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Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - Thread SEVENTEEN
World Net Daily ^
| 8-10-04
| Paul Sperry
Posted on 08/10/2004 12:58:27 AM PDT by 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!
|
TOPICS: News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: storehouseofinfo; terror; threatmatrix; threats
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To: All
This opinion piece basically concludes that Hizbullah and al qaeda are foes. Hmmm. But strange bedfellows always suffer each other to make havoc with common enemies.
***
Copyright (c) 2004 The Daily Star
Friday, August 20, 2004
Hizbullah and Al-Qaeda: Friends or foes?
By Haytham Mouzahem
Special to The Daily Star
The final report of the Sept. 11 Commission in the US argued that Al-Qaeda had ties with Iran and Hizbullah, but it also concluded there was no collaboration between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, one of President George W. Bush's central arguments in favor of launching an invasion of Iraq last year.
The report noted that "the relationship between Al-Qaeda and Iran demonstrated that Sunni-Shiite divisions did not necessarily pose an insurmountable barrier to cooperation in terrorist operations." But the report also found "no evidence that Iran or Hizbullah was aware of the planning for what later became the Sept.11 attack."
It is true that Sunni-Shiite differences are in no way obstacles to cooperation between Islamist groups such as the Shiite Hizbullah and Palestinian Islamist movements such as Hamas or Islamic Jihad. But the Sept. 11 Commission did not observe that Al-Qaeda was a very different Sunni group than the Palestinian ones; it is an extremist Wahhabi movement that considers Shiites nonbelievers, referring to them as rafidha, or those who reject mainstream Islam.
In 1998, the Taleban regime in Afghanistan, which was harboring Al-Qaeda and its leadership, committed atrocities against Afghan Shiite Hazaras in Mazar al-Sharif, killing thousands, as well as eight Iranian diplomats. The crimes very nearly led to a war between Iran and Afghanistan, and helped explain Iranian support for the northern Afghani groups in their battle against the Taleban and Al-Qaeda - and later (if more circumspectly) for the US invasion that led to the Taleban's overthrow
The relation between the Iraq's Baath regime and Al-Qaeda began in 1998, when Saddam Hussein allowed the group to establish training camps in Iraq. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was reportedly the broker of this connection. The alliance may have resurfaced after the US invasion through the unexpected cooperation between the two parties in attacking coalition forces, Iraqi policemen and civilians and Shiite leaders and holy shrines. The tight organization and apparent logistical network behind the Al-Qaeda suicide operations suggest there may have been preparation for those attacks with the Baath regime, which provided Al-Qaeda with organizational and intelligence assistance as well as money and maybe combatants.
It was bizarre indeed that Al-Qaeda and Saddam's followers should have focused their attacks so strongly against Shiite religious and political leaders and cadres, and against their holy shrines in Najaf and Karbala, as well as the Qazimiyyeh Mosque in Baghdad, killing thousands of civilians, instead of focusing on targeting the occupation forces. That strongly implied both a deep a hatred for the Shiites and a desire to prevent them of playing any major role in post-war Iraq.
Wahhabis consider the Shiites unbelievers (kuffar) and "polytheists" (mushrekin) because of their veneration of the prophet and the imams. Since the late 18th century, the Wahhabis launched three military campaigns to conquer Shiite regions in Arabia, leading to the destruction of their mosques and shrines. In 1803 and 1806, the Wahhabis entered Iraq and sacked the tombs of Imam Hussein in Karbala, an act of incredible desecration. In 1927, senior Saudi religious scholars issued fatwas condemning the Shiites, and these were reasserted as late as the 1990s.
Given all this, Hizbullah cannot be indifferent toward the terrorist and sectarian attacks against their Iraqi brethren and their shrines. The party's secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, condemned these killings and warned Al-Qaeda fighters last March that such behavior would damage the Palestinian cause because it would lead to Sunni-Shiite sectarian strife, an apparent goal of Zarqawi's as it appeared in a letter he is said to have addressed to Osama bin Laden seized by US forces.
