Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - Thread SEVENTEEN

World Net Daily ^ | 8-10-04 | Paul Sperry

[JustPiper]

Credit: The Cabal

The title refers to a daily report given to the president of the United States detailing the most serious terrorist threats against the country. To tackle those threats, the government has formed a top-notch task force to infiltrate the terror cells and cut off the danger.

"Every morning, the president receives a list of the top ten terrorist threats - this list is known as the threat matrix."

We here at FR are trying to be in conjunction with the daily reports around the world that involve threats. We try to provide a storehouse of information that takes hours of research.

YOU be the Judge and get informed.


"I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat."

Link to Thread Sixteen

With the nation on high alert for al-Qaida terrorists, the Department of Homeland Security is putting its border officers through "etiquette" classes to soften their image and make them less threatening to arriving foreign immigrants, WorldNetDaily has learned.

"God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers."
-- Jewish proverb

We are the "Stotters" who make ourselves aware of the
enemy who wishes to do us harm.




"What good are the color codes at all if we are suddenly hit with a bio or chem attack? There would be no warning and the danger would be instant."

"Code Red Implications
Code Red - Stay Home and Await Word."
by MamaDearest

Meet It!
Greet It!
Defeat It!

[Bobibutu]

RGR-4

Your points are well taken and I agree with you - PC is the threat within.

We need to have leaders who are willing to take the gloves off.

When the "goat-herder" got shot and killed on the border a couple of years back - well it's been downhill since.

[HipShot]

"The BC definitely no surprise. However, the nuke would almost be unspeakable."

Hence their motivation to deploy nukes.

"As you-all probably figured out, I'm skeptical about the nuke aspect."

That's cool with me, as long as you allow room for thought.

"And if Iran gets nukes, you can bet they'll get into terrorist hands most tic."

The islamic bomb already exists in Pakistan. We're only a heartbeat away from seeing the crescent moon painted on it if it's not already there.

If you choose not to believe Paul Williams, that's ok. I don't know what to believe about his claims. I do know that his claims are feasible. Enriched materials are available to anyone with the bux. The bomb is available to anyone with a lathe and a drill press.

[MamaDearest]

I doubt the money being moved out would have been in any danger had it stayed put.

If we could identify terrorists stashing money in our banks and financial institutions, we'd have a windfall of cold hard cash to help fund our war on terror and buy equipment for our troops in harms way.

Not long ago Rush was targeted due to bank withdrawals under $10,000. If we can monitor our own citizens for large withdrawals, why not the same scrutiny on foreign nationals who either deposit or withdraw large sums of money? After the initial deposit is made, a cursory investigation of foreign nationals should be required and funds frozen immediately if terrorist links are found.

Anti-Laundering Money Bill

[MamaDearest]

Wonder if our country keeps tabs of where these wires are consistently sent (particularly high dollar amounts) and whether the capability of putting the sender info together with the recipient info has been done on anything more than a case-by-case basis. If not, it's a great opportunity missed.

[Honestly]

Flight aborted after attack of feline terror

BRUSSELS A cat that escaped from its cage during a Belgian commercial flight this week managed to get into the plane's cockpit, where it scratched a co-pilot, forcing the crew to turn back and make an unscheduled landing.

The flight, from Brussels to Vienna, had been in the air about 20 minutes on Monday when "it was noticed" that a passenger's pet, a gray cat named Gin, had escaped from its cage, "although it is not yet clear how," the airline, SN Brussels Airlines, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Gin, a prized animal that travels to cat shows around the world, started wandering around the passenger cabin while its owner slept, an airline spokesman said.

The cat slipped through the cockpit door as a flight attendant served lunch to the pilots.

The scared animal was "very aggressive and scratched the co-pilot," the spokesman said.

The pilot decided to return to Brussels as a precaution, and the passengers departed later on another flight.

Geert Sciot, the airline's vice president for communications, told BBC News Online that the airline fully supported the captain's decision to turn back. Nobody, he told the BBC, could tell what an agitated cat might do scrabbling around amid the sensitive equipment in the cockpit.

The cat had been checked in Oslo in an internationally approved carrier, but the airline said it may change its procedures for pets. (AP, Reuters)

http://www.iht.com/articles/533390.html

[ExSoldier]

Well, it's been the law for 20+ years that any CASH deposit of $10,000 or more has to be reported to the IRS by C.O.B that day.

