Threat Matrix: July 2007

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[nwctwx]

Threat Matrix:
July 2007

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US Steps Up Security Following Attack in Britain

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff made appearances on several television talk shows.

He told ABC's This Week program there is no indication of a linkage between the events in Britain and any specific attacks on the United States. "We do not have, at this point, specific, credible intelligence that there is an attack, a particular attack, focused on this country," he said.

But at the same time, speaking on CNN's Late Edition program, Chertoff said U.S. authorities are concerned about the threat of terrorism, especially in the coming months. "We have had a number of al-Qaida leaders quite publicly talking about how they want to carry out their threats against the West. So, given that and given the history that we have had over past summers, with attacks in Britain, I think we were clearly focused on this as a possibility," he said. Full story...

	More United Kingdom Attacks Possible
	More US Air Marshals on Flights to Europe
	Officials: Car Bomb Plot Bears al Qaida's Trademark

[Cindy]

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

[flutters]

In Columbus we’ve had many suspicious packages in the last week or so. Just yesterday several buildings and hundreds of students at Ohio State were evacuated while the bomb squad blew up two packages. Last week we had four separate incidents within a few hours. The bomb squad has been extremely busy.

[Godzilla]

placemark

[nwctwx]

While walking into work today I noticed two police cruisers sitting on both sides of the Australian Embassy. Both had Homeland Security stickers on them and it did not appear they were there due to someone of importance being in the building (though, you never know). In general there are other cars with the police vehicles when that is the case.

Main reason I noticed was that I saw something similar last night in a different part of DC. I was coming home and there were 5 similar vehicles with lights/sirens on heading the opposite direction.

I’ve probably only seen these cars 2 or 3 times in about a year and a half, so it seemed weird to see 2 groups in about 12 hours.

[Velveeta]

“precision = GPS = missiles or drones”

Yes.

I do think Zawahiri chooses his words carefully. We know from the Bali bombing of the Paradise club that the word “paradise” was in the speech prior to the attack. I can’t remember now if it was bin Laden’s or Zawahiri’s speech.

Here’s an interesting coincidence (?) from Zawahiri’s most recent speech:

“The Jews and the Americans are not from the planet Mars, but they are on our borders and in our land with their gear, equipment, and numbers. Only jihad and unity, rather than secular calls, nationalism, and other political movements, will resolve this matter”

The Mars reference seems so out of place to me. Then we see, it’s really not:

Mars is the ruling planet of Aries and, for many astrologers, Scorpio. Mars was the Roman god of war and bloodshed, whose symbol was a sword. The soils of the planet Mars are rich in iron, which has literally rusted to give Mars its famous blood red colour. Mars orbits the sun in 687 days, spending about 57.25 days in each sign of the zodiac.

Astrologically Mars is associated with confidence and self assertion, aggression, sexuality, energy, strength, ambition, and impulsiveness. Mars governs sports, competitions and physical activities in general. (snip)

Mars is associated with Tuesday, and in Romance languages the word for Tuesday often resembles Mars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planets_in_astrology#Mars

The planet was known by the Egyptians as (Vel: characters don’t copy correctly here - see source) or “Horus the Red”.

Horus:
Horus is recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphs as (Vel: characters don’t copy - see source) and is reconstructed to have been pronounced (Vel: Characters don’t copy - see source), meaning “Falcon”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horus

I’m sure the instructions are there coded.
I’d like to see the entire translation, but haven’t found it yet.

[Godzilla]

NASA’s Phoenix lander is gearing up for an Aug. 3 launch (Friday).
Endeavour is targeted for an Aug. 7 launch (Tuesday).

[Velveeta]

“Bin Laden’s son weds grandmother from Cheshire”

It takes all kinds. ~rolls eyes~

[Velveeta]

Good to know security is tight.

[Velveeta]

Thank you!

[drymans wife]

I would say that in regard to your post, link below, July 23rd could be a date of interest.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/picture_gallery/0,,70141-1274249,00.html

[callmejoe]

I guess with connections of the London plot going back to Australia with the Indian doctors, perhaps everyone is busy comparing notes.

Stay safe.

[callmejoe]

Lots of “red” in the news - - flashing red “good news soon” banner, red ink letters, Red Mosque (odd no mention in the tape?), red bag left in Times Square . . .

red = Mars = war = go? (”on our borders” = “ready-set-go”?)

