“24” is Fiction, but Chemical Nerve Agent Threat is Real
May 31, 2006 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
“24” is Fiction, but Chemical Nerve Agent Threat is Real
For five seasons of Fox’s hit television show “24,” lead character Jack Bauer and his colleagues at the Counter Terrorism Unit have struggled to protect the United States from threats ranging from bio-terrorism to nuclear attack. This makes for great entertainment, but it also reflects real threats that we face in the world today.
The plotline for this season’s “24” focused largely on a terrorist threat involving a chemical nerve agent. While not considered as high impact as a nuclear device or biological agent, a chemical nerve agent is a much more probable weapon of choice.
Cities Brace For Terrorism Threat Rankings
May 30, 2006 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
The Homeland Security Department’s 2007 list of cities at the highest risk of terrorism comes out Wednesday. Some big towns may not make the cut.
Iran missile transfer puts most Israelis in range
May 30, 2006 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
Iran has equipped the Lebanese-based Hezbollah terror group with missiles capable of striking all of Israel’s major population centers, doubling the terror group’s firing range, it was revealed yesterday.
Congress balks at Pentagon ‘war on terror’ missile
May 29, 2006 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
Congress has stalled Pentagon plans to put conventional warheads on inter-continental missiles for use in Washington’s “war on terror”, out of concern that they could trigger a nuclear war.
Al Qaeda Plays the Market
May 29, 2006 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
Because Saudis are allowed to buy on margin (they can use half the value of their stocks as collateral to buy more stocks), the crash has wiped out, financially, over a million families in Saudi Arabia, and nearly as many elsewhere in the Gulf, where other markets suffered similar losses. In Saudi Arabia, banks are allowed to recover the stock loans via deductions from the borrowers salary. Thus, a lot of Saudis have gone from rich to “just-getting-by” in the space of a few months. One indicator of this is weddings, which tend to be spectacular affairs. Some 50 percent of the weddings planned for the next few months, have been cancelled.
Capitol Hill Shooting Investigated
May 26, 2006 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
Police sealed off the Capitol on Friday amid reports that shots were fired in the garage of a House office building.
Capitol police were investigating “the sound of gunfire in the garage level of the Rayburn House Office Building,” said an announcement on the internal Capitol voice alarm system.
‘Suicide bomber’ explosive found in Phoenix apartment
May 25, 2006 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
Explosive material found inside a Phoenix apartment during a narcotics search was determined to be the same highly unstable substance widely used by suicide bombers.
Authorities do not know how William Ronald Roberts, 38, obtained a pound of triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, but said there is no indication that he is affiliated with any terrorist organizations.
Department of Public Safety officers went to Roberts’ apartment near 16th Street and Highland on a narcotics tip Wednesday. The officers, who were acting under the Maricopa County HIDTA task force, found personal amounts of marijuana, methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in the front of the home.
Hamas looking to fly planes into buildings
May 24, 2006 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
Hamas is seeking the ability to attack Israel using small airplanes laden with explosives to be flown 9-11-style into important targets, possibly Tel Aviv skyscrapers, Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas’ so-called military wing, told WorldNetDaily yesterday.
Abdullah is considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas’ Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas’ declared “resistance” department. He said his group would not immediately carry out airplane attacks, but that Hamas is preparing for the possibility should a long-term truce it claims to abide by falls apart.
U.S.: Usama Bin Laden Tape Authentic
May 24, 2006 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
The latest audio tape by Usama bin Laden may be an attempt by the Al Qaeda chief to regain the spotlight for his terror network and raise his profile after being overshadowed by insurgents in Iraq, terrorism experts said Wednesday.
Intelligence experts said a technical analysis of the tape, which was posted on the Internet Tuesday, showed the tape was probably authentic.
Bin Laden on the Move; New Sightings in Pakistan
May 24, 2006 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
Pakistani government sources tell ABC News they have “credible reports” that Osama bin Laden and his entourage have moved down from high mountainous peaks along the Afghan border to a valley area 40 miles inside the Pakistan border.
The officials say the reports put bin Laden around Kohistan’s Kumrat Valley.
Al-Qaedas Hidden Arsenal and Sponsors: Interview with Hamid Mir
May 23, 2006 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
RM: How many nuclear weapons does Al-Qaeda possess?
HM: As far as I know, they smuggled three suitcase nukes from Russia to Europe. They smuggled many kilos of enriched uranium inside America for their dirty bomb projects. They said in 1999 that they must have material for more than six dirty bombs in America. They tested at least one dirty bomb in the Kunar province of Afghanistan in 2000.
They have planned an attack bigger than 9/11, even before 9/11 happened. Osama Bin Laden trained 42 fighters to destroy the American economy and military might. 19 were used on 9/11, 23 are still “sleeping” inside America waiting for a wake-up call from Bin Laden.
Osama’s biographer says nukes in U.S.
May 23, 2006 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
Al-Qaida has smuggled tactical nuclear weapons and uranium into the U.S. across the Mexican border and is planning to launch a major terrorist attack using a combination of nukes and dirty nukes, according to an interview with Osama bin Laden’s biographer, Hamid Mir, in WorldThreats.com.
Bin Laden: Moussaoui Not Linked to 9/11
May 23, 2006 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
Osama bin Laden purportedly said in an audio tape Tuesday that Zacarias Moussaoui – the only person convicted in the U.S. for the Sept. 11 attacks – had nothing to do with the operation.
“He had no connection at all with Sept. 11,” the speaker, claiming to be bin Laden, said in the tape posted on the Internet.
“I am the one in charge of the 19 brothers and I never assigned brother Zacarias to be with them in that mission,” he said, referring to the 19 hijackers.
Terrorists Within
May 22, 2006 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
A former top Homeland Security official warns that the terrorists aren’t confined to the battle fronts abroad, but are already here in America living among us. And he says the government needs to redouble its efforts to root them out.
“While we certainly should continue to take the fight to the enemy wherever he is, we need to face the awful reality that the enemy may already be in our very own backyard,” says former Homeland Security Department Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin. “The frightening truth is that there are already terrorists among us.”
