Saudi Terror Plot Mirrored 9/11
April 29, 2007
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Al-Qaida-linked plotters hoped to reproduce the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, planning to send suicide pilots to military bases and attack the oil refineries.
Targets that drive the economy of Osama bin Laden’s homeland, the government said Saturday.
Revealing new details of the purported plot, a government spokesman said some of the 172 attackers trained as pilots in an unidentified “troubled country” nearby, hoping to use the planes to carry out suicide attacks.
The spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, would not say where the training took place: “It could be
Iraq, Somalia, Pakistan, there are so many troubled regions in the world. I can’t specify.”
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U.S. Health Agency Stages Bird Flu War Game
April 28, 2007
A leading U.S. health agency staged a war game this week to test its response to one of the worst health emergencies it could imagine an outbreak of avian flu on American soil.
The exercise, which ended on Friday, was designed to simulate how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would marshal its resources, coordinate with other branches of government and, crucially, reassure the public while preparing it for a possible pandemic.
“If we were at the beginning of a pandemic this is exactly what it would look like,” said CDC Director Julie Gerberding at a news conference early in the 48-hour drill, which involved hundreds of officials.
If things turn out wrong it could lead to a “catastrophe beyond our planning,” she said.
In the script, a student infected with a new strain of H5N1 virus returns from Indonesia where a bird flu outbreak is under way. He dies but not before infecting others including members of a swimming team.
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Saudi Arabia Arrests 172 in Terror Plot
April 27, 2007
Police arrested 172 Islamic militants, some of whom had trained abroad as pilots so they could fly aircraft in attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil fields, the Interior Ministry said Friday.
A spokesman said all that remained in the plot “was to set the zero hour.”
The ministry issued a statement saying the detainees were planning to carry out suicide atttacks against “public figures, oil facilities, refineries … and military zones” - some of which were outside the kingdom.
“They had reached an advance stage of readiness and what remained only was to set the zero hour for their attacks,” Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Mansour al-Turki told the Associated Press in a phone call. “They had the personnel, the money, the arms. Almost all the elements for terror attacks were complete except for setting the zero hour for the attacks.”
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Prosecutors Add Charges In Alleged Terror Plot
April 27, 2007
Federal prosecutors have added charges against a Houston-raised college student charged in connection with an alleged terrorist plot to aid the Taliban.
Syed Maaz Shah, 19, was indicted last year on two counts of being an alien in possession of a firearm.
The new charges make the same claim, but also allege that the Pakistani student was in the United States illegally.
All four counts charge Shah with unlawfully possessing a semiautomatic weapon.
“They just added (the counts) to cover a question about his status in the country,” said Shah’s attorney, Frank Jackson, of Dallas.
Either way, a student visa holder or someone who has an expired visa and is here illegally cannot have a gun, prosecutors allege.
Nancy Herrera, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, declined to elaborate on the new charges.
Jackson said he’ll argue that his client was entrapped by a confidential informant and undercover FBI agent who gained Shah’s trust at a Muslim camp site in Willis. “There is no terrorist implication to what he has done except some words he might have used.” Jackson said. “They’re probably going to bring in some issues about conversations that he had with undercover agents reflecting some opinions about how the world is.”
Background Story - Video From Dec. 2006
Story Source - Houston Chronicle
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Arrest Made In Bishop Bomber Case
April 25, 2007
He was once known to authorities only as the Bishop Bomber. But after months of investigation, he now has a real name and a face.
That man is John Tomkins, 42, from Dubuque. Investigators arrested him on his way to work Wednesday morning. Wednesday afternoon, Tomkins made an initial appearance in federal court in Chicago.
Click here for arrest documents.
Investigators closed Grant Street from early Wednesday morning until the afternoon. They were searching the Tomkins home at 2067 Grant St. The neighborhood has been filled with investigators and local and national media all day. Investigators believe they’ve finally come to the end of a two-year search.
The nationwide search for the man who calls himself the Bishop Bomber ends here on this quiet west end street. Investigators say John Tomkins motivation was money.
