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Posted on 07/01/2007 2:42:24 PM PDT by nwctwx
State troopers find $600,000 in semi-truck
A state trooper’s stop of a westbound semi-truck on Interstate 44 at Joplin Wednesday morning led to the discovery of $600,000 cash concealed in the truck’s cab.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said a trooper stopped a semi-truck at 11:08 a.m. Wednesday at the 11-mile marker of the interstate for following another vehicle too closely. The trooper became suspicious of the driver and co-driver because of their stated itineraries, according to a news release from the state patrol......
http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/local_story_193200425.html
Local Security Tightened Over Terror Concern (PA)
(snippets)
...Local terror experts and law enforcement officials are convinced that Al Qaeda is planning something. They just don’t know what it is. The Philadelphia FBI office says this is a very, very busy summer. They are following hundreds of leads, including many right here in Philadelphia.
...Sources tell Action News that government agents are working on a list of about 900 individuals who have traveled between the U.S. and the Middle East. Some of them are living here in the Delaware Valley.
...The Philadelphia FBI offices says they are fully engaged right now, leaving no stone unturned. In the meantime they are asking all of us to help by keeping our eyes and ears open and reporting anything at all that seems out of place or suspicious.
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=5475359
Birmingham Airport under attack (UK)
An incident at Birmingham Airport has been dealt with by police tonight following a suspicious discovery. An incident close to the air-rail and international rail link was dealt with between 6.30pm and 8.30pm on Thursday evening.
Details are unclear as to exactly what the discovery is but it is thought to be a terrorist incident and the surrounding areas have also been sealed off.
Police say that they responded to a phone call at about 6.26pm and following a discovery.
The Press Association have reported the findings and phone lines to the airport are jammed. More details will be made available as soon as they become clear.
http://functionpix.com/index.php/article/Birmingham_Airport_under_attack/1495/
“This constant stream of high level leaks about threat is something new. CYA?”
Sounds more like shadowboxing. It is harder to attack a blindfolded man throwing punches in all directions than the same man standing still. The one throwing punches (though blindly) at least has a chance of landing a blow. The one standing still because he is blindfolded has none. They wouldn’t send the FBI running in circles just to cover themselves.
If they had something specific they could release they’d put it out in an alert of some form or in an extreme case, raise the genral threat level. Best thing they can do is selectively leak vague generalities.
The alternatives are to formally raise the threat level, and you cannot keep going to that well as 2002-2003 proved, or else say nothing until they have something more to offer, and that may come too late.
It is easy to look back at the summer of 2001 and see all the things that should have been done (and there were many). But it harder sometimes to accept that in other respects, even had we done everything that in retrospect should have done, there is no guarantee that we could have stopped it. No defense conceived by man has ever been perfect, and none ever will be.
By creating a greater public awareness of the threat through selective disclosure of the general nature of the threat (and without numbing everyone to it by going to orange for a few days than having to go back down after a week or two at most, and having cried wolf, creating a “resistance to the antibiotic”) you increase the possibility that someone out there will be a little more alert and may stumble onto something (fumes coming from a car in London, strange picture being developed near Ft Dix, etc).
But in defense of the administration, or any future administration in this position, when you have imperfect information about a threat, any course of action you take in response to that will also likely be very imperfect.
That is interesting.
Updates appreciated Velveeta.
THANK YOU.
Not finding much else on this Birmingham airport
There’s an entry here, but the article doesn’t show up at the link:
‘Incident’ at airport
Police are dealing with an “ongoing incident” at one of the country’s busiest airports.
Teletext National News - http://www.teletext.co.uk/news/national/default.aspx
“It could not immediately be learned what the missing fourth element is.”
Based on the context, and the first bullet point in the article, it sounds like the missing ingredient (up to this point) is operational weapon(s). Key word in that bullet point - - “if”.
One can make the inference that if they were confident that AQ has not dotted those “i”s and crossed those “t”s, they wouldn’t have had a meeting (or leaked this in the first place), and they wouldn’t be having this discussion.
