Threat Matrix: December 2007

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[nwctwx]

Calculating the Risks in Pakistan

A small group of U.S. military experts and intelligence officials convened in Washington for a classified war game last year, exploring strategies for securing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal if the country's political institutions and military safeguards began to fall apart.

The secret exercise — conducted without official sponsorship from any government agency, apparently due to the sensitivity of its subject — was one of several such games the U.S. government has conducted in recent years examining various options and scenarios for Pakistan's nuclear weapons: How many troops might be required for a military intervention in Pakistan? Could Pakistani nuclear bunkers be isolated by saturating the surrounding areas with tens of thousands of high-powered mines, dropped from the air and packed with anti-tank and anti-personnel munitions? Or might such a move only worsen the security of Pakistan's arsenal?
Full story...

	Musharraf: U.S. Shares Blame for Pakistan and Afghanistan
	Bin Laden's Message to the Europeans
	Messages from bin Laden Since 9-11

Threat Matrix:
December 2007

November 2007

Threat Matrix Index

Theat Matrix Handbook

Theat Matrix 'BOLO'

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Preparedness

[TheLion]

Haven’t been around in awhile, but it is good to see that you are keeping up the watch. As each of us should do in our daily lives.

[MamaDearest]

The goal of using faith identity to divide society highlights the incompatibility of Islamism with traditions of American culture and society.

Excellent post Velveeta.

Terrorists gain entry into US via religious visas

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been scrutinizing the religious worker visa program, which a 2005 review found was rife with problems. Homeland Security officials found fraud in one of every three religious visas they reviewed.

Churches that sponsored the workers turned out not to exist, workers could not be found and addresses could not be verified, the study said. In one incident, the address on the visa application was found to have been used by a terrorist suspect.

US tightens religious visas

Filipinos who are members of religious organizations and are planning to live in the United States could be facing unprecedented difficulty securing visas, reports the Philippine News. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services [USCIS] proposed changes to regulations on special immigrant and nonimmigrant religious worker (R-1) visa classifications. The proposed rule aims to eliminate opportunities for fraud while streamlining the process for legitimate petitioners. In recent years, thousands of Filipino priests, nuns and missionaries have flocked to the U.S. to engage in the propagation of faith. Many of them serve as teachers in Catholic schools across the country. Immigration officials have discovered a 33 percent rate of fraud in the religious worker program and are aiming to stem the violations through these new rules.

[MamaDearest]

Haven’t been around in awhile...

I took a break as well, but realized how important it is to keep apprised of what is "really" going on in our world today. Cindy, Velveeta and many others have kept the TM homefires burning. Welcome back!!!!!

[Velveeta]

Thanks for stopping in.
Indeed, it’s imperative for us all to keep watch daily and report anything suspicious.

[MamaDearest]

Naming suspects in the media seems to be a slow process these days.

Privacy for Canadian Young Offenders

2. The Right to Privacy A "right to privacy," in this context, has reference to the generally acknowledged principle that criminal proceedings against young persons should not, in all circumstances, be open to the public; and that the identity of an accused or convicted youth (as well as information from which that identity can be deduced) should not be publicly revealed. This recognition of the "privacy" of young offenders derives from the view that youth are entitled to special consideration in this regard, that they should not be "labelled" or made to bear a stigma for acts they carried out at an immature age.

[Velveeta]

I agree, Mamadearest. It’s one if the best articles I’ve read on the subject.

“For any American citizen or resident, the concept of loyalty to umma should be subordinate to loyalty to state and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.” M. Zuhdi Jasser

[TheLion]

Thanks for all you do. I will try to stay tuned in.

[MamaDearest]

More Cubans seized off US coast

The US Coast Guard says it has intercepted almost 3,000 Cuban migrants off the Florida coast this year, the highest figure for more than a decade.

Witness recalls MS13 gang's vow

Holding a revolver in his gloved hand, Jose Santos Portillo-Chicas told his accomplices "this animal spits fire" after killing a young woman thought to belong to a rival gang, an accomplice testified yesterday. As Portillo-Chicas and other MS-13 gang members fled the wooded Stafford County scene, they swore to say nothing about the crime, knowing anyone who did would be "greenlighted," or targeted for death, Edward A. "Spunky" Perez told jurors in Portillo-Chicas' death-penalty trial.

Edgefield County, GA gang awareness

Another local county is fighting a gang problem. Last month, Richmond County investigators made headlines when they arrested 71 people in one of the largest gang sweeps in state history.

Parcel bomb kills secretary at Paris law firm

A legal secretary was killed and a lawyer seriously wounded yesterday when a parcel bomb exploded in an office building that houses a Holocaust memorial group and French President Nicolas Sarkozy's former law office.

Tanker driver charged with once making bomb threat

Federal court records indicate the driver in the Everett gas tanker explosion was once charged with making a bomb threat. Thirty-year-old Chad LaFrance of Dover, New Hampshire was cited for speeding after the tanker truck he was driving yesterday overturned in a traffic circle and exploded.

A wall of flame ignited two multifamily houses and as many as 40 cars.

According to court documents from 1996, LaFrance admitted he wrote in red marker on the outside of a package, "Tick Tick Tick. The time is running out. UPS Sucks. Danger. Explosive illegal bombs enclosed. Watch handling."

[MamaDearest]

I will try to stay tuned in.

You're welcome and we hope so!

