Threat Matrix: March 2008

WASHINGTON, March 31, 2008 – U.S. and Iraqi security forces killed 48 insurgents and captured 11 others during a series of operations conducted across Baghdad yesterday, military officials reported.

In operations yesterday:

— Coalition forces in western Baghdad captured an alleged associate of al Qaeda in Iraq’s southern belt leadership.

— North of Baghdad, coalition forces encountered two persons armed with AK-47 rifles. Perceiving hostile intent, the coalition force engaged the armed men, killing them. Four other suspected terrorists were detained.

— U.S. soldiers killed five militants during a firefight in eastern Baghdad.

— In southeastern Baghdad, Iraqi soldiers under attack by enemy small-arms fire responded and killed two insurgents and detained four other suspects.

— U.S. soldiers were at a checkpoint in the Kadamiyah district when they came under enemy fire. A subsequent coalition air strike killed three insurgents and injured another.

— In the Karkh district, U.S. soldiers detained an insurgent suspected of supplying weapons to militants involved in fighting in Basra.

— U.S. soldiers killed an insurgent caught emplacing a roadside bomb in the New Baghdad area.

— Three insurgents were killed by U.S. soldiers during an incident at another security checkpoint in Kadhamiyah.

— A U.S. sniper killed an insurgent at a joint security station in New Baghdad.

— U.S. aircraft engaged and killed 25 insurgents during operations in eastern Baghdad. Soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team were investigating a possible point of origin for an indirect-fire attack when their armored vehicle encountered a roadside bomb. After the attack, the soldiers discovered a second roadside bomb. While attempting to secure the bomb, the soldiers came under fire from a nearby house. An enemy mortar team that was spotted on the house’s roof was engaged by coalition air-to-ground fire, killing 25 insurgents. “We will defend ourselves when attacked by armed criminals,” said Army Lt. Col. Steven Stover, a Multinational Division Baghdad spokesman. “We are not the aggressors, but we will defend ourselves and the Iraqi people with all resources available to us.”

— U.S. soldiers in Baghdad killed six insurgents during operations in northeastern Baghdad. First, U.S soldiers engaged a three-man rocket-propelled-grenade team, killing all three. Later, another group of U.S. soldiers came under fire by a three insurgents on a nearby rooftop. The soldiers returned fire and killed all three insurgents.

In March 29 operations:

— U.S. soldiers under insurgent attack at a checkpoint in Kadhamiyah requested air-to-ground support. An Apache AH-64 helicopter fired two missiles that killed two insurgents.

— East of Fallujah, Iraqi army scouts detained a suspected al Qaeda leader. The detainee is linked to roadside-bomb attacks in March and June of last year, which resulted in the deaths of several coalition members.

— In the village of Makhiat, near Mosul, Iraqi soldiers detained four suspected al Qaeda members and held five additional persons for questioning. The detainees are linked to attacks on Iraqi civilians and Iraqi and coalition forces. The detainees also are implicated in numerous kidnappings, torture and murders of innocent Iraqi civilians, as well as attacks on Iraqi and coalition security forces.

— Soldiers with the 2nd Infantry Division’s 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team captured a key criminal leader in Diyala province near Sadiyah. The suspect is believed to be the leader of a criminal cell operating in the Khalis area and is linked to numerous bombings targeting local Iraqis as well as Iraqi and coalition forces. He also is believed to be an explosives expert who leads more than 300 criminals. Another key criminal also was detained during the operation. The second detainee is suspected of posing as an Iraqi policeman and has been implicated in the murder of 20 Iraqis and the burning of their homes. Two other individuals also were detained.

In other Iraq news, coalition forces killed three al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists and uncovered two dozen weapons caches during a five-day operation that targeted bomb-making cells in the Diyala River Valley that ended March 28.

Coalition forces discovered 12 booby-trapped houses as well as anti-aircraft weapons during five days of patrols near Khan Bani Saad, an area that had been used as a safe haven by terrorists.

During the operation, one terrorist was observed hiding in an area of reeds. The assault force repeatedly instructed the individual to come out, but he refused to comply with the ground forces’ instructions. The ground force engaged the terrorist and killed him. Another suspect, hiding in a similar area, was detained when he followed instructions to surrender.

