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Terrorism Summary 11/11/04

Ramadan is almost complete, threat alert has been downgraded in parts of the country, Yasser Arafat is FINALLY dead, however expect serious unrest in Israel as leadership sorts its self out. The battle of Fallujah has been going well for coalition forces, just a matter of time until that urban renewal project has weeded out the rats. Let me know if you want on or off the Ping list.

Current National Homeland Defense threat level is YELLOW
11/11/04 Local Threat Level lowered back to YELLOW for NYC, N. New Jersey, D.C Had been at ORANGE since 8/1/04

1. Attack threat windows
11/11/04 Primary Window: Ramadan is almost over and DHS has lowered the threat level. Unless something happens today after posting I think we can take a breather until we get into the holiday season.

10/23/04 Secondary windows: Nov 24 - Jan 1 - Thanksgiving / Christmas Holiday season.
January 20, 2005 - Presidential inauguration
Feb. 6 Super Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.

2. Attack Indicators
11/11/04 Jihadi chat traffic suggesting that there is another OBL tape waiting to be released has died down. Most traffic appears to be focused upon the US operations in Fallujah.

3. Current Terrorist Operations

Al-Qa'ida
11/10/04 Intelligence officials now say they believe the man threatening terrorism against the United States on the tape is Adam Gadahn (Pearlman), a young Californian who converted to Islam and left the United States. "We have some confidence but not certainty" that the voice on the tape is that of Gadahn, one official said.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/09/terror.tape/index.html

Iraq
11/11/04 Parts of Iraq are under martial law in support of coalition action against Fallujah.

11/11/04 There have been threats to use chemical weapons against US forces if they attack Fallujah. Some embedded reporters are now reporting that Sarin nerve agent may have been found.

11/10/04 Two members of the Iraqi prime minister's family were abducted from their Baghdad home, his spokesman said Wednesday, and militants said they would be beheaded in two days if their demands are not met.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,138117,00.html

Afghanistan
11/07/04 Negotiations continue with Taliban terrorists who kidnapped several UN elections workers.

Israel
11/11/04 He’s dead Jim. Yasser Arafat has finally been declaired dead after over a week of speculation. Israel is at heightened alert as the Palistanian power struggle now begins in earnest. The militant Islamic group Hamas said on Thursday the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would strengthen its resolve to keep up attacks against Israel, of course they blame Israel for his death. Hamas also want more power in the new Palistinian leadership. Mourning has turned violent in places.

11/10/04 The Israeli Navy yesterday (November 9) thwarted an attempt to infiltrate into Israel via the sea, as an IDF observation force identified a suspicious figure swimming towards the Israeli communities in the northern Gaza Strip west of the community of Dugit, in an area prohibited for Palestinians.
An IDF Dabur boat patrolling the area was called to the scene. The soldiers called for the suspect to stop. When he didn't, they fired warning shots, but he continued swimming towards the Israeli shore. The soldiers suspected that he was a terrorist and opened fire, killing him.
The body of the terrorist, wearing a diving suit and diving fins, was pulled out of the water. An AK-47 assault rifle, an explosive device, four hand grenades, five magazines, and a knife and were discovered today by IDF forces in searches conducted in the area of the incident.
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Terrorism+and+Islamic+Fundamentalism-/Attempted+terror+attack+via+the+sea+thwarted+10-Nov-2004.htm

11/10/04 A senior Iranian official has admitted that Tehran supplied Hezbollah with the drone that spent several minutes in Israeli skies in the north of the country on Sunday, an Arab-language newspaper reported Wednesday. The drone was one of eight Iran-produced unmanned airborne vehicles that the country gave Hezbollah in August.
Iran also supplied Hezbollah with surface-to-surface missiles that have a 70-kilometer range, according to the report.

11/08/04 Hezbollah sent a reconnaissance drone into Israeli territory over northern Jewish settlements Sunday in the first hostile aerial incursion from Lebanon since a hang glider attack 17 years ago killed six soldiers.
Hezbollah said it retrieved the drone safely, but Lebanon's largest TV station, LBC, quoted witnesses as saying the aircraft crashed into the sea off the border town of Naqoura, adding that fishermen found the wreckage of the aircraft and gave it to Hezbollah members.
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBIXMVV91E.html

Japan
11/10/04 A statement threatening terrorist attacks on Japan and accusing it of being a U.S. ally was posted Wednesday on an Islamic website that had earlier carried a statement by the murderers of a Japanese hostage in Iraq.
The latest statement, which was not signed, was addressed to "the leaders of Japan" and accused Japan of allying with the United States, "which destroyed and caused bloodshed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki." "Even the wide oceans cannot protect you all. Your people will for sure be shaken," the statement said. (Kyodo News)

Russia
11/08/04 Chechen security forces killed 22 separatist rebels, including the alleged organizer of the assassination of the republic's president, a top republic official said Monday, according to news reports.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-russia-chechnya,0,7375015.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

Norway
11/10/04 The youth wing of Oslo's Conservative Party has charged the Red Electoral Alliance (RV) with violating terrorism laws after the Marxist worker's party raised money for the resistance movement in Iraq. According to the Conservatives, the money goes to organizations who are fighting the occupation forces and attacking civilians, as well as groups kidnapping and decapitating aid workers.
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article909169.ece

Netherlands
Godzilla comment - Things here are getting ugly. Watch for addition incidents over the next few weeks.