In an interview with Middle East scholar Asaad Abu Khalil in June 2004, Nasrallah expressed strong fears and concerns about the so-called "resistance" in Iraq, and strongly condemned its methods, for example the use of car bombings. As he put it, they are "willing to kill 90 Iraqi civilians in order to kill one US soldier." Nasrallah asserted, "the Wahhabi network is very active in Iraq, and it has a strong sectarian agenda." He said he believed that "Saddam's Baathists and even Wahhabis are willing to negotiate with the Americans all in order to prevent a rise in Shiite power." He worried that this Wahhabi network "will strike at Shiite targets in the Arab world, outside Iraq, very soon."
Hizbullah has condemned attacks targeting civilians by Al-Qaeda and its allies. Nawaf Musawi, who is in charge of Hizbullah's international relations department, said in an interview that his first comment following the Sept. 11 attacks was "this is (Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon's lucky day," because "Sharon would be able to kill the Palestinian people under the pretext of 'fighting terrorism.'" He added: "I believe that those kinds of condemnable terrorist operations have done great damage to the struggling Palestinian people."
There are several barriers hindering the cooperation between Hizbullah and the Wahhabis. Religious and historical divisions play a major role in this, but are not the only factors. Hizbullah and Al-Qaeda have very different political priorities, strategies and agendas. Whatever the Sept. 11 Commission said, all the signs are that Al-Qaeda and Hizbullah are foes rather than friends.
Haytham Mouzahem (hmzahem@yahoo.com) is a Lebanese analyst and researcher specializing in Middle East and Islamic affairs. He wrote this commentary for THE DAILY STAR
Copyright (c) 2004 The Daily Star
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=7532#
To: ExSoldier
I can't help but think about how far behind our missile development is, thanks to comrade clinton. He went so far as to invite Ivan to participate in a naval weapons contract, IIRC, and gave the store away.
3,142
posted on
08/19/2004 8:12:33 PM PDT
by
HipShot
(EOM couldn't cut the head off a beer with a chainsaw)
To: ExSoldier
I never knew I was a goblin. Thanks for the heads up...
Wait a minute... could I get "special status" if I claimed to be a lesbian trapped in a man's body?
3,143
posted on
08/19/2004 8:14:19 PM PDT
by
HipShot
(EOM couldn't cut the head off a beer with a chainsaw)
To: HipShot; All
*** BREAKING NEWS ***
South Bend Tribune
Thursday, 19-Aug-2004 22:16:05 EST
FBI warning military recruiters of terrorism threat
By ADAM JACKSON
Tribune Staff Writer
Federal Bureau of Investigation officials contacted armed forces recruiting centers across the country this week, The Tribune has learned, to notify recruiters of intelligence pointing to possible terrorist attacks on the centers sometime in the next two months.
FBI Indiana spokeswoman Wendy Osborne said she could neither confirm nor deny the report, saying that it was “at the law enforcement sensitive level.” But other law enforcement officials and representatives of the armed forces have confirmed the report.
“This was a nationwide alert sent to recruiting centers,” said Public Affairs Officer Mary Auer with the Army Recruiting Center state headquarters in Indianapolis. “So far, I am not aware of any incidents that have occurred.”
Auer said the alert was on her e-mail when she came into work Thursday morning, adding that Army officials wasted no time in getting the word out across the state.
“We have been in contact with law enforcement agencies near our recruiting centers to advise them of the situation,” she said.
What will those law enforcement officials look for? Mike Samp, chief of the investigative division of the Mishawaka Police Department, said police officers with the department will be keeping a closer eye on the Armed Forces Recruiting Center on West McKinley Avenue, just looking for anything out of the ordinary.
“Every time they pass through that area, they will be on the alert for anything that’s out of place,” he said. “I don’t think (Osama) bin Laden has a vendetta against the Princess (Mishawaka), but we will be keeping an eye out.”
The alert did not include specific information on the type of terrorist threat that might be aimed at the recruiting centers.
Nor did it indicate what type of measures might be effective against the threat.
