Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - Thread Eight

CNN ^ | 5-17-04 | Various

[Calpernia]

Opium.

Opium is a narcotic drug prepared from the juice of the opium poppy, Pa paver somniferum, a plant probably indigenous in the south of Europe and western Asia, but now so widely cultivated that its original habitat is uncertain.
The medicinal properties of the juice have been recognized from a very early period. It was known to Theophrastus and appears in his time to have consisted of an extract of the whole plant, since Dioscorides, about A.D. 77, draws a distinction between it and an extract of the entire herb derived from the capsules alone.

From the 1st to the 12th century the opium of Asia Minor appears to have been the only kind known in commerce. In the 13th century opium is mentioned by Simon Januensis, physician to Pope Nicholas IV., while meconium was still in use. In the 16th century opium is mentioned by Pyres (1516) as a production of the kingdom in Bengal, and of Malwai. Its introduction into India appears to have been connected with the spread of Islam. The opium monopoly was the property of the Great Mogul of Persia and was regularly sold. In the 17th century Kaempfer describes the various kinds of opium prepared in Persia, and states that the best sorts were flavoured with spices and called theriaka.

These preparations were held in great estimation during the middle ages, and probably supplied to a large extent the place of the pure drug.

[Calpernia]

Heroin:

Osama: "One of the world's largest heroin dealers"
In Islam Unveiled I discuss how the Taliban's involvement in drug trafficking was consistent with the group's theology: in line with the sharp distinction in the Qur'an and Islamic tradition between believers and unbelievers, since the buyers were non-Muslims they had no problem selling the product. Now, because of the success of American efforts to stop terrorists militarily and to cut off their funding, Osama bin Laden is playing the same game. This from the Washington Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The al Qaeda terror group has embraced heroin trafficking to such an extent that its leader, Osama bin Laden, is now a "narco-terrorist," says a U.S. congressman just back from a fact-finding mission in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"It seems clear to me heroin is the No. 1 financial asset of Osama bin Laden," Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, Illinois Republican, told The Washington Times. "There is a need to update our view of how terrorism is financed.

"And the view of Osama bin Laden relying on Wahhabi donations from abroad is outdated. And the view of him as one of the world's largest heroin dealers is the more accurate, up-to-date view."

Mr. Kirk wants a pronounced shift in how the Bush administration tries to stop al Qaeda funding. Up to now, Washington has focused on bin Laden's traditional sources: Islamic charities and his family fortune.

But the Bush team has choked off much of that flow, forcing bin Laden to adjust. In Afghanistan, bin Laden has the benefit of the world's largest poppy crop, as he evades capture in Pakistan's notorious border areas. He is reaping $24 million alone from one narcotics network in Kandahar, Afghanistan, according to Mr. Kirk's investigation.

The congressman said it is no longer sufficient to go after only the charities and bank accounts. Washington now must fuse counterterrorism and counternarcotics into an inseparable mission.

"The most important thing here is to change the language to not describe Osama bin Laden anymore as a terrorist, but to more accurately describe him as a narco-terrorist," said Mr. Kirk, who sits on the Appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice, state and judiciary.

Mr. Kirk and his team of House staff investigators spent five days in Pakistan and Afghanistan, whose farm areas once again are sprouting thousands of acres of poppies from which opium and heroin are produced. Hundreds of illicit drug labs have sprung up to process the heroin for shipment to Pakistan.

The al Qaeda-heroin connection is becoming more clear to Washington. The first big break came last month, when Navy ships seized boats concealing large stashes of heroin and operated by crew members linked to al Qaeda.

In Afghanistan, Mr. Kirk talked to a variety of sources, including U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, U.S. troops and Afghan counternarcotics officials.

A kilogram of heroin that can fetch $2,000 in Pakistan can get $10,000 in Turkey. That is why al Qaeda has begun sending drug-laden boats into the Arabian Sea: to find more lucrative markets outside Pakistan.

"If he can expand his operation closer and closer to the retail market, he will dramatically increase his profit," Mr. Kirk said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is reluctant to get his troops too deeply involved in the drug wars, aides say. Some Pentagon officials view counternarcotics as predominately a law enforcement duty. In Afghanistan, where the United Nations reports 264,000 poppy-growing families, the U.S. military does not want to alienate citizens whose support it needs for the U.S.-backed government of Hamid Karzai.

[Indie]

IN ARLINGTON TX

We are a Muslim owned and operated Montessori school. Our teachers are certified and the school is licensed. We offer infant and toddler programs as well as classes for Pre-K, Kindergarten, First, Second, Third and Fourth grades. Inshallah, we will add Fifth grade by next year. We have been open since 1995 and we well established, Alhamdulilah.

