Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat

Unrest in Pakistan Setback for Terror War
(Full Story)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A week of unprecedented urban fighting in the wild tribal belt of North Waziristan has left scores dead and forced thousands to flee their homes, raising the stakes in Pakistan's war on Islamic militancy along the Afghan border.

A jumbled alliance of foreign militants, local tribesmen and Islamic students eager for jihad have stepped up resistance in a region where the army already claims to have wiped out al-Qaida as a viable fighting force.

The unrest, brewing for months, is a setback to the U.S.-led war on terror. Further hampering that effort are deteriorating relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan over Afghan claims that Taliban leader Mullah Omar is hiding in Pakistan and suicide bombers are training here.

	Growing strength of Pakistani Taliban worries U.S. officials
	Are global events spiraling out of control?
	Zawahri calls for strikes against West

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"Iran suicide bombers ‘ready to hit Britain’"
timesonline ^ | April 16, 2006 | Marie Colvin, Michael Smith and Sarah Baxter

Posted on 04/15/2006 8:10:36 PM PDT by Flavius

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "IRAN has formed battalions of suicide bombers to strike at British and American targets if the nation’s nuclear sites are attacked. According to Iranian officials, 40,000 trained suicide bombers are ready for action.

The main force, named the Special Unit of Martyr Seekers in the Revolutionary Guards, was first seen last month when members marched in a military parade, dressed in olive-green uniforms with explosive packs around their waists and detonators held high.

Dr Hassan Abbasi, head of the Centre for Doctrinal Strategic Studies in the Revolutionary Guards, said in a speech that 29 western targets had been identified: “We are ready to attack American and British sensitive points if they attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.” He added that some of them were “quite close” to the Iranian border in Iraq.

In a tape recording heard by The Sunday Times, Abbasi warned the would-be martyrs to “pay close attention to wily England” and vowed that “Britain’s demise is on our agenda”.

At a recruiting station in Tehran recently, volunteers for the force had to show their birth certificates, give proof of their address and tick a box stating whether they would prefer to attack American targets in Iraq or Israeli targets.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned last Friday that Israel was heading towards “annihilation”. He was speaking at a Tehran conference on Palestinian rights aimed at promoting Iran as a new Middle Eastern superpower.

According to western intelligence documents leaked to The Sunday Times, the Revolutionary Guards are in charge of a secret nuclear weapons programme designed to evade the scrutiny of the International Atomic Energy Agency."

ON THE NET...
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2006/04/011036print.html
April 15, 2006

"Moussaoui: Suicide missions 'not crazy but based on Islam'"

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ON THE NET...
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/011016.php
April 13, 2006
"Moussaoui: 'No Regret, No Remorse'"

===

ON THE NET...
http://www.rcfp.org/moussaoui/index.php?sortby=datedesc

"The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Moussaoui trial exhibits and documents"

===

stepping back in time ON THE NET...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/3875119.stm

Last Updated: Thursday, 8 July, 2004, 16:39 GMT 17:39 UK

"Al-Qaradawi full transcript"

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "To some he is a pre-eminent Muslim scholar who has visited London for many years without fuss. To others he's nothing but trouble, a man who uses religion to justify suicide bombings and who should be banned from Britain as he is banned from the United States.

Sheikh Yusef al-Qaradawi is an Egyptian cleric who greeted his audience in London with the words "peace - the message of Islam." But in an exclusive interview with Newsnight he spoke of suicide bombings by Palestinians as "martyrdom in the name of God.""

Note: The following text is a quote:
---

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2006/20060415_4829.html

Afghan, Coalition Forces Kill Insurgents, Find Weapons

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2006 – Afghan and coalition forces killed three insurgents in the Chora district of Uruzgan Province today, and acted on a tip to find a weapons cache, military officials reported.
The Chora engagement occurred when five insurgents attacked Afghan National Army and coalition forces with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. The Afghan and coalition forces maneuvered and returned fire. No Afghan or coalition forces were injured.

"Coalition members and Afghan National security forces will not allow anti-coalition fighters to terrorize Afghans in the Uruzgan province," said Army Col. Thomas Collins, spokesman for Combined Forces Command Afghanistan. "Local government officials will continue to increase security and provide services for Uruzgan residents."

Yesterday, coalition forces in Kunar province were engaged by small-arms fire from an unknown-sized enemy element. They responded with counterbattery artillery fire, killing one insurgent. No coalition injuries were reported in the engagement.

Afghan National Army and coalition forces received anonymous tips today that led to the recovery of a weapons cache and a land mine as Operation Mountain Lion continued.

The cache, consisting of more than three dozen 82 mm rockets, was discovered in the Pech district of Kunar province. An explosive ordnance disposal team from the coalition's Task Force Spartan was dispatched to destroy it.

