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U.S. promises punishment even as convoy attacked

April 1, 2004, 7:33AM

Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Insurgents attacked a U.S. military convoy and a Humvee was burned today near Fallujah, witnesses said, a day after the grisly killing and mutilation of four American contract workers in the city. The top U.S. administrator in Iraq said the deaths would not go unpunished.

It was not clear if there were any casualties in today's assault. Associated Press Television News footage showed smoke pouring from the vehicle that had been abandoned on a roadside just outside the city. Witnesses said the Humvee was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

U.S. officials said they could not confirm the attack.

Also Thursday, two explosions near a U.S.-escorted fuel convoy in northern Baghdad wounded at least one Iraqi, witnesses said. APTN footage showed U.S. soldiers putting a wounded person on a stretcher inside an armored vehicle.

In Fallujah, police retrieved the remains of the four slain Americans on Wednesday night, wrapped them in blankets, and gave them to U.S. forces, said Iraqi police officer Lt. Salah Abdullah.

"We were shocked because our Islamic beliefs reject such behavior," he said referring to the abuse of the bodies.

The top U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, today condemned the killings and said "their deaths would not go unpunished."

"Yesterday's events in Fallujah are dramatic examples of the ongoing struggle between human dignity and barbarism," he said at a graduation ceremony for police cadets. "The acts we have seen were despicable and inexcusable. ... They violate the tenets of all religions, including Islam, as one of the foundations of civilized society."

Iraqi police manned roadside checkpoints in and around Fallujah, but no U.S. troops could be seen inside. Shops and schools were open.

Some residents vowed to repel any U.S. forces.

"We will not let any foreigner enter Fallujah," said Sameer Sami, 40. "Yesterday's attack is proof of how much we hate the Americans."

Another resident, Ahmed al-Dulaimi, 30, said, "We wish that they would try to enter Fallujah so we'd let hell break lose."

Iraqi Interior Minister Nori al Badran vowed to send forces into Fallujah "to bring killers to justice," but did not say when that would happen.

"Forces will be sent to Fallujah ... from the army, the police and from the civil defense (force)," he said.

There was no sign of a military buildup near Fallujah by midafternoon Thursday.

At a U.S. base about two miles` east of the city, 1st Lt. Wade Zirkle said Wednesday's attack was carried out by a "few bandits and terrorists ... who are terrorizing the city."

"It is our job to go there and maintain security in the city and we are making sure that something like that will not happen again," he said, when asked whether U.S. forces would enter Fallujah.

Frenzied mobs dragged the burned, mutilated bodies of the four American contractors through the streets and strung two of them up from a bridge after rebels ambushed their vehicles.

It was similar to the scene more than a decade ago in Somalia, when a mob dragged corpses of U.S. soldiers through the streets of Mogadishu, eventually leading to the American withdrawal from the African nation. The images were broadcast worldwide and became the subject of the book and movie "Black Hawk Down."

U.S. officials denounced the Fallujah violence and vowed to stay the course in Iraq.

The White House blamed terrorists and remnants of Saddam Hussein's former regime for the "horrific attacks."

"It is offensive, it is despicable the way these individuals have been treated," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Referring to the planned June 30 transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis, McClellan said "the best way to honor those that lost their lives" is to continue with efforts to bring democracy to Iraq.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the contractors, all men, "were trying to make a difference and to help others." Officials did not identify the dead or the nature of their work because the next of kin had not yet been notified.

The four worked for Blackwater Security Consulting of Moyock, N.C., which provides training and guard services to customers around the world. The company, a subsidiary of Blackwater USA, referred calls to a spokesman in suburban Washington who declined comment beyond a statement that said Blackwater was a government subcontractor providing security for the delivery of food in the Fallujah area.

Privately owned Blackwater USA's range of services include providing firearms and small-groups training for Navy SEALs, police department SWAT teams and former special operations personnel.

Fallujah, about 35 miles west of Baghdad, has been the scene of some of the worst violence on both sides of the conflict since the beginning of the U.S.-led occupation a year ago.

Five U.S. soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division also died Wednesday when a bomb exploded under their M-113 armored personnel carrier in Malahma, 12 miles northwest of Fallujah, making it the bloodiest day for Americans in Iraq since Jan. 8.

Their deaths raised the number of U.S. troops killed in March to at least 48, making it the second-deadliest month for U.S. troops since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1. The deadliest month was November, when 82 U.S. troops were killed.

Are America's Trains Safe?
March 31, 2004

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, there have been dozens of plots to blow up trains or subways in major cities around the world. But Americans didn’t really pay attention until nearly 200 people died a few weeks ago in Madrid.

It didn’t surprise terrorism experts, who’ve been warning that rail systems are among the softest targets in Europe and America.
But despite the fact that, in New York alone, more people pass through Penn Station each day than through all three New York airports combined, almost every penny of transportation security money has gone toward airline safety.

Are the trains safe? The simple answer is no, nothing is. But can anything be done to make them safer? Correspondent Bob Simon reports.

