stated that Zawahiri had been in the area 6 weeks ago (yesterday he said 4 weeks)but had left.

Americans are striking from the Afgan side of the border.

[Indie]

If that IS what happened, perhaps a MIRV would change the Pak's behavior...permanently.

Oh well, we'll see. We can always pray. One thing is for sure, this is a war we will all be fighting sooner than later...and I for one am ready. [God help us all if EfnK is elected, or if something happens to our President]...then again...if they target him, it better be open hunting season on rats and islamonazis...and the press...because they will all be equally to blame.

---

Dear Lord, we pray for your divine protection over our President and his family. Place a shield around them and our soldiers who are fighting against the manifestations of evil in the world. Bring them peace in knowing that what they do is good and right. Amen/

[freeperfromnj]

Fox News still saying he's cornered and that the Paks are stepping up the effort.