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Locked on 12/31/2009 10:12:09 AM PST by Admin Moderator, reason:
THREAT MATRIX: 2010 |
Posted on 02/09/2009 3:41:05 PM PST by Velveeta
Top spy fears nuclear terror atack
Snips:
Mr Halevy pointed to UK intelligence indicating there were 200 groups of terrorist cells still operating. "There's no reason to believe these groups will evaporate into thin air. We have to take it for granted (they) are hatching plots of one kind or another," he said.
He argued for much broader detention powers in the West. "There is merit in having legislation that allows you to keep a detainee suspect much longer without giving him access to lawyers," he said. Mr Halevy did not apologise for this stance, given the global terrorism threat: "You have to protect human rights. But what is the No. 1 human right? It is the right to live."
Story of an American detained overseas
Last month, an American citizen who spent over a year imprisoned in the Middle East was quietly freed by his captors in the United Arab Emirates. That man, Naji Hamdan, is now reunited with his family in Beruit, Lebanon. In his first broadcast interview since being freed, Hamdan spoke to me about his ordeal.
Hamdan is a 43-year-old Lebanese-American who spent 20 years living in southern California. Until three weeks ago, he was jailed by the UAE in a terrorism case still shrouded in mystery.
Hamdan spent 14 months behind bars in what he and his attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union call "proxy detention," suggesting that Hamdan was detained by the UAE at the request of the United States.
"Without a doubt. Without a single doubt in my mind," Hamdan says.
Hamdan spoke to me by telephone from Beruit, discussing his captivity and trial in which he wasn't permitted to testify. He stood accused of supporting terrorism and participating in a terrorist group. But even as it convicted him, the UAE never made clear what he allegedly did.
Thank you for the ping MamaDearest.
You’re welcome Cindy.
A former U.S. anti-drug enforcement chief has been arrested and accused of working for the drug lords he was supposed to combat, court documents indicate. Richard Padilla Cramer is accused of being in the pay of Mexican gangsters while working in U.S. anti-drug agencies, unmasking informants and setting up smuggling deals, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
Hostility between British and American military leaders revealed
Snips:
Col Tanner’s boss, the top British commander in the country, Major General Andrew Stewart, told how he spent “a significant amount of my time” “evading” and “refusing” orders from his US superiors.
Most of the documents – apart from some which might compromise sources – referred to yesterday and today are published online at Telegraph.co.uk
The Darul Islam Movement in the United States
Snip: Sheik Gilani named his group Jamaat al-Fuqra, meaning "community of the impoverished." Al-Fuqra is an incredibly controversial organization today; members have attacked ethnic Indians and Indian sects, and the group has also been linked to an attack against a Muslim leader in Tucson, Arizona. Al-Fuqra has bought and developed a number of properties in rural regions of the U.S., maintaining its headquarters in Hancock, New York. Al-Fuqra members are said to receive weapons and other military-style training on these properties. One analyst has warned that the group, now known as the Muslims of the Americas, is "capable of committing violence toward any proponent of a belief set that does not match their own."28
Iraqi child abduction new form of terror
Iraqi children are increasingly becoming targets of kidnappings, rape and murder, in what the government believes is a new terrorism tactic.
Thank you for the ping MamaDearest.
Re: 1539
Good post MD and thanks for the ping and information.
Again folks, we’re heading into the holiday season. Please remain extra vigilant.
VERY worried about mall attacks this Friday.
Be aware of the 2 closest exits and be aware of what is going on around you.
Those with concealed carry permits should be extra vigilant. You may be in the best position to stop any such attacks.
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/987/story/804880.html
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. If America's less-than-rapid response to the H1N1 pandemic is an indicator of how the U.S. public health system would react in the event of a bioweapon attack, we are in deep, deep yogurt, folks.
It's taken more than six months to ramp up production of a vaccine for a contagious disease that health officials worldwide knew was coming.
Fort Worth parents remember all too well the late April decision by school district officials to close all 144 local campuses for more than a week because of concerns about the spread of swine flu.
Wouldn't it have made sense to vaccinate children against H1N1 before school started this fall?
"Sure it would have," said retired Air Force Col. Randall Larsen, executive director of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation and Terrorism and author of "Our Own Worst Enemy."
