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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[Cindy]

I understand, but times have changed.

[RDTF]

thank God

[Cindy]

Ditto and Amen.

[Velveeta]

Thanks for the Lane Bryant massacre update.
Local news says tips are coming about the killer.
The guy had duct tape with him and it’s purported that he chose an all women’s store to avoid confrontation with men.

Certainly sounds as though even the horrifc violence may have been premeditated.

[Velveeta]

The thread was pulled on that story.

[Cindy]

Ok.

[Cindy]

“Certainly sounds as though even the horrifc violence may have been premeditated.”

OPINON:

Yes, I agree with you.
And of course, in agreeing with you I must add that this incident begs even more questions.

I’ll keep the updates coming.

[Cindy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1965626/posts

#

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/FeaturedCategories.aspx?sid=1801&cid=1827

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=287106854253314

“Explosive Recipe”
By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, February 05, 2008 4:20 PM PT

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Nuclear Terrorism: What happens when an Islamofascist state gets the bomb and the White House falls into the hands of a president who thinks such enemies can be defeated with diplomacy? We shudder to think.”

[Velveeta]

Much appreciated. Please do keep me on the ping list for that one.

[MamaDearest]

Students had explosives

A federal prosecutor disputes defense claims that two Egyptian college students arrested near a South Carolina Navy weapons station were carrying harmless fireworks and not dangerous explosives.

An attorney for Youssef Samir Megahed filed a motion last week asking a judge to reconsider granting bail. He cited an FBI report that characterized the items found in the trunk of the car as a pyrotechnic mixture that burned but didn't explode when tested.

But federal prosecutor Jay Hoffer, in a motion filed Monday opposing bond for Megahed, said defense attorney Adam Allen "mischaracterized" the FBI report in describing the items in the trunk as harmless.

Hoffer said the items — including PVC pipe containing a mixture of sugar and potassium nitrate and capped with cat litter — meet the federal legal definition of explosives. FBI analysts determined that the mixture could explode if it was packed more tightly in the pipe and capped, Hoffer wrote.

$70,000 in explosives stolen from Pistons game

Someone in metro Detroit is hauling a stolen trailer carrying about $70,000 worth of explosives meant to pump up the crowd before Pistons games.

Employees of Band-Ayd Systems International Inc., which provides the flames and flash that kick off home games, discovered the trailer was missing at about 8 a.m. Sunday.

Loaded inside were dragons -- the devices that shoot flames skyward during the starting lineup's introductions -- and concussive explosives that easily could blow off body parts.

[Quix]

Wow.

Thanks.

Appreciate the ping.

[Velveeta]

Probably just those Detroit “thugs” stealing explosives. ;-)

[MamaDearest]

Probably just those Detroit “thugs” stealing explosives. ;-)

Or it could be those infamous Detroit "youths"?

[Velveeta]

Yep, could be the “youths”.

[Velveeta]

Mystery Deepens Over WMD Documents

How the classified military documents from Iraq, which named the coordinates of where the Army suspected weapons of mass destruction to be hidden, ended up in an Arabic translator’s apartment on Hoyt Street in Brooklyn, is clear.

Not likely to be known anytime soon is what, if anything, the army contractor did with the documents.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, which is prosecuting the case, appears to have little direct evidence that Noureddine Malki passed information on to the insurgency, either during his time in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, or upon his return to America in 2005. But it has raised the possibility that he may have done so. The government has said Malki regularly called phone numbers connected to insurgents and took bribes of at least $11,500 from Sunni tribal leaders. (snip)
http://www.nysun.com/article/70799

[Cindy]

5 Cables now...

http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/UAE/221875

“Who cuts undersea cables in the Middle East?”
Posted: 05-02-2008 , 10:53 GMT

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “A total of five cables being operated by two submarine cable operators have been damaged with a fault in each. These are SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria.

© 2008 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)”

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http://www.menareport.com
http://www.menareport.com/en/business/221875

[Cindy]

That’s an interesting mystery, Velveeta.

I hope it’s solved real soon.

[Cindy]

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

#

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373951
(TERRORISM FOCUS)

“Yemen’s Role in al-Qaeda’s Strategy”
By Michael Scheuer
(February 5, 2008)

#

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373949
(TERRORISM FOCUS)

“Attacks on Oil Industry Are First Priority for al-Qaeda in Yemen”
By Gregory D. Johnsen
(February 5, 2008)

[Cindy]

February 4, 2008

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://baltimore.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel08/ba020408a.htm

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/md

BRANDYWINE COUPLE CONVICTED IN IMMIGRATION FRAUD SCHEME

Baltimore , Maryland - Nadia Naeem, age 29, and Mohammad Amin Doudzai, age 45, both of Brandywine , Maryland were convicted today by a federal jury of conspiracy to obstruct, and obstruction of, proceedings before a United States agency, immigration fraud and false statements, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.