[Calpernia]

Hashish: Hashish consists of the tetrahydrocannabinol The chemical compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is a psychoactive substance found in cannabis, . Its molecular formula is C21H30O2, with a molecular weight of 314.45. Its chemical name is tetrahydro-6,6,9-trimethyl-3-pentyl-6H-dibenzo[b,d]pyran-1-ol, and it may also be known as (L)-delta-1-tetrahydrocannibinol, or trans-delta-1-tetrahydrocannibinol. It has a boiling point of 200°C (392°F). It has a LD50 of 1270 mg/kg (male rats), 730 mg/kg (female rats) orally (administered dissolved in sesame oil). ..... Click the link for more information. -rich resinous bulbs known as trichomes Trichomes are resinous sacks/bulbs of oil on the flowers and leaves of various different plants, not all related, including e.g. Tillandsia and Cannabis. The cannabis plant produces most of its oils in its trichomes. ..... Click the link for more information. as well as other minute plant material from the female flowers of the cannabis Cannabis Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Rosales Family: Cannabaceae Genus: Cannabis Species: sativa Binomial name Cannabis sativa Cannabis is a genus (see scientific classification) of dioecious, annual herbs belonging to the family Cannabaceae which was formerly classified in the nettle order Urticales, but is now in Rosales. ..... Click the link for more information. plant. It is separated from the plant via various sieving methods, cold-water extraction, or chemical extraction. The resulting plant material is known as kif Kif is unprocessed plant materials after sieving parts of the cannabis plant in order to extract raw material for hashish. Kif is pressed into blocks of hashish, either using high pressure or pressure/weight and heat. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Kif are also a fictional people created by C. J. Cherryh. ..... Click the link for more information. (aka keef). The kif is compressed into blocks which are easily stored and transported, without degrading the THC content due to oxidation. Pieces are then broken off, warmed up and sometimes mixed with tobacco Tobacco Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Solanales Family: Solanaceae Genus: Nicotiana Species N. acuminata N. alata N. attenuata N. clevelandii N. excelsior N. forgetiana N. glauca ..... Click the link for more information. or marijuana Cannabis Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Rosales Family: Cannabaceae Genus: Cannabis Species: sativa Binomial name Cannabis sativa Cannabis is a genus (see scientific classification) of dioecious, annual herbs belonging to the family Cannabaceae which was formerly classified in the nettle order Urticales, but is now in Rosales. ..... Click the link for more information. , and smoked in bongs For information on pipes used to transfer water and fluids, see plumbing and pipeline transport. For many other uses of the word, see pipe. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A water pipe or bong is a device used for smoking, usually cannabis, in which smoke is bubbled through a chamber containing water. Bubbling the smoke through water serves to cool down the smoke and to trap some of the heavier and more soluble particulate matter, keeping it from entering the smoker's lungs. For this reason, some users claim that cannabis smoke filtered through water is safer than unfiltered cannabis smoke. ..... Click the link for more information. , pipes This article describes a pipe used for smoking tobacco. For other uses of the word, see pipe. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A smoking pipe is a device used for smoking tobacco, cannabis, crack cocaine, and other substances; but most commonly tobacco. The smoking pipe typically consists of a small chamber (the bowl) for the combustion of tobacco or similar substances and a thin stem (shank) that ends in a mouthpiece (also called a bit). ..... Click the link for more information. , joints This article refers to the type of cigarette. Spliff was also the name of a German New Wave ("Neue Deutsche Welle") band in the 1980s, and spliff is also an email-watching program (written in Perl/Tk) that watches your incoming email and displays various header information from your most recent messages. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spliff is slang for a cigarette made with cannabis, sometimes adulterated with tobacco. Spliffs come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and are also commonly referred to as joints. They are sometimes referred to by the non-cognoscenti as reefers; a classic film of moral panic, Reefer Madness, makes this point very adequately. ..... Click the link for more information. or hookahs A hookah or narghile is an Arabian water pipe. It is also known as a shisha (or sheesha - the name is derived from the namesake tobacco it uses), qalian, or hubble-bubble. It is a traditional Arabic device for smoking hashish, marijuana, or tobacco, or indeed any other smokeable substance, operating on the principle of a water pipe. Substances used for smoking must not be completely dry - an example of commonly used substance is a mixture of ..... Click the link for more information. . Since THC The chemical compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is a psychoactive substance found in cannabis, . Its molecular formula is C21H30O2, with a molecular weight of 314.45. Its chemical name is tetrahydro-6,6,9-trimethyl-3-pentyl-6H-dibenzo[b,d]pyran-1-ol, and it may also be known as (L)-delta-1-tetrahydrocannibinol, or trans-delta-1-tetrahydrocannibinol. It has a boiling point of 200°C (392°F). It has a LD50 of 1270 mg/kg (male rats), 730 mg/kg (female rats) orally (administered dissolved in sesame oil). ..... Click the link for more information. is fat-soluble, it is also possible to dissolve hashish in butter used for cooking. The Middle East Middle East (Arabic الشرق الأوسط, Hebrew המזרח התיכון) is an expression used to describe the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. The Middle East is a subregion of Africa-Eurasia. ..... Click the link for more information. and North Africa North Africa refers to the region of the continent of Africa north of the Sahara desert, comprising the Maghreb and Egypt, and by some definitions the Sudan. Contact between North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa was limited almost exclusively to trade along the Eastern and Western coasts of the continent and to travel up and down the Nile, due to the difficulty in crossing the desert. This remained the case until after the time of the Arabic expansion and the spread of