But measures are being taken. Sgt. David Lee, commander of the Armed Forces Recruiting Center in Plymouth, acknowledged that the staff at his office would take precautions against the threat but refused to elaborate.
Auer also was tight-lipped about what personnel at individual centers might do to combat the threat.
“We have appropriate force measures in place in case something happens,” she said.
But in South Bend, Indiana Northwest Region recruiting commander Capt. Rick Sweet said he and his staff would try to keep business as usual in the face of the FBI warning, without resorting to measures such as adjusting the hours of business or locking the doors.
“There’s been some stuff about a potential threat,” he said. “Nothing substantiated or anything like that.”
Whether or not an attack ever comes, people such as George Noirot, public affairs chief for the Great Lakes Army Recruiting Battalion in Lansing know that increased vigilance has become the norm, whether a threat is specific or not.
“We live in a different time than we did five years ago,” he said. “Times are different, so we take every caution with a great deal of concern.”
Tribune staff writers Melissa West, Josh Stowe and Heather Thomas contributed to this story.
http://www.southbendtribune.com/breakingnews/posts/1519.html
To: Donna Lee Nardo
Posted on Thu, Aug. 19, 2004
Central American nations ratcheting up terror response, security
BY HUGH DELLIOS
Chicago Tribune
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - (KRT) - The reported sighting of the suspected al-Qaida operative in the Internet cafe was hard to verify. It was also hard to dismiss.
A witness said she saw Adnan El Shukrijumah, a Saudi native on the FBI's terrorist watch list, in the cafe in this Central American capital in May. A photo of Shukrijumah, whose name was linked to the recent terror alert in New York, also was identified by the cafe owner, who said the suspect and two companions spoke little Spanish. (snip)
Farther south, El Salvadoran officials tried to calm citizens this month after a group naming itself after Sept. 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta posted messages on a Web site threatening attacks in that country if it renews its small contingent of troops fighting with U.S. forces in Iraq.
While officials emphasize they have not uncovered any confirmed threats in the region, many have raised their state of alert in recent months as worries in the U.S. ripple southward to those in charge of protecting Gulf of Mexico oil facilities, shipping ports and tourist destinations popular with Americans. (snip)
Officials and analysts point to many strategic sites that could be targets for anti-U.S. terrorists in the region. Not least among them is the Panama Canal, where the U.S. and seven other nations from the region participated in joint anti-terrorism maneuvers last week.
Last spring, analysts with the private U.S.-Mexico Binational Council identified the Cantarel oil field in Mexico's Campeche Sound as another possible target because it produces more than 50 percent of Mexico's oil. The U.S. imports 15 percent of its oil from Mexico. (snip)
Alvarez, the Honduran minister, said the owner of the Internet cafe described the men he saw as sloppily dressed and speaking English and French. The cafe records indicate the men placed calls to France and Canada. (snip)
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/9440836.htm?1c
3,145
posted on
08/19/2004 8:20:51 PM PDT
by
Honestly
(There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy.)
To: All
Let's add "No specific threat" from the article below to the list that includes:
-"Just kids playing with firecrackers"
-"Just Middle Eastern tourists taking pictures (or videotaping)"
-"Just don't panic because although we don't know what the heck caused [pick one: the fire; the explosion; the accident; the people becoming ill, etc.], we ruled out terrorism"
***
NBC11.com
Authorities Seek Man Seen Sketching Transamerica Building
Man Represents No Specific Threat
POSTED: 6:18 PM PDT August 19, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO -- A man seen taking photographs and making sketches of the Transamerica building in downtown San Francisco is wanted for questioning by police and federal agents, according to a recent law enforcement bulletin.
The man is being sought after he was seen conducting "surveillance activity" around the 48-story building at 600 Montgomery St. in the Financial District, according to a San Francisco Police Department bulletin dated Aug. 12.
A grainy image of the man apparently caught on a surveillance camera seems to show him looking upward while writing or drawing in a notebook.
San Francisco police Inspector George Nazzal said the man represented no specific threat.
"It could be anything," he said. "But at this point in time, it's better to check and make sure. He could be an architecture student."
Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security raised the terror alert on the East Coast to orange, its second-highest level.
In announcing the change, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge cited "specific, credible information" about the possibility of a terrorist attack on buildings in the financial sectors of New York City, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
No threats to San Francisco landmarks were mentioned, but federal agents and local law enforcement officers plan to take all precautions.
"The Transamerica building's an icon of the city," Nazzal said. "We've got to treat it as a possible target."
The man seen making sketches outside the building is described as Middle Eastern, about 30 to 35 years old, 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall, with no facial hair. He may speak with an accent, according to the bulletin.
Sign Up For Breaking News E-mail Alerts
Copyright 2004 by Bay City News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.nbc11.com/news/3668186/detail.html
To: Donna Lee Nardo
They're not very creative, are they. That's the same stuff they're doing in Iraq.
Homicide/car bombers, or something like it. They'd probably try to do the abandoned bag or some such thing first. They may not want to spend their assets as quickly here as they do there.
3,147
posted on
08/19/2004 8:31:58 PM PDT
by
HipShot
(EOM couldn't cut the head off a beer with a chainsaw)
To: Velveeta
Vel, ping to post #3146 for this part especially:
"The man seen making sketches outside the building is described as Middle Eastern, about 30 to 35 years old, 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall, with no facial hair. He may speak with an accent, according to the bulletin."
To: Donna Lee Nardo
Interesting article, it is wonderful that they are working
for all of us.
Thank you for sharing it.
3,149
posted on
08/19/2004 8:52:58 PM PDT
by
nw_arizona_granny
(You could do a general Google search for: jihad internet today)
To: Donna Lee Nardo
"Just don't panic because although we don't know what the heck caused [pick one: the fire; the explosion; the accident; the people becoming ill, etc.], we ruled out terrorism"```snorts and giggles```
To: Donna Lee Nardo
Should start making a no facial hair list. LOL!
To: Velveeta
Some women and animals are like that, they don't care about the young.
It said she went there with a fiance, I think that she sold
the kids out for sex.
When they were no longer virgins, he was done with them, so
on the street they went.
My first foster child was a 6 month old baby, the mother left it and was to be back before midnight. She showed up
6 months later.
Or 2 boys, 18 months and 3 years, daddy (nice man) went to
work, mama went away with a boy friend, vanished, party time.
The state suggested me as a foster home, what a nightmare,
the 18 month old was a delight, the 3 year old was damaged,
he was afraid to eat. Several months later the mans Mom
managed to sell out on the east coast and came to take care
of them.
But when I went to work in the Wellton Court, I found a
file, the 3 year old, had killed a man who gave him a ride.
By then he was 17, no doubt that it was the same person, a
triple name and other info, matched.
3,152
posted on
08/19/2004 9:19:40 PM PDT
by
nw_arizona_granny
(You could do a general Google search for: jihad internet today)
To: Velveeta
Holy City? Give Me a Break!
By Alan Caruba
CNSNews.com Commentary from the National Anxiety Center
August 18, 2004
What if I were to invite you to visit the "holy city" of San Diego, named after a saint? So was St. Augustine, Florida, while Providence, Rhode Island, references God's grace.
There is hardly a major city where one cannot find an impressive cathedral or other religious structure. From one end of America to another, you can find "holy cities," but while they honor religious figures or ideals, they do not claim to be "sacred" ground.
So what makes Iraq's Najaf a "holy city" other than the fact that there is a big mosque there? What, for that matter, makes every grain of sand in Saudi Arabia "sacred"? Or makes Mecca and Medina more sacred than cities that preceded both by well over two thousand years -- Jerusalem and Vatican City in the midst of Rome?
Other than pure arrogance, what gives Islam the right to claim Jerusalem as an Islamic holy city when Muhammad never physically stepped foot there, nor anywhere else outside of Arabia?
Returning to Najaf, the home base of Muqtada al-Sadr, the renegade Shi'ite mullah, just how holy is a mosque when it serves as a place to store weapons and plan military operations against an interim government? I suggest it's time to give him five minutes to get out of town -- or else watch his mosque be turned into a parking lot.