Investigators say Tomkins allegedly sent threatening notes to financial companies demanding a raise in stock numbers. Investigators say in January Tomkins sent two packages through the U.S. Postal System that had pipe bombs inside. He sent one to Kansas City, Mo. The other was found in the Chicago area.
Colen says Tomkins bought some of the supplies to make the bombs at the Dubuque Menards store. Another search team found several pieces of equipment belonging to Tomkins in this storage unit behind the Penn Place Apartments in Dubuque. All of the recovered evidence is now being sent to a crime lab in Chicago.
Developing…
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Phoenix - Surprise Airport Searches Target Employees
April 25, 2007
When airport restaurant cook Jose Vezquez clocked out of work at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Tuesday afternoon, the Transportation Security Administration officers were waiting for him.
The TSA is ratcheting up unannounced employee searches at the eighth busiest airport in the country.
On Tuesday, the Homeland Security agency searched the cook and 31 other Sky Harbor workers during a surprise check for weapons or other suspicious items.
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An estimated 31,000 people work at Sky Harbor. Maintaining tight employee security helps keep the 41 million passengers who pass through Sky Harbor safe, TSA officials say.
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Terror Trial To Begin For Florida Doctor
April 24, 2007
The government has said he was one in a loose-knit group of people who agreed to assist organizations designated by the United States as terrorist outfits.
But a doctor was to face trial alone on charges that he broke the law by agreeing to treat the wounds of al-Qaida members.
A jazz musician, a cab driver and a bookstore owner have already pleaded guilty in the case.
Oral questioning of jurors was scheduled to begin Tuesday, with opening statements unlikely to occur before Wednesday, in the case against Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir (pictured above).
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Canada: The Cell Next Door
April 24, 2007
In a story close to home, FRONTLINE/World and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation go inside a homegrown terrorist cell accused of planning mass destruction and murder on North American soil.
The Cell Next Door retraces events leading up to last year’s arrests in Toronto of 18, mostly young, Muslim men who are now standing trial and talks to the radical Muslim informant within their ranks who helped foil the attacks.
PBS has made this 28 minute video available to watch online.
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Al-Qaeda Planning Large Scale British Terror Attack
April 22, 2007
“Operative claims the operation will be on a par with Hiroshima and Nagasaki and will shake the Roman throne.”
al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq are planning the first “large-scale” terrorist attacks on Britain and other western targets with the help of supporters in Iran, according to a leaked intelligence report.
Spy chiefs warn that one operative had said he was planning an attack on “a par with Hiroshima and Nagasaki” in an attempt to “shake the Roman throne”, a reference to the West.
Another plot could be timed to coincide with Tony Blair stepping down as prime minister, an event described by Al-Qaeda planners as a “change in the head of the company”.
The report, produced earlier this month and seen by The Sunday Times, appears to provide evidence that Al-Qaeda is active in Iran and has ambitions far beyond the improvised attacks it has been waging against British and American soldiers in Iraq.
There is no evidence of a formal relationship between Al-Qaeda, a Sunni group, and the Shi’ite regime of President Mah-moud Ahmadinejad, but experts suggest that Iran’s leaders may be turning a blind eye to the terrorist organisation’s activities.
The intelligence report also makes it clear that senior Al-Qaeda figures in the region have been in recent contact with operatives in Britain.
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Homeland Security Eases Passport Rules for Kids
April 22, 2007
Although passports will be required for all adults entering the U.S. by next January, birth certificates will suffice for kids coming by land or sea, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
That will save families $82 per child, the cost of acquiring a child’s passport, and make it easier for sports teams and school groups to cross the border.
Rules that went into effect three months ago mandated passports for all adults entering the U.S. by air but delayed the requirement for those entering by land or sea until the start of 2008.
Because children are considered low security risks, relaxing the requirements for kids was a no-brainer, according to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Tourism officials, initially worried that requiring kids to acquire passports would discourage tourism and hurt the economy, applauded the decision.
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