Surveillance teams observed two armed men digging in the road. Intelligence indicated the men were removing weapons from a buried cache. Coalition forces engaged and killed the terrorists. Two other terrorists wounded in the firefight were detained.

Coalition forces called in air-to-ground support to destroy the booby-trapped houses. Searching the area, coalition forces found anti-aircraft weapons, ammunition and vehicles with mounts for the weapons. In another area, terrorists had hidden vehicles prepared as car bombs and also had buried two bombs along a nearby road.

Coalition forces discovered additional weapons caches, bunkers and hidden fighting positions, some reinforced with concrete. The caches contained rockets, mortar rounds and launching devices, bomb-making materials, weapons and ammunition. The ground force also found several Iraqi police and military uniforms, body armor, license plates and other documents. The confiscated ordnance was destroyed.

(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq and Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)

1,444 posted on 03/31/2008 4:36:11 PM PDT by Cindy

1,445 posted on 03/31/2008 4:52:43 PM PDT by Cindy

http://www.scnow.com/midatlantic/scp/news.apx.-content-articles-BTW-2008-03-31-0010.html

“Conway police are looking for answers in shooting”
Monday, Mar 31, 2008 - 05:35 PM Updated: 05:52 PM

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “The man told police that as he was leaving an apartment at Crane Creek he saw three black males that he did not know, and that one of them fired a gun at him.

The man was treated and released from Conway Medical Center.

If you have any information about the shooting, you are asked to call the Conway Police Department at 248-1790.”

1,446 posted on 03/31/2008 5:01:51 PM PDT by Cindy

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local&id=6051997

“2 freeway shootings under investigation”
Monday, March 31, 2008

By Lisa Hernandez

SHERMAN OAKS (KABC) —

ARTICLE SNPPPET: “Residents in Sherman Oaks were startled and frightened by the incident.

The LAPD is hoping witnesses will come forward with any information to help their investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call the LAPD tip line at (877) 529-3855. Callers can remain anonymous.”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Police do not have any suspects in the shooting.

Long Beach police are asking for the public’s help as in aiding in their investigation. If you have any information regarding the Long Beach shooting, you’re asked to call the Long Beach Police Department at (562) 435-6711.

The two freeway shootings do not appear to be related. It was determined that the Long Beach shooting was not gang related, however detectives are still searching for a motive in the Sherman Oaks shooting.

Eyewitness News reporter Lisa Hernandez and The Associated Press contributed to this report.”

1,447 posted on 03/31/2008 5:10:49 PM PDT by Cindy

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17994&Itemid=128

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20080331-16
March 31, 2008

Sons of Iraq turn in weapons cache to Iraqi Army (Lutifiyah)

By Capt. Allison Flannigan, 3rd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. (AASLT)

Multi-National Division – Center PAO

CAMP STRIKER, Iraq – Iraqi Army Soldiers received a tip from an Abna al-Iraq, or Sons of Iraq, leader about the location of a weapons cache in Abu Osage, northwest of Lutifiyah, March 30.

An SOI member told Sheikh Ammar Haza, the Abu Osage SOI leader, of the cache’s whereabouts. Haza then informed Multi-National Division – Center Soldiers of 25th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, who retrieved the cache and brought it back to their unit headquarters in Lutifiyah.

The cache included propellant charges, mortar rounds, rifle grenades, flares and bags of TNT.

After collecting the cache, the Iraqi Army Soldiers notified their U.S. counterparts in 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), to have the cache destroyed.

-30-

1,448 posted on 03/31/2008 5:15:13 PM PDT by Cindy

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17996&Itemid=128

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20080401-01
April 1, 2008

Coalition forces detain three individuals connected to recent EFP attack
Multi-National Division – Center PAO

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq – Coalition forces detained three individuals March 31 in Musayyib who are believed to be connected to a recent explosively formed projectile attack on Coalition forces.

The three suspects are being held for questioning in connection to the attack which occurred in the area of Abu Jassim March 23.

