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.

[tmp02]

I came across this I thought that I would repost...especially since it mentioned battleships, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

Al-Qa'ida's Al-Ablaj Warns 'Zero Hour' for Strike Inside US Has Been Set

  Jill St. Claire

  E-Mail: Jill@HomelandSecurityUS.com

London: Al-Majallah in Arabic 28 December 2003 (Pages 13-14); Report by Mahmud Khalil in Dubai: "Al-Qa'ida Threatens the United States Again: What They Will See and Hear Soon Will Hurt Them" -- this report was received directly from Al-Majallah by fax on 29 December 2003.

The US federal authorities' announcement early last week that raised the state of alert to a higher level, "orange color", in anticipation
of terrorist attacks coincided with new assertions by al-Qaeda organization that the zero hour for the anticipated attack inside US
territories has been set.

Previous electronic messages from al-Qa'ida set the month of Shawwal [started on 25 November], or the period between Id al-Fitr and Id al-Adha, as the date for the strike that it has consistently threatened to carry out. The latest electronic message from al-Qa'ida organization showed new assertions from the organization's leader of the imminent strike inside US territories and said he would appear later on in a televised speech to speak about this operation.

Abu-Muhammad al-Ablaj, an al-Qa'ida leader, said in his new message: "I was talking with the brothers around the shaykh [Usama
Bin Ladin] and they asked me to confirm that the strike would be between the two ids, that it would break the back, and would upset the balances."

He reiterated previous statements he had made: "Let them prepare from now for more sorrows and let them prepare the coffins and the largest number of hospitals and graves. The coming days are full of surprises and major events that will make them an historic example. We will teach them the painful lessons that they will never forget."

The organization's electronic message did not reveal the nature of the attack that they are intending to carry out or the type of
weapons that they will use in it. But Al-Ablaj said that he would open the way for an expanded and detailed dialogue with one of this
operation's leaders after the implementation. He hinted that the attack would consist of several qualitative and simultaneous strikes
inside US territories and other countries he did not name. He said: "We will set them off soon."

The US authorities' deployment last week of specialized US military units to look for nuclear and biological weapons in addition to
chemical ones in New York, which suffered severe damages on 11 September, and in other US cities reveals that there are real US
fears that al-Qa'ida will resort to the use of non-conventional weapons in the anticipated attack inside US territories. This is consistent with the threats that al-Qa'ida officials had repeatedly made that the next strike would exceed in its scale the New York and Washington ones.

The US Depth

The al-Qa'ida organization persistently refused throughout the period that followed the 11 September bombings to deny or confirm its possession of weapons of mass destruction, though Al-Ablaj did not rule out in his previous messages to "Al-Majallah" his organization's resort to poisoning drinking water in one of the US cities and using the lethal Sarin gas against US crowds. Bin Ladin hinted in a meeting with a Pakistani correspondent at al-Qa'ida's possible possession of some nuclear briefcases from some of the former Soviet Union's republics.

Though the likely US targets are not known to the US security apparatuses, al-Qa'ida is in return refraining from talking about
them or even giving any hints about them, justifying this by the impossibility of revealing such details for security reasons and for
maintaining the secrecy of its plans. But it is stressing at the same time that its declaration before implementation of its intention to
strike deep inside US territories again, as had happened with the September attacks which took the Americans before the world by
surprise, falls within the context of the psychological war and, according to Al-Ablaj, is even part of the steps of their wars on
what he called "the alliance of the world crusader-Zionist unbelief" so that al-Qa'ida would expose the failure of "this alliance."

Scenarios

Previous messages from Al-Ablaj showed preliminary features of hypothetical scenarios of the nature of the strike that the al-Qa'ida
organization might carry out inside US territories through the following points that were contained in these messages:

--The operation will be qualitative and distinguished by lethal strikes in depth.

--The female suicide bombers are ready (Al-Ablaj's reference to the female suicide bombers in his previous messages coincided with a recent remark by a US security official that Chechen women were ready to carry out suicidal bombings inside New York city).

--The sinking of US battleships and the poisoning of US soldiers through what Al-Ablaj's asserted are al-Qa'ida elements inside the US Army and whom he described as ones with blue eyes. He pointed out that they are exactly like Na'im Bin-Mas'ud who hid his conversion to Islam.

