Posted on 01/01/2006 6:41:58 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
Weapons of Disruption
C 2006 Frederick J. Cowie, Ph.D.
Whereas we have no masses, it certainly would be seriously challenging to deliver a "weapon of mass destruction" in the vast majority of geographical areas in the American West, as well as in many areas in the East and South. For instance, Montana is approximately the size of Germany, yet the population hovers only around a million (we have one representative in the House). There is no "metropolitan" area anywhere around, though Spokane is about three hundred miles away. Wyoming has more sheep than people. Utah has Salt Lake City and a few nearby populous areas. Nevada has two populated regional areas, Las Vegas and Reno. North and South Dakota have, well, a few folks here and there. Idaho folks are few and far between. I swear you can drive from San Antonio to El Paso without seeing a city policeman, because I've done it several times. Then there are Arizona, New Mexico, eastern California, inter alia. The point is we have a few population points, while the rest of the states are empty excepted for isolated small communities.Thus, out West we probably need to talk more about "weapons of disruption." (Some folks say "weapons of mass disruption," but we have no masses!)
You must ask yourself: What would I do if I were a terrorist (or a terrorism preparedness instructor) looking into the ramifications of launching a rural terrorism attack? Personally, I would concentrate on considering the consequences of disruption rather than mass destruction. Here are a few scenarios you might want consider when your local rural emergency management/response group gathers to discuss terrorism exercises.
1) Wildland Fire Incidents: Incendiary (mostly wildland) warfare has been used by military strategists for at least 2500 years, over a thousand years before the use of gunpowder. The western U.S. is disrupted, seriously disrupted, every year by wildland fires. Quite a few are started by humans, accidentally and purposefully. Starting dozens of major fires in a dozen western states could be a brilliant line of attack if militants wished to disrupt America. Thousands of security personnel could do nothing and the perpetrator/s would probably never be implicated, much less captured. Are you prepared?
2) Railroad Chemical Incidents: Many railroad main lines go through tunnels. A few strategically placed armor-piercing shells in a series of chlorine cars, along with appropriately staged derailments leaving the leaking cars in the tunnels, could shut down many main line routes in the West. Spin-off scenarios are numerous. Ready?
3) Flammable Liquid Incidents: Bridges are not easily brought down from below and approaches to bridge support structures are often highly visible and randomly monitored. However, on CNN we all have seen many tanker truck accidents involving burning hydrocarbons which have made bridge structures unusable. How hard would it be to have a few terrorists steal trucks and drive them (as opposed to hijacking planes and flying them) to strategic bridges over wide rivers or narrow gorges, ignite the gasoline (or diesel or crude), block the approaches with other incendiary or chemical releases, and make the structures extremely dangerous and impassible to highway traffic? Gotcha!
There are many variations of these themes. You probably have or can make up many more plausible, novel, and easily implemented rural-specific attack scenarios. Design exercises around them. If you want to stop terrorist events you must think like a terrorist and quit fighting last year's war!
Peace, thanks, Fred
Please check out my website at fredcowie.com
To find recent presentations, Google (with quotation marks) "Fred Cowie"
Frederick J. (Fred) Cowie, Ph.D. E-mail: fredcowie@aol.com Phone: (24 hr cell) 406-431-3531 Website: fredcowie.com
That is easy, send her the links that Velveeta posted to the intruder,
send her the facts from the al Q training manual, it is in my post to the intruder.
In fact send her what we sent the intruder, and my post on the connection between al Q and Iraq, if it isn't at the top of this page, it is at the end of the last one.
Read the post that I posted from Jewish Review, or I think that was the publication and see how he wrote it.
I would be tempted to take her letter, number the subjects and give her the URL that would prove her wrong.
As I think it is a paper paper, give the answer, add a "see #" and put the numbers for them and the link to an article
for her to read.
Don't loose sight of the fact that you are going to be writing to a brain dead communist.
You won't reach her, but throw out the facts, and let them
look, as Jim Dallas did and found the truth about what ICE was doing, etc.
It is all the readers, who might have given thought to her post, that it is important to reach.
You know me, you could just post the communist manifesto 1963 and tell her to pick out the next ones she will write about. (mark all those that apply to this letter, so the readers will know what she was pushing......)
My first thoughts.......LOL
Your Granny is a better woman than I.