"You can't do the things that you can do at an airport," says New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. “It’s a daunting challenge. We have 468 subway stations right here in New York City. It’s a tremendous challenge.”

To try to find some solutions, Kelly has sent detectives to Madrid to study the terrorist attacks there, since that city's commuter rail network resembles that of New York: several regional trains converging in one station, making one big target.

“We've done some adjustments in the tactics that we use as a result of that,” says Kelly.

But ask any train rider and they will probably register surprise that there hasn’t been some kind of rail attack in this country already, given the apparent ease with which it was done in Spain.

And what a lot of people don’t know is that there have been serious threats to the rails in the United States. Domestic terrorists derailed a train in Arizona in the '90s and left close to 100 injured and one person dead.

There have been other plots that have been foiled. One in particular came straight from the architect of Sept. 11: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was arrested in Pakistan last March.

Interrogators got the name of a U.S. citizen, Iyman Faris, from him, and he was quickly picked up last year. One of those plots was to derail trains.

“My client admits that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad told him to check these things out,” says Faris’ lawyer, David Smith.

Faris was ordered to check out derailing a train and finding the necessary tools for the job. According to Faris’ plea, the code word was “mechanics shops.”

“That was a code that had been -- that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad told my client to use in messages back to Pakistan, and 'mechanics shops' was a reference, was a reference to these tools,” says Smith.

“Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was particularly interested in the possibility of causing a derailment on a curve on an elevated line, like on a mountainside. And why? Not because that would kill more people, but because he thought it was spectacular.”

Another spectacular plan Faris was asked to investigate was the possibility of bringing down the Brooklyn Bridge – a plot apparently inspired by, of all things, the Godzilla films.

“Both of these two plots by Khalid Sheikh Mohammad involved spectacular ‘Hollywood-like’ effects. And it seems to fit in very nicely with the World Trade Center attack,” says Smith.

Faris was sentenced to 20 years; Smith is appealing the case since Faris claims he never implemented al Qaeda’s plan.

"Iyman Faris is a good example that transit is a target of the terrorist," says Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary of Homeland Security.

Hutchinson admits the plots go well beyond al Qaeda’s Hollywood-inspired scheme: “There has been a specific threat in the past in regard to the subway system that was addressed. It was not carried out, and there was a security response to that particular threat.”

In 2002, the FBI even warned that “al Qaeda is targeting the U.S. railway sector” after pictures of American trains were found in al Qaeda’s possession.

But it’s taken the dramatic images of Madrid to get Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge to announce some new rail security measures last week: “The security environment for trains will never resemble that for aviation. Having said that, in a post-9/11 and post 3/11 world we want to see if there’s a way to engineer access in a better way.”

Ridge and Hutchinson have announced a pilot project to screen bags at train stations, and to develop better bomb detection technology. It’s a small step, though, considering that Amtrak still has only 350 officers to police tracks and stations in 46 states.

“This is an example of where a federal minimum standards of security would have some impact, and Amtrak has invested, more needs to be invested,” says Hutchinson.

While $11 billion has been spent on air security, only about $110 million has gone to subways and commuter rails.

Since 2000, there have been bomb plots on trains in India, Russia, the Philippines, the Czech Republic, South Africa, Israel, Germany, and now Spain. A bomb was found on the French rails just a few days ago. Is there concern that the United States might be next?

“Well, we certainly have to be concerned about it, and it's been a subject of serious effort by the department,” says Hutchinson, who adds that most rail security is still funded by cities and states, unlike airline security, which the federal government took over after Sept. 11.

New York has set up its own counter-terrorism transit units, which, since the Madrid attack on March 11, have stepped up subway sweeps.

“We do this several times every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all over the city,” says Inspector Vincent DeMarino, head of the subway anti-terrorism unit.

Last week, he let 60 Minutes II tag along as his team was doing a routine check in Brooklyn. The train was stopped. Cops dressed in full battle gear, automatic weapons at the ready, got on board. They scoured the trains, and dogs sniffed around. But these days, in New York, no one even seemed surprised.

Like many subway cops around the nation now, DeMarino carries a radiation detector. Hidden somewhere in the subway tunnels are biological and chemical weapon detectors, and transit workers are getting trained on how to evacuate a train in case that kind of weapon goes off.

But when it comes to regular old bombs – the terrorist’s weapon of choice — this is still the state of the art: man’s best friend. The reality is that cities like New York can only afford to do occasional spot checks, and Amtrak has only 12 dogs to police 22,000 miles of track.

“We’re learning what maybe could’ve been done to prevent it,” says DeMarino.

But the biggest lesson may be awareness. Some survivors of the Madrid attacks say they saw unattended backpacks, but just didn’t pay any attention. Are people more aware in New York now?

“We see it increasing. We see the public becoming more aware of their surroundings,” says Commissioner Kelly. “We have a counter-terrorism hotline that people call. We have the capacity to respond with investigators 24 hours a day. And indeed we do.”

Kelly has also asked all of his cops – even those not specifically tasked for counter-terrorism – to keep an eye out for possible terrorist activity on the rails. It paid off last November, when an officer spotted two suspicious Iranians with a video camera at a train platform in Queens. The Iranians, who turned out to be diplomats, were deported persona non grata.

