Threat Matrix: February 2007

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[nwctwx]

How al-Qaida Fared in 2006
-Full Story-

In 2006, agents of al-Qaida, as well as those inspired by its ideology, continued their attacks. Violence in Iraq intensified, and Afghanistan saw its bloodiest year since 2001.

Despite worsening chaos on those fronts, counterterrorist forces arrested and killed high-profile terrorists and kept the West free from attack. But these actions don't appear to have weakened the appeal of al-Qaida's agenda. "Home-grown" militants around the world joined its jihad, as regional fighting heightened perceptions of a global war on Islam.

Here's an assessment of some of the most significant gains and losses for al-Qaida last year: Read more..

	Azzam the American: The Making of an al Qaida Homegrown
	Islamic Cells of Revenge Joins the al Qaida Movement
	Most Dangerous Destinations 2007

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[Cindy]

Thank you Jeff.
Sad news, indeed.

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THANKS to Jeff Head for the ping to this additional information:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1790717/posts


"The Rising Sea Dragon in Asia - 2007 Update"
The rRsing Sea Dragon in Asia Web Site ^ | 24 February 2007 | Jeff Head

Posted on 02/24/2007 7:24:58 PM PST by Jeff Head

[FairOpinion]

"Secret report: Terror threat worst since 9/11 (U.K.)"


Thanks for the update, Oorang.

US Aviation is still on HIGH threat level, ever since they raised it to that, when they found out about those 10 planes bound from UK to US that AQ planned to blow up -- while the overall threat level in the US is only at elevated.

[Godzilla]

placemark

[Cindy]

"The terrorist threat facing Britain from home-grown al-Qaeda agents is higher than at any time since the September 11 attacks in 2001, secret intelligence documents reveal."

Sometimes I wonder when I read something like this, that the terror threat was a heck of lot worse before 9/11, but we just didn't know it.

[Cindy]

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

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1790404/posts


Girls dragged in streets, hacked to death (peaceful Islamic tradition)
dawn ^ | 02/23/2007 | milwguy

Posted on 02/24/2007 7:04:02 AM PST by milwguy

SANGHAR, Feb 23: The cruel custom of ‘karo-kari’ claimed another two lives when two village girls were dragged in the streets and hacked to death by their uncles, accusing them of having tarnished the family’s honour. The girls — first cousins — were buried without any religious rites and the family declined to accept condolences.

The gory incident took place on Thursday in the village of Allah Bux Brohi, near Shahpur Chakar. The two uncles surrendered to police. They said they had done the right thing and felt no remorse.

They told journalists that they had been informed at about midnight on Wednesday that the girls — Farida, 18, and Hamida, 22 — were missing from their room. They went in search of them and found them in a banana orchard with two men who ran away.

The two uncles have been identified as Khamiso Brohi and Imamdad Brohi.

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1790779/posts

"Investigation clears Wrentham cop (FR Mentioned)"
The Sun Chronicle ^ | 2/22/07 | MICHAEL GELBWASSER and STEPHEN PETERSON

Posted on 02/24/2007 11:12:45 PM PST by conservative in nyc

[Cindy]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1171894508295&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Feb. 24, 2007 22:41 | Updated Feb. 24, 2007 23:10
"Now on YouTube: Iraqi insurgent propaganda"
By HAVIV RETTIG

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Iraqi insurgents are increasingly distributing their propaganda movies and violence footage not through fringe, hard-to-find Web sites, but by uploading them directly to popular video sharing sites such as YouTube.

Many of the videos have been seen by tens of thousands of viewers, and some by hundreds of thousands, on YouTube, Google Video and LiveLeak.com. Some show footage from terror attacks, including close-ups of badly burned children. Others give a slide show of photographs depicting exploded military vehicles and dead American soldiers, while Arabic victory songs play in the background.

"This is a potentially dangerous development for the fight against terrorism in the West," said analyst Tom Gross, a British-based former Jerusalem correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. "It makes it far easier for freelance, go-it-alone jihadists and suicide bombers in western Europe and elsewhere to access information, techniques and propaganda without having to know in advance where to find such material, which was previously only available on obscure Web sites.""

[Cindy]

ON THE NET...

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

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=internet
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=internetcafes
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=internetcafe

http://www.internet-haganah.com/haganah/internet.html
http://internet-haganah.org/hmedia/13feb07/13feb07-salafy_forums.html

http://www.memri.org/jihad.html
http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S5&P1=9

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http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=jihad&ID=SP147607

Special Dispatch Series - No. 1476
February 23, 2007 No.1476
"Islamist Websites Monitor Project No. 66-68"

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http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=jihad&ID=SP146807

Special Dispatch Series - No. 1468
February 16, 2007 No.1468
"Islamist Websites Monitor Project No. 63-65"

[Cindy]

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

---

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1790787/posts

"Police protect girls forced to convert to Islam"
This is London ^ | 22.02.07

Posted on 02/25/2007 12:12:45 AM PST by PRePublic

Police protect girls forced to convert to Islam 22.02.07

[Cindy]

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


---

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6394209.stm

Last Updated: Sunday, 25 February 2007, 09:50 GMT

"Indonesian ferry suddenly sinks"

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Thursday's fire was the latest in a string of deadly transport incidents in Indonesia, leading to concern over its safety record."

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=iran
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=ahmadinejad
http://www.truthusa.com/IRAN.html

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Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3369298,00.html

Iran announces rocket launch, believed part of commercial satellite project

Published: 02.25.07, 11:31 / Israel News

Iran on Sunday said it had successfully tested what it called a rocket that had reached spaced. The announcement, made on state-run television, was unclear, but appeared to refer to Iran's efforts to launch commercial satellites into orbit.