If you sprain a joint, or break something, to take the swelling down, until you can get proper help, take the old style brown paper grocery bag, tear it into about 2 inch wide strips, boil it in real vinegar, not long.
Put the hot as you can stand it strips on it and it will help the pain.
Nothing helps a broken bone, except fixing it correctly.
But if it is not so swollen, which is a natural reaction, brings more blood to the area or something along that line, take the swelling down and it helps the pain.
850koa.com
7pm news mountain time zone.
2 men arrested, for flushing phoney money down the toilet.
May have mexican names.
Landlord said that the toiled had been clogging up for about 2 weeks.
Police say they have flushed $10,000. in phoney money.
Well said and I am in agreement.
Let me get this straight.
We have "breaking news" on the main board.
Then we have our much treasured "Threat Matrix" on a thread.
Now we are starting a sub thread of the TM for discussions of TM ? ? ? if thats the case,
I'm diggin it! Count me in :b !!!
UK News
http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowbizNews.asp
Showbiz News
Student killed "for refusing to convert to Islam"
Wednesday, 4th January 2006, 15:23
Category:
http://www.lse.co.uk/NewsCategories.asp?Catid=7&Category_Name=crime_and_pun ishment> Crime and Punishment
LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - A heartbroken mother today described how her son was executed after he refused to convert to Islam.
Accountancy student Adrian Marriott was shot by a rival gang five times in the head at close range in June 2004, a few weeks before his 21st birthday.
Three members of the gang, known as the 'Muslim Boys', were accused of plotting the murder after trying to convert Adrian, a member of south London's 'Peel Den Crew', to Islam.
But Marcus Archer, Aaron Irving-Simpson and Marlon Stubbs, all
http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=LJ421202D&news_headline=student_ki lled_for_refusing_to_convert_to_islam#
24, were found not guilty of conspiracy to murder at the Old Bailey after the prosecution offered no evidence.
Speaking at an inquest at Southwark Coroner's Court, the victim's mother, Ruth Marriott, said she heard her son being gunned down in the park where he walked his dog.
She said: "We heard the shooting. We heard gun fire. The thought did strike me that Adrian could be involved, but it was a fleeting thought. Then we heard from police the following evening what had happened.
"Adrian was told on the Sunday prior to his death that he would be killed if he did not become a Muslim by the Wednesday, which was the day he died."
Asked by Coroner John Sampson whether Adrian had taken the threat seriously she added: "I do not think he did."
Struggling to hold back tears she said the last time she had seen her son was in the afternoon on the day before he was killed.
She said: "He was happy. He was pestering me to order something for him out of my catalogue." She added that Adrian loved his family very much.
She said: "He liked
http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=LJ421202D&news_headline=student_ki lled_for_refusing_to_convert_to_islam#
music and football, but Adrian was very much a family man. He also loved his dog. They would go out together regularly to the park that he died in."
Adrian was found in Barrington Road, Brixton. A post mortem revealed he had died from multiple firearms wounds to the head. The coroner today recorded a verdict of unlawful killing.
He said: "He was found dead having clearly been subjected to an attack with a firearm. I'm going to conclude that he was unlawfully killed."
Detective Sergeant John Stafford, of Operation Trident, who led the murder hunt, told the inquest that Adrian's murder was still under investigation.
He said: "It does indeed remain a live matter. We are effectively reviewing what happened at court and still keen to talk to witnesses."
During the trial in September 2005, the jury were told that Stubbs and Archer had professed to have a 'missionary zeal' for converting people to Islam and had targeted Adrian, his sister Tara and her friend Jade Okai.
The two women had agreed to become Muslims, had made a declaration of faith and had been given hijabs, or headscarfs, the court was told.
But Adrian, of Swinford Gardens on the Angel Town Estate in Brixton, had fallen out with the men, claiming he was threatened and had had a £500 'tax' demanded from him.
After the three were formally acquitted of conspiracy to murder, Archer was jailed for eight years for firearms offences he had admitted earlier.