I'm in favor of that kind of scrutiny for all foreign nationals but I don't want the feds poking around in my financial affairs. I also don't want the WOT to be used as an excuse for any sort of national I.D. card.

You VILL please to show me your PAPERS....immediately!

[Honestly]

The Patriot Act and previous money laundering laws targeting drug dealers address the transfer of sums of money $10,000 or more.

[Bobibutu]

"Thanks for posting these war gaming series from Tom Marzullo. Gives much to think about."

He is a good man and a bright mind -

"Machines don't fight wars. People do, and they use their minds." - Col. John R. Boyd

[JellyJam]

DETAINED IMMIGRANT’S VIDEOTAPES RAISE SECURITY CONCERNS

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON — The federal authorities, on heightened alert over the prospect of another al-Qaida attack, are conducting a terrorism investigation into an illegal immigrant from Pakistan found with videotapes of downtown buildings and transit systems in four Southern states and of a dam in Texas, officials said Tuesday.

Officials acknowledged that they have no direct evidence linking the suspect, a former Queens, N.Y., resident named Kamran Shaikh, to terrorism. But they said they remained keenly interested in determining why he filmed the extensive videos, which included audio narratives in Arabic.

“These were not your normal tourist videos,” said a senior law enforcement official in Washington who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation. “This could turn out to be something legitimate and innocent, but it’s raised our suspicions, and we think there’s something else going on here. We don’t like the look of it.”

[Bobibutu]

"The clerical error appears to center around the bar codes used to track classified material. The bar code stickers that would have been found on the supposed missing disks were instead discovered still affixed to their original printed forms. "

If proceedures are not followed - errors occur. Someone - and it's not the first time - screwed up. They do not belong in this community. There are a lot of "kids" from UC Berkeley - many not U.S. Nationals working at L'Alamos and Sandia - we need to tighten-up. Long (40 years? in my experience) overdue.

[Godzilla]

Welcome BJs.

Wouldn't a terrorist prefer to conduct a violent attack first so that they could ensure they're not infected themselves by a biological attack?

Hmmmm, well to me it would depend upon the particular biological involved. In the scenarios I've heard about (small pox) there was no violent attack and due to the delayed nature of the disease progression/identification cause a lot of casualities. Anthrax doesn't need a weakened victims either. A chemical agent dispersed after a major attack to disable rescue/LE/Fire personnel to me would be more likely. However, AQ has yet to conduct a Chem or Bio attack by its self (I'm not associating the anthrax with them at this time) or doubled up a follow-on to any of its previous bombings. There is no history of it in its MO or any other terrorist organization I am aware of.

[JellyJam]

from The Star-News, Wilmington, N.C.

A coalition of watchdog groups petitioned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday to address “significant structural vulnerability to terrorism” at 32 U.S. commercial nuclear power reactors, including two at the Brunswick Nuclear Plant near Southport.

The petition calls for emergency NRC hearings. A main area of concern cited by the N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, and other groups, are the spent fuel pools used at boiling water reactors like the ones at the Brunswick Nuclear Plant.

Mike McCracken, a spokesman for plant operator Progress Energy, said Tuesday that adequate security safeguards are already in place at the Brunswick nuclear plant, and the spent fuel pools are well protected.

“The nuclear industry has mislead the public to believe that its reactors are all heavily fortified. It has been no secret to would-be attackers only to the public that many plants such as Brunswick I and II have waste cooling pools that are hardly protected at all,” N.C. WARN Director Jim Warren said.

[ExSoldier]

The stakes have just gone up again.

Iran DEMANDS Nuke Technology

[Right_Handed_Writer]

West coast of Fla.? That's not too common. Panhandle yes, Tampa/St. Pete? Looks like 1968, Donna, was the most recent hit/near hit I could find. Alma in 1966 stayed out in the gulf passing to the west, but still caused 1.5 million in damage. It's going to be a busy week along the NE Gulf Coast. Bonnie near Panama City followed up by Charley near Crystal Bay. Party on!