--A strike on electricity is likely as part of al-Qa'ida's plans, according to the previous messages, to "paralyze" and stun the United
States.

--The pinpointing of the earthquake fault line inside the United States and then causing explosions on it in several places and points.

--The targeting of areas inside the United States where there is strong volcanic action and activating them by humans so that the
rocks "will slide" and the catastrophe will start.

--The poisoning of a drinking water plant that supplies an entire US city and using the lethal Sarin gas against US human crowds. He
pointed out that some Japanese groups had resorted to this way easily.

--The strike to be carried out simultaneously with strikes against US and Western embassies in the world.

--There will be a strike in winter and one in summer.

--The use of what he called the booby-trapped death vehicles and also human bombs, which he said will move freely in the US cities streets.

--The existence of a list of US officials to be assassinated. "The suicide bombers' teams have arrived and the weapons, ammunition,
explosives, and bombs caches are easy to reach."

One can deduce from al-Qa'ida's previous messages these scenarios and the nature of the attack it intends to carry out against the United States. It is gathered from Al-Ablaj's talk that Bin Ladin will appear on videotape after implementation of this operation and that the wagering inside al-Qa'ida is that the destruction that this operation will cause will far exceed the one caused by the 11
September attacks. Bin Ladin will refer in his speech to the success of his followers in striking again deep inside the United States on such a scale and in return show the Americans' failure, locally and externally.

Al-Ablaj said: " As I have told you, his appearance this time will have this huge significance and scale. A messenger from him asserted this to me and I am now writing to you with only two persons to carry [messages] between him and me, in other words, from me to you from so and so from Abu-Abdallah."

He reiterated: "Dear brother. The days are coming nearer day after day and what is coming is more drastic and more harmful. This is what I can say now and I will provide an opportunity for conducting an expanded and detailed dialogue with one of the operation's leaders after the implementation."

Al-Ablaj admitted that al-Qa'ida's recent operations in Riyadh and Istanbul were just to waste the efforts of what he called "the giants of evil and unbelief in the United States."  He said: "We are benefiting from the situation that is prevailing in the region and our calculations for the fatal strike deep inside US territories is based on the continuity of this chaos and its intensification in the region."

He said he has a message from Bin Ladin to the US President to the effect that he should concentrate his efforts on fighting terrorism
against his country as this is more useful and beneficial to him than wasting his efforts in the world, specifically as "they have what
will hurt Bush inside his country."

Al-Ablaj concluded his message by swearing that the date of the strike has drawn nearer and that the world would see the scale of the destruction that would befall the United States. He said woe unto the West from a harm that has drawn near.

HOME

 

[WestCoastGal]

An al Qaeda plot to blast London was dramatically foiled by police today (30 Mar, 2004)
ThisLondon.com ^




Terror bombs seized
By Justin Davenport and Hugh Dougherty, Evening Standard

An al Qaeda plot to blast London was dramatically foiled by police today.

Seven hundred police swooped in a series of 6am raids in the capital and the Home Counties. They found half a tonne of fertiliser explosives - enough for a series of terror "spectaculars".

The terrorist suspects arrested by police are believed to have chosen "soft targets" for bombings including pubs and clubs. One of the suspects being held had a job at Gatwick Airport, immediately raising concerns over airlines and passengers.

A total of eight men - all of them British citizens of Pakistani descent, three of them teenagers - were arrested in the operation, with police from five forces searching a total of 24 addresses across London and the South-East.

The ammonium nitrate explosives were discovered in a self-storage warehouse in Hanwell, west London and have now been made safe. They are the same explosives that al Qaeda used in attacks in Bali, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

The raids came only two weeks after Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens warned that an attack on London was "inevitable" and that the targets could include pubs, clubs and shopping centres.

Scotland Yard deputy assistant commissioner Peter Clarke said today: "I must stress the threat from terrorism is very real and the public must remain watchful and alert."


http://www.thisislondon.com/til/jsp/modules/Article/print.jsp?itemId=9969473

---

[nw_arizona_granny]

After finding all the fire fighting equipment listed under Obadiahs eagle, this news is scary to me.