Iran's Science and Technology and Defense ministries built the craft, the state-run television quoted Mohsen Bahrami, the head of Iran's Space Research Center, as saying. Bahrami provided no other details beyond saying that Iran had successfully launched what he called a space rocket or space missile. (AP)

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1790789/posts


"3 Arab states in gulf say would allow Israel to enter airspace to attack Iran"
Haaretz.com (Excerpt) ^ | February 25, 2007

Posted on 02/25/2007 12:43:56 AM PST by HAL9000

[Cindy]

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_922.html

Travel Warning
United States Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Washington, DC 20520

This information is current as of today, Sun Feb 25 2007 02:53:12 GMT-0800.

ISRAEL, THE WEST BANK AND GAZA

January 17, 2007

[Cindy]

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=116&sid=1070769

"Only a Test: White House Preps for Drill"
Feb 23rd - 10:17pm

WASHINGTON (AP) - This is a test. This is only a test. President Bush's Cabinet on Saturday will test the government's readiness to respond if several improvised explosive devices were detonated across the nation.

Members of the Cabinet and dozens of other officials from the Justice Department, FBI, Pentagon, Homeland Security Department and other agencies will conduct the drill in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House. Bush will not participate.

The exercise, led by the president's Homeland Security adviser, Fran Fragos Townsend, is not based on any threats to the United States, White House deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel said Friday."

[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, Sun Feb 25 2007 02:59:06 GMT-0800.

Worldwide Caution

October 11, 2006

[Cindy]

PERSECUTION.ORG
http://www.persecution.org

[fanfan]

Egyptian denies spying in Toronto


Cairo claims he was Mossad agent
Feb 25, 2007 04:30 AM
Jano Charbel in Cairo and Isabel Teotonio in Toronto

An Egyptian charged with spying on local Arabs in Toronto for the Israeli secret service denied the allegations yesterday in a Cairo courtroom and claimed a confession was forced out of him.

Mohamed Essam Ghoneim el-Attar, a 31-year-old Canadian citizen, flashed a victory sign with his fingers and pleaded not guilty on the first day of his trial.

"I was pressured by the security apparatuses into giving confessions," Attar told the panel of three judges at the Emergency State Security Court.

"I deny all charges levelled against me from beginning to end."

Attar was arrested at Cairo airport on Jan.1 after arriving from Canada to visit family. However, news of the arrest was only made public earlier this month when Egyptian authorities said Attar had confessed to being a spy for the Mossad, while living in Turkey and Canada. According to prosecutors, he also implicated three other men in the alleged spy ring – two of whom were recently reported to be living in Toronto.

Three Israelis – Daniel Levi, Kemal Kosba and Tuncay Bubay – were charged with Attar, but they remain at large and are being tried in absentia. Egypt has asked Interpol to arrest them, while Israel has dismissed the charges as baseless.

Attar is charged with harming Egyptian national interests by supplying the Mossad with information; receiving $56,000 in Canadian and U.S. currencies for information on Arabs and Egyptians living in Turkey and Canada and providing his co-accused with that information.

The bizarre case against Attar has been outlined in Egyptian reports and a government dossier of more than 300 pages.

He is alleged to have converted from Islam to Christianity around the time he became a spy; moved to Canada where he, an admitted homosexual, married four men and used his job at a CIBC branch in Toronto to spy on financial transactions, including some that involved a Saudi Prince. Attar is also alleged to have recruited Egyptians, Syrians and Iraqis in Canada to work for the Mossad.

~snip~

more at link

[Oorang]

'Non-Specific' Terror Threat Made Against LAX
Feb 25, 2007

LOS ANGELES A "non-specific" terror threat was made against Los Angeles International Airport Saturday night.

Airport officials are tight-lipped about the unspecified threat, which was received about 8 p.m. Officials have not shut down any airport operations as a result, and no flights were canceled or delayed, said Nancy Castles of Los Angeles World Airports. The threat was "non-specific," Castles said. Due to an ongoing investigation, she would not say who made the threat or how it was delivered.

http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_056024030.html

IDF discovers LAW missiles in Nablus
02.25.07

An IDF force discovered an explosives lab in Nablus Sunday, and in it a LAW missile, five pipe bombs, one large explosive, and four bags of fertilizer used to prepare bombs. Border Guard sappers are operating at the scene in order to blow up the lab.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3369456,00.html

Mobile call traced to Saudi Arab
Gulf Sheikhs too join terror funding in J&K

JAMMU, Feb 21: Terror funding by some oil rich Saudi Arabia businessmen has surfaced during questioning of Pakistani militants in Kot Bhalwal jail. Telephone numbers of Gulf based Sheikhs, who had been funding militancy through hawala money, have also been ascertained by police from data obtained through SIM cards, recovered from the detenues.

Ongoing investigations in large scale SIM cards, majority of them belonging to a private player, have revealed that more SIM cards of the company had been procured by militants on the name of non-existent Army personnel of 56 APO.

Excerpted

http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/07feb22/news.htm#3

[WestCoastGal]

Thanks for the ping Oorang.

I just wonder what is with this "non-specific threat" stuff lately. Is this the new "not terror related" buzz word?

I mean really non-specific, does that mean someone had a feeling, a dream, ESP, a fleeting thought??

[Myrddin]

Thanks for the ping. I've been buried in work lately. Now that the Democrats have a majority, the anti-gun nutballs are pushing another big gun ban under HR 1022. Enemies...foreign and domestic.

[ExSoldier]

Thanks, Ian. I'm up to my eyeballs lately in work and writing. Not been able to post here too much. Keep on a'pingin' me though!