[Bobibutu]

Fourth Generation Warfare

It has been said that "fourth generation warfare" (4GW) includes all forms of conflict where the other side refuses to stand up and fight fair.   Smart commanders throughout history, however, have tried to deceive, trick, and confuse their opponents. Is anything really new?

The answer begins by examining how 4GW literature uses the term, "generation." Specifically, it refers to the world since the mid-17th Century, when firearms began to dominate the battlefield and when nation-states began to exercise a legal monopoly on the use of armed force.

4GW Case Studies:

al-Qa'ida / Afghanistan

al-Aqsa Intifada

That world is breaking down.  In 4GW, at least one side is something other than a military force organized and operating under the control of a national government, and it is often one that transcends national boundaries.  One way to tell that 4GW is truly new is that we don't even have a name for its participants - typically just dismissing them as "terrorists," "extremists," or "thugs."

Name calling, though, is not often an effective substitute for strategy.

If we look at the development of warfare in the modern era, we see three distinct generations … Third generation warfare was conceptually developed by the German offensive in the spring of 1918 … Is it not about time for the fourth generation to appear? Lind, Nightengale, Wilson, et. al., Marine Corps Gazette, October 1989

The attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center dispelled the notion that 4GW is simple "terrorism."  But one can sympathize with our political and military leaders, because 4GW is a strange form of warfare, one where military force plays a much smaller (though still critical) role than in earlier generations, supporting initiatives that are more political, diplomatic, and economic.  As important as finding and destroying the actual combatants, for example,  is drying up the bases of popular support that allow them to recruit for, plan, and execute their attacks.  Perhaps most odd of all, being seen as too successful militarily may create a backlash, making the opponent's other elements of 4GW more effective.

The authors of the first paper on the subject captured some of this strangeness when they predicted:

The distinction between war and peace will be blurred to the vanishing point. It will be nonlinear, possibly to the point of having no definable battlefields or fronts. The distinction between 'civilian' and 'military' may disappear.

However it develops, fourth generation warfare is real war. The aim of its participants, as in all earlier generations, is to impose change on its opponents. For a variety of reasons, sketched below and covered in detail in the papers on this site, most of the techniques that will be used in 4GW played peripheral roles in earlier generations of warfare and undoubtedly predate history itself.  Today, two of the most frequently mentioned of these techniques are terrorism, as we have seen, and low intensity conflict (LIC.) 

Is 4GW Just Another Term for "Terrorism"?

The more the terror, the greater our victories. – White Russian General Kornilov, 1917

We can't expect to get anywhere unless we resort to terrorism. – Lenin, 1918

"Terrorism" (defined as seemingly gratuitous violence against civilians or non-combatants) has been a part of all generations of war. Until recently, in fact, most wars killed many more civilians than military and not all of this was accidental - recall the Rape of Nanking, the London Blitz, and the firebombing of Dresden.  As 4GW blurs any distinction between "military" and "civilian," we can expect more activities that the general population will regard as terrorism.  In other words, there may be more terrorism in 4GW, but it is not unique to nor defined by these attacks.

Is 4GW Just Another Term for "LIC"?

... members of native forces will suddenly become innocent peasant workers when it suits their fancy and convenience. - USMC Small Wars Manual, 1940

Similarly, because practitioners of 4GW will be transnational groups without territorially-based armies, much of their activity will probably resemble "guerilla warfare" or "low intensity conflict."  These highly irregular practices have enabled groups that are weak, militarily, to defeat larger, stronger forces, and they have deep roots in the history of war. The word "guerilla" itself, for example, dates back nearly 200 years to Napoleon's occupation of Spain.

Until recently, however, such "special" operations more often harassed than decided—"sideshows" (as T. E. Lawrence once termed them) in wars fought mainly along 1st, 2nd, or 3rd generation lines. Examples could include operations by colonial militias and guerillas during the Revolutionary War, Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry raids, partisans during WWII, and the tactics practiced in the early stages of most "national liberation" wars in the 20th Century, including Vietnam.  In all of these, though, conventional forces delivered the final, deciding blows.

http://www.d-n-i.net/second_level/fourth_generation_warfare.htm

[JellyJam]

Court papers: NYC man admitted supplying al-Qaida with money, equipment

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York man admitted meeting with a high-ranking member of al-Qaida in Pakistan in a scheme to smuggle money, night-vision goggles and other equipment to the terrorist network, according to a court transcript released Tuesday.

