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Thread Six: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1109459/posts |
Posted on 03/12/2004 8:23:06 PM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
The United States Coast Guard was very busy over Savannah this morning. Air Station Savannah was taking part in a joint training exercise with a special weapons of mass destruction team. This is the first time this has ever been done in the US.
more at the link
This quote sticks in my mind. Spain was first. Could there be some strategic method to their madness?
Mir states that the terrorist communications have been intercepted and they are speaking chechan and the language of the village.
"The Al-Qaeda is the stop of the operations in Spain and threatens America agents ..Cells plan for a hitting in Italy".
By Michael Christie
GONAIVES, Haiti (Reuters) - The first major contingent of foreign troops rumbled on Friday into the gritty Haitian city where an armed revolt erupted six weeks ago and led to the ousting of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
On a mission to restore order to the still-restive town, a column of more than 140 French Legionnaires in armored personnel carriers, trucks and jeeps pulled into a university compound in Gonaives, watched by an excited gaggle of children and a few wary adults, some warning the "war" was not over.
In the afternoon the French went out on their first foot patrol, backed up by two armored vehicles with mounted cannons. Wearing berets, with some carrying bazookas and sniper rifles, the soldiers said "bonjour" and waved at residents. A beaming old lady clapped her hands and shouted "merci, merci."
A string of mopeds and bicycles latched on to the back of the patrol like a comet's tail. The troops went past the ruins of the Gonaives police station, where the revolt began, and a burned out and stripped gasoline station across the road.
It was the first major push by multinational forces into the seaside town where the latest bout of violence in the impoverished Caribbean nation began.
The 3,000-member force sent by the United Nations to restore order after Aristide's departure on Feb. 29 had concentrated on Port-au-Prince, the capital.
"We have won the first part of the battle but at heart our aim went beyond fighting a dictator," said Wynter Etienne, a spokesman for the Gonaives rebels who helped drive Aristide into exile. "Our aim was equally to achieve durable development for this country."
Rebel leaders in charge of Gonaives since they kicked out a contingent of Haitian National Police on Feb. 5 said they expected the new prime minister, Gerard Latortue, to address the city's 200,000 mostly dirt-poor inhabitants on Saturday.
Etienne said the so-called Front for the Liberation of Haiti would lay down their arms in front of Latortue, a native of Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city.
"It is now up to police and the international force to guarantee security. But if needed, the Front is willing to help." Etienne told Reuters.
POCKETS OF TENSION
Buter Metayer, leader of the street gang that led the Gonaives uprising, drove around town in a four-wheel drive vehicle seized from police, reassuring residents over the arrival of French troops.
Despite these assurances, occasional pockets of tension were seen. One young man waving a pistol in one hand and a semi-automatic rifle shouted: "No one is taking my guns."
Some residents warned the "war" was not over and expressed caution about Latortue's new government.
"We can't trust him yet," said Fritz Desir, self-appointed spokesman for the people of Raboteau, a Gonaives slum that was the site of a massacre in 1994.
"We the Haitian people created the monster Aristide. We need to watch what this man does. After all, it's been 200 years of the same thing," he said, referring to the succession of despots since Haiti's independence from France in 1804.
Gonaives, ruled by street gangs and rebels since the revolt began, seemed cleaner than in past weeks. A water truck sprayed water on a roadway near a market to clear away street sludge. Sewage was swept from open gutters in the Raboteau slum as residents prepared for the prime minister's visit.
Barricades of rusty car frames, shipping containers and scrap metal had been pushed aside and life returned to its chaotic norm. Bicycles and cars clogged the streets.
Guns, once everywhere, were rarely seen and Metayer's fighters had discarded uniforms and flak jackets stolen from police.
Capt. George Tourmente, commander of the French troops, said the Legionnaires intended to allow police to take up their posts again and help the city return to a normal life.
"We have no mission of disarming the people," he said.
You're welcome. I wish I could transport your family to a less prone to terrorism place to live due to prior threats regarding that part of the country. But then again, no one should assume anywhere in the country is safe. It's hard to tell when or where it will happen, but my gut feeling is also that it will eventually happen. At least we all know to prepare for disaster, watch our backsides and proceed with caution in all that we do before it happens and afterwards. Having the fortitude to get through it if it does happen will be our challenge.
Catching brook trout in Colorado was a real treat - good memories in times like these are defnitely needed.
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