It was also revealed to the jury that Stubbs is currently serving a four year prison sentence for rape
Accessed 6 Jan 2005,
http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=LJ421202D&news_headline=student_kil led_for_refusing_to_convert_to_islam
This did not come to me with a URL, so I searched, it is at the top in news, I think, if not the search is interesting.
http://www.google.com/search?client=googlet&q=%0D%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20British%20bank%20accused%20in%20lawsuit%20of%20holding%20accounts%20for%20terrorist%20group%0D%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20NEW
British bank accused in lawsuit of holding accounts for terrorist group
NEW YORK
Families of Americans killed or injured in Palestinian terrorist
attacks
have filed a lawsuit accusing Britain's National Westminster Bank of
maintaining an account for a U.S.-designated terrorist group that
allegedly
funnels money to the militant group Hamas.
The lawsuit alleges that the bank known as NatWest provides services
for the
U.K.-based charity group Interpal. In 2003 the U.S. government named
Interpal a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, freezing its assets
in the
U.S.
"America can't allow banks to do business in this country while
providing
financial services to Specially Designated Global Terrorists overseas,"
The lawsuit is an amended version of one filed last year in U.S.
federal
court on behalf of Tzvi Weiss, an American student wounded in a 2003
bus
bombing in Jerusalem. It was amended to add more plaintiffs and seeks
unspecified damages.
The law firm handling the lawsuit also has filed a similar one against
the
French bank Credit Lyonnais, alleging it provides banking services for
CBSP,
a French-based Palestinian group also given terrorist status by the
U.S.
060106 164902
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This post has been edited...........for copyright.
http://www.themuslimweekly.com/newsimages1/Week112/TW00004501L.jpg
The Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that there will be no dialogue with Europe because it is a waste of time. This point was underlined by the Iranian leader during his first appearance in front of the committee of foreign affairs and national security of the Majlis, the parliament in Tehran.
"The president, defined the attempts by the governments of the past 16 years to bring to the table a dialogue with Europe and to try and reduce tensions, as a waste of time which has so far not produced any tangible results for our country," Kazem Jalali, a member of the commission, told the media.
"The policies of the previous governments, has distanced the Islamic republic from its revolutionary origins and produced a damaging laxity," added Jalali who was quoting the words used by Ahmadinejad.
The governments that Ahmadinejad was criticising are those of the former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Rafsanjani had taken part to the "critical dialogue" with the European Union while during his presidency; Khatami participated in a "constructive dialogue".
In his meeting with the various leaders of the committee, Ahmadinejad also spoke of the nuclear negotiations. "No negotiations with any countries or bodies on the activities of the plants in Isfahan and Natanza," said Ahmadinejad. The plant in Isfahan, currently active, is where raw uranium is transformed into gas, while in Natanza the centrifuges have been arranged for the necessary enrichment of the uranium.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also told the parlimentarians about his last two proposals to send Iranian observers to Europe, to evaluate the respect of human rights in the West, and the formation of an international scientific committee to evaluate the truthfulness behind the Holocaust. "The committee received this final proposal by Ahmadinejad with enthusiasm," said Kazem Jalali.
Hamid Reza Asefi, the spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry said, "sending Islamic observers to the West to evaluate the situation of human rights in Europe, allows for a joint evaluation on what are the rights that really have to be guaranteed to citizens."
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Copyright C 2005 Muslim Media Ltd. All rights reserved.
Trial of UA student postponed to March
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Posted on Friday, January 6, 2006
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/141740/
FAYETTEVILLE - A federal judge has postponed the trial of a former
University of Arkansas at Fayetteville student facing charges of
supporting
a terrorist organization and forging federal documents.
U. S. District Judge Jimm Larry Hendren postponed the trial of Arwah
Jaber,
33, until March 27 after a motion was made by the defense last month
saying
more time was needed to prepare the case. The trial originally was
scheduled
for February.
Jaber is charged with attempting to provide material support to a
foreign
terrorist organization, making a false statement on a naturalization
application, making a false statement on a passport application, using
a
false Social Security number and procurement of naturalization
unlawfully.
Jaber is accused of planning to leave his home in Fayetteville to join
the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad Organization in its fight against Israel. He
has
pleaded innocent to all charges.
Did anyone ever hear of this group?
Says anti terrorist.
http://www.unitedamericancommittee.org/
[1] Date: Fri 6 Jan 2006 From: ProMED-mail promed@promedmail.org Source: The Times newspaper online, Fri 6 Jan 2006 [edited]
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25149-1972496,00.html
Fears that avian influenza has taken hold in Turkey are growing after the death of a 2nd teenager and evidence that the disease is infecting birds in at least 3 areas of the country, hundreds of miles apart. Samples of the virus from birds and from the 1st human victim, aged 14, were flown to laboratories in Britain yesterday for confirmation that the virus is the same H5N1 avian influenza virus that has caused more than 70 deaths in Asia.
