UK Terror Alert Threat Raised To Critical – Highest Level Indicating Imminent Attack
June 30, 2007 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
The UK’s national terrorism threat level has been raised to “critical” after attacks in Glasgow and London.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged the public to be vigilant and added: “I know the British people will stand together, united and resolute.”
The announcement came after a meeting of the government emergencies committee Cobra, following a burning car being driven into a Glasgow airport terminal.
Blazing Car Crashes Into Glasgow Airport
June 30, 2007 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
Eyewitnesses have described a Jeep Cherokee being driven at speed towards the building with flames coming out from underneath.They have also described seeing two Asian men, one of whom was on fire, who had been in the car.Strathclyde Police said two people had been arrested and detained in connection with the incident.
The airport has been evacuated and all flights suspended following the incident at 1515 BST.
A Whitehall spokesman said the incident was not being treated as a national security threat however the prime minister is being kept informed of developments and is expected to chair a meeting of Cobra – the emergency committee later.
First Minister Alex Salmond has activated emergency procedures.There have been reports that part of the Royal Alexandra Hospital is being evacuated.The incident comes a day after two cars were found containing explosives in central London.The cars contained petrol, gas cylinders and nails but the devices did not detonate.
One eyewitness at Glasgow Airport said: “I heard the sound of a car’s wheels spinning and smoke coming out.”I saw a Jeep Cherokee apparently as if it was trying to get right through the doors into the terminal building.”There were flames coming out from underneath then some men appeared from in amongst the flames.”The police ran over and the people started fighting with the police. I then heard what sounded like an explosion.”
Islamic Website Predicted London Terror Attack
June 29, 2007 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
An Islamic website predicted a terror blast in London -hours before today’s thwarted bomb attack on a West End nightclub.
The chilling message, posted on a jihadist internet forum, warned: “Today, I say, Rejoice, by Allah,London shall be bombed.”
Meanwhile, an international manhunt was launched tonight to find the gang – believed to be linked to al Qaeda – that came within moments of blowing up hundreds of revellers in a London nightclub.
As the capital remained on high alert, fresh details emerged of the “massive” car bomb – primed with petrol, gas canisters and nails – discovered by police in the heart of the West End. It was reported tonight that the bomb was to have been triggered by a mobile phone.
London On Terror Alert After Police Thwart Attack
June 29, 2007 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
UPDATE: Police and security sources say they found bomb components in a second car in central London hours after deactivating a device in the city’s entertainment district.
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Police defused a ‘potentially explosive device’ in a car outside a West End nightclub early this morning near the famed Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London, defusing a bomb made of a lethal mix of gasoline, propane gas, and nails after an ambulance crew spotted smoke coming from a silver Mercedes outside a nightclub.
The bomb in the city’s theater district was powerful enough to have caused “significant injury or loss of life” – possibly killing hundreds, British anti-terror police chief Peter Clarke said.
Britain’s new home secretary, Jacqui Smith called an emergency meeting of top officials, calling the attempted attack “international terrorism.”
“We are currently facing the most serious and sustained threat to our security from international terrorism,” she said afterward. “This reinforces the need for the public to remain vigilant to the threat we face at all times.”
Police planned to examine footage from closed-circuit TV cameras in the area, Clarke said, hoping the surveillance network that covers much of central London will help them track down the driver of the rigged Mercedes.
Officers were called to The Haymarket, just south of Piccadilly Circus, after an ambulance crew – responding to a call just before 1:30 a.m. about an injury at a nearby nightclub – noticed smoke coming from a car parked in front of the club, Clarke said.
Scuba Instructors To Watch For Terror Training
June 27, 2007 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
The FBI is asking the nation’s scuba instructors to watch for potential terrorist threats. The agency’s Joint Terrorism Task Force recently alerted dive shops around the country to look out for divers seeking advanced training, including diving in murky water and in sewer pipes.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko described the advisory as routine and said it was not prompted by any threat.The advisory asked instructors to be aware of “odd inquiries that are inconsistent with recreational diving.” That includes advanced navigation techniques, deep diving and the use of underwater vehicles.
“It would definitely stand out,” said Ken Loyst, who sits on the board of the National Association of Underwater Instructors. “Most instructors would take it upon themselves to call somebody and say, ‘There’s a weird guy in my class.’”
The advisory also referred to requests for diver training “by applicants from countries where diving is not a common recreational activity” and training sponsored by religious organizations, cults, charities and other groups not usually associated with diving.
Loyst, who is also a pilot, compared the FBI advisory to those distributed to aviation instructors.
“I think the FBI is just kind of giving everyone a heads up,” he said.
Loyst estimated there are about 1,800 dive shops around the country.
FBI Investigating Spokane Northtown Mall Incident As Possible Terrorism
June 27, 2007 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
A February incident in which noxious fumes were released in the region’s largest shopping mall is being investigated by the FBI as a possible incident of domestic terrorism.
The fumes prompted the evacuation of NorthTown Mall in February, and at least 36 people sought medical care.
The case was forwarded to the FBI’s Inland Northwest Joint Terrorism Task Force by Spokane police, police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer DeRuwe said. Officials wouldn’t say specifically why they believe terrorism might have been involved.
Chavez Warns of Resistance War With U.S.
June 25, 2007 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
President Hugo Chavez urged soldiers on Sunday to prepare for a guerrilla-style war against the United States, saying that Washington is using psychological and economic warfare as part of an unconventional campaign aimed at derailing his government.