Pine, Arizona
Wildfire, Monday reported at 30 acres, this morning it is 700 acres.

Lightning has been ruled out as the cause of fire, it is unknown how it started.

http://www.abc15.com/news/index.asp?did=8786

[WestCoastGal]

One paragraph sort of sticks out in that article.

A total of eight men - all of them British citizens of Pakistani descent, three of them teenagers - were arrested in the operation, with police from five forces searching a total of 24 addresses across London and the South-East.

All British citizens, what's to stop them from boarding a plane for the USA? I wonder if any of them were on our watch lists?

[Velveeta]

I *hope* they got them all!

[Velveeta]

Is that anywhere near you Granny?

[WestCoastGal]

For some reason I doubt it.

---

snip

"Today's raids also raise the frightening new spectre of an enemy within - British citizens prepared to launch devastating attacks on their fellow citizens.

Until now, the vast majority of antiterrorist arrests have been of suspects who used the asylum system to gain entry to Britain, and that system's history of managerial incompetence to disappear.

But with eight British citizens now suspected of being involved in a terror plot, Sir John and Mr Blunkett have to face up to the even more devastating possibility that al Qaeda has recruited the perfect "sleepers" - British citizens operating as terrorists in their own country.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/9978710?source=Evening%20Standard

[all4one]

Last month the Sears Tower was bought by the same group that own the World Trade Center. I saved the story, but need time to find it again. I found it interesting enough at the time, to make a note of it. I will post to your attention once I find it again.

[WestCoastGal]

Appears to be Zarqawi again...................

Arrests linked to splinter cell
By Valentine Low, Evening Standard
30 March 2004

The suspects seized today during anti-terror raids could be part of an extremist Islamic group linked to the most wanted man in Iraq.

Details first emerged last year of an al Qaeda splinter group operating in Britain which was bent on carrying out terrorist attacks in this country.

According to German intelligence documents, Luton was the European base for a terror cell which was part of an organisation known as al-Tauhid.


The cell, consisting of at least six Jordanians and Palestinians, was believed to have already plotted to use poison in the UK and elsewhere.

>>>>>>The leader of al-Tauhid is Jordanian terrorist chief Abu Masab al-Zarqawi, who was identified by US secretary of state Colin Powell as a link between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime.

Since the war in Iraq ended, he has been suspected of being behind the wave of bomb attacks there.

Al-Tauhid's presence in Britain has been known to the security services for some time. But it was only last May when the German intelligence documents came to light that it was identified as a key terrorist threat.

Although strictly independent of al Qaeda, al-Tauhid follows the same hardline agenda and has been blamed for a series of attacks and plots over the last four years.

The group's spiritual leader is the London-based cleric Abu Qatada who was described by a Spanish judge as Osama bin Laden's " European ambassador".

More............

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/londonnews/articles/9978706?source=Evening%20Standard

[Domestic Church]

Bookmarking.

[WestCoastGal]

Since he mentions four targets on the east coast and five on the west coast, I wonder which of these the Sears Tower was in. Also, I wonder who Moussaoui's cohorts were and where are they now?

Considering that these guys usually like to come back and finish what they planned it is a concern. Of course unfortunately Moussaoui has been lawyered up almost from the beginning so I don't think we got anything out of him.

I can guess which five they were planning on the west coast.

One of which, the library tower is 73 stories, the tallest west of the Sears Tower.

[rickylc]

And so what?

We're supposed to wimper and cower?

Are you saying we should restrain Isreal?

If so, I respectfully disagree.

Time is worth less than the paper it's written on.

[Domestic Church]

The relevance is in the recent HyperX flight over the weekend. This probably has been linked here already but on the outside chance it hasn't:

Mystery over new Russian weapon

Monday, March 29, 2004 Posted: 10:40 AM EST (1540 GMT)

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- Russia has designed a "revolutionary" weapon that would make the prospective U.S. missile defense useless, Russian news agencies reported, quoting a senior Defense Ministry official.

The official, who was not identified by name, said tests conducted during last month's military maneuvers would dramatically change the philosophy behind development of Russia's nuclear forces, the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies reported on Monday.