11 other people, including 2 members of the same family, are being treated in Van, eastern Turkey, where the boy's sister, age 15, became the 2nd victim yesterday.
She died despite treatment with Tamiflu, the antiviral drug that is the only known defence against the infection. Among others being treated are her 11-year-old sister, who remains in a weak condition, and her brother, age 6 [The death of the younger sister has now been reported; see report below. - Mod.CP].
The family is from the remote town of Dogubeyazit in the province of Agri, near the borders with Iran and Armenia and about 60 miles south of Aralik, where vets detected the 2nd outbreak last week.
In Van, Huseyin Avni Sahin, the head physician of the Yuzuncu Yil University Hospital, said that he was expecting another 5 suspected cases. In Igdir province to the north, 6 more people were taken to hospital with suspected bird flu.
The 14-year-old boy was buried yesterday [Thu 5 Jan 2006] by an imam wearing a mask, and lime was spread over his grave. Turkish officials are almost sure that the cause of his death was the H5N1 strain, but this will not be confirmed until tests have been completed at the World Health Organisation influenza laboratory in Colindale, North London. [These tests have now been completed and confirm the presence of the H5N1 virus in the deceased patient. - Mod.CP].
At the same time, tests on samples taken from the birds are being carried out at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, Surrey. The extent of the outbreaks in Turkey has dismayed experts.
Although the risks were clear, the Turkish authorities have not been able to prevent the spread to people. Mehdi Eker, the Turkish Agriculture Minister, who flew to the region yesterday, said that bird flu had now been identified in 5 separate places. This could mean that the extent of the outbreak in poultry in Turkey has been underestimated, or that the virus can jump more easily from birds to people, according to Professor John Oxford, of Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry in London. "It is surprising that there are 2 [now 3] deaths and a number of people have been infected in what we thought to be a rather small outbreak," he said.
Worried local people went to hospitals in Dogubeyazit, forcing hospital staff to call the police. Doctors said that they were inundated with calls from people saying that they had slaughtered and eaten sick birds.
Contrite villagers handed over chickens that they had kept from health officials.
Newspaper reports said that the Kocyigit family had moved their chickens into the house for the winter. Doctors at the hospital said that the children had played with the infected chickens' remains, including the head, after eating the birds.
Turkish officials imposed a ban on the sale and movement of animals in the region.
Agriculture officials in Dogubayazit have culled 1500 fowl and aimed to kill the remaining 2000 yesterday before burying them outside the town.
Hugh Pennington, president of the Society of General Microbiology, said that: "This shows we have to keep our vigilance up but the picture hasn't changed. It's still an avian virus and hasn't mutated to enable human-to-human infection.
So the message is, Don't panic!" A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "The level of risk has not changed.
There is no human-to-human transmission. We have robust systems in place for monitoring this."
[Byline: Suna Erdem in Istanbul and Nigel Hawkes]
-- ProMED-mail promed@promedmail.org
****** [2]
Date: Fri 6 Jan 2006
From: Mary Marshall
tropical.forestry@btinternet.com
Source: Reuters Foundation AlertNet, Fri 6 Jan 2006 [edited]
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06614406.htm
A 3rd child from the same family in eastern Turkey died from bird flu on Friday [6 Jan 2006], and health experts plan to study the outbreak for signs the virus was passing from person to person.
Doctors were treating more than 20 other people, mostly youngsters, suspected of having the deadly virus. Some of the victims had been playing with the severed heads of infected birds, doctors said. The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed 74 people in East Asia and has now spread to the fringes of Europe.
It has so far been hard for people to catch, but there are fears it could mutate into a form easily transmitted among humans. Experts say a pandemic among humans could kill millions and cause massive economic losses.
A spokeswoman in Geneva said the World Health Organisation (WHO) was sending experts to the area who would check for any signs the virus had been passed from person to person -- something that has happened in only one previous but unconfirmed case [in East Asia - Mod.CP].