Mohammed Junaid Babar also acknowledged aiding a foiled bomb plot in London, according to the transcript, which was made public two months after Babar secretly pleaded guilty to charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization. He agreed to cooperate with authorities as part of a plea deal.

The transcript says Babar told a judge he met with an unidentified al-Qaida official earlier this year in South Waziristan, a tribal area near the border of Afghanistan. He said he and others had provided money, goggles, sleeping bags and other goods to the terrorist group beginning in 2003.

“I understood that the money and supplies that I had given to al-Qaida were supposed to used in Afghanistan against U.S. or international forces,” he said.

Babar, 29, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, also described arranging lodging and transportation for recruits to a “jihad training camp” and providing ammonium nitrate and other materials for the bomb plot in London.

The scheme to blow up pubs, restaurants and train stations was foiled in late March when British authorities arrested eight suspects and seized 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which can be used to make explosives, from a storage locker in London.

Babar, who grew up in Queens, was put on a terror watch list after authorities became aware of inflammatory remarks he made to a television reporter in Pakistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Babar said despite the fact his mother had escaped from the ninth floor of one of the World Trade Center’s towers, his loyalty was “to the Muslims, not the Americans.” He also announced his intention to fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

“I’m willing to kill Americans,” he said in the televised interview, adding that he had no plans to return to New York.

In April, Babar returned to New York, where police and FBI agents put him under surveillance and eventually arrested him.

Babar, who was being held without bail, faces up to 70 years in prison. No sentencing date was set.

[JellyJam]

Where's a swift boat when you need one? :-)

[Honestly]

I find it intolerable to have an error like this that diminished national security and cost millions of greenbacks.

[Bobibutu]

August 10, 2004
U.S. to Give Border Patrol New Powers to Deport Illegal Aliens
By RACHEL L. SWARNS

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 — Citing concerns about terrorists crossing the nation's
land borders, the Department of Homeland Security announced today that it
planned to give border patrol agents sweeping new powers to deport illegal
aliens from the frontiers abutting Mexico and Canada without providing the
aliens the opportunity to make their case before an immigration judge.

The move, which will take effect this month, represents a broad expansion of
the authority of the thousands of law enforcement agents who currently
patrol the nation's borders. Until now, border patrol agents typically
delivered undocumented immigrants to the custody of the immigration courts,
where judges determined whether they should be deported or remain in the
United States.

Homeland Security officials described the immigration courts — which hear
pleas for asylum and other appeals to remain in the country — as sluggish
and cumbersome, saying illegal immigrants often wait more than a year before
being deported, straining the capacity of detention centers and draining
critical resources. Under the new system, immigrants will typically be
deported within eight days of their apprehension, officials said.

Immigration legislation passed in 1996 allows the immigration service to
deport certain groups of illegal aliens without judicial oversight, but
until now the agency only permitted officials at the nation's airports and
seaports to do so. The new rule will apply to illegal aliens caught within
100 miles of the Mexican and Canadian borders who have spent 14 days or less
within the United States. The border agents will focus on deporting
third-country nationals, rather than Mexicans or Canadians, and they are
expected to begin exercising their new powers on Aug. 24 in Tucson and
Laredo, Tex.

"There is a concern that as we tighten the security of our ports of entry
through our biometric checks that there will be more opportunity or more
effort made by terrorists to enter our country through our vast land
borders," Asa Hutchinson, the undersecretary for border security at the
Department of Homeland Security, said at a news conference.

"We recognize that we have to secure those and that's the president's first
principle of immigration reform," Mr. Hutchinson said. "America must secure
its borders and this is a part of that effort."

The decision was hailed by officials who have long complained that the
nation's porous borders represent a serious threat to national security. But
it prompted a flurry of criticism from advocates for immigrants who warned
that the new system lacked adequate safeguards to ensure that people fleeing
persecution, American citizens lacking paperwork or other travelers with
legitimate grounds would not be improperly deported.

Mr. Hutchinson said that border agents would be trained on asylum law and
that immigrants who demonstrated a credible fear of persecution would be
sent to see immigrant judges, not returned to hostile governments. "That
right," he said of the right to apply for asylum, "is very important."