[Cindy]

Hi The Lion.

Glad you are back here.

Stop by often for the updates.

God bless you.

[yorkie]

Thank you for the links! Now, I have enough homework to keep me busy all day. (smile)

[MamaDearest]

Now, I have enough homework to keep me busy all day. (smile)

Smiling back! I've been trying to delete some of the saved websites from my computer tonight and fell asleep twice doing it - so I'm going to sleep and starting fresh deleting again tomorrow - my computer will love me for it!

[yorkie]

I think I must have over 500 in my ‘favorites’. And, they aren’t alphabetized - it’s getting real bad over there.....

[Cindy]

Parcel bomb.
Duly noted and thank you MamaDearest.

[Cindy]

This is a public press release.

http://www.nato.int/isaf/index.html

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.nato.int/isaf/docu/pressreleases/2007/12-december/pr071207-728.html

ANA, ISAF launch operation in Musa Qala

KABUL, Afghanistan – Troops from the Afghan National Army supported by ISAF Forces have been conducting operations in the north of Helmand since the beginning of November.

An operation to retake the town of Musa Qala has started today, Dec. 7. In order to assist the Afghan National Army, ISAF Forces have launched an insertion of troops by helicopter on the edge of the town. This operation will continue for the next few days.

More information will be given as it becomes available.”

[Cindy]

blog:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2007/12/fazlullahs_compound_overrun_li_1.asp

“Fazlullah’s Compound Overrun; Liquor, Prison Discovered”

SNIPPET: “The Pakistani military’s slow grind through the Taliban controlled district of Swat in the Northwest Frontier Province has finally reached Maulana Fazlullah’s stronghold in the town of Imam Dheri. After Fazlullah’s compound was overrun, troops found liquor and a prison. The Daily Times reports:

The army also blew up the houses of Fazlullah and his spokesman Maulana Sirajuddin, besides seizing several weapons, computers and some bottles of liquor from the site, army officials said. The liquor was believed to be seized at militants’ checkposts from people.””

SNIPPET: “While al Qaeda and Taliban leaders push the worst forms of Sharia law on their subjects, they very often ignore their own laws. Abu Musab al Zarqawi, for example, is rumored to have had a penchant for pornography and other un-Islamic proclivities.”

Posted by Bill Roggio on December 7, 2007 12:40 AM

[Cindy]

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

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1936500/posts

Skip to comments.

Police Say Rat Poison Killed Pupils in SW China
China View ^ | December 8, 2007 | Xinhua
Posted on 12/07/2007 7:31:01 PM PST by JACKRUSSELL

(KUNMING) — Forensic doctors and police have found that four pupils in southwest China’s Yunnan province died Monday morning from a kind of highly toxic rat poison, sources with the provincial public security department said Saturday.

The four students, three girls and a boy, were from Lehong township of Ludian county. They developed symptoms of poisoning and died after arriving at school between 8:30 to 9 a.m. Monday, according to Ma Jilin, Communist Party chief of Ludian county.

Autopsy report said the four had eaten dry instant noodles and crackling which could have been put in the wrapping bags of the rat poison, which led to their death.

The police have investigated local stores, households, and clinics and found no other cases of poisoning. They ruled out the possibility of malicious poisoning after investigating people relevant to the victims.

However, the rodenticides, namely “Dushuqiang” in Chinese, is widely used in China’s countryside to get rid of rats.

[Cindy]

Please a few minutes out to check the latest recalls. Thank you.

#

RECALLS.GOV
http://www.recalls.gov

[Cindy]

http://www.truthusa.com/IRAN.html

#

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48361

“U.S. Generals: ‘Jury Still Out’ on Flow of Weapons From Iran”

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

NEWS RELEASE SNIPPET: “WASHINGTON, Dec. 7, 2007 – Though U.S. officials now believe Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program four years ago, the jury is still out on the extent to which Tehran is influencing the battlefield in Iraq, two senior officers said at a Pentagon news conference today.

The new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran has caused “no course correction” on the Joint Staff, Marine Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, the Joint Staff’s director of strategic plans and policy, said.

“We take the (National Intelligence Estimate) on board as we look at the country of Iran,” he said. “The Iranians have said officially they would not support nefarious activities — movements of weapons and materials into Iraq and Afghanistan.””

[Cindy]

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15679&Itemid=128

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20071207-10
December 7, 2007

1-15 Inf. Regt. finds cache with Iranian RPG

By Maj. Joe Sowers, 3rd HBCT, 3rd Inf. Div. PAO

Multi-National Division – Center PAO

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq – Soldiers from Company D, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, currently attached to 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, seized a cache that included an Iranian-made rocket propelled grenade southeast of Baghdad, Dec. 5.

A local citizen provided the information that resulted in the seizure.

Soldiers collected one 122mm mortar round, one propellant stick, 100 feet of dual strand electrical chord, and one bag of ball bearings, as well as the Iranian-made rocket propelled grenade.

Explosive ordnance disposal Soldiers from the 789th Ordnance Company, assigned to the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, confirmed the rocket propelled grenade was manufactured in Iran in 2006.

The 3-1st Cav. Regt. and 1-15th Inf. Regt. are both assigned to the 3rd HBCT, 3rd Inf. Div. from Fort Benning, Ga., and have been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom since March.

An Iranian-made rocket propelled grenade seized by Soldiers of Company D, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment southeast of Baghdad, Dec. 5.

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