"It is possible that they all had common exposure to sick poultry but it is also possible there may have been human-to-human transmission. We don't have enough information to draw a hypothesis either way," WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said. "That is certainly one of the possibilities that the team is going to be investigating," she added.
The latest child to die was 11 years old, the sister of the 14-year-old boy who died last weekend, and of the 15-year-old girl who died on Thursday. She was buried alongside her brother and sister on Friday in a lime-covered grave. Final tests at a WHO laboratory [in the UK] have confirmed 2 of the victims had [contracted avian influenza].
The additional tests are carried out to confirm the preliminary diagnosis and it normally takes a few days for the [confirmatory] results to come through.
Turkey's Minister of Agriculture said bird flu had been detected in 2 wild ducks near the capital Ankara, nearly 1000 km (700 miles) west of infected areas where the 3 children died. The discovery suggests migratory birds may be spreading the disease across the large country, as experts had warned.
The dead children lived in a remote rural district of eastern Turkey near the Armenian and Iranian borders, mixing with poultry -- just like the East Asian victims. Neighbouring Azerbaijan is also going to run tests on suspect dead birds.
Doctors treating victims at a hospital in the eastern city of Van said the disease had been contracted from sick birds. "All our patients have been in close proximity to poultry. Some patients handled the infected poultry, some of them were even playing with the heads of chickens," BBC television quoted doctor Ahmet Faik Oner as saying.
A joint WHO/European Commission team is expected to arrive in eastern Turkey on Friday. 4 more WHO experts will go to Turkey at the weekend. Doctors said more than 20 people were being treated for suspected avian influenza in hospital in the eastern city of Van.
The patients, many of them children, come from several provinces across eastern Turkey. 6 children were being tested for suspected bird flu in the city of Diyarbakir, hundreds of kilometres southwest of the area so far affected, hospital officials said.
The dead children's 6-year-old brother was also being treated for [symptoms of] the same disease in hospital. But their parents were in good health as they received visitors paying condolences at their tiny one-room cottage in the town of Dogubayazit. "There is no doctor here, we are very poor," a relative told Reuters in a tent set up near the house to accommodate the flood of visitors.
In Dogubayazit, an anxious crowd gathered outside the state agricultural offices to dump sacks of dead poultry or ask for their poultry to be culled. "After the deaths everybody is scared. We are all getting rid of our chickens and nobody dares eat their meat," said local trader Devlet Kaya.
The WHO said in a statement dated Thursday [5 Jan 2006] that the Turkish authorities had told it that the district had been placed under quarantine, with no people or animals allowed to move in or out. However, a Reuters reporter there on Friday saw no controls.
[Byline: Mustafa Yukselbaba, Stephanie Nebehay and Patricia Reaney]
-- Mary Marshall
tropical.forestry@btinternet.com
[Some new aspects of the epidemic situation in Turkey compared with those pertaining in East Asia appear to be the following:
(1) relatively small outbreaks of disease in poultry in at least 5 widely separated places (several hundred kilometres apart);
(2) larger number of confirmed (3) and suspected (more than 20) human cases in a limited time-frame;
(3) children apparently at greater risk of infection;
(4) ineffectiveness of Tamiflu treatment in at least one case;
(5) failure of poultry culling and quarantine of population to contain the outbreak; and
(6) for the 1st time serious consideration of the possibility of some limited person-to-person transmission. - Mod.CP]
Ayn Rand Institute Press Release
http://www.aynrand.org/
Microsoft Should Not Help China Censor Political Speech
Jan. 6, 2005
IRVINE, CA-- The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that
Microsoft "has shut down a popular Chinese-language blog that has
run edgy content potentially offensive to Chinese authorities."
"Capitalists are often the worst enemy of capitalism," noted Dr.
Andrew Bernstein, a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute and
author of The Capitalist Manifesto.
"Microsoft, along with other high-tech firms like Yahoo and Google,
has been helping Chinese censors identify customers who e-mail
words forbidden by this repressive government, words like 'freedom,'
'democracy' and 'Tiananmen massacre.'
"These companies' complicity in the destruction of an individual's free
speech in China is shameful. As Americans, these companies should
trumpet--not trample--the rights of the individual.
"U.S. companies should not do business in China if the price is to help
destroy the very rights and freedoms that make their own economic
success possible."
### ### ###
Dr. Andrew Bernstein, author of The Capitalist Manifesto: The
Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire, is
available for interviews on this topic.
