Jerusalem On Alert For Suspected Terror Attack

Jerusalem district police were on alert on Tuesday morning after receiving warnings that a suspicious car was on its way to the city, local media reported.

A spokesman of Jerusalem police confirmed that the car could be carrying terror suspects.

Checkpoints were set up along the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, causing traffic jams near the entrance to Jerusalem. The policemen working to direct the traffic called on drivers to come to Jerusalem through the Jerusalem-Modiin Road

6 Muslim Imans Removed From Flight 300

Six Muslim imams were removed from a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and questioned by police for several hours before being released, a leader of the group said.

The six were among passengers who boarded Flight 300, bound for Phoenix, around 6:30 p.m. Monday, airport spokesman Pat Hogan said.

A passenger initially raised concerns about the group through a note passed to a flight attendant, according to Andrea Rader, a spokeswoman for US Airways. She said police were called after the captain and airport security workers asked the men to leave the plane and the men refused.

“They took us off the plane, humiliated us in a very disrespectful way,” said Omar Shahin, of Phoenix. The six Muslim scholars were returning from a conference in Minneapolis of the North American Imams Federation, said Shahin, president of the group. Five of them were from the Phoenix-Tempe area, while one was from Bakersfield, California, he said.

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Suspicious Passenger To Stay In Jail

A federal judge overturned a lower ruling Monday and ordered detention for a man stopped at Detroit Metropolitan Airport with articles about nuclear plants and suitcase bombs and the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

U.S. District Judge Paul D. Borman ruled Sisayehiticha Dinssa, 34, was both a flight risk and a danger to the community. He overturned a ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge R. Steven Whalen, who earlier on Monday ordered Dinssa released under strict supervision.

Dinssa, an Ethiopian-born U.S. citizen who lists his address as Dallas, Texas, was arrested Tuesday at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after arriving from Kenya by way of Amsterdam.

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6 Passengers Taken Off Plane at MSP

Six men were removed from an airplane at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Monday evening.

Sources say the men, of Middle Eastern ethnicity, behaved in a manner that caused the crew to be concerned.

The men were taken off the plane after it returned to the gate and are being questioned by authorities.

The remaining passengers were also taken off the flight, U.S. Airways flight 300, bound for Phoenix.

Those passengers are being re-screened for boarding.

There were 170 passengers on board the plane, which is a Boeing 757.

Interesting that these men were also headed to Phoenix, as was Sisayehiticha Dinssa. Dinssa you might recall was arrested last week at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport carrying nearly $80,000 in cash and a laptop computer containing information about nuclear materials and cyanide. You can read the original story here.

And today’s update of that story below.
Update:

ABC 5 Eyewitness News is now reporting that the men refused to get off the plane when asked and were subsequently removed by law enforcement officers.

Canadian Targets On al-Qaeda Hit List

Al-Qaeda terrorists intend to attack Canada, says the head of the RCMP’s national-security branch.

“I firmly believe it is a question of not if, but when,” Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell said yesterday. “The threat is growing.”

He said the threat is real, though it is impossible to say whether it is imminent.

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Rep. Rangel Will Seek to Reinstate Draft

Americans would have to sign up for a new military draft after turning 18 if the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has his way.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Sunday he sees his idea as a way to deter politicians from launching wars and to bolster U.S. troop levels insufficient to cover potential future action in Iran, North Korea and Iraq.

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Al-Qaeda Sends Fighters Back To UK As Sleepers

British Muslims fighting against coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are being sent back to Britain as al-Qaeda `sleepers` agents, a media report said on Sunday.

Quoting British intelligence agency MI5, the paper said young Asian men trained at al-Qaeda camps are seen as too valuable to fight British and US troops.

Intelligence officers believe they are being ordered back to Britain to conduct terrorist operations independent of al-Qaeda`s high command, media persons said.

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Devices – Radiation Detected N.M. Fairgrounds

About 500 people were evacuated from the New Mexico State Fairgrounds Expo as a precaution Saturday evening after low levels of radiation were detected, police said.

A Geiger counter registered the presence of radiation after two objects were discovered at the 236-acre fairgrounds in the heart of Albuquerque, said Lt. Juan Martinez, a spokesman for New Mexico state police.