“Protecting the integrity of the United States immigration system is a key component of our homeland security mission,” said James A. Dinkins, Special Agent in Charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Baltimore . “This case clearly demonstrates our resolve to investigate those who seek to criminally exploit our immigration system.”

According to trial testimony, documents filed with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees indicate that Nadia Naeem, was born in 1978, in Kabul , Afghanistan . Naeem, along with her mother and two siblings, were admitted into the United States as refugees on July 26, 2000 . An individual admitted into the United States with refugee status, but who has not yet attained Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) status, can apply for refugee benefits for her spouse.

Witnesses testified that in 2001, Naeem filed a petition with the INS seeking to have Nabi Nabil, age 30, also born in Kabul , Afghanistan , enter the country as a refugee, based upon the claim that Naeem and Nabil were married in Pakistan in 2000. The petition was approved and Nabil was admitted into the country as a refugee in 2004. Naeem and her parents subsequently applied for and attained LPR status.

According to trial testimony Mohammad Amin Doudzai, was born in 1962 in Kabul , Afghanistan , admitted into the United States as a refugee in 1981, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1988. In 2003, prior to Nabil’s entry into the country, Naeem and Doudzai celebrated their marriage at the Best Western Potomac View in Oxon Hill , Maryland . Naeem, her mother and her two siblings moved into Doudzai’s home in Brandywine , Maryland . When Nabil also moved into the Brandywine home in March of 2004, Naeem was seven months pregnant. She gave birth to a son on May 29, 2004 . According to trial testimony, there is an extremely high probability that Naeem and Doudzai are the biological parents of her son, and that Nabil and Naeem are siblings.

On March 31, 2006 , during an interview with U.S. immigration officials concerning Nabil’s application, Naeem and Nabil presented a letter from a co-worker of Nabil and a letter from Nabil’s landlords in Accokeek , Maryland falsely stating that Nabil and Naeem were husband and wife, and that they had a child together. In fact, witnesses testified that in November 2005, Nabil lived alone and Naeem lived with Doudzai in Brandywine . When questioned about her relationship with Doudzai, Naeem falsely stated that she barely knew Doudzai, was not certain of his first name, and denied that she and Doudzai were married or had a son together.

Doudzai became a civilian employee of the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command in 1989, and was granted top secret/sensitive compartmented information security clearance in 2002. On November 2, 2005 , as part of a security re-investigation, Doudzai submitted a security form to the United States Army Test and Evaluation Command. The form required Doudzai to disclose spousal information and the names and citizenship of any foreign national relative or associate with whom he is bound by affection, obligation, or close and continuing contact. The evidence showed that Doudzai falsely described his marital status as “never married” and falsely listed his deceased parents as his only relatives or associates. According to witness testimony, on December 13, 2005, during an interview with military officials, Doudzai falsely denied that Naeem was a joint account holder on one of his credit cards and when questioned about other joint financial accounts with Naeem, Doudzai failed to disclose that he had submitted an application for mortgage refinancing in November 2004 that listed himself, Naeem, and his brother as joint tenants on the title for the Brandywine house. On March 27, 2006 his clearance was suspended.

U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis has scheduled sentencing for Doudzai and Naeem on April 18, 2008 at 10:30 a.m.

On January 18, 2008, Nabi Nabil, age 30, of Brandywine, Maryland was sentenced to 22 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, after pleading guilty to the same charges.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services’ Office of Fraud Detection and National Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command for their investigative work, and commended Assistant United States Attorneys Harvey Eisenberg and Steve Levin, who prosecuted the case.

[Cindy]

Note: The following news brief is a quote:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3503443,00.html

Qassam lands near Ashkelon; no injuries

Published: 02.06.08, 11:39 / Israel News

A Qassam fired from northern Gaza Wednesday landed in an open area near Ashkelon. No injuries or damage were reported. (Shmulik Hadad)

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Note: The following news brief is a quote:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3503428,00.html

Another Qassam lands in Eshkol Regional Council; no injuries
Published: 02.06.08, 11:10 / Israel News

A Qassam rocket fired from northern Gaza landed in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported.

Earlier Wednesday, two Qassam rockets landed in open fields within Council limits. (Shmulik Hadad)