TerroristWarning.com Terrorism Headlines 09/24/2004 # 1
Editors Note - TerroristWarning.com email alerts will be suspended or sporadic approximately 09/28 through 10/07 while we move our offices away from Las Vegas. We realize the threat of terrorism is at its highest in the month prior to elections and will be back to a more regular schedule as soon as humanly possible.
National:
[AFP] USA - US on high alert for terrorism in skies
"...We are taking the precautions that we should be, and we ask the American public to understand the reasons for these security measures,"
http://www.dawn.com/2004/09/24/top15.htm
[USA TODAY] USA - Justice Dept. steps up surveillance amid fears of attack
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-09-23-security-election_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA
[AP] USA - U.S. Worries Over Election Terror Threat
"In an unusual move, Attorney General John Ashcroft recently held a conference call with all 93 U.S. attorneys to spread the word that prosecutors and law enforcement officers should take every conceivable step to counter the threat,"
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040923/D859J5RO1.html
[Pottstown Mercury] PENNSYLVANIA - Plane forced down after violating air space
http://www.pottstownmercury.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12985365&BRD=1674&PAG=461&dept_id=18041&rfi=6
[AP] NEW YORK - NYC Imam Convicted of 'massive' Visa Fraud Scheme
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBIK23RHZD.html
[AP] CALIFORNIA - LAPD Counterterrorism Chief, a Former TV Newsman, Detained at Airport With Handgun
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB8JG3OHZD.html
[UPI] USA - Security campaign targets businesses
"U.S. Homeland Security department Thursday announced a campaign to help small business owners plan in the event of an attack or disaster"
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040923-083552-8481r.htm
[San Diego Union Tribune] CALIFORNIA - North Island security officer shoots 3 men [Naval Air Station North Island]
",suspects, who apparently had been tampering with a vehicle, tried to flee from the Defense Department employee ..."
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20040923-1441-coronadoshooting.html
[AZ Central.com] ARIZONA - 26 MVD workers accused of selling counterfeit driver's licenses
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0923mvd23-ON.html
[Click10.com] FLORIDA - Missing Construction Device Contains Radioactive Material
http://www.local10.com/news/3754193/detail.html
[KVBC] NEVADA - First Responders Training For The Worst At Nevada Test Site
http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=2341824&nav=15MVRFjP
[ABC7] ILLINOIS - New security measures in place at Braidwood Nuclear Power Plant
"Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ordered all of the nation's 100-plus nuclear plants to increase their defensive capabilities by the end of next month"
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/092304_ns_nuclearplant.html
[Salt Lake Tribune] UTAH - Photo: Propane Tank Scare [ Possibly fell off truck, near courthouse, next to power box]
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2418833
[IHT] USA - U.S. prowls in Qaeda’s ‘cyber sanctuaries’
http://www.iht.com/articles/540208.html
[WABC] USA - Report: 15 US Airports Have Sub-Par Security; One Is In NYC
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/wabc_092304_airportsecurity.html
[AP] MEXICO - Mexico probes two men for terror links
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/aplatin_story.asp?category=1102&slug=Mexico%20Terrorism
International:
[Chosun Ilbo] NORTH KOREA / JAPAN - N. Korea Threatens to Turn Japan into "Nuclear Sea of Fire"
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200409/200409230045.html
[The Age] NORTH KOREA / JAPAN - Pyongyang threatens nuclear fire for Japan
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/23/1095651471731.html
[New York Times] JAPAN - Japan Raises Defenses on Signs North Korea Plans Missile Test
"Japan sent two destroyers and a surveillance airplane to the Sea of Japan on Thursday"
[Radio Australia] JAPAN - Japan says suspected NKorea missile test 'no imminent threat'
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/newstories/RANewsStories_1206584.htm
[New Zealand Herald] USA / NORTH KOREA - Powell warns North Korea against new missile test
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/latestnewsstory.cfm?storyID=3594365&thesection=news&thesubsection=world
[Reuters] GERMAN - German Arrested Over Suspected Nuclear Arms Trade
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6317070
[Daily Times] PAKISTAN - 31 Qaeda men arrested on Qari Saifullah’s tip off
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-9-2004_pg7_4
[Interfax] BELARUS - 20 radioactive burial sites found in Belarus
http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=10705381
[The Scotsman] SCOTLAND - Security Probe as Intruder Enters Queen's Scottish Palace
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3538738
[UPI] RUSSIA - Russia close to collapse: Zyuganov
"The Russian power system could collapse if more terror acts like the Beslan massacre occurred, Russia's communist leader has warned"
[Itar-Tass] RUSSIA - Two killed in attack on presidential security guard in Chechnya
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=1280024&PageNum=0
[Interfax] RUSSIA - Several anti-rebel operations held in Chechnya in past 24 hours
http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=10705626
[UPI] IRAQ/ UNITED NATIONS/ FRANCE - France won't send troops to Iraq
[UPI] MIDDLE EAST - How close was the Mideast to nuclear war?
[Reuters] IRAQ - Two Egyptians kidnapped in Baghdad
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5234972
[UTV] IRElAND - Security alerts cause traffic disorder
"Army bomb experts have been called to deal with a series of security alerts which are causing traffic problems in the Greater Belfast area"
http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=50681&pt=n
[Scotland on Sunday] UNITED KINGDOM - Ban on Low-Level Flights over London Terror Targets
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3538684
[AP] IRAQ - Mortars explode near Italian embassy in Iraq; three Iraqis wounded
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/268/world/Mortars_explode_near_Italian_e:.shtml
Good luck with your move and thanks for the news summary.