"The munitions were destroyed to ensure that the safety and security of the Afghan people is maintained," said Army Lt. Col. Michael Forsyth, the task force's effects coordinator.

In a second incident, members of the coalition's Task Force Lava received a tip that a land mine was buried in a road in the Chaparhar district of Nangarhar province.

"The information we receive helps us to safely remove bombs which ultimately protects the Afghan people and their families from injuries or unnecessary deaths," Forsyth said.

Mountain Lion is a part of the Coalition's ongoing offensive operations, which aim to disrupt insurgents' activities, deny them sanctuary and prevent their ability to resupply. About 2,500 Afghan and coalition forces are participating.

(Compiled from Combined Forces Command Afghanistan news releases.)

Note: The following text is a quote:
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http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2006/20060415_4830.html

Accident Claims Marine; Troops Nab Insurgents, Free Kidnap Victims

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2006 – A Marine assigned to 1st Marine Logistics Group died in a motor vehicle accident yesterday in Iraq's Anbar province, military officials reported, and tips from Iraqi citizens continue to result in captured insurgents and weapons.
The death was not a result of enemy action, officials said. The Marine's name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

In other news, a tip from an Iraqi motorist led to the capture of a kidnapper and the freeing of a woman and her four children April 13, officials in Tikrit said. The motorist stopped at a checkpoint and told soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, that a man in a vehicle behind him had kidnapped a family.

The Task Force Band of Brothers soldiers identified the kidnapper's vehicle and detained the suspect and freed the kidnap victims. The suspect was turned over to the local police.

Also on April 13, three suspected insurgents, including two believed to be part of a document forging operation, were captured during a Task Force Band of Brothers raid in Samarra.

An Iraqi civilian provided soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, information about the insurgents' locations. The two suspected forgers were found at a house where soldiers seized $2,050 in U.S. currency, more than 500,000 Iraqi dinars, 125 various forms of identification, fake stamps for the IDs and an AK-47 assault rifle.

In the Baghdad area, joint patrolling U.S. and Iraqi soldiers captured a wanted terrorist in western Baghdad April 13.

The Iraqi soldiers are members of the 2nd Battalion, 9th Iraqi Army Division. The U.S. soldiers are assigned to Multinational Division Baghdad's 1st Battalion, 66th Armor, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.

While searching an abandoned house, members of the patrol noticed three suspicious men atop a building suspected to be an insurgent stronghold. Realizing they had been seen, the men fled. The patrol gave chase and captured two men, one of whom has alleged links to recent terrorist attacks. A third man surrendered as the Iraqi soldiers were detaining the others.

A vehicle approached while the soldiers surrounded the building, and when the driver saw the other three suspects in custody, he tried to flee. An Iraqi soldier stopped the vehicle with a warning shot, and the two vehicle occupants were detained for questioning.

(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq news releases.)

UPDATE:

ON THE NET...

http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/04/14/bill-clinton-gave-iranians-blueprint-for-nuclear-bomb/

"Bill Clinton Gave Iranians Blueprint for Nuclear Bomb"
April 14, 2006
Jim Kouri
by Jim Kouri, CPP

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Last night, radio talk show host and former US Justice Department official Mark Levin shocked many listeners when he reported that President Bill Clinton gave nuclear technology to the Iranians in a harebrained scheme.

He said that the transfer of classified data to Iran was personally approved by then-President Clinton and that the CIA deliberately gave Iranian physicists blueprints for part of a nuclear bomb that likely helped Tehran advance its nuclear weapons development program.

The CIA, using a double-agent Russian scientist, handed a blueprint for a nuclear bomb to Iran, according to a new book “State of War” by James Risen, the New York Times reporter, who exposed the Bush administration’s controversial NSA spying operation, claims the plans contained fatal flaws designed to derail Tehran’s nuclear drive.

But the deliberate errors were so rudimentary they would have been easily fixed by sophisticated Russian nuclear scientists, the book said.

The operation, which took place during the Clinton administration in early 2000, was code named Operation Merlin and “may have been one of the most reckless operations in the modern history of the CIA,” according to Risen.

It called for the unnamed scientist, a defector from the Soviet Union, to offer Iran the blueprint for a “firing set” — the intricate mechanism which triggers the chain reaction needed for a nuclear explosion.

The Russian was told by CIA officers that the Iranians already had the technology detailed in the plans and that the ruse was simply an attempt by the agency to find out the full scope of Tehran’s nuclear knowledge.

But, contrary to orders not to open the packet, he added a note which made it clear he could help fix the flaws for money."

---

http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/04/13/nuclear-iran-beware-of-the-russian-bear-in-the-middle-east/

"Nuclear Iran: Beware of the Russian Bear in the Middle East"
April 13, 2006
Jim Kouri
by Jim Kouri, CPP

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "As the Iranians are moving closer to developing a nuclear weapons program, the Russian government is telling the world not to worry. An Russian official is being quoted as saying the centrifuges available to Iran are not sufficient to launch industrial uranium enrichment. A Russian nuclear expert concurred.