“The Jews and the Americans are not from the planet Mars, but they are on our borders and in our land with their gear, equipment, and numbers . . .”

reciprocity - - war (Mars/red) there means war (Mars/red) here

“very precise” . . . “on our borders” (remember it was thought at first that Hezbollah used drones last year against Israel near its northern “severnaya” border)

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=499935&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7477528/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/14/AR2006071401786.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,203754,00.html

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3287862,00.html

http://en.rian.ru/onlinenews/20060530/48833304.html

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_Uses_UAV_To_Watch_US_Aircraft_Carrier_On_Gulf_Patrol_999.html

[good old days]

Brian Ross was on Fox and Friends this morning. He said that Chertoff doesn’t go around talking about gut feelings. Said that he (Chertoff) has hard information- much more info than Ross or anyone else in the media has. Ross said that the reports coming in are troubling to those looking at them, reminding them of the level of concern in the summer of 2001, but that they are taking them more seriously now.

Regarding the White House situation room meeting on Thursday, Ross said that Washington has meetings regularly, but that this is unusual. The point was brought up that if it were so important, why would it be announced. He said that it was not announced. He also said that it is a follow-up meeting and that the first one was last Friday. He said that every key agency was asked what to do to minimize the effects of an attack and that Thursday is when they come back to give their report. Ross was asked if he knows things that he hasn’t reported. He answered that there are some things that they (ABC) have been asked not to report and currently they are not reporting these things.

[Rushmore Rocks]

Very interesting. Thanks.

[callmejoe]

not just from the north, but “from the sea” . . .

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0930288120070709?feedType=RSS&rpc=22&sp=true

U.S. cruise missile defense said possible in 14 months
Mon Jul 9, 2007 5:53PM EDT
By Andrea Shalal-Esa (excerpted)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States could deploy a system to protect an area ranging from Washington to Boston from sea-based cruise-missile attacks within 14 months at a cost of “several billion dollars,” a top Lockheed Martin Corp. executive said on Monday.

David Kier, who formerly was deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office, said the technologies needed to track, identify and destroy any such missiles launched from ships off the U.S. coastline already existed or were under development. “It just requires a will to do it,” he told congressional aides at a briefing. . .

Short-range cruise missiles are easy to hide, relatively cheap, and can carry a variety of warheads such as biological or chemical weapons, according to some experts. . .

Another speaker at the briefing, Jeff Kueter, president of the Washington-based George C. Marshall Institute, underscored the urgency of the threat. Tens of thousands of cruise missiles are available globally and 20 countries can build them, he said. North Korea fired up to two short-range missiles from its west coast last month, following a series of long- and short-range missile tests last year. He called for greater efforts to defend against cruise missiles, which he said were becoming the “weapons of choice” for potential competitor states and terrorist groups.

Cruise missiles were first fired at U.S. troops during the war in Iraq. But the United States itself, with 12,000 miles of coastline, provides ample targets for extremist groups, especially since cruise missiles can be easily be stowed inside a standard cargo container. The U.S. military has plans to protect troops, ships and overseas bases from cruise missile attacks, but it has no plan and no budget to protect the U.S. coastline, Kueter said.

Lockheed’s Kier said the United States needed an integrated plan to guard against attacks by cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and other manned and unmanned aircraft.

http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070707042748.3w4sfloq&cat=null

07/07/07 05h37 GMT+1

AFP News brief
NKorea close to making new missiles operational: US
(excerpted)

North Korea has successfully tested new short-range missiles and is close to making them operational, posing a threat to South Korea and Japan, a senior US defence official said.

Yonhap news agency quoted Richard Lawless, outgoing deputy undersecretary of defence as saying: “We have a problem with the new system because it’s much more accurate, it’s much more survivable than the huge Scud force ... already targeted on (South Korea).” Lawless, speaking to reporters Friday in Washington, said the US was “talking actively” to the South Korean government, and both governments viewed the matter with concern.

“You have for the first time in the North Korean inventory a solid-fuel, highly mobile, highly accurate system whose only purpose, given its range, is to strike (South Korea),” he was quoted as saying. . .

