Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat

From Reuters:

Two Trains Collide Near Amsterdam Central Station

May 21, 2004 — AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Two trains collided near Amsterdam's central station on Friday evening and several passengers were hurt, a police spokesman said.
He was unable to give the cause of the collision.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20040521_282.html?INTERNATIONALad=true

1,461 posted on 05/21/2004 10:23:02 AM PDT by freeperfromnj

WOW!!! Things are heating up. Looks like buses and trains are being targeted.

Thanks everyone for the work searching and posting this information. I've come to depend on you all!

Please everyone double check your supplies and review your plans.

With all this going on I'm not sure why the threat level hasn't been raised. Guess they don't want to panic the sheeple.

1,462 posted on 05/21/2004 10:27:22 AM PDT by appalachian_dweller (The RIGHT of THE PEOPLE to keep and bear arms SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.)

To: WestCoastGal

is there a subway entrance near that Century 21 building?

I just did a search on the location:

"Century 21 is not only perfectly priced, it’s perfectly located at 22 Cortlandt Street near five of the seven Manhattan subway lines. The red and yellow lines stop directly on Cortlandt Street. The blue line has a World Trade Center stop and the green and the brown lines stop blocks away at Broadway and Fulton Street respectively."

1,463 posted on 05/21/2004 10:29:47 AM PDT by freeperfromnj

To: freeperfromnj

>>why there was a battalion of firefighters and emergency vehicles

Someone lit up a cigar?

1,464 posted on 05/21/2004 10:30:44 AM PDT by swarthyguy

To: freeperfromnj

Good work, seems like a convergence of many lines there. Question, I don't want to scare anyone....but having left NYC at age 2 I don't know how strong the subway tunnels are.

What would happen if an explosion like Madrid happened underground? I'm thinking about the Hudson River and what almost happened when the WTC came down.

Also the Daytime Emmy's is on tonight from MSG I think.

1,465 posted on 05/21/2004 10:34:22 AM PDT by WestCoastGal ("Hire paranoids, they may have a high false alarm rate, but they discover all the plots" Rumsfeld)

Cal, there are several listed, if you use a simple granny search at google for:

new york, hypodermic needle as weapon

I thought that I recalled several cases using Aids blood.

1,466 posted on 05/21/2004 10:34:43 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny (You can help win the election by becoming a REGISTRAR OF VOTERS, easy go to Court House and sign up)

In NYC, it's possible. Nothing by emergency vehiciles and personnel everywhere. Didn't hear any reports that anything happened there. It was a very strange scene. You could look at the faces of commuters and see how uneasy they all were this morning (myself included).

1,467 posted on 05/21/2004 10:35:22 AM PDT by freeperfromnj

To: Domestic Church

You are right about John Wanamakers in Philly. Great Light show at Christmas time.

1,468 posted on 05/21/2004 10:37:18 AM PDT by tmp02

To: Velveeta; Cindy; All

Two additional weapons caches that were discovered this week...

Pakistan Seizes Big Cache of Explosives, Holds Two

7:19 a.m. May 21, 2004 KARACHI, Pakistan – Pakistani police Friday arrested two suspected Islamic militants and seized a large quantity of explosives and bomb-making material from their hide-out in the southern port city of Karachi.

The militants – identified as Gull Rahim and Wasif – belong to the Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Alami group, said Imran Shaukat, a police official.

Police seized 392 pounds of plastic explosives, 330 pounds of ammonium nitrate and other bomb making material during the raid in western Karachi, Shaukat said.

Police arrested Wednesday a militant from the same group, after a shootout in which the man, Kamran Atif, was wounded. Atif is suspected of being involved in several high-profile attacks, including a failed assassination attempt on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in 2002 and a suicide attack on the U.S. consulate in Karachi that killed 12 Pakistanis in the same year. Link to Article

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

Explosives, Grenades, Ball Razers Seized (Sri Lanka)

by Sarath Malalasekera Police believe a major disaster may have averted following an anonymous telephone call to Grandpass police at midnight Monday, when they discovered a large quantity of high explosives, grenades and ball razers used in the manufacture of claymore mines on the ground above the crude oil pipelines running from the Colombo harbour to the Sapugaskanda oil refinery.

The explosives were packed in two black polythene bags. Investigations are also directed at tracing the origins of the weapons to trace those responsible for placing them.

The detection was made by a special police team led by Reserve Sub Inspector Ajith Peduruarachchi attached to the Grandpass police intelligence division. Investigations directed by Colombo DIG Sirisena Herath conducted by ASP Anton Sirikumar and Chief Inspector D.S. Jayasinghe, OIC Grandpass Police revealed that the weight of the entire explosives detected was 7.650 kilos. These C-4 power high explosives were packed in a black plastic cover and placed above the underground crude oil pipe lines, investigators said.

Police also detected six high powered hand grenades. DIG Herath said with Special Task Force bomb squad assistance, Grandpass police disposed the high powered explosives. Samples of the disposed explosives were sent to the Government Analyst for further investigations, Chief Inspector Jayasinghe said. ASP Anton Sirikumar conducting investigations, said a special intelligence team had been deployed to ascertain whether the explosives were meant for any particular purpose. Link to Article

1,469 posted on 05/21/2004 10:38:52 AM PDT by all4one ("...a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents" Sir W. Churchill)

I suspect the device on the tracks was in a heavy industry area near the oil refineries.