“Uranium enrichment in Iran is not arousing concerns in Russia.There is nothing unexpected in this. The availability of 164 centrifuges in Iran is a fact that has been known for a long time,” Russian Atomic Energy Agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko told China’s communist party-controlled news agency.

“These centrifuges allow Iran to conduct laboratory uranium enrichment to a low level in insignificant amounts. The acquisition of highly enriched uranium is unfeasible today using this method,” Kiriyenko said.

However, a senior Iranian official and former president Hashemi Rafsanjani told the Kuwait News Agency that Iran had operated the first unit of 164 centrifuges and successfully enriched uranium.

And then there’s Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad bragging on Tuesday that Iran had “joined the world club of nuclear technology.”

However, in order for the Iranian scientists to produce their own fuel at least for the initial loading of a nuclear reactor, “one needs to have not some hundred-and-a-half centrifuges, but thousands of times more,” Viktor Mikhailov, ex-minister of the Russian Ministry for Atomic Energy who leads the ministry’s Institute for Strategic Stability.

But why should the United States and the United Nations believe the Russian government? Afterall, US intelligence agencies have for years known about Russian duplicity in Iraq. In fact, recent declassified reports indicated that Russian intelligence gave Iraq’s military leaders US war plans for the 2003 invasion. Today, Iran is a cash cow for the Russians and it’s in their best interest to prop up the current regime."

===
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ON THE NET...

http://www.internet-haganah.com/jihadi/hamas.html
http://www.internet-haganah.com/jihadi

http://www.memri.org/iran.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=iran

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=russia

===
===

ON THE NET...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4911310.stm

Last Updated: Saturday, 15 April 2006, 00:48 GMT 01:48 UK

"Palestinians to get Russian aid"

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Hamas supporters in Gaza City condemn the withdrawal of aid
Russia has said it will grant the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority urgent financial aid, in opposition to the policy of the EU and the US.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the pledge to authority President Mahmoud Abbas in a telephone call, Moscow said.

The US and EU cut off aid after Hamas took power on 30 March because the militant group refused to renounce violence or recognise Israel.

Iran on Friday urged the Muslim world to help fund the authority.

A Russian foreign ministry statement said: "Mahmoud Abbas stated his high appreciation of Russia's intent, confirmed by Sergei Lavrov, to grant the Palestinian Authority an urgent financial aid in the nearest future."

Mr Lavrov said on Tuesday withholding aid to the Palestinians was a mistake."

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "In Tehran, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, opened a three-day forum on Palestinian solidarity by calling on the Muslim world to help the Palestinian people and their Hamas-led government."

Note: The following text is a quote:
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http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_1161.html

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
This information is current as of today, Sun Apr 16 2006 01:12:10 GMT-0700.

Worldwide Caution

December 12, 2005

This Public Announcement updates information on the continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence against Americans and interests overseas. This supersedes the Worldwide Caution dated August 2, 2005 and expires on June 12, 2006.

The Department of State remains concerned about the continued threat of terrorist attacks, demonstrations and other violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests overseas. Ongoing events in Iraq have resulted in demonstrations and associated violence in several countries. Americans are reminded that demonstrations and rioting can occur with little or no warning.

Current information suggests that al-Qa’ida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks against U.S. interests in multiple regions, including Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. These attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics to include assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings and bombings.

Extremists may elect to use conventional or non-conventional weapons, and target both official and private interests. The hotel bombings in Jordan in early November illustrate how terrorists exploit vulnerabilities associated with soft targets. Additional examples of such targets include residential areas, business offices, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, public areas and locales where Americans gather in large numbers, including during holidays.

In the wake of the July 2005 London bombings and the March 2004 train attacks in Madrid, Americans are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems. In addition, extremists may also select aviation and maritime services as possible targets.

U.S. citizens are strongly encouraged to maintain a high level of vigilance, be aware of local events, and take the appropriate steps to bolster their personal security. For additional information, please refer to “A Safe Trip Abroad” found at http://travel.state.gov.

U.S. Government facilities worldwide remain at a heightened state of alert. These facilities may temporarily close or periodically suspend public services to assess their security posture. In those instances, U.S. embassies and consulates will make every effort to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens. Americans abroad are urged to monitor the local news and maintain contact with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.

As the Department continues to develop information on any potential security threats to U.S. citizens overseas, it shares credible threat information through its Consular Information Program documents, available on the Internet at http://travel.state.gov. In addition to information on the Internet, travelers may obtain up-to-date information on security conditions by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the U.S. or outside the U.S. and Canada on a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444.

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