If deployed, the new weapon would take the value of any U.S. missile shield to "zero," the news agencies quoted the official as saying.

The official said the new weapon would be inexpensive, providing an "asymmetric answer" to U.S. missile defenses, which are proving extremely costly to develop.

Russia, meanwhile, also has continued research in prospective missile defenses and has an edge in some areas compared to other nations, the official said.

The statement reported Monday was in line with claims by President Vladimir Putin's that experiments performed during last month's maneuvers proved that Russia could soon build strategic weapons that could puncture any missile-defense system.

At the time, Col-Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, explained that the military tested a "hypersonic flying vehicle" that was able to maneuver between space and the earth's atmosphere. Military analysts said that the mysterious new weapons could be a maneuverable ballistic missile warhead or a hypersonic cruise missile.

While Putin said the development of such new weapons wasn't aimed against the United States, most observers viewed the move as Moscow's retaliation to the U.S. missile defense plans.

After years of vociferous protests, Russia reacted calmly when Washington withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 in order to develop of a nationwide missile shield. But U.S.-Russian relations have soured again lately, and Moscow has complained about Washington's plans to build new low-yield nuclear weapons.

[TexKat]

At Least 23 Killed in Uzbekistan Clashes

By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan - Police and military clashed with suspected terrorists, including three female suicide bombers, and 23 people were killed in a third day of violence Tuesday that rattled the Uzbek capital during a sweep to round up Islamic militants, witnesses and authorities said.

Government forces besieged an apartment building near the presidential residence in northern Tashkent for nearly five hours after confronting the suicide bombers. Gunfire and explosions were heard throughout the day.

Attacks on Sunday and Monday had killed another 19 people and wounded 26 in the worst unrest in this majority Muslim country since the secular government became a staunch U.S. ally after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Uzbekistan hosts hundreds of U.S. troops at a tightly secured military base near the Afghan border.

Tuesday's violence was centered in the northern Yalangach neighborhood, near the official home of President Islam Karimov. An Associated Press reporter saw four separate sites of fighting in the district.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement read on state-run TV that 20 terrorists and three police were killed in the confrontations that began about 7:20 a.m. Another five police were wounded, the statement said.

The statement did not say how long the operation lasted, but witnesses indicated it ended after several hours.

The militants blew themselves up with homemade explosives while police tried to arrest them, the ministry said, without elaborating. It said the investigation was continuing.

Police stopped a small car and two alleged terrorists jumped out and detonated explosive-laden belts, killing themselves and three police officers and injuring five more policemen, said a National Security Service officer at the scene who declined to give his name.

In a separate nearby bombing, neighborhood resident Farida Raupkhajayeva said four women in a red car had driven up to a police checkpoint. One of the women, dressed entirely in black, got out of the car and approached a bus that was stopped there, Raupkhajayeva said.

When she ignored a police request to stop, they shot her in the legs, then she set off a bomb, said Raupkhajayeva, 50. The other three women then ran into an apartment building, where police began the nearly five-hour standoff with the suspects.

An Interior Ministry officer said 16 suspected terrorists — 11 men and five women — had been killed in the apartment building about 100 yards away from the suicide bombing site. Some had been shot by police but others killed themselves with grenades, said the officer, who refused to give his name.

An AP reporter saw five corpses on a sidewalk outside the building. Police investigators and plainclothes security officers with Kalashnikov assault rifles milled about as a white-coated medical official put the bodies on stretchers.

Five men escaped, said a building resident who refused to give her name. She said the women in the car were wearing hijab veils, only revealing their eyes, which is rare in secular Uzbekistan. She said they were speaking another Central Asian language she could not understand.

A house several hundred yards away showed signs of heavy fighting, its walls blackened by fire and pocked by dozens of bullet holes. Neighbors who were cleaning up charred books and other debris said four young men had been killed inside the house and that none of its regular residents had been home at the time of the shootout.

It was unclear whether the four were among the 16 dead the Interior Ministry officer said had been killed in the siege.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ilkhom Zakirov said empty trucks and an armored personnel carrier were used to block the route to Karimov's residence.

Security was increased across the city, with soldiers on patrol and hotels deploying metal detectors and not allowing vehicles to approach. Soldiers with dogs patrolled the airport, but flights continued.