This is likely to make a lot of Arabs angry at the Big Bad United States of America, but frankly these people don't need any excuse to dislike us. I get a lot of email from people in the Middle East who don't like what I have to say about Islam. One universal theme runs through virtually all these communications -- that the United States and Israel are responsible for the "oppression" in their nations, not the monarchs and despots that run those nations.
It is the U.S., they contend, that supports these dictators and therefore is to be blamed for their actions. As for Israel, it is responsible for everything that is wrong with their lives. By contrast, militant and even peaceful Muslims are never to blame for anything.
In the past, I have tried to reply reasonably that the United States has not only suffered attacks on its homeland, but also a long succession of attacks going back to the seizing of its diplomats in Iran in 1979, the bombing of Marines in Lebanon, the attack of the USS Cole, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. All by Muslims. It was Muslims who blew up trains in Spain, a nightclub in Bali, synagogues in Turkey and Argentina, foreign compounds in Riyadh, and let's not forget those US embassies in two African nations.
For good measure, I tried to point out that our military has gone in harm's way to defend and protect Muslims in Kuwait, in Somalia, in Bosnia, and against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Now it is engaged in the liberation of 25 million Muslims in Iraq, setting them on the path of democracy and freedom.
None of this, I assure you, has the least affect on the thinking of my correspondents, nor, I suspect, on any of the other millions of totally ungrateful slaves of the despotic governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Libya, the Sudan, and other nations where Islam plays a significant role in governance or whose militants are engaged in insurrections to become the government. In Islam, there is no separation of church and state.
Islam so suffuses the lives of Muslims throughout the Middle East and elsewhere, they are utterly blind and indifferent to the fact that it has consigned them to backwardness, poverty, and the mercy of whoever is in charge.
There is little hope for the individual Middle Eastern Muslim, even if he is an educated member of the middle class. That is why most of the 9-11 hijackers came from this segment of Saudi Arabian society.
That is why Osama bin Laden, who came from a Saudi family of great wealth, uses Islam to advance his self-glorification and evil agenda. And right now, the Saudis have launched a public relations campaign to tell us what good friends of ours they are. With friends like these, who needs enemies?
So here come the Americans with our military power and these morons sit in front of their television sets listening to and watching al Jezeera tell them over and over again that their sacred lands or holy cities are being destroyed by us simply because we want their oil.
Yes, we want their oil. We are paying $44 a barrel for it right now! Has the money gained from its purchase in the past done anything to benefit the individual Muslim? Has it built a decent infrastructure or educational system in any of these places?
I suggest we Americans get over the notion that we are "creating" Islamic enemies. Just as the nation of Israel was born surrounded with Islamic enemies and has battled them for over a half century, the only thing the United States can do is kill our enemies and liberate the rest who must be dragged into the 21st century and connected to the rest of the world before they destroy us in the name of Allah.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=%5CCommentary%5Carchive%5C200408%5CCOM20040818c.html
3,153
posted on
08/19/2004 9:23:31 PM PDT
by
Honestly
(There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy.)
To: grizzfan
To: callmejoe
Great post, very informative.
To: Donna Lee Nardo
Lots of interesting stories tonight, thanks!
To: Velveeta; drymans wife
Here, I grabbed the image... it's a nice outfit. ;)
To: Donna Lee Nardo
Placemarking - to return to finish reading.
3,158
posted on
08/19/2004 9:51:40 PM PDT
by
TruthNtegrity
("No man works harder for his money than he who marries it.")
To: Old Sarge; JohnathanRGalt
3,159
posted on
08/19/2004 10:04:56 PM PDT
by
Cindy
To: BurbankKarl; All
Karl,
Are you listening to the Fox11 news?
Did you hear the report about the 211 guys --er , the robbers doing
Radio Shacks?
ME typ, male, wearing an earpiece, interested in GPS, armed, and took
6 walkie talkies?
3,160
posted on
08/19/2004 10:07:50 PM PDT
by
Cindy
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