-30-

1,449 posted on 03/31/2008 5:18:31 PM PDT by Cindy

Note: Photo included.

http://media.aftenposten.no/archive/00731/BHATTI__sx596ec6-sa_731598h.jpg

PHOTO CAPTION: “Terrorist suspect Arfan Qadeer Bhatti waved and smiled when he appeared in court in Oslo on Monday.
PHOTO: MORTEN HOLM / SCANPIX”

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article2338437.ece

First published: 31 Mar 2008, 14:20

AFTENPOSTEN
English frontpage
Norwegian frontpage

“First terror trial begins”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “An Oslo court started hearing arguments on Monday in the first trial ever held in Norway that involves terrorism charges. A 30-year-old man is charged, among other things, with firing shots at a synagogue in Oslo.

Arfan Qadeer Bhatti, age 30, and another 28-year-old accomplice are also charged with planning terrorist attacks against the Israeli and American embassies in Oslo.

Bhatti is further charged with firing shots at the suburban Bærum home of one of the leaders of a failed pyramid scheme, and threatening his family because the man owned Bhatti money.

Bhatti has been held in police custody since being arrested after the synagogue shooting in September 2006. Police maintain they have a strong case against him and another 29-year-old accomplice, including tapes of phone conversations in which Bhatti allegedly planned the attacks on the embassies and synagogue.”

1,450 posted on 03/31/2008 5:24:23 PM PDT by Cindy

http://threatswatch.org/rapidrecon/2008/03/another-laptop-goes-astray/

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=security-breach-lost-laptop

March 25, 2008
“Security Breach: Feds Lose Laptop Containing Sensitive Data — Again
This time, a thief made off with a computer containing unencrypted details of about 2,500 participants in an NIH clinical trial”
By Larry Greenemeier

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “The federal government has repeatedly pledged to encrypt sensitive information, not to mention stop the practice of storing it on employee laptops, in the wake of several serious security breaches. But apparently it has yet to make good on its promises. The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) confirmed Monday that a laptop containing unsecured information about 2,500 participants enrolled in a cardiac study by its National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) was stolen from the trunk of a researcher’s car.

NHLBI director Elizabeth Nabel said in a statement that the theft did not occur on the NIH’s Bethesda, Md., campus, but she did not provide any other details about the alleged crime. She said the purloined computer was issued to an employee (as opposed to a government contractor); it reportedly contained the names, birth dates and hospital medical record numbers of each participant as well as information gleaned about them from cardiac MRIs taken during the study conducted from 2001 to 2007.”

1,451 posted on 03/31/2008 5:36:09 PM PDT by Cindy

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###

Note: Mr. Browne,

If this column is accurate; you sir, are today’s STUCK ON STUPID award winner. -Cindy

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1994753/posts

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/columnists.html?in_article_id=550769&in_page_id=1772&in_author_id=256&in_check=N

“The stupendous idiocy of talking to maniacs who just want to destroy us”
Column by Melanie Phillips
23:04pm 30th March 2008

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “At the National Theatre, a new play by the former radical playwright Howard Brenton, Never So Good, paints a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of the Sixties Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who as a young man opposed Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler.

Chamberlain’s claim that he could talk Germany out of war and produce “peace for our time” is, of course, a byword for craven weakness and earns only contempt. But in the very week the play opened, a second Chamberlain was revealed in the form of our Defence Secretary, Des Browne.

In an interview on Saturday, Mr Browne said he thought Britain should be talking to “elements of the Taliban and Hezbollah”.

Since this country’s Armed Forces are locked in a desperate conflict with the Taliban in Afghanistan, Mr Browne makes Chamberlain’s monumental error positively pale by comparison.

At the very moment that our soldiers are giving their lives to defeat the Taliban, how can the Defence Secretary - of all people - say that Britain should be talking to them instead?

What sort of a government is this where the minister in charge of the Armed Forces demoralises and undermines them in time of war by implying that their sacrifice is pointless - and correspondingly heartens their enemies, thus inciting them to further attacks?

Afghanistan is the front line for the defence of the world against the global Islamic jihad. “

1,452 posted on 03/31/2008 7:32:31 PM PDT by Cindy

Did a nail bomb explosion do this? (Australia)
01 April 2008

MYSTERY surrounds the destruction of three wheelie bins in Spains Lane with fire brigade officers suspecting a possible nail bomb explosion but police were saying they had no plans to investigate the matter further. Emergency services were called to the isolated site on the outskirts of Tamworth following a 000 call at about 11.50am.

