Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat

Five Years Later, We're Still Not Safe
-Full Story-

In the five years since terrorists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Americans have accepted inconvenience, sacrificed personal liberties and paid billions of dollars for a security clampdown that touches virtually every aspect of their lives.

And we're still not safe.

A close examination of the federal government's homeland security effort shows that there have been major accomplishments since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. But it also reveals how vulnerable the nation remains to catastrophe.

	Hunt for bin Laden Is Chasing Shadows and Raising Tensions
	Homegrown Terror Suspects Raise Concern
	New Video Coming from al Zawahri and American al Qa'ida
	> Adam Yahiye Gadahn

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To: JohnathanRGalt; backhoe; piasa; Godzilla; nwctwx; Oorang; penguino; All

1,441 posted on 09/22/2006 10:30:42 PM PDT by Cindy

1,442 posted on 09/22/2006 10:41:17 PM PDT by Cindy

To: Jim Robinson; backhoe; piasa; All

IS UBL DEAD?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1706792/posts

I don't know, but will look around on the 'net.

OPINION: It's a rumor at this point.

1,443 posted on 09/22/2006 10:44:07 PM PDT by Cindy

To: WestCoastGal; all4one; ExSoldier; Myrddin; Godzilla; HipShot

He's dead again.

Osama bin Laden has died, according to the L'Est republicain
AP France ^ | September 23, 2006

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1706792/posts

1,444 posted on 09/22/2006 10:46:57 PM PDT by LucyT

To: Oorang; penguino; JohnathanRGalt; All

1,445 posted on 09/22/2006 10:51:22 PM PDT by Cindy

ON THE NET...
OFF TOPIC...
Let's see, what's in the headlines/front page:

http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Police_and_The_Courts/10069517.html
Published: 09/23/2006 12:00 AM (UAE)
"Car kissing couple kissing under investigation"
By Bassam Za'za', Staff Reporter
Dubai

===

http://www.albawaba.com/en/news/203565

"Hizbullah celebrates victory over Israel with Nasrallah vowing to keep arms and calling government to step down"

9/22/06

===

http://www.middleeastforex.com/index.php?section=384
REGIONAL FX HEADLINES Friday, September 22, 2006

"UAE bank watching Fed to decide dollar strategy"

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The United Arab Emirates central bank will watch the outcome of the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy moves before deciding strategy on the US dollar, governor Sultan Nasser al-Suweidi said on Saturday."

===

http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=983&p=local&a=1

"French hostages to be freed soon"
Yemen Times Staff
SANA’A, Sept, 19

===
===

http://news.google.com/news?page=1&so=1&hl=en&q=%22bin%20Laden%22&sa=N&tab=in

http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=%22bin+Laden%22&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d

1,446 posted on 09/22/2006 11:06:34 PM PDT by Cindy

To: Jim Robinson; Jet Jaguar; Gucho; JohnathanRGalt; backhoe; piasa; Godzilla; nwctwx; All

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/September/middleeast_September507.xml&section=middleeast&col=

"Saudi to free Guantanamo returnees during Ramadan"
(Reuters)

22 September 2006

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "RIYADH - Saudi Arabia is temporarily releasing all Guantanamo Bay returnees held in Saudi jails to spend the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with their families, an official said on Friday.

The United States this year sent 29 Saudis home after negotiating a framework agreement with Saudi Arabia for the return of its citizens from the controversial prison.

”All those detainees who came back from Guantanamo are being released for the whole month of Ramadan, to fast Ramadan with their families and celebrate Eid with their families,” Interior Minister spokesman Mansour al-Turki said.

“They will be back after Eid to complete the related procedures,” he said, adding they were serving various sentences. The Muslim fasting month of Ramadan begins this weekend and is followed by the Eid Al Fitr holiday.

Turki said the authorities had already released some over the past month to spend several days with their families in a programme he described as a success.

In August, Saudi authorities said 9 returnees had been freed for lack of evidence against them."

1,447 posted on 09/22/2006 11:13:14 PM PDT by Cindy

To: Jim Robinson; Jet Jaguar; backhoe; piasa; Godzilla; nwctwx; Oorang; penguino; All

ON THE NET...