Dressed in olive green fatigues and a red beret, Chavez spoke inside Tiuna Fort Venezuela’s military nerve-center before hundreds of uniformed soldiers standing alongside armored vehicles and tanks decorated with banners reading: “Fatherland, Socialism, or Death! We will triumph!”
“We must continue developing the resistance war, that’s the anti-imperialist weapon. We must think and prepare for the resistance war everyday,” said Chavez, who has repeatedly warned that American soldiers could invade Venezuela to seize control of the South American nation’s immense oil reserves.
BBC Reporter Johnston Taped Wearing Explosive Belt
June 25, 2007 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday said the kidnappers of British Broadcast Corporation correspondent Alan Johnston had made a new video of the abducted journalist wearing what appeared to be explosives around his waist.
Army of Islam later made the one minute and 42-second-long video available on a web site early Monday morning.
In the video, Johnston is wearing an apparent explosives belt of the type suicide bombers use and warning it will be detonated if an attempt is made to free him by force.
Hazmat Crews Close Down New Yorks Holland Tunnel
June 22, 2007 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
Most of the traffic into the Holland Tunnel is being diverted Friday morning, as Hazmat crews and a significant police presence are on the New York City side.
This time of day, the tunnel sees hundreds of thousands of commuters from New Jersey to Manhattan.
Port Authority officials said there was an accident at the tunnel a short time ago, and moments later, a suspicious package was found, Fox New York affiliate WNYW reported.
A robotic device is set up outside a nearby gas station.
Developing…
Fox 5 News Video Of Device Being Detonated
Smugglers Carrying Nuke Materials Told To Turnaround
June 20, 2007 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
Georgian customs officers sent a car carrying a mixture of plutonium and beryllium back to Azerbaijan after foiling an attempt to smuggle the materials over the border, Georgian television reported yesterday
Customs officials found the materials, which can be used in the making of nuclear bombs, during what appeared to be a routine customs check as the car was driven over the border from Azerbaijan, the Imedi tele- vision station reported.
“Georgian customs detected a high level of radiation while checking one of the cars,” Imedi reported.
“They discovered plutonium-beryllium.”
The car was sent back to Azerbaijan, although smuggling nuclear materials is a crime under Georgian law.
It was unclear whether Azeri authorities had been informed.
“The decision to send it back was made,” Soso Kakushadze, head of the environment ministry’s radiation department, told Reuters.
“It was the right decision, as it would have been very expensive to keep it in Georgia, and special conditions are needed,” he said…
Georgian special services foiled an attempt by a Russian citizen to sell weapons-grade uranium for $1 million in Georgia in February 2006.
How Terrorists Are Using The Internet and Web 2.0
June 19, 2007 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
The latest phase of the Internet revolution, which has been widely referred to as Web 2.0, has not been overlooked by web-based terror networks. A recent study by the Artificial Intelligence Lab of the University of Arizona details precisely how these net-savvy terrorists are using the Web for fund-raising, recruitment, propaganda, logistical support, communications, training, and even cyber warfare.
New York Watching For Homegrown Terror
June 19, 2007 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
The trail of terror leads into the city’s very own backyard.
Neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx are spawning homegrown radicals, and some are plotting horrific acts to rival the 9/11 attacks, city and federal investigators say.
Like the recent plot to blow up fuel lines leading to Kennedy Airport, most have been thwarted before they get past the planning stage.
But cops and federal investigators say the motivation behind the plots reveals a troubling resentment against the U.S. heated by global events that have become rallying cries for jihad.
Statements from several of the suspects reveal plots inspired by the London train bombings or the abuses committed by U.S. soldiers at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
Fort Dix Terror Suspect Scrawls Threatening Graffiti In Cell
June 19, 2007 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
Agron Abdullahu, one of the Fort Dix Six, scratched graffiti into the door of his jail cell that included an AK-47 assault rifle firing bullets at the letters “FBI,” prosecutors charged yesterday.
They said he also etched the name of a town in Kosovo, his homeland, along with an Albanian acronym for the Kosovo Liberation Army, which prosecutors called a paramilitary organization with a history of war crimes.
“The subject matter of the etchings alone is disturbing at best, and at worst demonstrates the volition of an individual predisposed to violence,” prosecutors wrote in a brief filed in federal court in Camden yesterday.
The brief, which includes pictures of the etchings, was filed in response to a motion from Abdullahu’s attorney asking the court to reconsider its decision to hold Abdullahu without bail.
Israel Breaks Up Terror Cell Planning To Kidnap Americans
June 19, 2007 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
The Shin Bet security service has uncovered a suspected terrorist cell that was planning a series of attacks, including bombing a Modi’in synagogue and kidnapping American citizens in the West Bank, the agency revealed yesterday.
The 12 suspects, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, were arrested thanks to information obtained during the interrogation of PFLP member Ramzi Sharona last February. Some of the planned attacks were apparently aimed at freeing jailed PFLP leader Ahmed Sa’adat.
Sharona admitted that he had contacted PFLP operatives in Gaza who instructed him to form terror cells in the West Bank cities of Jenin, Hebron and Nablus, the Shin Bet said. His Gaza contacts allegedly asked Sharona carry out an attack at a synagogue inside Israel in order to “avenge the Jews’ activities at the Al-Aqsa compound,” a reference to the Temple Mount.