But Homeland Security officials provided little details about the training,
and advocates said that they feared that mistakes would be made when border
agents decide who will be deported and who will not, often in the vast,
inhospitable plains of the southern deserts.

[Bobibutu]

No-Fly List Raises Civil-Liberty Concerns

Aug 10, 4:24 PM (ET)

By DAVID KRAVETS


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The Sept. 11 Commission wants the government to expand
the no-fly list airlines now check to keep suspected terrorists off planes,
consolidating as many as 12 secret lists maintained by different
intelligence agencies.

That worries the American Civil Liberties Union, which has already sued the
government, saying the airlines' effort to keep terror suspects and other
dangerous people off planes ensnares innocent passengers and subjects them
to unnecessary searches and delays. Also, the government provides no way for
those wrongly named to get themselves removed.

"Right now, if you're on the list, you're in a no-fly jail. There is now way
out of this," said Barry Steinhardt, the director of the ACLU's Technology
and Liberty Project.

Commissioners agree the government has a "definite interest" in ensuring the
protection of passengers' civil liberties as well as their safety. Their
report, however, didn't spell out how the government should improve its
checks and balances for the watch lists.

In lawsuits filed in San Francisco and Seattle, the ACLU has demanded the
government explain how wrongly flagged travelers - usually targeted because
they have names similar to those on the list - can get off it. The ACLU also
wants to know how many people are on the list.

"They have to make the best efforts to make sure it's accurate and has to
have a procedure to make sure people mistakenly identified can get off the
list," Steinhardt said.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who privately reviewed the government's
"sensitive" data, ordered the government in June to further explain why it
hasn't disclosed certain documents in response to the ACLU's Freedom of
Information Act request.

Breyer said the government has refused to say why the number of people on
the list should not be disclosed. He also wonders why the government
classified its procedure for adding names to the list as "non-disclosable
sensitive security information."

"In many instances, the government has not come close to meeting its burden,
and, in some cases, has made frivolous claims of exemption," Breyer wrote.

Authorities have repeatedly refused comment on Breyer's ruling or questions
about the no-fly list.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Transportation Security
Administration and other agencies cite security concerns for not publicly
disclosing to the ACLU why two of the group's clients - peace activists who
publish a magazine critical of the Bush administration - were detained at
San Francisco International Airport. The two believe they were wrongly
detained because their names popped up in the database.

The agencies even blacked out names of government officials in charge of the
list, including the FBI employee responsible for responding to inquiries
from the public regarding names appearing on the list.

President Bush last year authorized the FBI to establish the consolidated
database the commission recommends be used at airports. Homeland Security
Director Tom Ridge, when announcing the creation of the still unfinished
mega-database last year, said "the job of the new Terrorist Screening Center
is to make sure we get this information out to our agents on the borders and
all those who can put it to use on the front lines."

The Sept. 11 Commission urged that the government take over pre-screening
responsibilities from the airlines even before a new system is developed.

The list the airlines use includes only the people the government believes
"pose a direct threat to aviation." Many names of potential terrorists, now
kept in a slew of government databases, have been held back from the
airlines because some agencies consider the information too sensitive to
share.

That problem can be solved, the commission said, if the lists are
consolidated and the TSA takes charge of preflight passenger screening.

"Because air carriers implement the program, concerns about sharing
intelligence information with private firms and foreign countries keep the
U.S. government from listing all terrorist and terrorist suspects who should
be included," the report said.

The airline industry has welcomed that recommendation, which is expected to
be the subject of congressional debate this month. House leaders say they
want legislation to implement the commission's proposals in September, and
Senate leaders by October.

"We are all for the government being in charge of that, of the government
assuming that responsibility," said Diana Cronan, a spokeswoman for the Air
Transport Association of America, which represents 22 airlines, including
all major U.S. carriers. "They have all the information. They're trained and
they have the intelligence."

The commission noted its airline screening proposal, as well as other ideas
that would increase the government's power over the public, could tread on
civil liberties. That's why it recommends the creation of an executive
branch board committed "to defend our civil liberties" at a "time of
increased and consolidated government authority."

"How that may be fashioned is probably best left to the Congress and
president," said commission spokesman Jonathan Stull.