Several security operations were under way in Tashkent and the surrounding area Tuesday, said Svetlana Atikova, spokeswoman for the prosecutor-general's office, without elaborating.

Authorities turned off water, gas and electricity in the district where Tuesday's attacks occurred, and residents were forced to cook their evening meals over wood fires in the streets.

The lack of official information led to fear and confusion.

"I don't understand who is killing whom. We learn about things only from rumors and we panic," said Faya Vaganova, a 47-year-old resident.

The violence has left at least 40 dead since Sunday evening in a series of clashes between militants and police, as well as an explosion at a bomb-making hideaway.

The violence began Sunday night with a blast that killed 10 people at a house used by alleged terrorists in the central region of Bukhara, Prosecutor-General Rashid Kadyrov said.

Police found materials for bombs and instructions on assembling them, a Kalashnikov rifle, two pistols, ammunition and extremist Islamic literature, he said.

The two assaults on police took place at a factory Sunday night and a traffic checkpoint early Monday. Three officers were killed.

The suicide bombings, carried out 30 minutes apart Monday at a bus stop and the Children's World store in Tashkent's Old City, killed three police and a young child, in addition to the two female attackers, Kadyrov said.

They were the first suicide bombings ever reported in the five Central Asian nations once ruled by the Soviet Union, which also include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

Karimov has blamed the violence on Islamic extremists, and said several arrests had been made.

Karimov said Monday that backing for the attacks might have come from a banned radical group that has never before been linked to terrorist acts — Hizb ut-Tahrir, or the Party of Liberation. The group denied involvement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin offered condolences to Karimov in a telephone conversation Tuesday, and the two discussed cooperating "in fighting terrorism."

All the attacks appeared targeted at authorities, including the suicide bombings — the first of which was timed for when police normally gather outside the children's store for their daily morning briefing.

Karimov alleged the attacks were planned six to eight months ago, and said the organization and funding required to carry out such attacks also indicated they had outside support.

Raupkhajayeva said Tuesday's violence belied Karimov's statements a day earlier that the situation was stable.

"Yesterday, Karimov said everything was fine in Uzbekistan and today it is happening again," Raupkhajayeva said. "We are afraid. We are afraid there will still be more."

The violence was the most serious in Tashkent since a bombings in February 1999 that killed 16 allegedly targeting the president.

Uzbek authorities claim Hizb ut-Tahrir is a breeding ground for terrorists and have sought so far unsuccessfully to have Washington label it a terrorist group.

Imram Waheed, a Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman in London, said his group "has wide support throughout Uzbekistan and Central Asia and the government ... is trying to dent that support and malign the organization by linking it with these terrorist acts.

"There is a history of the government orchestrating such (terrorist) activities in the past," he said, saying evidence suggested a government link to the 1999 Tashkent bombing. "We feel the government would have no qualms in undertaking such actions, killing civilians."

Uzbekistan's tiny opposition, banned by Karimov's authoritarian regime from working openly, fears the attacks will deepen a widespread crackdown against dissent and independent Islamic mosques. Thousands have been jailed, drawing international condemnation.

New York-based Human Rights Watch released a new report March 24 documenting the government's campaign of religious persecution, including torture and arrests of people engaged in legitimate religious activity.

[all4one]

Info. regarding sale of Sears Tower to owners of WTC. BTW, the article sounds like the author has a problem with capitalism. My personal opinion is that I have no problem how billionaries spend their money. I have a huge problem with socialism.

------------------------------

You can look at the Sears Tower sale and see billionaires boldly thumbing their noses at the terrorists. Or you can detect a shrewd reading that the Chicago office market is a smart investment.

But there's something else about the deal for about $850 million to New Yorkers who had a stake in the World Trade Center. Sears Tower is possibly the world's biggest, and certainly the tallest, tax dodge.

It has to do with section 1031 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. The section allows investors to defer taxes when they sell property and acquire something similar with the proceeds. Brokers work hard to promote such "1031 exchanges'' for "like properties'' and what's more "like'' the World Trade Center before its destruction than Sears Tower?