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

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

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

http://www.billroggio.com
http://www.counterterrorismblog.org
---

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/738ijawx.asp?pg=1

"Pakistan Surrenders
The Taliban control the border with Afghanistan."
by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross & Bill Roggio
10/02/2006, Volume 012, Issue 03

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "INTELLIGENCE ANALYSTS woke up on September 5 to unsettling news. The government of Pakistan, they learned, had entered into a peace agreement with the Taliban insurgency that essentially cedes authority in North Waziristan, the mountainous tribal region bordering Afghanistan, to the Taliban and al Qaeda. Just ten days later, the blow was compounded when the government of Pakistan released a large number of jihadists from prison. Together, these events may constitute the most significant development in the global war on terror in the past year--yet the media have taken little notice.

For four years, the Pakistani military engaged in a campaign to assert governmental control over Wazir istan. The cost to Pakistan has been considerable; some intelligence sources believe this fighting has exacted a higher death toll on the Pakistani military than U.S. forces have sustained in Iraq. It is in this context that Pakistan gave up on South Waziristan last spring, abandoning its effort to control that area. Thereafter, sharia law was declared in South Waziristan, and the Taliban began to rule openly.

Yet even in the wake of Pakistan's earlier surrender of South Waziristan, this new agreement, known as the Waziristan Accord, is surprising. It entails a virtually unconditional surrender of Waziristan."

1,448 posted on 09/23/2006 1:50:17 AM PDT by Cindy

To: backhoe; piasa; JohnathanRGalt; Godzilla; nwctwx; All

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22661_UK_Home_Secretary_Faces_Raving_Islamist&only
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
"UK Home Secretary Faces Raving Islamist"
(Note: Includes Video.)

===
===

http://hotair.com/archives/2006/09/22/audio-bbc-interviews-islamist-parasite-abu-izzadeen-over-reid-incident/
"Audio: BBC interviews Islamist parasite Abu Izzadeen over Reid incident"
posted at 12:44 pm on September 22, 2006 by Allahpundit
(Note: Includes Audio.)

1,449 posted on 09/23/2006 2:23:49 AM PDT by Cindy

To: JohnathanRGalt; backhoe

1,450 posted on 09/23/2006 2:57:46 AM PDT by Cindy

To: backhoe; Godzilla; All

ON THE NET...

http://www.timesofmalta.com/core/article.php?id=237770
"Pope to meet Muslim envoys"
Reuters

===
===

http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2006/september-2006/pope_muslims_20906.shtml

September

"Pope’s Speech Again Demonstrated The Fragility of Islam
Posted Tuesday, September 19, 2006"

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The pope's expression of regret appeared to fall short of the full, personal apology Muslim leaders had demanded.
Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, said the Pope had been “manipulated” by all those that, led by the United States, the Zionists and the Western press, are after a new “crusaders war against Islam and Muslims”.
“World’s oppressors, led by the United States, see their survival in creating religious tensions for the international community and the Pope, with his speech, helped that policy”, the Ayatollah observed on Monday, stopping short of attacking the Catholic’s spiritual leader personally and by name."

===
===

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22693_Day_of_Rage_Sparks_New_Ideas&only
Friday, September 22, 2006
"Day of Rage Sparks New Ideas"

===

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22692_Pakistani_Islamist_Leader-_Crucify_the_Pope&only
Friday, September 22, 2006

"Pakistani Islamist Leader: Crucify the Pope"

====

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2006/09/013254print.html
September 22, 2006

"If the pope comes here we will hang him on the Cross"

---

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2006/09/013253print.html

September 22, 2006

"Illiterate Pope should be handed over to Muslims"

===

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2006/09/013252print.html

September 22, 2006

"I'm so mad at the Pope, I think I'll burn an Israeli flag"

===

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2006/09/013250print.html

September 22, 2006

"Conquering Rome is the answer"

===

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52102

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
"'Green flag of Allah
will fly over Vatican'
Sheik rejects pope's gestures to Muslims,
calls for holy war against 'this little racist'"

Posted: September 22, 2006
9:51 a.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM

===

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22690_Pope-Hating_Isnt_Just_for_Men&only

Friday, September 22, 2006

"Pope-Hating Isn't Just for Men"

1,451 posted on 09/23/2006 3:16:19 AM PDT by Cindy

To: DoctorZIn; F14 Pilot; fanfan; copguy; Miami Vice; backhoe; piasa; Godzilla; All

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1706832/posts

"The recruit: How did this girl go from Toronto to a terrorist training camp in Iraq?"
National Post ^ | 2006-09-23 | Stewart Bell

Posted on 09/23/2006 3:10:30 AM PDT by Clive

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "A National Post investigation has found the banned terrorist group Mujahedin-e Khalq recruited teens in Canada and sent them abroad to overthrow the Iranian government by force. Today, we begin a five-part series about a Canadian family that got deeply involved with the guerrillas -- and now regrets it."