11/10/04 Suspects holed up in a house under police assault Wednesday threw a hand grenade, injuring three officers conducting the terrorism-related raid. Hague public prosecutor Han Moraal said the raid was part of a "continuing investigation into terrorism," but would not confirm it was related to the Nov. 2 killing of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an alleged terrorist.
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBQIK1AD1E.html

11/10/04 Religious violence flared yesterday as thousands turned out to line the streets at the funeral of Theo van Gogh, the murdered film-maker and vocal critic of Islam. Two Dutch churches were attacked by arsonists, in seeming retaliation for earlier attacks on mosques, while an opinion poll showing that 40 per cent of Dutch people no longer considered Muslims welcome underlined a rapid deterioration of tolerance in the previously liberal Netherlands. A Muslim school in the southern Dutch village of Uden was burnt down last night. The attackers left a message referring to the murder.

11/08/04 A suspected bomb blew the front door off a Muslim elementary school in a southern Dutch town on Monday, days after a suspected Muslim radical allegedly killed a Dutch filmmaker, police said. No injuries were reported.

In response.......
A little-known Islamist group has threatened to carry out attacks in the Netherlands following a series of attacks on Muslim buildings there, according to an Internet statement posted on Tuesday.
"We ask you for the last time, and you still have a chance, to stop the attacks on our mosques, schools and the Muslim community in Holland ... before you pay a heavy price," Islamic Tawhid Brigades said in a statement dated Nov. 9 and posted on a Web site used by Islamists.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6750020

Iran
11/08/04 Iran is covertly supporting al-Qaida-aligned terrorists in Iraq, not just anti-American Shiite insurgents, U.S. defense and intelligence sources say with certainty. The acknowledgment of the long-held suspicion as certainty raises the stakes in Iraq and the Persian Gulf as President Bush begins his second term and Iran, with its nuclear aspirations, moves to the front burner as an international crisis in the making.
According to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin , al-Qaida-linked terrorists have been observed moving supplies and new recruits from Iran to Iraq, say the sources. While it has long been known Iran was backing the uprising led by Moqtada al-Sadr in the southern Shiite region of Iraq, the Iranian ties to Sunni Islamist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a terrorist leader who has pledged his allegiance to Osama bin Laden, has not been certain.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41338

11/08/04 The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday said that a preliminary agreement between Iran and the European Union's three big powers over Tehran's nuclear program was a ``step in the right direction.''
If approved, the deal would be a major breakthrough after months of threats and negotiations. It could spare Iran from being taken before the U.N. Security Council, where the United States has warned it would seek economic sanctions unless Tehran gives up all uranium enrichment activities, a technology that can produce nuclear fuel or atomic weapons.

11/08/04 Iran threatened on Monday to strike back at Israel or any other country that attacked its nuclear facilities. U.S. and Israeli officials accuse Iran of seeking to develop atomic bombs under cover of a civilian nuclear program. Iran denies the charges saying it only intends to produce electricity from nuclear power plants.
"If Israel or any other country attacks any site in Iran, we know no limits to threaten their interests," Deputy Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr said. "That means anywhere in the world, within their borders or outside it," he told reporters on Monday on the sidelines of an anti-U.S. conference in Tehran.
Iranian officials have also warned they can strike back at Israel with its medium-range Shahab-3 missile, which can also hit U.S. military bases in the Gulf.

Great Britain
11/08/04 Britons face a "serious and sustained threat" of terror attacks at home and abroad, MI5 chief Eliza Manningham-Buller warned today.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3731883

United States
11/09/04 An alert officer at the El Paso border crossing arrested Mark Robert Walker Saturday on a Federal charge of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Authorities say Walker was planning to travel to Somalia to fight for an Islamic group.

It's no secret that people sneak into the United States from Mexico every day. But what has been kept under wraps is exactly who is coming in. NBC4's Chuck Henry went deep in the Arizona desert to find out.
It's a place that used to go by the name "Cocaine Alley" because of all the drugs that were smuggled through. But now some officials are more concerned about human smuggling, specifically illegal entry at the border by individuals who are not actually from Mexico. They're called "Special Interest Aliens," because they're coming from countries believed to be a threat. "People are coming here with bad intentions. I know of 10 that have been detained at my station alone," said a Border Patrol agent whose identity has been withheld at his request. He said this is something that agents have been told not to talk about.

