Threat Matrix: February 2008

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[nwctwx]

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan?

It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan, while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said.

Long seen as the "forgotten war" eclipsed by Iraq in U.S. priorities, Afghanistan is in the Washington spotlight this week with the release of three independent reports concluding that without a change in U.S. policy there, the erstwhile sanctuary of Osama bin Laden would remain a failed state. Read More

	Why the Taliban Feel Confident
	Top US Officer Lauds al-Qaida Death
	US Air Strike Signals al-Qaida Onslaught

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February 2008

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[drymans wife]

I am trying to find out more on the chopper pilot reporter I heard say he flew over The Turkey Point Reactor a couple of
days ago and noticed odd smoke or steam coming from one of
the buildings there. He followed up with that statement that immigrants come ashore there too.

[Cindy]

Yes, I thought that was interesting.
I was wondering if they all were going to have
a cell-e-br8-tion.

(Not really code, just looking a lot of letter/number
words lately.)

[JustPiper]

Weird timing Raul Castro

[Cindy]

Thank you Drymans Wife.

ExSoldier was wondering about Turkey Point here in this ping.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1976584/posts?page=118#118

[drymans wife]

Yep I have been reading that too. I asked JellyJam to see
if he can find anything out. I am looking too but so far
everything is here say.

Which most of America thinks the threat of terrorism is
here say.

[Cindy]

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=us&q=Turkey+Point&ie=UTF-8&scoring=n

#

Note: The following news brief is a quote:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g8-DEMtAE9q4i4ySQ0eV_qZefmRQD8V2813G0

P Top News at 4:08 p.m. EST
13 minutes ago
MIAMI (AP) — A South Florida nuclear plant automatically shut down Tuesday, causing sporadic power outages throughout the state that affected up to 3 million people from Daytona Beach through the Florida Keys. Authorities did not specify the cause of the midday shutdown of both reactors at Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point plant south of Miami but say there were no safety concerns. Power was already restored in some places by early afternoon and was estimated to be fully restored by 6 p.m., Florida Power & Light said.

###
###

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200802261515DOWJONESDJONLINE000755_FORTUNE5.htm

“NRC: 2 Reactors Shut Down At FPL’s Turkey Point -Report”

February 26, 2008: 03:15 PM EST

Dow Jones Newswires

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Two nuclear reactors at Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point station in South Florida shut down Tuesday afternoon, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said, The St. Petersberg Times reported on its Web site.”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “The cause of the outages remains unclear, Tampa Electric spokeswoman Laura Duda told the newspaper.

She described a “significant disturbance” on the state’s electric grid. It could have been a transmission problem, or a large electricity generating unit unexpectedly going off line, or another problem altogether. “We are working with other utilities to figure out what the problem was,” she said.

Tampa Electric said 50,000 of its customers lost power between 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. Power remained down for less than an hour, and has now been returned to the majority of those customers, Duda said, according to the newspaper.”

[drymans wife]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1976584/posts?page=285

http://www.local10.com/news/8437198/detail.html

Inspection Finds Hole In Pipe At Turkey Point Nuclear Plant
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, FBI, FPL Investigating

[Cindy]

NOTE: If you’re a jihadi or a jihad supporter lurker; I have some good news for you today. According to this new news video:

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=ndtv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD76cmBmSKI

“Terror un-Islamic, say Muslim scholars”
(Added February 25, 2008)

VIDEO DESCRIPTION - QUOTE:

From: ndtv
Subscribe
Joined: 1 year ago
Videos: 1018

About This Video
Chief of Deobandis, Maulana Marghoobur Rahman in his address to an assembly of clerics said that terrorism is completely wrong, a thoughtless act and against the teachings of Islam. (less)
Added: February 25, 2008
Category: News & Politics
Tags: Maulana Marghoobur Rahman terrorism Muslim scholars Islam NDTV India

[Cindy]

Thank you for that stepping back in time news link and posting it here for archival purposes.

[drymans wife]

We do alot of stepping back in time, LOL.

[Godzilla]

I am trying to find out more on the chopper pilot reporter I heard say he flew over The Turkey Point Reactor a couple of days ago and noticed odd smoke or steam coming from one of the buildings there. He followed up with that statement that immigrants come ashore there too.

Immigrants I don't know about, but there are many legitimate sources for steam/something that looks like smoke as part of normal operations. And with all due respect to the helicopter pilot, I think his observations were blown out of proportions. Also, if this happened a couple of days ago, it is unlikely to have been a factor in today's incident.

[drymans wife]

You are probably correct in your assumption, just reporting what I heard. Time will tell, or not.

[Cindy]

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/020106.php
(WORLD DEFENSE REVIEW)

February 26, 2008

“’And he will be, indeed, a formidable soldier for jihad: if he can slit a person’s throat at five years old, just imagine what he can do at 20’”

###

Previously...

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/020006.php
(TELEGRAPH.co.uk)

February 18, 2008

“UK jihadist taught five-year-old son: ‘Kuffar — kill! Sheikh Osama bin Laden I love’”

[Cindy]

Thank you Godzilla.

[Cindy]

Thanks to Ali Veritas for the ping to this update:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1976354/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1976354/posts?page=40#40

#

blog:

http://www.theaviationnation.com/2008/02/26/faid-beydoun-alias-miguel-garcia-flees-feds-leaps-from-concourse/

Tuesday
26 Feb 2008

“Faid Beydoun, Alias Miguel Garcia, Flees Feds & Leaps From Concourse in Miami”
By Annie Jacobsen in category Airport Security & Screening

#

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/433334.html

“MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

SNIPPET: “Traveler breaks arm, ribs after second-floor leap
A man with Lebanese and U.S. passports bolted from security screeners, jumping from the second-floor concourse at Miami’s airport.”