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200707/200707030022.html

Missiles Aimed at South Korean Cities
Updated July.3,2007 11:09 KST

(excerpt)

U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Burwell Bell said in a speech at the National Press Center in Seoul, ¡°North Korea last Wednesday conducted testing of advanced short range missiles — missiles specifically designed to attack (South) Korea, its armed forces, and its citizens.¡± He added, ¡°these missiles, in general, appear to be performing as they are designed.” Bell said the new missiles were upgraded versions of the old surface-to-surface class of missiles code-named “Frog” and use solid fuel, which means they are easy to move and launch rapidly. Bell said they could reach not only Seoul but other cities south of the capital due to their extended range. . .

As Bell said, if the missiles are highly mobile and capable of being fired rapidly, U.S. troops may have a tough time locating and destroying them. And if North Korea becomes capable of mounting these missiles with bio-chemical warheads, the threat becomes even greater.

Some South Korean officials are claiming that conventional North Korean weapons no longer pose a threat, due to the deployment of superior weapons in the South Korean military. But despite its severe economic limitations, North Korea is building up its military, specializing in nuclear and bio-chemical weapons, as well as long, mid and short-range missiles, special operations troops and long-range artillery. All of these are potentially fatal threats to South Korea. Long-range artillery can wreak tremendous destruction in the capital region over a short period of time, while missiles can simultaneously attack key military and civilian facilities in South Korea, including atomic power plants. North Korean special forces, numbering 100,000, have been described by one U.S. military official as being ¡°the biggest threat.¡± . . .

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/nd-b.htm

(excerpted)

. . .Several seemingly unrelated bits of information reveals a potential new developing strategic threat from Iran and North Korea . For years it has been suggested that surface ship based ballistic missiles could threaten Western national security interest. The strategic advantage of such concepts is that the ship based systems could stand off from countries on the open ocean and not be seen or easily identified due to their stealth-ness commercial looks. Now the first evidence of hardware testing appears to indicate the early development of the required proof of concept technology to make this a reality from Iran and perhaps North Korea . When North Korea introduced the No-dong-B into its land mobile strategic systems inventory in 2003 it was the first of several events that suggested such a concept might come into being via the cooperative efforts of North Korea and Iran . Now Iran has introduced the first hadware testing with North Korean assistance.

Pending Container Ship Scud Threat?

It has been revealed that intelligence sources think North Korea may have helped Iran to successfully demonstrate a proof of principle test flight of a Scud-B from an Iranian container cargo ship container in 2006. This is possibly relating to the eventual deployment of a ship container based Scud-B or more probable ship container based No-dong-B IRBM. Exactly where and when this Scud-B flight test was demonstrated remains unclear. (31) and http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/nd-b.htmWhether the Scud-B or the No-dong-B are the ultimate intent is unclear at this juncture but the subsequent discussion may reveal the final intent. (31)

The Near TermContainerixed No-dong-B, Shahab-4 Ballistic Missile Threat?

The critical point noted by John Pike is that “this new missile has the advantage that it fits inside a standard 40 foot shipping container, which would be really hard to detect on container ship on the open ocean.” This author notes that is it would be easier if the warhead is interchangeable or unattached. That in fact appears to not be the case for this potential strategic application. This autonomous concept could be applicable to ship based containers, land based container trucks and is known to be based on the North Korean and new Iranian, transporter erector launcher (TEL) designs. . .

The missile is believed to be pre-fueled at the factory and armed with a nuclear warhead as a packaged unit. This game could conceivably be played by both Iran and North Korea. Pike further points out “that the small cargo ships can call in the North Korea or Iran port, get containers loaded with a missiles loaded on board, and roam the oceans waiting to fire it when the orders are received by preset on-board mother board command and control (CC) system.” As Pike notes, “Such a basing mode could be attractive to North Korea because under many scenarios it would under-fly the missile defense system currently being deployed by the United States. It would also require less complex technology than the unflown Taepodong-2 ICBM.” CPV

In 1998 the Rumsfeld Commission argued that the community needs to look at alternative deployment schemes. “Sea launch of shorter range ballistic missiles is another possibility. This could enable a country to pose a direct territorial threat to the U.S. sooner than it could by waiting to develop an ICBM for launch from its own territory. Sea launching could also permit it to target a larger area of the U.S. than would a missile fired from its home territory.”

[Donna Lee Nardo]

Thank you, Ian.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

Thanks again for the ping.

“They” are already here.

[nwctwx]

Tower at Miami international airport is on fire. Not sure of reason.

[nwctwx]

Gate assignment tower, supposedly under construction and not in use.

[LucyT]

Thank you, RR, for keeping me apprised; it is interesting.