Islam. ..... Click the link for more information. and in particular Morocco المملكة المغربية Al Mamlaka al-Maghrebiya In Detail (Full size) Official language Arabic Capital Rabat Largest City Casablanca King Mohammed VI Prime Minister Driss Jettou Area - Total Ranked 56th 446,550 km² Population - Total (2003) - Density 31,689,267 70/km² Ranked 36th Independence (From France) March 2, 1956 Currency Dirham Time zone UTC Internet TLD .MA Calling Code 212 ..... Click the link for more information. and Afghanistan Afghanistan (افغانستان in Dari and Pashtu) is a country in Central/Southwest Asia. It is bordered by Iran in the west, Pakistan in the south and east, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the easternmost part of the country. Between the fall of the Taliban after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the success of the 2003 Loya jirga, Afghanistan was referred to by the West as the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan. Under its new constitution, however, the nation is now called the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. It is among the poorest nations in the world. ..... Click the link for more information. are the main sources of hashish, although the science of hash extraction and the rapid dissemination of this knowledge means that more and more people are making hashish for personal use, using readily available materials or custom built devices such as Bubble Bags. Black hash, which is generally produced in Nepal, Afghanistan, and India, generally produces a more relaxing, mellow effect. Blonde hash, often from Morocco and the Netherlands, tends to produce more active and cerebral highs. Hashish is widely available in Europe, as opposed to Marijuana Cannabis Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Rosales Family: Cannabaceae Genus: Cannabis Species: sativa Binomial name Cannabis sativa Cannabis is a genus (see scientific classification) of dioecious, annual herbs belonging to the family Cannabaceae which was formerly classified in the nettle order Urticales, but is now in Rosales. ..... Click the link for more information. which is more sparsely available on the whole. This is probably because hashish is much more compact, and thus much easier to smuggle than Marijuana Cannabis Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Rosales Family: Cannabaceae Genus: Cannabis Species: sativa Binomial name Cannabis sativa Cannabis is a genus (see scientific classification) of dioecious, annual herbs belonging to the family Cannabaceae which was formerly classified in the nettle order Urticales, but is now in Rosales. ..... Click the link for more information. . Blocks of 100, 125, 200 and 250 grams of hash are common. In some places a block is dissolved, mixed with a foreign material without psychoactive or intoxicating properties, and re-pressed into a hashish block, which is sold as if it was the pure product. This is known as Soap, probably as soap is a commonly suspected additive. Pure, properly stored hashish of premium quality is soft and moldable by the heat of the fingers alone. Old, improperly stored hashish of poor quality is rock hard and brittle, and has to be heated substantially before it becomes soft enough for use. Most hashish falls in between these two extremes, and the tactile qualities also vary according to the methods used in extraction and pressing. Many believe that the word assassin This article is about those who carry out assassinations and their history. For other meanings of the word assassin, see Assassin (disambiguation) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- In its most common use, assassin has come to mean someone who kills (assassinates) an important person, usually for ideological or political reasons. The immediate motivation for an assassin may be money (in the case of a hit man), opposition to a person's beliefs or belief systems (in the case of a fanatic, for example), orders from a government (often carried about by a subversive agent such as a spy), or loyalty to a competing leader or group. ..... Click the link for more information. derives from the Arabic word Hashshashin The Hashshashin (also Hashishim), or Assassins were a religious sect (Nizaris) of Islam with a militant basis, thought to be active in the 8th through 14th (?) centuries as a group of brigands on the medieval Afghanistan Silk Road. Their own name for the sect was ad-dawa al-jadida which means the new doctrine and they called themselves fedayeen from the Arabic fida'i which means one who is ready to sacrifice his life for the cause. The name Hashshashin was given to them by their Muslim enemies. ..... Click the link for more information. , an Islamic sect of militants who supposedly were avid hash-eaters; however, there are those that disagree, since the effects the Hashshashin The Hashshashin (also Hashishim), or Assassins were a religious sect (Nizaris) of Islam with a militant basis, thought to be active in the 8th through 14th (?) centuries as a group of brigands on the medieval Afghanistan Silk Road. Their own name for the sect was ad-dawa al-jadida which means the new doctrine and they called themselves fedayeen from the Arabic fida'i which means one who is ready to sacrifice his life for the cause. The name Hashshashin was given to them by their Muslim enemies. ..... Click the link for more information. reported are not generally experienced by people who consume hash http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_info4.shtml. The THC content of hashish that reached the United States, where demand is limited, averaged 6 percent in the 1990s Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s - 1990s - 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s Years: 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Events and Trends Computers: Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other technology Year 2000 problem (commonly known as Y2K) ..... Click the link for more information. . The marijuana at the CannaTrade 2002 had THC levels ranging between 8 percent and 28 percent; the latter is comparable to some grades of hashish. Note that higher levels of THC do not necessarily imply higher levels of THC consumption, as users will frequently self-titrate (at least when smoking or using a vapouriser), consuming only the vapor until the desired effect is reached; admittedly, though, it is easier to overdo with more potent material. However, when it is practiced effectively, higher-THC material is healthier to consume, since fewer tars and particulates are inhaled to get the same high. preview not available. Click the link for more information.