Posted on Tue, Feb. 26, 2008
Diggdel.icio.usAIMreprintprintemail
By DAVID OVALLE

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Miami-Dade police, in a news release late Monday, charged Beydoun with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence.

His jail record lists an alias: Miguel Garcia.

At least one of the other men hails from Bahrain. The two men described Beydoun as a well-known party promoter who knows the best U.S. night spots.”

The men had apparently been partying in Miami-Dade, spending lavishly.”
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “He had a Lebanese passport and a fraudulent U.S. passport, investigators said.”

[Cindy]

February 26, 2008

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/February/08_crm_145.html

Florida Man Sentenced for Smuggling Aliens to Work in Florida Resorts

WASHINGTON – Justin Eric King, 27, of Chipley, Fla., has been sentenced to 41 months in prison followed by three years supervised release resulting from his conviction on charges of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, visa fraud and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and United States Attorney Gregory R. Miller of the Northern District of Florida announced today. The defendant and his co-conspirators brought illegal aliens, mostly from Bulgaria and Romania, to work in the hotel industry in and around Destin, Fla. King was sentenced by Senior District Court Judge Lacey A. Collier of Pensacola, Fla.

King’s three co-conspirators pleaded guilty and testified against King at trial, which culminated in his conviction on Dec. 3, 2007. The three are natives of the former Soviet Union and have already been sentenced. Anna Czerwien, 57, pleaded guilty to a 12-count information admitting her part in the conspiracy, which began as early as 1999 in Georgia and continued until 2007 in Florida. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Aleksander V. Berman, 38, who also began with the conspiracy in 1999, was sentenced to 23 months for his role and Vyacheslave Adol’fovich Finkel (also known as Stan Finkel), 45, was sentenced to 12 months for his part in the scheme. Czerwien, Berman, and Finkel are serving their sentences in U.S. prisons and all conspirators, including King, have agreed to a joint forfeiture of $1million.

King became a part of the conspiracy in 2005 and quickly took over the role of negotiating new contracts with hotel owners, communicating with state and federal agencies and broadening the conspiracy. Approximately 72 aliens entered the country under fraudulent visa petitions on which King worked. King harbored another 39 aliens and an additional 1,558 aliens would have entered the United States if additional fraudulent petitions King worked on had been approved.

The indictment resulted from a joint investigation by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, the Department of Labor’s Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigation, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Arlene Reidy of the Justice Department’s Domestic Security Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany H. Eggers of the Northern District of Florida.

###

08-145

[Cindy]

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/feb08/tradebom_022608.html

“FBI 100
First Strike: Global Terror in America
02/26/08
Part 2 of our history series commemorating the FBI’s 100th anniversary in 2008.”

#

http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/wtc93.htm

CNS Reports

“February 1993 Bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City”

SNIPPET: “Extract from:

John V. Parachini, “The World Trade Center Bombers (1993)” Chapter 11 in Jonathan B. Tucker, (ed.) Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. (2000), pp.185-206”

#

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Landing&displayDate=2/26&categoryId=crime

February 26, 1993
“World Trade Center is bombed”

[Cindy]

VIDEO:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2008/feb/26/mohammed.hamid.terror.training

“The evidence that convicted Hamid”

DESCRIPTION: “Video and audio recordings from Mohammed Hamid’s terror training camps, including footage of him showing his followers how to behead, using a watermelon”

#

blog:

http://counterterrorismblog.org/2008/02/uk_terrorist_recruiter_convict.php

“UK terrorist recruiter convicted”
By Roderick Jones
(February 26, 2008, 3:53PM)

[Cindy]

Thank you Palladin for the question. Let’s see.
(Nothing new at this time on the FBI sites I checked.)

#

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=us&q=Swift+Transportation&btnG=Search+News

#

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1976599/posts

#

http://www.wkrn.com/nashville/news/fbi-investigates-tn-trucking-company/136348.htm

“FBI Investigates TN Trucking Company”

#

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/industries/transportation/article/swift-transportation-target-drivers-license-investigation_493725_8.html

Monday, Feb. 25 2008
“Swift Transportation Is Not the Target of Drivers License Investigation”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “PHOENIX, AZ, Feb 25, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) — Swift Transportation Co., Inc. (”Swift” or the “Company”) has been informed by law enforcement officials that the company is NOT the target of an investigation by Federal and State law enforcement agencies. These agencies were on site at the Swift Transportation commercial truck-driving school near Memphis, TN today and executed search warrants as part of an on-going investigation that involves the issuing of Commercial Drivers Licenses (CDL: 1.58, +0.08, +5.33%) at the company’s facility in Memphis, TN. Swift indicated that these investigations will cause no disruptions to their business.

Dave Berry, spokesman for Swift Transportation said, “The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agencies, are conducting an investigation concerning the issuance of commercial drivers licenses at our Tennessee facilities. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in charge of the investigation in Tennessee and the FBI, Swift is not a target of the investigation. We do not expect this investigation to cause any disruption of our business and we intend to fully cooperate with the FBI and any investigating agency.””

[Cindy]

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=49074

“Gates Looks to Strengthen Ties with India”

By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service

NEW DELHI, Feb. 26, 2008