"But there's a problem. There's (just) one facility in the United States making H1N1 vaccine, and it's using the same technology we used 50 years ago."
Inoculating eggs - produced at the 35 U.S. chicken farms....
[ ... snip ... ]
A December 2008 report issued by the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation and Terrorism concluded that terrorists will be more likely to use a biological weapon than a nuclear one in a future attack on the United States.
As disquieting as it is to hear, the materials to construct a bioweapon aren't difficult to obtain, even in a post-9-11 world.
The level of technological expertise needed to manufacture a bioweapon isn't high, said the "World at Risk" report.
And the materials needed to make such a weapon aren't all closely monitored. Many of the pathogens are readily available - in nature, in sick people and in laboratories.
The key to mitigating the long-term terrorism value of a bioweapon is rapid response, recognition and recovery - and recovery includes having therapeutics available ASAP for those exposed and vaccines to prevent the spread.
"The point of terrorism is not just to claim victims but to....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2278371/replies?c=7170
There's new information today about the possibility of being infected with H1N1 - TWICE.
The CDC has confirmed that there is a pediatrician who contracted H1N1 on 2 different occassions.
This is particularly worrisome -- NOT because people may not have immunity from H1N1 from having contracted it once before -- but rather because mutations in this H1N1 are now being documented, it means that exposure to the original version will not NECESSARILY convey any immunity to the infinite number of possible mutations... some of which, of course, could be horrifically contagious & deadly.
How many Americans could comfortably shelter in place for a mere THREE DAYS, much less a whole 3 week quarantine?
People invariably won't have enough kleen-ex, toilet paper, cough drops, cold medicine, zinc lozenges, elderberry syrup, cough syrup, advil, tylenol, aspirin, mouthwashes, paper towels, soaps, shampoo, bland foods & water, ETC.
I wonder if people were always so illogically ill prepared for potential emergencies -- or if something happens to the minds, both thoughts & feelings, of people caught up in the obesity/Type-2-diabetes epidemic.
Unfortunately, many in Californicate are unable to get a CC because of politically correct sheriffs. So we have to be on double lookout.
Re #1550, about checking the medicine cabinet - GREAT IDEA! Think I'll do that myself this evening. Thanks!
That is a shame about the folks in CA not being able to protect themselves.
Yet another thing for me to be thankful for, I live in a ‘shall issue’ state.
Snip: The other significant addition to airport security in the near future would be equipment based on Liquid Screening Technology (LST) which could change the way air passengers pack their handbags.
“Unlike Liquid Explosive Detectors, currently in use in major airports, LST is a non-invasive form of explosive detection,’’ says Mohanan . While using a Liquid Explosive Detector, the suspected liquid item needs to be removed from the bag for inspection. But an LST works on the agnetic resonance imaging principle, and can detect an explosive liquid inside the bag.
The chief Border Patrol agent for the South Texas region drew the line in the sand last week on agents being shot at from the Mexican side of the border. The announcement was an indication of how violent the border has become and of how much is at stake for the United States in the fight to control the Mexican drug cartels.
Ronald Vitiello, Border Patrol sector chief for South Texas, stood shoulder to shoulder with state and local enforcement officials and said that Border Patrol agents patrolling along the Rio Grande will now be armed with fully automatic rifles and be authorized to return fire.
33 Cuban illegal aliens break into Turkey Point nuclear power plant on Thanksgiviing
First we hear a remarkable story about how an ordinary couple makes it past the Secret Service into a State dinner and now word comes out of Florida that 33 illegal aliens from Cuba took a boat right up into a supposedly impenetrable nuclear power plant on Thanksgiving. Both incidents raise questions for the Secret Service and DHS as to just how prepared we are for a terrorist attack and also how secure our national power grid is.
The Miami Herald is today reporting that a boat carrying twenty-nine adults and four children called the control room for the Turkey Point Nuclear Power plant in the early afternoon and advised them they had landed their craft in one of the facilities cooling canals and needed assistance. That it was Turkey Point and happened on Thanksgiving is a curious coincidence but plant security are apparently not amused and neither is DHS. They were caught totally unprepared at one of the nations most "secure" nuclear power generating facilities.