- - -

1,452 posted on 09/23/2006 3:28:19 AM PDT by Cindy

To: MamaDearest; backhoe; piasa; copguy; All

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1706843/posts?page=3#3

---

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1706843/posts

"Census Bureau Loses Hundreds of Laptops"
MY WAY ^ | Sep 22, 2006 | By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL

Posted on 09/23/2006 3:40:07 AM PDT by restornu

1,453 posted on 09/23/2006 3:50:33 AM PDT by Cindy

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

http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s06090105.htm

ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com

Friday, September 22, 2006

Pakistan: The perils of attempting Hudood reform.

By Elizabeth Kendal
World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC)
Special to ASSIST News Service

AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- In 1979 Pakistan's military dictator Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq launched his program to Islamise Pakistan. The first step was the introduction of Hudood Ordinance.

In 1984, as pressure intensified for an end military rule, Zia played the religion card for political gain to dragnet Muslim votes and get himself a mandate to pursue Islamisation and remain president.
Today, Pakistan is endeavouring to join the prosperous modern world, and President Musharraf is supposedly promoting "enlightened moderation". In line with these goals, the parliament is keen to expunge from Pakistan one of its most sickly, ugly blights: Hudood Ordinance. However, while the Sharia seed is easy to plant, and the Sharia plant is easy to feed, the Sharia tree is not easily removed.

Western politicians who think that in a democracy a majority is required to effect change, should consider the power of Pakistan's Islamist minority. The Islamist Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) are proving once again there is none so powerful as he who holds the balance of power (especially if he is willing to incite violence and destabilise the nation in order to have his way).

Western politicians who are flirting with Islamists and considering permitting the implementation of elements of Sharia as a concession, should consider Pakistan's reality as a warning. Sow Sharia for short term political gain, and it cannot be removed or even rolled back without immense trouble to the nation, pain, sacrifice and bloodshed.

THE PERILS OF ATTEMPTING HUDOOD REFORM

Under the Hudood code, a man and woman found guilty of having sex outside of marriage can be sentenced to death by stoning or 100 lashes. To prove rape, a woman must produce four adult male Muslim eye-witnesses to confirm her testimony; without that she will be found guilty of illicit sex. This leaves Christian women especially vulnerable. In fact, in such an environment, those who rape Christian women are virtually guaranteed impunity. It is estimated that around 80 percent of all women imprisoned in Pakistan are there on Hudood offences.

On 1 July President Musharraf issued an order enabling the release of an estimated 1,300 women held indefinitely in Pakistani prisons under the provision of the Hudood Ordinance.

The "Women's Protection Bill 2006", drafted by a parliamentary select committee, was to be tabled in Pakistan's parliament in early August. However, objections by cabinet members and religious parties saw it delayed until Monday 21 August. This was the third time the Bill had been presented to the parliament.

The draft Bill protects women by separating rape from consensual sex outside marriage, eliminating the four-witness requirement to prove rape, establishing that rape cases be tried in civil rather than religious courts, and by requiring that four witnesses be presented to prove adultery. Human rights groups are of course calling for the Hudood Ordinance to be repealed rather than amended.

Islam Online describes the impact of the Bill on the parliament and the Islamist response: "The introduction of the bill by the government on Monday, August 21, witnessed the worst pandemonium in Pakistani parliament. Opposition lawmakers shouted slogans against the government, tore up copies of the amendments and walked out. They accused President Pervez Musharraf of being a traitor and a friend of America." (Link 1)

Actually the Islamist Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) came close to being charged with blasphemy for tearing up copies of the Bill, because as its supporters noted, the Bill contained Quranic texts. (Link 2)

According to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) representatives who sat on the parliamentary select committee were under clear instruction from their exiled leader, Benazir Bhutto, to give their support to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) in its efforts to amend the Hudood laws.

Even though the Women's Protection Bill had clear majority support to pass in the parliament, the Bill was scuttled due to the MMA's threat to resign en masse, thus massively destabilising Pakistan's already restive MMA-ruled western provinces, if the Bill was passed.

The MMA threat split the ruling PML. The reformists in the PML wanted to press ahead with reform, while the conservatives, led by PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain asserted that it would be political suicide for the PML to alienate its MMA partners and their Islamist constituents before the 2007 elections.

In early September the government moved to appease the Islamists by appointing an extra-parliamentary committee that included four MPs from the MMA as well as Islamic religious scholars to review the Bill and recommend a compromise.

