Ohio - Plane Dumps Unknown White Powder Substance
July 31, 2007
If this is your first time visiting National Terror Alert you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. The National terror Alert feed features breaking news, alerts and bulletins on demand and it's free of charge..
You will only see this message on your first visit to the site. Thanks for visiting!
UPDATE: A powder-like substance that was deposited over much of the Bolles Harbor area Monday might have been discharged from one of the smokestacks at Detroit Edison Co.’s Monroe Power Plant, investigators say. Read More
——————————————
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Department wants to know who was flying and what they dropped when a plane covered several neighborhoods with a white powdery substance Monday evening.
People started reporting the low-flying plane around 8:20pm. The plane apparently flew over the Bolles Harbor and Avalon Beach areas, dropping the white powder. Deputies collected a sample, and sent it to the Michigan State Police crime lab for analysis.
We talked to Howard Trombley, who says the top of his daughter’s convertible car was down last night. When she woke up this morning, her seats were covered in the stuff. “The State Police know about it, and they’re getting so many calls, they can’t answer them all,” said Trombley. “It’s all over, it could be. You don’t know what this is.”
The department also notified the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Right now, those agencies don’t feel the white powder is a threat.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is continuing its investigation. Once the substance is identified, Monroe County residents will be notified.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Ohio Shopping Mall Terror Suspect To Plead Guilty
July 31, 2007
A Somali immigrant has tentatively agreed to plead guilty to plotting with a convicted al-Qaida terrorist to blow up a shopping mall the day after Thanksgiving 2003, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
Nuradin Abdi, 35, was due in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, to enter his plea, according to the two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the appearance had not yet happened.
Abdi was expected to plead guilty to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, an admission coming a week before the expected Aug. 6 start of his trial.
Abdi’s attorney, Mahir Sherif, confirmed the last-minute hearing before U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley to discuss a possible plea.
“If it works out, then he’ll plead,” Sherif said. He would not give details or comment further.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Car Crashes at Nuclear Weapons Plant
July 30, 2007
Oak Ridge - Tennessee : A driver ran a checkpoint at a nuclear weapons plant early Monday and crashed into a barrier, then fled on foot, authorities said.
Guards at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, a primary storehouse for bomb-grade uranium, said the man “appeared to be impaired in some way” when they stopped him around 5 a.m. at a security checkpoint near a rear entrance, spokesman Bill Wilburn said.
They asked him for identification, but the man hit the gas and drove through the checkpoint, then crashed into security barriers a short distance away, Wilburn said.
“When he hit that, he jumped out of the car and ran away. He left the car there with the engine still running,” Wilburn said. He said the guards told him the car had been hot-wired.
Oak Ridge police were searching for the driver. Wilburn said he had no other details.
Steve Wyatt, spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration in Oak Ridge, which oversees the Y-12 plant, downplayed the crash, saying it was “next to nothing.” The plant makes and dismantles uranium parts in nuclear warheads.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Dead Birds In Washington D.C. Prompt Metro Closures
July 29, 2007
UPDATE: A mistake by a Metro contractor led to the shutdown of three Metrorail stations yesterday and prompted an investigation by the FBI and local hazardous-materials crews after the contractor spread commercial pest poison at the wrong time of day, a transit agency spokeswoman said.At least 60 birds that apparently ingested the poison, mostly sparrows and starlings, were found dead at six Metrorail stations before the transit agency discovered that its contractor had put out the poison and failed to remove the dead birds as part of the cleanup.
————————————-
Three Metro train stations were briefly closed Sunday while hazardous materials crews investigated dozens of dead birds and a substance believed to be a commercial pest poison. No human injuries were reported.
All signs point to a contractor making a mistake, said a spokeswoman for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. The poison was spread outside at least six Metro stations.
“We want people to know they weren’t in any danger,” spokeswoman Candace Smith said.
Popularity: 3% [?]