The objects, one appearing to be a pipe bomb and another that appeared to be a paint can, were found under a car parked near the fairground’s fine arts building, Martinez said. One object was marked “nuclear” and the other, “cobalt,” he said.

Police believe the radiation was coming from Cobalt 57, a material used in the medical and plumbing industries. Cobalt-57 is a radioactive poison used in biological research. A bomb squad unit and hazardous materials teams were searching the area for any additional devices.

Feds Say Lodi Terror Probe Continues

Eighteen months after FBI agents swarmed Lodi’s Muslim community and arrested a father and son on terrorism-related charges, investigators said they are still examining several individuals named by the pair.

U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott and Drew Parenti, who heads the FBI’s Sacramento office, met Friday with about 100 members of the Pakistani community at the Lodi Muslim Mosque. The site was part of a federal probe into what investigators initially said was a suspected terrorist cell in the agricultural community south of Sacramento.

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Netanyahu Warns of Iran Threat

Benjamin Netanyahu warns of the Iranian threat on the Glenn Beck show.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm4zuKukUco[/video]

Bin Laden Likely In Our Region

Afghan President Hamid Karzai Saturday said Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden “is currently likely to be present in the South Asian-Afghan region.” “I do not know where he is. If he has not run away, he is in the region,” Karzai said on whether he knew the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.

He was replying to questions after his address at the “Hindustan Times Leadership Summit” at Delhi Saturday.

RAND Says US Should Greatly Expand Efforts

To defeat the global jihadist movement, the United States should move beyond the boundaries of conventional counter-terrorism and seek to undermine support for Islamic terrorism within Muslim nations, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.The report says this type of campaign enabled the United States to help nurture opposition to Communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, culminating in the overthrow of ruling regimes and the collapse of the Soviet system.

The study by RAND, a nonprofit research organization, says a successful campaign against Islamic terrorism requires: attacking the ideological underpinnings of global jihadism; severing ideological and other links between terrorist groups; and strengthening the capabilities of front-line states to counter local jihadist threats.

The report says that if the jihadist ideology “continues to spread and gain greater acceptance in the Muslim world, it will produce more terrorists to replenish the ranks of al-Qaeda and related groups. If the ideology is countered and discredited, al-Qaeda and its universe will wither and die.”

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Omar Nasiri – al Qaeda Operative Tells Story

Sitting in a hotel suite here, a cigarette and late-morning beer in hand, Omar Nasiri does not look the part of a radical Islamic terrorist. But then, appearances may mean little to a man whose name is not really Omar Nasiri and whose life is cloaked in layers of deception.

Nasiri, a Moroccan, claims that for seven years beginning in the mid-1990s, and ending before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he was involved with militant Muslim groups in Europe that later coalesced into Al Qaeda. He trained with weapons and explosives at camps in Afghanistan, meeting some of the world’s most-wanted terrorists. Later, in London, he funneled messages between those men and radical Islamic clerics.

All the while, Nasiri said, he was operating as an agent for the intelligence services of France, Britain, and Germany.

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Man Arrested With Laptop, Cash, Nuclear Info

A man arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport carrying nearly $80,000 in cash and a laptop computer containing information about nuclear materials and cyanide will be held in custody at least until Monday, a U.S. magistrate judge ruled Wednesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leonid Feller said Sisayehiticha Dinssa, 35, is a potential risk to public safety and federal agents want to get a warrant to search his computer more thoroughly.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald A. Scheer ordered Dinssa held pending a detention hearing Monday.

Feller said Dinssa, who gave a Texas address, arrived in Detroit from Nigeria by way of Amsterdam and was headed for Phoenix.

The government considers Dinssa a potential flight risk and a potential “risk of harm to the community based on the material found in his computer,” Feller said.

Dinssa, a U.S. citizen who is unemployed, was charged with currency reporting violations after he was arrested at the airport Tuesday. An affidavit filed in court said a dog found the scent of narcotics on cash Dinssa carried.

Dinssa told Customs agents he was only carrying about $18,000.

Updated Story

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