Units from the Kingswood and Tamworth Rural Fire Services and Tamworth Police attended. RFS safety officer Peter Roffe told The Leader at the scene “it appears the three wheely bins have been blown up by what seems to be explosive devices wrapped in nails”. “If that (nail bombs) is the case then this would constitute a vicious attack – but if it is not then it (bins being destroyed) is not really out of the ordinary.”

When Leader staff arrived on the scene the road was covered in a carpet of nails and debris from the three bins which had been scattered over a wide area.

Excerpted

http://tamworth.yourguide.com.au/news/local/general/did-a-nail-bomb-explosion-do-this/1213539.html

1,453 posted on 03/31/2008 8:13:58 PM PDT by Oorang (Tyranny thrives best where government need not fear the wrath of an armed people - Alex Kozinski)

Al-Qaeda arm in Yemen posts first web video
31 March 2008

Sanaa - An al-Qaeda cell in Yemen, known as the Yemen Soldiers Brigade, released the group's first video on Monday on websites linked to fundamentalist Islam.

The video, which lasts 13 minutes, celebrates the death of Yemeni al-Qaeda leader, Fouz al-Rubei, who was killed in a clash with police near the capital Sanaa in October 2006. The terrorist was found with other al-Qaeda members in a hideout, which was also used to store explosives, on the outskirts of the city.

Al-Rubei, was condemned to death in 2004 for having carried out attacks on oil pipelines in Yemen in 2002 and for having killed a soldier in the province of Abin. He managed to escape from prison in February 2006 together with 22 other al-Qaeda members who were in the prison in Sanaa.

The video released on Monday also showed footage of an attack carried out by al-Rubei on an oil pipeline in the country. The video begins with the words used in a previous audio message by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, which was dedicated to Yemen. In that message, bin Laden fiercely attacked Yemen's president Ali Abdullah Saleh, accusing him of being an American ally.

It also attacked other religious leaders such as the well-known judge Hamud al-Hitar who has been employed to re-educate the al-Qaeda fighters currently in Yemen's jails. The video by the Yemen Soldiers Brigade concluded with a statement by a suicide-bomber from Sanaa, Abu Miqdad, who was seen standing between a Kalashnikov rifle and grenade launcher. Miqdad said that he was ready to sacrfice himself for Osama bin Laden.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.2025198090

1,454 posted on 03/31/2008 8:27:40 PM PDT by Oorang (Tyranny thrives best where government need not fear the wrath of an armed people - Alex Kozinski)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1994883/posts?page=3#3

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1994883/posts";

“Geert Wilders’ ‘Fitna’: Insightful and Inciteful
HUMAN EVENTS ^ | 03/31/2008 | Robert Spencer
Posted on 03/31/2008 9:48:22 PM PDT by neverdem

1,455 posted on 03/31/2008 10:04:53 PM PDT by Cindy

To: Oorang; naturalman1975; Aussie Dasher; Dundee; MadIvan; Mrs Ivan; backhoe

1,456 posted on 03/31/2008 10:08:07 PM PDT by Cindy

Thanks for Evan Kohlman’s analysis. As for the correlation, I guess we’ve learned a few things on TM over the years. I haven’t been able to delve into either message this time, but from Zawahiri - this stands out:

>>Hosni Mubarak is repeating with the Jews to play the same role that the (Lebanese) Phalangist forces did with them in Sabra and Shatila.<<

This sounds to me like the directive to “off” Mubarak as they did with Bachir Gemayel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_Massacre

Please let me know if you find the 8/5/1998 letter, I’d lke to read that one.

1,457 posted on 03/31/2008 10:21:01 PM PDT by Velveeta

“Then she smelled the scent of perfume and gasoline in front of the restroom”

I read it all. Thank you.

1,458 posted on 03/31/2008 10:35:50 PM PDT by Velveeta

Thank you Velveeta.
I appreciate it.

1,459 posted on 03/31/2008 10:44:16 PM PDT by Cindy

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3526109,00.html

5 mortars fired toward Kissufim; no injuries
Published: 04.01.08, 09:00 / Israel News

Five mortar shells were fired by Palestinians in Gaza landed along the security fence in the Kissufim crossing area. No injuries or damage were reported. (Shmulik Hadad)

1,460 posted on 03/31/2008 11:37:55 PM PDT by Cindy

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