I take the context to mean that the senior leadership mentioned is the “core AQ” on the Afghan-Pakistan border and the operational lieutenants are inside the U.S. or en route.
“- - Al Qaeda is probably still pursuing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and would use them if its operatives developed sufficient capability.”
Trucking school students bewildered by FBI probe (CA)
http://www.kget.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=1f183ea5-0c4b-42d7-9797-ce0c1719276b
What struck me about Zawahiri’s latest “Aggression Against Lal Masjid” is how he invokes (and plagiarizes) the last words of the prophet on his Farewell Pilgrimage by using the same ending:
Have I not conveyed? O Allah, be my witness. Have I not conveyed? O Allah, be my witness. Have I not conveyed? O Allah, be my witness.
This has got to mean something.
Other versions even have the prophet repeating these same lines three times just like Zawahiri does here.
I agree and this is the scariest aspect.
Case in point, the "sudden jihad syndrome" incidents. God forbid, were there to be individual suicide bombers or IED car bombs, I can't imagine how it could be stopped - except as you said, by stumbling upon it.
“timing is everything” (Friday the 13th)
http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=325453
N. Korea propose military talks with U.S. BEIJING, July 13 KYODO
North Korea on Friday proposed holding military talks with the United States in the presence of United Nations representatives to discuss peace and security in the Korean Peninsula, the country’s official Korean Central News Agency reported.
North Korea made the proposal in a statement released by the country’s liaison office at the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom.
==Kyodo
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTKV00281620070713
North Korea proposes military talks with U.S.: KCNA
Thu Jul 12, 2007 11:56PM EDT
TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea is proposing holding military talks with the United States, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday, less than a week before a new round of talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear arms program is due to begin.
According to KCNA, the proposal would call for talks between North Korean and U.S. military officials to be attended by a United Nations representative, at a mutually acceptable place and time. The topic would be issues relating to peace and security on the Korean peninsula.
Six-party talks on the North’s nuclear program are due to start on July 18.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40505-2003May10?language=printer
Sins of the Son
Kim Jong Il’s North Korea Is in Ruins, But Why Should That Spoil His Fun?
By Peter Carlson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 11, 2003; Page D01 (excerpt)
” . . . The Dear Leader loves movies. He has collected more than 10,000 videos. He told an American diplomat that he possesses every Oscar-winning movie. He loves “The Godfather,” James Bond flicks, the “Friday the 13th” series, Daffy Duck cartoons, anything with Elizabeth Taylor. . .
All this family drama and trauma could drive a man crazy. And Jerrold Post, the GWU professor and former CIA psychiatrist, believes that the Dear Leader has a serious mental illness. “He has the core characteristics of the most dangerous personality disorder, malignant narcissism,” Post theorized in a recent psychological profile. The disorder is characterized by self-absorption, an inability to empathize, a lack of conscience, paranoia and “unconstrained aggression.” The Dear Leader, Post concluded, “will use whatever aggression is necessary, without qualm of conscience, be it to eliminate an individual or to strike out at a particular group.” . . .
“This has got to mean something”
If a large-scale attack is in its operational phase, he would understand that if we are hit we will at that point go after the leadership core no matter where they located even if it means creating a much more dangerous problem down the road, because we will not be acting rationally. So that may indeed be extremely significant if he is quoting from Mohammed’s final sermon.
The repetition three times may indeed be a signal.
Thanks for the explanation.
I bought my toothpaste at our local dollar store until I read about the toothpaste from China. Now I only buy brands with the ADA seal of approval.
I wonder what Bryan Ross knows, that he can’t speak about?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/11/AR2007071102079_pf.html
Government In Denial
No Branch Is Prepared For a Decapitating Strike
By Norman Ornstein
Thursday, July 12, 2007; A23 (excerpted)
During the Cold War, elaborate top-secret plans existed, including bunkers for the president, vice president, Supreme Court justices and members of Congress. If nuclear missiles were launched by the Soviet Union, there would be 30 to 90 minutes’ notice to evacuate top officials by plane, train or automobile.