E-Bay suspect made 100s of fake IDs for minors
Roberto Palo Aguilar of San Ramon was allegedly in possession of three fake California driver's licenses when he was arrested by members of a Pleasanton police special enforcement unit, police said. Officers obtained a search warrant for his home and allegedly located computers, printers, a laminator, a card cutter and other items used to produce fake IDs, according to police.
Drug cartels exploiting gang connections within US military
Snips: Law enforcement authorities are concerned the influence of warring Mexican drug cartels may now be penetrating the U.S. military.
Investigators said the suspected gunman at a recent shooting at a popular El Paso nightspot was a Fort Bliss soldier. His two alleged victims, also soldiers on post.
Snips: On the eve of President Barack Hussein Obama’s announcement of troop levels in Afghanistan next week, his enemy Mullah Mohammed Omar has thrown down the gauntlet. In a major message to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al Adha this week, the commander of the Afghan Taliban addressed “the rulers of the White House” about their plans to increase troop numbers in Afghanistan and to pursue “illogical strategies” that he promises will only lead to “bitterness and pain.” ............. tells Obama that he and the Afghan people are experts in defeating empires, having destroyed the English and Russian empires before the invasion of the “imperialistic American crusaders.” In short, Omar welcomes the coming fight with a larger NATO army, and he lays down in this message his no-compromise strategy for victory.
At the end of the message, he appeals to the entire Islamic community to join in the jihad against America.
Imam's emails to Ft. Hood suspect tame compared with online rhetoric
Snips: E-mails between a U.S. Army officer and a radical Muslim cleric did not worry anti-terrorism investigators, they said, because nothing in the correspondence presaged violence. But elsewhere on the Internet, the imam was urging people to kill soldiers and others.
After accused Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan started e-mailing in December, the cleric increased the pace of his fundamentalist rhetoric on the Web, a Dallas Morning News investigation found.
But the Muslim cleric didn't need to give specific direction by e-mail. His exhortations about killing – soldiers, innocent women and children, blasphemers, even oneself – were readily available until his online site went dead a few days after the Fort Hood shootings. The News found al-Awlaki's speeches and blogs by combing through Web archives and reviewing online recordings and transcripts.
Program that trusts in truckers attracts drug smugglers
Snips: A U.S. program that offers trusted trucking companies speedy passage across American borders has begun attracting just the sort of customers who place a premium on avoiding inspections: Mexican drug smugglers. Most trucks in the program pause at the border for just 20 seconds before entering the United States. Nine out of 10 of them do so without anyone looking at their cargo.
The government keeps the list of participants secret, citing national security and trade secrets. But some of the 9,500 companies who are part of the system advertise their membership to drum up business, making them targets for smugglers, who can then threaten drivers or offer them bribes.
More than half of U.S. imports now come from companies in the program, called the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, or C-TPAT. Mexican trucking companies make up only 6 percent of global membership in the system, but they accounted for half of its 71 security violations during the past two years.
In a 24-hour period in April, customs officers in Laredo found three tons of marijuana in trucks carrying auto parts across two bridges. Five days after that, agents in El Paso, Texas, found more than four tons of marijuana in a tractor-trailer hauling auto parts. Stephen Flynn, senior fellow for Counterterrorism and National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said truckers do not feel safe rejecting bribes, no matter what agreements their companies have made with the U.S. government. “The basic vulnerability for a truck driver remains the ‘plata or plomo’ dilemma,” Flynn said, using Spanish shorthand for taking a bribe or a bullet.
THANKS MamaDearest for both your pings.
In shock this AM about the killing of the four LEOs at the coffeeshop. I pray the perps are apprehended quickly and pay the ultimate price for their crime. It is utterly despicable and worrisome, as there seems to be far too much of this going on in America these days and not nearly enough outrage about these events and the people who commit them.
I agree 100% and believe the lineup for the Anti- Christ title is being fought for by the one who doesn't want us to know where he was born or if his last name might be Satan instead of what the records show.
Perhaps that person might be a citizen, but may have falsified his college records to obtain foreign student status, which would definitely be fraud and potential reason to remove him from office. The judicial system thus far has played ball with him and democrats. It's a sorry day in America when there is not a single federal judge willing to do the right thing and verify his legitimacy. Instead, thus far complicity, fear or incompetence keeps Americans from learning, by the Constitution, what they are entitled to know.
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