Dr. Bernstein is a Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Marist College
and lectures regularly at universities such as Harvard and Stanford.
He appears frequently on radio shows across America.
His Op-Eds have been published in newspapers such as The San
Francisco Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Times,
The Los Angeles Daily News, and The Houston Chronicle.
To book Dr. Bernstein for your show, please contact Larry Benson:
949-838-5137 (cell)
800-365-6552 ext. 213 (office)
larryb@aynrand.org
No URL, from newsletter.....granny
MS-13 gang growing extremely dangerous, FBI says
By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
January 06, 2006
In early November, the FBI and Houston police learned that six
suspected
members of Mara Salvatrucha, a violent Central American gang known as
MS-13,
were raiding a house on Liberty Street where a rival gang had stashed
drugs.
Authorities lift up the shirt of a Salvadoran man believed to be a
MS-13
member as he is arrested in Chelsea, Mass.
Authorities lift up the shirt of a Salvadoran man believed to be a
MS-13
member as he is arrested in Chelsea, Mass.
By Josh Reynolds, AP, June 2005
MS-13 - the focus of a nationwide crackdown by FBI and federal
immigration
agents - has become known in recent years for home invasion robberies,
drug
dealing and machete attacks on its enemies. But what happened in
Houston on
Nov. 2, FBI and Houston police officials say, has heightened concerns
that
MS-13 could be far more dangerous than thought.
The MS-13 suspects swept through the house like a well-trained assault
team,
using paramilitary tactics including perimeter lookouts, high-powered
weaponry (an AK-47 rifle was among the weapons recovered later), and a
quick, room-by-room sweep of the house that was notable for its
precision
and sophistication, Houston police spokesman Alvin Wright says.
When the MS-13 suspects were challenged by authorities, the result was
an
intense shootout that killed two suspects, identified as Juan Antonio
Bautista, 29, and Jose Antonio Pino, 33. The four others were arrested
and
face an array of state charges, including robbery and assault.
Bob Clifford, who directs the FBI unit created last year to combat
MS-13,
says the battle symbolized MS-13's development from a smattering of
loosely
organized cells across the nation to an increasingly efficient and
dangerous
organization that has become a significant threat to public safety.
"Our worst suspicions about MS-13 have been confirmed" by the Houston
shooting and other recent gang-related incidents, Clifford says.
From low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles, MS-13 has spread
throughout
the USA, largely following the migration patterns of immigrants from El
Salvador and other Central American nations. With a membership that the
FBI
estimates could be as high as 10,000, MS-13 is most active in Los
Angeles,
the Mid-Atlantic, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Routes for trafficking
Clifford says the group also has formed commerce routes across the
nation
for drug-trafficking operations that often include "theft crews" who
steal
over-the-counter cough and cold medicines from drugstores. Such
medicines,
which can be abused or used to make other drugs, are then sold to help
finance MS-13 units, Clifford says.
MS-13 FACTS:
Origins: Formed by Salvadoran immigrants who fled to the USA during El
Salvador's civil war in the 1980S. Name comes from Salvadoran
references:
Mara: slang for a group of young people, or mob.
Salva: reference to El Salvador.
Trucha: slang for "on guard."
How many members?
.USA: Estimates up to 10,000.
. El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico: 50,000.
Where are they? 33 states, the District of Columbia. Largest
concentrations
in California, Virginia and New York.
Who are they? At first, exclusively immigrants from El Salvador. Now,
members from Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
How members distinguish themselves: Tattoos bearing the number 13, the
letter M or the letters MS, the phrase "Salvadoran Pride."
Criminal activities: Stealing and exporting cars from the USA,
burglary,
drug sales, home invasion, weapons smuggling, carjacking, extortion,
murder,
rape, witness intimidation, illegal firearm sales, aggravated assault.
Sources: FBI and National Alliance of Gang Investigators Associations
In recent years, MS-13's reputation as a particularly brutal gang was
cemented by a series of incidents, several of them in Northern
Virginia. In
one, a former MS-13 member who had become a police informant was
fatally
stabbed and her head almost severed. In another, MS-13 members used a
machete to cut off several fingers of a rival gang member.
The Houston shootout, however, raised questions about whether the gang
-
whose original members in Los Angeles included people with paramilitary
training who fled the civil war in El Salvador during the 1980s - is
evolving into an organization that is in their image.