1,470 posted on 05/21/2004 10:42:02 AM PDT by Domestic Church (AMDG...)

To: WestCoastGal; freeperfromnj

Should I even mention that my kids don't have school today? Nor yesterday?

Their school is 3 blocks from the Northeast Corridor. Commuter train to NYC.

1,471 posted on 05/21/2004 10:42:48 AM PDT by Calpernia (http://members.cox.net/classicweb/Heroes/heroes.htm)

1,472 posted on 05/21/2004 10:42:52 AM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT (There is no such thing as coincidence, GOD is in control.)

Why no school? Special holiday or something??

forgive my ignorance on this

1,473 posted on 05/21/2004 10:44:46 AM PDT by KylaStarr

I agree with what rickylc replied with. Venus is so far away that it will appear/refelct as a star rather that a planet with the nekkid eye. Interesting that you noticed it that low on the horizon though. Regards, ßß

1,474 posted on 05/21/2004 10:45:04 AM PDT by ßuddaßudd (7 days - 7 ways)

To: All; Mo1; StriperSniper; Howlin

1,475 posted on 05/21/2004 10:47:33 AM PDT by OXENinFLA

Hey JP. I have been doing some lurking, reading and researching, but overall I have been trying to maintain my good spirits. There is so much ill going on everywhere, I needed to take a brief respite. Sometimes I grow so weary of getting so angry. The constant spectacle of the prison stories everywhere in the lamestream media drowning out all else, and other choice posts here on FR -- like the Australian professor who supports allowing incest -- had my head spinning this morning...Truly this must be hell on earth. I actually feel nausea at times over the organized societal sickness in the world.

1,476 posted on 05/21/2004 10:50:03 AM PDT by Donna Lee Nardo

Terror talk prompts FBI to up alert level

By Dave Copeland
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, May 21, 2004

The FBI increased its internal terrorism alert level this week because of increased chatter among terrorists that has been picked up by intelligence agencies, an official said Thursday.
"We're very worried that within the next six to eight months we're going to get hit again," said FBI Special Agent Kenneth T. McCabe, who oversees the Pittsburgh office of the bureau. McCabe participated in a conference call with FBI Director Robert Mueller on Wednesday to discuss the heightened terror alert level.

McCabe made the disclosure Thursday during a symposium on cyber crime co-sponsored by the FBI and Duquesne University Law School. McCabe said the bureau did not have specific information on whether the threats alluded to a terrorist attack on computer systems or a more traditional terrorist target.

The internal alert level does not refer to the Homeland Security Department's color-coded terror alert level, which is currently "yellow," or "elevated." The terror level was last raised to "orange," or "high," before Christmas.

But the agency has been seeing more intelligence activity, or "chatter," which harkens back to intelligence that was gathered but never acted on prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Somerset County, McCabe said.

"A lot of people were critical of us for not taking more aggressive action prior to 9/11," he said. "That will never happen again."

The time frame of six to eight months covers a period during which both major political parties' national conventions, the G8 summit in Atlanta, the U.S. presidential election and the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, will be held.

"Because of the elections coming up and because the terrorists saw what happened in Spain, our alert was heightened," FBI Special Agent William P. Shore said. "They influenced the outcome of the election. If they want Bush out, which we know they do, they might believe they could influence the outcome of the election with a terrorist attack."

McCabe said some of the information recently gathered by U.S. intelligence agencies suggests al-Qaida "has been pleased with the results of what they saw happen in Madrid."

Investigators believe al-Qaida had links to the March 11 Madrid train bombing, which killed 191 people. Three days after the attack, the sitting Popular Party lost to the Socialist Party in Spanish elections.

Local and state law enforcement agencies contacted yesterday would not discuss specific intelligence the FBI might have shared with them in recent days.

"We are in constant contact with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, but I would not be in a position to leverage any intelligence information," said Lynette Quinn, a spokeswoman for Pennsylvania State Police.

Pittsburgh police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr. would neither confirm nor deny that the department had been contacted by the FBI.

"We have a very good working relationship with FBI and other law enforcement agencies across the region and the nation, and we're in constant communication with them," city police spokeswoman Tammy Ewin said.

"Part of what we have to do is get the word out," McCabe said. "We want everybody to be vigilant and looking for abnormalities in their communities. We have several significant events coming up in the next six to eight months that would make good targets for terrorists."

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tri...s/s_195162.html

"But the agency has been seeing more intelligence activity, or "chatter," which harkens back to intelligence that was gathered but never acted on prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Somerset County, McCabe said."

1,477 posted on 05/21/2004 10:51:53 AM PDT by Mossad1967

To: nw_arizona_granny

You are right, this search works better. I see it wasn't only NYC either

http://www.google.com/search?q=stabbed+with+a+hypodermic+needle+by+a+&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=0&sa=N

1,478 posted on 05/21/2004 11:04:29 AM PDT by Calpernia (http://members.cox.net/classicweb/Heroes/heroes.htm)

They said last minute the kids were having off for Ascention Day. They didn't have this off last year nor the year before.

1,479 posted on 05/21/2004 11:06:19 AM PDT by Calpernia (http://members.cox.net/classicweb/Heroes/heroes.htm)

To: WestCoastGal

Reminds me of a song I can't get out of my mind.

Mercy Mercy me What's going on What's going on

1,480 posted on 05/21/2004 11:07:40 AM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT (There is no such thing as coincidence, GOD is in control.)

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