Sources familiar with the sale by MetLife Inc. say the buyers include Lloyd Goldman, Joseph Cayre, Jeffrey Feil and Joseph Chetrit, all big-name landowners in Manhattan. Goldman and Cayre were investors in the trade center, who, along with Larry Silverstein, reportedly have gotten back roughly $125 million in equity on the property.

Somebody wanted to put their money to work -- fast -- which could explain the hurried nature of the sale and the apparent premium price that was paid. "If it's a tax-free exchange, it's almost like free money,'' said Peter Ricker, chairman of MB Real Estate. MetLife announced the deal just a couple weeks after Sears Tower's broker, Eastdil Realty Inc., circulated materials about the building.

Link to Article

[freeperfromnj]

Justice Center evacuated over bomb threat (Cleveland)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1107976/posts

[tmp02]

Hillary Predicts October Surprise
Newmax ^ | 3/30/04

Posted on 03/30/2004 12:38:00 PM EST by areafiftyone

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is predicting that this year's presidential election will be very tight and the victor will win because of "something unforeseen."

"It will be very close," the former first lady tells the New York Post's Cindy Adams.

On how the contest will ultimately be decided, Clinton said, "It will be outside forces - something unforeseen that suddenly happens - that tilts the election one way or the other."

In 1992, Clinton's husband won the White House after Reagan Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was indicted on Iran-Contra charges four days before the vote. Though the indictment was later overturned, the charges were enough to reverse President Bush 41's last-minute surge in the polls to within one point of Clinton.

In 2000 - again four days before the vote - a Democrat operative in Maine uncovered court records from Bush 43's then-24-year-old DUI stop. Bush's 5-point lead in Florida dwindled to a mere 537 votes, with the DUI news making Gore the popular vote winner nationwide.

[TexKat]

CIA Finds New Data but No Weapons in Iraq

By KATHERINE PFLEGER SHRADER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - U.S. weapons hunters in Iraq have found more evidence Saddam Hussein's regime had civilian factories able to quickly produce biological and chemical weapons, the CIA's top weapons inspector told senators Tuesday. But they still have not found any weapons.

The CIA's special adviser on the weapons hunt, Charles Duelfer, said he did not know how much longer the weapons hunt might take.

In a closed session with the Senate Armed Services Committee, Duelfer said the Iraq Survey Group has found new evidence that Iraqi scientists flight tested long-range ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles that "easily exceeded" U.N. limits of 93 miles.

And the survey group has new information indicating the regime engaged in ongoing research to produce chemical or biological weapons on short notice, using civilian — or "dual use" — facilities.

However, in declassified testimony shared with the media, Duelfer didn't break significant ground on the weapons hunt, saying he lacked sufficient information to draw conclusions about what Saddam had.

"Imagine yourself being asked to determine the secret, behind the scenes intentions of our own government with respect to its most secret weapons programs after talking to a few hundred folks who may or may not have been intimately involved, with only a small fraction of documents available, and with a leadership that is not broken and willing to discuss its inner secrets," Duelfer told the committee, in declassified remarks given to the press.

"How much would you really understand?"

Duelfer took over the job of top civilian weapons inspector after his predecessor, David Kay, resigned in January and told Congress "we were almost all wrong" about Saddam's weapons programs. In a flurry of public statements questioning whether weapons would ever be found, Kay renewed the debate about the very weapons of mass destruction programs that the Bush administration used to justify last year's Iraq invasion.

Duelfer said he has tried to determine the Saddam regime's intentions for the activities investigators have uncovered: Were weapons hidden that were not readily available? Was there a plan for a stepped-up production capacity? Were WMD technologies being developed for the missile and UAV programs? When did the leadership want to see results?

Duelfer said the survey group continues to look for weapons of mass destruction and regularly receives reports — "some quite intriguing and credible" — about possible concealed stashes buried or hidden across Iraq.

He said the survey group also questions former regime officials. However, many are still reluctant to talk because they fear prosecution, as well as retribution from former regime supporters. For these and other reasons, he said, the survey group is struggling to get clear, truthful information.

"We do not know whether Saddam was concealing WMD in the final years or planning to resume production once sanctions were lifted," Duelfer said. "We do not know what he ordered his senior ministers to undertake. We do not know how the disparate activities we have identified link together."