[JustPiper]

Alderman questioned on how gang got letter from cops
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-trout21.html


Gang leader held as police raid drug ring

May 21, 2004

BY FRANK MAIN Crime Reporter
Police seized a grenade, an assault rifle and a bulletproof vest Thursday in a raid that put the reputed chief of a major Chicago street gang behind bars on drug conspiracy charges, officials said.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-gang21.html

[Calpernia]

Sorry for the stinky formatting. I had no idea the java script was being picked up from that copy.

[Calpernia]

WHAT!!!!

The Montessori Schools have been infiltrated!

OMG!

[JustPiper]

Whooping cough outbreak hits suburbs

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-040521whooping,1,3624021.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Shadow keeps eye on Obama
With camera in tow, a campaign aide to Republican Senate candidate Jack Ryan doggedly tracks the Democrats' choice to catch any missteps

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/elections/chi-0405210072may21,1,1475108.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Nuclear railroad plan splits Nev. town
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-nuke21.html

Underwater volcano found off coast of Antarctica
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-volc21w.html

[Indie]

Humor Break

---

You know, this is why people should be allowed to grow their own....

Click here to have Baghdad Bob speak

---

[TBall]

No doubt they would like to do it all at the same time. Hopefully when the time comes we have the traps set.

[JustPiper]

Don't forget it had "Friday" in it and then two of us see overloaded mosques on Friday, I am bothered

[Indie]

RE: underwater volcano

With all of our satellite technology that can sense ocean temps, launches, heat on other planets, etc, why could it not find a volcano under the ocean??

[Indie]

If I was full of energy, I'd ride my motorcycle 5 miles and see what my mosques are doing.

[JustPiper]

Oh My Goodness Cal!

You connected this so fast and Farrakhan has always terrified me!

Please if you connect anymore on the Arab gangs etc please let me know!

[knak]

Here's a strange story>

Police Looking at Link Between Box of Snakes and Death of Traveler

[Velveeta]

Sudden Quiet in Karbala Is Puzzling to U.S. Forces


KARBALA, Iraq, May 22 -- The streets of Karbala, a town hotly contested in recent weeks by American forces and Shiite Muslim rebels, were so strangely quiet just past midnight Saturday that U.S. solders on patrol in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle were almost disappointed. (snip)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46445-2004May21.html

[Revel]

Anyone wondering what happened to the area around Chernobyl After the explosion...I mean what it is like today? I ran across this web site done by a gal living near there who rides a motor bike into the area and takes pictures. There are a ton of pictures at this site and a description of what they are a whole lot of interesting information. We had better hope that a Nuke plant does not end up being a sucesful target.

[Calpernia]

Hey Indie, what is with the small type at this late hour?

I'm going to have to pick up here after coffee tomorrow.

I don't do small type without coffee :P

Night all!

[Revel]

This kind of info and the info about Muslim gathering today...Makes me wonder if they know something is about to happen. I hope not.

[Revel]

Oops forgot the link...LOL

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter1.html