U.S. Says Qaeda Safe Haven Inaccessible
July 27, 2007
“I think our objective will be to neutralize, not eliminate, but certainly make this safe haven — as we have the others — less safe and less appealing for AQ,” Clapper told a joint session of the House armed services and intelligence committees.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Al Qaeda Seeking Nuclear Weapons
July 27, 2007
Al Qaeda terrorists are continuing to plan attacks against the United States and are seeking nuclear and other unconventional arms for the strikes, a senior Pentagon official told Congress yesterday.
Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, told a joint House committee hearing that al Qaeda has conducted terrorist attacks against more than two dozen nations since September 11.
“Al Qaeda has and will continue to attempt visually dramatic mass-casualty attacks here at home, and they will continue to attempt to acquire chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials,” Gen. Clapper said in discussing the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on threats to the United States. “And if they’re so successful in obtaining these materials, we believe they would use them.”
Popularity: 3% [?]
Law Enforcement Alerted - Watch Out For Terrorist Attack Dry Runs
July 24, 2007
Airport security officers around the nation have been alerted by federal officials to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, based on four curious seizures at airports since last September.
The unclassified alert was distributed on July 20 by the Transportation Security Administration to federal air marshals, its own transportation security officers and other law enforcement agencies.
The seizures at airports in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore included “wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components and dense clay-like substances,” including block cheese, the bulletin said. “The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern.”
Security officers were urged to keep an eye out for “ordinary items that look like improvised explosive device components.”
Popularity: 3% [?]
Military Commander Believes al Qaeda Terror Cells In U.S.
July 24, 2007
A top U.S. military commander said Tuesday he believes there are al-Qaida cells in the United States - or people working to create them - and the military needs to triple its response teams to counter a growing threat of attack.
Air Force Gen. Victor “Gene” Renuart, who heads U.S. Northern Command, said that as the terrorism threat within the nation’s boundaries has increased officials have strengthened intelligence sharing, particularly in an effort to shore up security at ports.
“I believe there are cells in the United States, or at least people who aspire to create cells in the United States,” Renuart said in an interview with The Associated Press. “To assume that there are not those cells is naive and so we have to take that threat seriously.”
As for attacks, he added: “Am I concerned that this will happen this summer? I have to be concerned that it could happen any day.”
Other U.S. officials said last week they did not know of al-Qaida cells in the United States.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Officials Worried Over Terror Sleeper Cells
July 23, 2007
Watch video of interview with Adm. Michael McConnell
——————————————————
The nation’s top intelligence official yesterday went further than ever before in outlining what he described as a heightened threat of an al Qaeda attack on American soil.
“Their attempt is to cause mass casualties,” said Adm. Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “Second [priority] is political and possibly economic disruption.”
Just days ago, a new National Intelligence Estimate found al Qaeda has strengthened its ability to attack the United States. McConnell said al Qaeda is seeking the means to launch chemical, biological and possibly nuclear attacks. But the likeliest threat is harder to detect.
“What we see currently is primarily a focus on explosives — explosives that can generate a large explosion, but they’re put together with commercially available material,” he said.
McConnell says small numbers of al Qaeda operatives are in this country raising funds. But he said he knows of no al Qaeda cells in the country that are capable of launching a strike at this time.
“I worry that there are sleeper cells in the U.S.,” McConnell said. “I do not know.”
Popularity: 3% [?]
Security Concerns at Sky Harbor Airport Phoenix
July 23, 2007
This ABC15 Investigation is getting national attention. ABC15’s Lisa Fletcher will be on Good Morning America Monday at 7 a.m.
It’s what you have to do when you fly - use X-ray machines, metal detectors, and deal with liquid restrictions in your carry-on luggage. You know the drill.
Security checkpoints are just part of travel these days. They’re supposed to keep us safe, so we use them - but not all of us and not all the time.
We’ve discovered a 4.5 hour time frame each night when virtually anything can be brought into the secure side of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. There’s no metal detector, no X-ray machine, and it’s apparently not a problem.
Afraid to show her face, one long time Sky Harbor employee talks about the security most people don’t see.
Lisa Fletcher: “You’re telling me Sky Harbor’s not safe?”
Employee: “I’m telling you Sky Harbor’s not safe and hasn’t been for a long time.”
Popularity: 2% [?]
Advertisement
Add this Live Alert