___

Associated Press writer Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report.

[freeperfromnj]

BREAKING - threat against Amtrak

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1108009/posts

[TexKat]

Palestinians Back Down From U.S. Threats

By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A Palestinian militant group warned an American delegation Tuesday not to visit the Palestinian territories, accusing the United States of bias in favor of Israel. Hours later, some group members backed down from the veiled threats.

Meanwhile, Israel prepared to take down an unauthorized outpost in the West Bank. Israeli security sources said Hazon David is one of several such outposts to be dismantled ahead of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's trip to the United States next month.

The move appeared to be aimed at building U.S. support for Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and small parts of the West Bank. Sharon is scheduled to discuss the plan with President Bush in Washington on April 14.

The United States has demanded for months that Israel remove dozens of unauthorized outposts, saying they prejudice negotiations on the future of disputed territory. But Sharon has taken little action, and those outposts occasionally removed are rebuilt quickly.

The American diplomatic delegation is scheduled to arrive in the region Wednesday to hear more about the withdrawal plan. U.S. officials said Monday they refuse to support the plan for now but would consider changing their minds after more talks with Israeli and Arab officials.

The team consists of Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns, National Security Council Deputy Director Stephen J. Hadley and the council's Mideast specialist, Elliott Abrams. It is their third trip to the area since February.

In Gaza, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades a violent group linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction issued a statement saying the delegation was banned from Palestinian areas. It also accused America of unfairly preventing the U.N. Security Council from condemning Israel's assassination of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin last week.

"This visit is rejected completely, and the American administration will not like the circumstances of such a visit," it said.

Hours later, however, Al Aqsa leaders softened the statement, saying there were no plans to harm the diplomats.

"We will not use force against the Americans because we don't want one more enemy. We have one enemy and that's enough," said Abu Qusay, an Al Aqsa leader in Gaza.

However, he said the Americans still were unwelcome in the Palestinian areas and the group would call for anti-American demonstrations and boycotts of American goods.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Paul Patin said he did not believe the American delegation planned to enter the West Bank or Gaza, but "clearly our security people will be interested in this (threat)."

The incident illustrated the Palestinians' ambivalent feelings toward the United States. While there is widespread hostility toward Washington, Palestinian leaders are wary of angering the United States because of its influence over Israel.

Last week, the militant group Hamas issued veiled threats against the United States following Yassin's assassination. In the following days, the group reversed course, saying its battle was confined to Israel.

Many Palestinians have grown weary of the violent campaign, which began in September 2000 and has claimed thousands of lives, but remain pessimistic about reaching a peaceful settlement.

On Tuesday, a group of prominent Palestinians rejected recent calls by intellectuals and moderates to give up the violence, saying the campaign was justified as long as Israel occupies Palestinian land. Their leaflet was widely distributed in the West Bank.

At the Hazon David outpost, meanwhile, dozens of Jewish settlers scuffled with Israeli troops trying to prevent the dismantling of an unauthorized synagogue on a West Bank hilltop, settlers said.

More than 200 Jewish settlers arrived at the one-trailer outpost to nonviolently block soldiers, said settler spokeswoman Rachel Klein.

The army declined to say whether there were plans to dismantle the outpost.

Dror Etkes, spokesman for the Peace Now monitoring group, said the dismantling of Hazon David located at the entrance of the Kiryat Arab settlement is symbolic.

"It's the same old game to take down an insignificant outpost and make a big deal out of it," he said.

Israel is supposed to dismantle dozens of illegal outposts as part of the stalled U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan. The Palestinians are required to crack down on militant groups.

Neither side has carried out its commitments.

Israel also has established some 150 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, housing more than 230,000 people.

With the peace plan stalled, Sharon has proposed his unilateral withdrawal plan to reduce tensions. Sharon has said the Palestinians would receive far more territory in a negotiated settlement. Nonetheless, he faces fierce opposition inside Israel for giving up territory.

Sharon plans to hold a nonbinding referendum among the 230,000 members of his Likud Party on a Gaza withdrawal, a government official said. He was expected to ask Likud's ruling body Tuesday to approve his referendum idea, the official said on condition of anonymity.