The Houston incident sparked an FBI investigation that has reached into
El
Salvador to try to determine whether MS-13 members are receiving formal
training in weapons and military tactics before they come to the USA -
often
as illegal immigrants.
Raids of suspected MS-13 safe houses in Central America, Mexico and the
USA
by federal and international law enforcement officials resulted in more
than
600 arrests and the discovery of gang "constitutions," the FBI said.
The documents, most of them crudely handwritten codes of conduct,
listed a
range of punishments - from death to severe beatings - for
transgressions
against the gang. The seizures marked the first time that such
organizational records had been recovered in this country.
Federal agents and local police say that recent arrests of MS-13
members
have shed light on how the gang is raising money in the USA.
Stealing from drugstores
Three months ago in Madison, Wis., local police and FBI investigators
arrested three suspected MS-13 members who allegedly were involved in
stealing tens of thousands of dollars' worth of over-the-counter
medicines
from 22 Walgreens drugstores throughout the Midwest.
Madison detectives and FBI investigators later determined that the
medicines
were being transported to a warehouse in Louisville to be resold.
"We had not seen evidence of their presence here before (the arrests)
or
since," says Mike Hanson, spokesman for the Madison Police Department.
"Our
understanding is they were passing through here. They knew the number
of
Walgreens stores and were familiar with the routes in and out of town."
In several cases, Hanson says, the suspects used a special bag that
blocked
the drugstores' electronic sensors from detecting items that were being
stolen from the stores.
"The suspects researched Walgreens throughout the Midwest and on a
routine
basis averaged $45,000 to $55,000 worth of stolen merchandise per day,"
Hanson says.
Clifford says "it would be dangerous to look at MS-13 as just another
street
gang."
Anti-Missile System Approved For Airliners
An Israeli company has received the first-ever certification of an anti-missile system for civilian aircraft.
Israel's Civil Aviation Authority this week approved the system, developed by Israel Aircraft Industries' (IAI's) Elta Systems Group. The system is specifically designed to thwart terrorist attacks from man-portable air defense systems (MANPADs), which are in the hands of as many as 27 guerilla and terrorist groups around the world, according to Jane's Defense Weekly.
The system uses invisible infrared decoy flares to trick the heat-seeking sensors in the missile (the FAA isn't keen on conventional magnesium flares dropping around civilian airports) and a laser version is in the works.
The military version of the system is already in use by 200 military transports and helicopters in 15 countries and the civilian model was tested on the Boeing 737. Israel's CAA authorization will allow installation on Boeing 767s, and El Al has at least six airplanes waiting. It intends to equip all its planes with anti-missile systems.
There's no immediate word on whether the Israeli certification will be recognized by the FAA but El Al has already asked for permission to fly planes equipped with the system into U.S. airports.
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/printer_friendly/news_logo.gif
Muslim group avoids Holocaust Day
The Muslim Council of Britain, the country's main Muslim organisation, has decided to maintain its boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day.
The MCB's policy is not to take part in the UK's commemorations of the mass murder of Jews because it does not mention non-Jewish victims of genocide.
It had been reconsidering this, but the BBC has learned the MCB has decided to boycott this year's event too.
Organisers said the day was relevant to all communities.
"The Holocaust emerged out of European civilisation and is therefore an issue for us all," Holocaust Memorial Day Trust chairman Stephen Smith said.
He said the event was an opportunity for all faiths "to learn from a salutary past and expose all forms of racism - including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism - xenophobia, discrimination and bigotry".
Criticism
The MCB's leaders argue that crimes against other peoples should also be marked.
The council says it does denounce the Holocaust as what it calls "monstrous cruelty" but rejects the charge that bracketing it with other atrocities diminishes Jewish suffering.
The barbarism of killings in Vietnam, Rwanda, Bosnia and Chechnya should also be marked, it says.
It has been severely criticised for boycotting the country's national Holocaust commemorations in previous years.
Some alleged that its policy indicated anti-Semitism by downplaying the singular nature of the Nazis' attempt to murder a whole people by industrial methods.
In the face of the criticism, the MCB has now deliberated privately but decided that the ceremony later this month will also be boycotted, the BBC's British affairs correspondent Stephen Evans said.