The BBC reports that the extra-parliamentary committee determined "that rape should fall under both religious and secular law. It introduced a new, very broadly defined, category of 'lewdness' into the penal code, and reinstated a clause giving the Hudood Ordinances pre-eminence over any law with which they might come into conflict." (Link 3)

On Monday 11 September the government announced that it was accepting three of the conservatives' demands, including one keeping rape under the Islamic law, although it will also be a crime under the penal code. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) rejected the amendments outright. Sources told Pakistan's English-language newspaper "Dawn", "The PML, riven by internal disputes, preferred an awkward embrace with the MMA to a brief handshake with the PPP." An MP who wished to remain anonymous bemoaned the back-down saying, "And what have we gained by allowing the MMA to water down the amendments to the Hudood laws? The PPP is up in arms. Our touchy coalition partner, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, is on the warpath. And human rights organisations are pouring scorn on us.'" (Link 4)

The government – at least its reformist faction – bolstered by MQM and PPP support, have vowed to reintroduce the Women's Protection Bill to the parliament for the fourth time, in its original form – the form hailed by NGOs and human rights groups – when President Musharraf returns from his visit to the USA.

Meanwhile, Alt.Muslim reports that on Wednesday 23 August (2 days after the Bill was tabled in parliament) militants on a motorbike ambushed Manzoor-ul-Hassan as he left his office, and shot him through the mouth leaving him critically wounded. Manzoor-ul-Hassan is the editor of "Ishra", the monthly magazine of a leading Pakistani think-tank, Al-Mawrid Research Institute, which advocates equity, fairness and gender equality in Pakistan's Islamic Laws. (Link 5)

Sharia is never rolled back without bloodshed. This is the reality in Pakistan. This is a warning for the West.

Elizabeth Kendal
rl-research@crossnet.org.au

Links

1) Hudood Bill Stirs Debate in Pakistan
by Umer Farooq, IOL Correspondent
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2006-08/24/05.shtml

2) Protest against lawmakers
By Mujahid Ali, 25 August 2006
http://www.gulfnews.com/world/Pakistan/10062550.html

3) How Pakistan's rape reform ran aground
By Barbara Plett, BBC News, Islamabad,15 Sept 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5346968.stm

4) What made PML turn to MMA: MQM rejects changes in Hudood laws
http://www.dawn.com/2006/09/13/top1.htm

5) Shooting A Shaykh In The Mouth
By Ali Eteraz, 25 August 2006
http://www.altmuslim.com/perm.php?id=1769_0_25_0_C

Elizabeth Kendal is the Principal Researcher and Writer for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC) www.worldevangelical.org/rlc.html. This article was initially written for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis mailing list.

Elizabeth can be contacted by e-mail at rl-research@crossnet.org.au.

** You may republish this story with proper attribution.

1,454 posted on 09/23/2006 3:52:42 AM PDT by Cindy

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, Sat Sep 23 2006 03:53:42 GMT-0700.

Worldwide Caution

June 06, 2006

1,455 posted on 09/23/2006 3:54:00 AM PDT by Cindy

Well if the French weren't the ones reporting I would have more confidence in this report.

However, since we have not seen him on video for a very long time, I have suspected his illness was coming to it's final stages and he looked like hell. Why else would he not want his mug all over our TV as his cohort Zawahiri has dome?

1,456 posted on 09/23/2006 5:05:41 AM PDT by WestCoastGal (Monte Carlo????? Jr??)

To: WestCoastGal

Hope the report is true. But, for some reason, the word "mis-info" keeps creeping into my mind.

1,457 posted on 09/23/2006 5:23:40 AM PDT by Rushmore Rocks

I'm still a little confused over the way France handled the death of Arafat. This one is gonna have me drooling in a corner somewhere.

1,458 posted on 09/23/2006 5:57:11 AM PDT by HipShot ("Remember the first rule of gunfighting... have a gun." --Colonel Jeff Cooper)

To: Rushmore Rocks

Well, his belly of the eagle promise keeps bothering me.

I would be willing to bet he would not want to die without trying to hit us again......unless the death was unexpected.

1,459 posted on 09/23/2006 6:25:41 AM PDT by WestCoastGal (Monte Carlo????? Jr??)

He's dead again.

I guess that shouldn't be funny, but it is.

1,460 posted on 09/23/2006 7:13:29 AM PDT by nwctwx (Everything I need to know, I learned on the Threat Matrix)

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