On Sept. 11, 2001, the era of notice preceding attacks ended. This underscored the fact that none of our branches of government had plans to keep operating if hit in a serious way. An attack on Congress that killed or incapacitated a large number of members would mean no Congress for months. Each house needs half of its members to be present for a quorum to do any official business. The House of Representatives can replace deceased members only by special elections that take, on average, four months. The Senate, under the 17th Amendment, allows states (usually governors) to appoint replacements to fill vacancies, but neither house has a mechanism for replacing incapacitated members. . .
There were, and are, straightforward ways to do so: creating temporary appointments to ensure a representative legislative branch that can function until real and meaningful elections can occur to fill vacancies; revamping presidential succession to ensure that some designated figures are geographically dispersed; creating a temporary Supreme Court, consisting of the chief judges of the federal appeals courts, to adjudicate key constitutional issues until a regular court can be reconstituted. . .
The lack of interest in continuity may stem from the same reasons some smart people refuse to create wills, even though failure to do so leaves behind horrific messes for their loved ones. Yet the threat is real. Our leaders’ failure to establish plans to ensure that our Constitution survives is irresponsible. Do we really have to wait until the nightmare scenario becomes a reality to do something?
The writer is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and senior counselor to the Continuity of Government Commission
Translation (a loose one):
Listen you dummies, I HAVE TOLD YOU THE PLAN, didn’t you get it?
What’s wrong with the rest of you?
...and oh yes, pbuh, because Allah knows best.
OR...
Repetition of this phrase is the GO signal.
/end speculation opinion.
Jihad, another day.
###
HI PENGUINO!
Glad to see you on TM.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1865226/posts
“U.S,India, Japan, Australia & Singapore to hold joint naval exercises”
The Hindu ^ | Friday, Jul 13, 2007 | Sandeep Dikshit
Posted on 07/12/2007 11:11:23 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
SNIPPET: “Biggest joint naval exercise in Bay of Bengal in September”
NKorea’s military warns nuclear deal could be scrapped
July 13, 2007 - 3:42PM (excerpt)
North Korea’s military warned Friday that a deal to disarm its nuclear programme could be scrapped if the United States keeps “pressurising” the country, the official KCNA news agency reported. The North will step up efforts to protect itself from a “US nuclear attack and preemptive strike” if the US keeps “pressurising the DPRK under the pretext of the nuclear issue,” it said.
“In that case, it is as clear as noonday that neither the implementation of the February 13 agreement nor success of the six-party talks will be possible,” the military said in a statement carried by KCNA. . .
“The US is a belligerent party hostile to the DPRK (North Korea) and the two countries are still technically at war,” said the statement, attributed to the chief of the army’s mission to the border truce village of Panmunjom. “Under this situation nobody can deny that the confrontation between the DPRK and the US means a life and death one. . .
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=26235_YouTube_Promotes_Evil&only
Thursday, July 12, 2007
“YouTube Promotes Evil”
http://www.1010wins.com/pages/677367.php?contentType=4&contentId=685693
Posted: Thursday, 12 July 2007 6:52PM
“Cuomo: Include Terrorism, Evacuation in Nuclear Licensing”
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is demanding that federal officials consider terrorism, evacuation plans and population density as they decide whether to relicense the Indian Point nuclear power plants.
If such factors are included, he said, it could mean the shutdown of the two reactors.
Cuomo announced Thursday that he has filed a brief in support of an appeal undertaken last month by Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano and two New Jersey environmental groups. Spano is appealing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s refusal to change the relicensing criteria.
“This brief raises serious questions about the NRC relicensing process, a process that ignores important factors about nuclear power plant safety and is stacked in favor of plant operators,” Cuomo said in his announcement.”
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