“We all take risks in our lives these days. We do live in a somewhat dangerous world,” says Kelly. “But I think we’re doing everything that we can to protect the system.”

Kelly’s next big challenge is the upcoming Republican National Convention, which will be held this summer in New York's Madison Square Garden, right on top of Penn Station.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/31/60II/printable609695.shtml

West Nile Found in 2 Birds in California

Posted on Thu, Apr. 01, 2004

Associated Press

FULLERTON, Calif. - Two birds in Orange County tested positive for the West Nile virus, marking the first discovery of the mosquito-borne disease in California so far this year, health officials said.

The virus turned up in two adult female house finches captured March 2 at Craig Park in Fullerton.

"We just have to start preaching mosquito control," said James P. Webb, technical director at the Orange County Vector Control District.

West Nile typically causes flu-like symptoms such as fever, nausea, headache and muscle aches - and in rare cases, inflammation of the brain and even death.

Health officials urge people to take precautions, particularly to avoid attracting mosquitoes.

"They need to be careful of breeding sources in the backyard. Anything that will hold water for a week can produce mosquitoes. When it's as warm as it has been this past week, they can go from egg to mosquito in less than a week," said vector control spokesman Michael Hearst.

The virus first appeared in the United States in 1999, killing seven people in the New York area.

Last year, two men tested positive for the virus, one in Orange County and the other in Riverside County.

Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota and Texas were the hardest hit states in 2003. Together, they accounted for more than half of the 231 deaths nationally and two-thirds of 9,566 diagnosed cases, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Fallujah, police retrieved the remains of the four slain Americans on Wednesday night, wrapped them in blankets, and gave them to U.S. forces, said Iraqi police officer Lt. Salah Abdullah.

"We were shocked because our Islamic beliefs reject such behavior," he said referring to the abuse of the bodies.

THAT BELIEF IS SO FALSE!!!!

FROM THE KORAN ITSELF...
"HEIL HITLER" Now Upgraded to "ALLAH AKBAR?"

You may already know about this one: O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. [al-Ma'idah 5:51.11]

But did you know that there are 123 verses in the Quran concerning fighting and killing for the cause of Allah? Here are but a few passages:

-Muslims are encouraged to be wholly occupied (Sura 2:273) with fighting for Allah's cause.

- Allah will give "a far richer recompense to those who fight for him" (Sura 4:96).

- Regarding infidels (unbelievers), they are the Muslim's "inveterate enemies" (Sura 4:101). Muslims are to "arrest them, besiege them and lie in ambush everywhere" (Sura 9:5) for them. They are to "seize them and put them to death wherever you find them, kill them wherever you find them, seek out the enemies of Islam relentlessly" (Sura 4:90). "Fight them until Islam reigns supreme" (Sura 2:193). "Cut off their heads, and cut off the tips of their fingers" (Sura 8:12).

- If a Muslim does not go to war, Allah will kill him (Sura 9:39). He is to be told, "the heat of war is fierce, but more fierce is the heat of Hell-fire" (Sura 9:81).

- A Muslim must "fight for the cause of Allah with the devotion due to him" (Sura 22:78)

- Muslims must make war on the infidels (unbelievers) who live around them (Sura 9:123).

- Muslims are to be "ruthless to unbelievers" (Sura 48:29).

- A Muslim should "enjoy the good things" he has gained by fighting (Sura 8:69).

- A Muslim can kill any person he wishes if it be a "just cause" (Sura 6:152).

- Allah loves those who "fight for his cause" (Sura 61:3).
Anyone who fights against Allah or renounces Islam in favor of another religion shall be "put to death or crucified or have their hands and feet cut off alternative sides" (Sura 5:34).

- Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him. Sahih Al-Bukhari (9:57)

- Slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush. (Koran 9:5)

- Take him and fetter him and expose him to hell fire. (Koran 69:30-37)

- I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers, Smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger tips of them. (Koran 8:12)

- They should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides. (Koran 5:33)

- Know that paradise is under the shades of swords. Sahih al-Bukhari Vol 4 p55

And Speaking of Paradise...

"There will be "gushing fountains" and everyone "shall recline on jeweled couches face to face, and there shall wait on them immortal youths with bowls and ewers and a cup of purest wine." Suras (or chapters) 55 and 56 of the Quran.

"Therein are bashful virgins whom neither man nor jinnee will have touched before ... virgins as fair as corals and rubies," sura 55. A few lines later, you might remind them of "virgins chaste and fair ... they shall recline on green cushions and fine carpets."

"The smallest reward for the people of Paradise is an abode where there are 80,000 servants and 72 wives, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine, and ruby, as wide as the distance from Al-Jabiyyah [a Damascus suburb] to Sana'a.'"

It will be the day, God willing, you spend with the women of paradise...Know that the gardens of paradise are waiting for you in all their beauty, and the women of paradise are waiting, calling out, "Come hither, friend of God."

Posted by Happy2BMe
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1109118/posts