Gay views
The UK's Holocaust Memorial Day is 27 January, but it will be marked a day earlier this year as "this date falls on a Friday which has implications for a number of faiths", organisers said.
The day had always been "inclusive", Mr Smith added.
He said from its first year, survivors from Bosnia, Rwanda and the Holocaust have marked the day with Jews, Muslims and Christians, as well as non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust - gay and disabled people, Sinti and Roma communities.
The MCB's decision to maintain its boycott comes just days after its leader, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, sparked controversy by saying homosexuality was "not acceptable" and denouncing new same-sex civil partnerships as "harmful".
He said introducing the partnerships did "not augur well" for building the foundations of society.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4582736.stm
Published: 2006/01/05 00:00:11 GMT
C BBC MMVI
And Brokeback Mountain isn't helping...
I know, off-topic.
Liberal schools for Global Jihad
- in Ottawa?
By David Hawkins
Friday, January 6, 2006
To launch a Global Jihad in 1997 and qualify for missions as complex
as 9/11, Osama bin Laden may have been tempted to enrol
al-Qaeda's agents for training at counter-terrorist schools used by
Liberal government clients in Ottawa.
Click Here
Did al-Qaeda infiltrate the Ottawa schools with agents posing as
legitimate students from Canada's allies in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia or
the Gaza Strip?
If yes, we would expect to see that al-Qaeda's attack signatures
match some combination of 'counter-terrorist' maneuvers taught by
the Ottawa instructors.
See Here
We note al-Qaeda executed superbly-timed maneuvers in the
hijackings of 9/11 and the targeted IED* attacks on the London
Underground, the Madrid railway system, the U.S.S. Cole in Aden
Harbour and the U.S. Embassies in East Africa.
IED* = Improvised Explosive Devices
Click Here
More than good timing, however, al-Qaeda's project managers appear
to destroy any evidence of simulation or training needed to develop
the maneuvers.
Is anyone in Ottawa qualified - unwittingly or otherwise - to teach
al-Qaeda agents how to manage projects, develop maneuvers,
sabotage infrastructure, kill human beings AND conceal or destroy any
evidence of preparation?
Parisien Research Corporation in Ottawa teaches students how to
destroy virtual evidence through a "File Vault .. sent easily to anyone
over the internet and only accessed with your password .. open vault,
access files, close vault, performs a secure wipe of the files from the
disk surface.
FILE VAULT USES THE BLOWFISH ALGORITHM."
http://www.parisien.org/products.htm
Lansdowne Technologies of Ottawa equips students with virtual war
rooms needed to coordinate, control and collaborate with
geographically or organizationally dispersed project teams.
Click Here
Air Navigation Data (AND) of Ottawa teaches students how to use
Final Approach software to maneuver aircraft in airspace anywhere in
the world past navigation facilities and runways [and F-16 interceptors
on 9/11?].
Click Here
Tomoye Corporation - actually across the Ottawa River in Gatineau,
Quebec - teaches 1 million online 'Guerrrilla Knowledge Managers',
embedded in the UN and Canadian and U.S. governments, to arm
peasants, delegate to experts, close some doors and leverage lurkers.
Click Here
The Liberal clients of Ottawa's military and law-enforcement schools
would seem to offer everything that bin Laden needed for success in a
Global Jihad.
'Ahah', the reader might ask, 'why would bin Laden's boys be trained
to use one of Canada's two official languages, English and French, in
an attack when real-time coordination for a Global Jihad would have
to be handled in Arabic?'
And the language question is one we plan to put to the Liberal
government clients of Lansdowne Technologies and Parisien Research
in Ottawa ...
http://www.lansdowne.com/New%20Services/procm.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/20041107041645/parisien.org/images/arabic1.jpg
http://web.archive.org/web/20041107140541/parisien.org/images/arabic2.jpg
http://web.archive.org/web/20041107142245/parisien.org/images/arabic3.jpg
(David Hawkins is a columnist and co-author of a Counter-Intelligence
Report with Canada Free Press. A foundation scholar of Cambridge
University, David founded Hawks' CAFE - the Citizen's Association of
Forensic Economists - to thwart intelligence-gathering and sabotage
by freedom's enemies everywhere. He can be reached at
letters@canadafreepress.com.)
This page printed from:
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/hawkins010606.htm
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