"We know for a fact that people coming from the Middle East are now coming into Mexico and spending a year, even two years in Mexico, to learn how to speak Spanish," the Border Patrol agent told NBC4. "I think it would be incredibly naive, to the point of stupidity, to not believe we have terrorists coming through here," said Larry Vance, who lives on the border near Douglas, Ariz. He showed NBC4 a Middle Eastern prayer rug, found in the back yard of his house.
http://www.nbc4.tv/news/3901282/detail.html

4. Attack method.
11/11/04 No real change in the preferred method of choice of AQ which are bombs - the bigger the better. With the exception of 9/11, car/truck bombs have been widely used. There are special concerns regarding the use by terrorists of the following vehicles:

1. Uhaul type cargo trucks.
2. Gasoline / Propane supply trucks.
3. Emergency vehicles (ambulances, police cars, fire trucks)

5. Personnel
11/11/04 Nothing new to report.

6. Significant meetings canceled:
11/11/04 No new cancellations.

7. Security has been heightened in specific cities
11/10/04 DHS lowered areas of NYC, N. NJ and D.C. back down to YELLOW from threat level ORANGE where it had been since. 8/11/04. Specifically identified targets included the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in D.C.; Prudential Financial in Northern New Jersey; and Citigroup buildings and the New York Stock Exchange in New York.

GENERAL: Ongoing work to upgrade security at sea ports and airports.

8. Military operations.
11/10/04 Carrier Battle Groups
Deployed
CV-67 Kennedy 25 Jul 2004 - Persian Gulf
CVN-75 Truman 01 Nov 2004 - Mediterranean Sea
CVN-72 Lincoln Presumed western Pacific Ocean
Surge Ready
CVN-70 Vinson 02 Oct 2004 - Completes COMPTUEX
CVN-73 Washington Surge carrier until ~Dec04

11/11/04 F-117s are still reported to be deployed in S. Korea.

9. Dept of Homeland Scty. / State Department
11/11/04
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
This information is current as of today, Thu Nov 11 2004 00:35:02 GMT-0800.
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
November 11 , 2004
This Public Announcement is being updated to alert Americans to ongoing security concerns in the region following the death of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Yasser Arafat. U.S. citizens are reminded to maintain a high level of vigilance and to take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness. This Public Announcement supersedes the Public Announcement issued on August 21, 2004, and expires May 10, 2005.
The recent death of PA Chairman Arafat has the potential to produce demonstrations and unrest throughout the region. In addition, the Department of State continues to warn of the possibility for violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests in the region. Anti-American violence could include possible terrorist actions against aviation, ground transportation and maritime interests, specifically in the Middle East, including the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa.
The Department is concerned that extremists may be planning to carry out attacks against Westerners and oil workers in the Gulf region. Recent armed attacks targeting foreign nationals in Saudi Arabia that resulted in many deaths and injuries, including U.S. citizens, appear to have been preceded by extensive surveillance. Extremists may be surveilling Westerners, particularly at hotels and those using rental cars. Potential targets may include U.S. contractors.
http://travel.state.gov/travel/meu_announce.html

11/10/04
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
This information is current as of today, Wed Nov 10 07:35:22 2004.
Malaysia
November 8, 2004
This Public Announcement reiterates the Department of State's ongoing concern about the safety of American citizens, especially those contemplating travel along the east coast of the Malaysian state of Sabah and overland travel into southern Thailand. This supersedes the May 12, 2004 Public Announcement and expires on May 12, 2005.
There are indications of planned additional kidnappings in eastern Sabah's coastal areas, especially at resorts frequented by foreigners. Since 2000, there have been several kidnappings and incidents of piracy in this area. In October 2003, six Indonesian and Filipino workers were kidnapped from a coastal resort in eastern Sabah. The terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), based in the southern Philippines, has been responsible for some of these incidents; other incidents have been attributed to unidentified criminals.

10. Suspicious Domestic Incidents Not Currently Linked to Specific Terrorism Attempts
11/10/04 There are new fears of possible terrorism involving a missing gasoline tanker trailer. The tanker was stolen from Pennsauken, New Jersey, seven months ago. Now, as CBS 3’s Tamsen Fadal explains, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is stepping up its efforts once again to find the tanker.
http://kyw.com/Local%20News/local_story_316001720.html

11/08/04 The FBI is investigating the reported thefts of scores of propane cylinders in the Denver area - a crime spree that has raised fears of a terrorist attack. About 100 cylinders, each containing about 7.8 gallons of the highly flammable gas and weighing about 33 pounds, have been stolen from various businesses since July, FBI agent Monique Kelso said Monday.
"The potential threat is that these propane tanks get into the wrong hands ... and get into the hands of those that are willing to commit a crime on the magnitude of the Oklahoma City bombing or another terrorist attack," Kelso told the station.

11/08/04 ALERT ISSUED FOR STOLEN CROP-DUSTER
The Transportation Security Administration has issued an advisory that a Piper PA 25 Pawnee crop-dusting aircraft was stolen from Ejido Queretaro, near Mexicali, Mexico, on Nov. 1.
"Although there is currently no indication that this has any connection to terrorist activity," the TSA said, "the theft is cause for concern. Past information indicates that members of al-Qaida may have planned -- or may still be planning -- to disperse biological or chemical agents from cropdusting aircraft."
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