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s04090127.htm
ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com, Web Site: www.assistnews.net
Thursday, September 23, 2004
TWO CANADIAN CHRISTIANS KILLED IN IRAQ
As Anti Christian Violence Escalates
By Stefan J. Bos
Special Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
A twisted lump of metal is all that remains of a car believed to have been packed with 330 pounds (150 kilograms) of explosives and parked outside the Baghdad Seventh-day Adventist Church. The bomb exploded late Friday September 10, damaging the church but avoiding injury.
Source: Adventist News Network (ANN)
BAGHDAD, IRAQ (ANS) -- Two Canadians have been killed in Baghdad because of their Christian faith as part of an increasing cycle of deadly violence against local and foreign Christians in Iraq, ASSIST News Service learned Thursday, September 23.
The Voice Of the Martyrs Canada (VOM-Canada), a Christian human rights group, reported that officials "initially believed the deaths of Canadians Andrew Shmakov and Munir Toma were the results of a car bombing on September 14 which killed forty-seven people."
However VOM-Canada said it had learned from family members that the two men were "chased down last week, beaten and shot" in Iraq's troubled capital.
"Relatives of Toma in Baghdad (said) that Toma had been shot seventeen times. It has been reported that Toma's wife, Baydah, and six-year-old daughter Rita are in hiding in Iraq, fearing for their lives," VOM-Canada added in a newsletter obtained by ASSIST News Service (ANS).
Toma and Shmakov, who established a construction company as part of the rebuilding of Iraq, were attacked by gunmen when they left their office, VOM-Canada quoted family members as saying. "They escaped in their car, but four other cars followed, ambushed and killed them," VOM-Canada said.
PRAYERS URGED
It urged supporters, which include evangelical Christians, to pray for Toma's child and wife as well as family members and Christians throughout Iraq.
The latest attack has underscored concern among Christians, who VOM-Canada said have "frequently been targeted by militant Muslims because of their faith."
Only a few days before the Canadians were killed, a car packed with an estimated 330 pounds (150 kilograms) of dynamite was detonated outside the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Baghdad late Friday September 10, the Adventist News Network (ANN) reported.
No one was injured as there were no services in progress at the time, but there was extensive damage, ANN pictures showed. A guard was present on the church compound and escaped unhurt, ANN said.
SECOND ATTACK
It was the second time the church sustained bomb damage in less than a year. Last October a powerful explosion, which destroyed the Red Cross headquarters 200 meters away, shattered the stained glass windows on the other side of the church, ANN reported at the time.
Adventists in Iraq have been on high alert since six bombs went off outside Christian churches on Sunday, August 1, killing at least 11 people.
Michael Porter, president of the Adventist Church in the Middle East, expressed concern about the escalating insecurity in Iraq. "Last month, a member of the (Adventist) Baghdad Church, a mother of three young children, was caught in cross fire on her way to a relative's wedding in Mosul and lost her life," he told ANN.
"It is hard to imagine the daily stresses the people are under. We earnestly pray for restraint and that the various factions in Iraq will end their quarrels so the wonderful people of this beautiful country may be given a chance to flourish once more," ANN quoted Porter as saying.
THOUSANDS FLEE
However thousands of Iraqi Christians have already fled in recent months because of the attacks to countries such as neighboring Jordan and other Middle East nations, human rights watchers say.
News of the violence directed against foreign and Iraqi Christians came as television footage showed how British people prayed for the release of a British hostage, pleading for his life on a video posted on an extremist Internet Web site.
The captive, Kenneth Bigley, appealed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to intervene. Time is running out for British hostage Kenneth Bigley, 62, as shown on website by extremist Islamic group.
"I think this is possibly my last chance," he said in television footage aired throughout the world on Thursday, September 23. "I don't want to die." Bigley, 62, was being held by a militant group led by Jordanian-born terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
TWO BEHEADINGS
The group already beheaded Americans Eugene (Jack) Armstrong, who grew up in Hillsdale, and Jack Hensley of Marietta, Ga., who were abducted along with Bigley from their Baghdad home last week. Al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group had demanded the release of all female prisoners in exchange for the three hostages.
But the American military said it has only two Iraqi women in custody. They were identified as Rihab Rashid Taha, a scientist who became known as 'Dr. Germ' for helping Iraq make weapons out of anthrax, and biotechnology expert Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, dubbed 'Mrs. Anthrax', who has also been accused of playing a key role in Saddam Hussein's weapons programs.
Iraqi and American officials seemed reluctant to free the women, as both Washington and London have said they would not negotiate with terrorists, apparently for fear it could spark more hostage takings. In another hostage drama, two statements surfaced on the Internet from different groups, each purporting to have killed two Italian aid workers.
The second statement said a video of the slaying of the two women, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, would be made public, but Italy cast doubt on both statements' authenticity, The Associated Press (AP) news agency reported Thursday, September 23. Despite the dangers, several Christian mission organizations are still active in Iraq with a variety of projects, and local church leaders have reported a growing interest in Bibles and the Gospel among Muslims and other Iraqis.
Read more on these and other news stories on news agency BosNewsLife at website http://www.bosnewslife.com
Award winning Journalist Stefan J. Bos was born on the 19th of September 1967 in a small home in downtown Amsterdam, in the Netherlands not far from the typewriter of his father, who was (and still is) a Reporter and ghostwriter. Already at a very young age Bos decided to become journalist and finally arrived in Hungary, the same country where his parents had smuggled Bibles during Communism.
Bos has traveled extensively to cover wars and revolutions throughout the region and received the Annual Press Award of Merit from the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his coverage about foreign policy affairs including Hungary's relationship with NATO and the European Union. Stefan J. Bos can be reached at: stefan@bosnewslife.com.
** You may republish this story with proper attribution.
About that Pottstown incident... 84 year old pilot?????