Not Terrorism – Steam Pipe Explosion Rocks Midtown Manhattan

Homeland Security has determined the explosion is not suspicious.

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A steam explosion tore through a Manhattan street Wednesday night about a block from crowded Grand Central Terminal at the height of the evening rush hour, sending residents running for cover amid a plume of steam and ash.

New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said it was not terrorism related. There was no immediate word on injuries. Subway service was suspended because of the explosion.

Unconfirmed news reports said at least three people were injured. WCBS-TV reported two of the injured were in critical condition.

An eyewitness told WNBC that one of the injured appeared to have suffered severe burns.

Hundreds of firefighters and police flooded the area, and Con Edison crews were on the scene.

Aerial video of the scene provided by FOX5 clearly showed a huge gaping hole in the middle of 41st Street, with a 20-foot tall geyser spewing brown mud on the cars and buses quickly abandoned by drivers.

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Shooting Investigation Leads Police To Possible Terror Plot

Four shooting suspects, possibly involved in a terrorist plot disappear.
The getaway car is discovered four days later at a major U.S. airport.
Handwritten notes describing acts of terrorism and bombings are found inside the car.
Little if any press coverage

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A search warrant filed in Hennepin County connects a shooting investigation to a possible terror plot.

According to court documents, four Somali teenage males were riding in a cab on June 24 the same night a man was shot in the chest around 9:00 p.m.

Video surveillance at the Glendale Housing Projects captured the cab fleeing near the scene of the shooting.

Police were able to identify the taxicab and located the vehicle at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport four days later.

Inside the cab, police found a handwritten note describing acts of terrorism and bombings.

Police questioned an 18-year-old relative of the cab owner who confessed to being the driver of cab on June 24.

Minneapolis Police turned the terrorism note over to federal authorities and said they will “Further aid in their investigation of possible acts of terrorism against Unites States.”

Developing…

FBI – Iraqis Being Smuggled Across the Rio Grande

Brian Ross and ABC’s Blotter report the FBI is investigating an alleged human smuggling operation based in Chaparral, N.M. According to the report, agents say the group is is bringing “Iraqis and other Middle Eastern” individuals across the Rio Grande from Mexico.

An FBI intelligence report distributed by the Washington, D.C. Joint Terrorism Task Force says the illegal ring has been bringing Iraqis across the border illegally for more than a year.

Border Patrol officials in the area said they were unaware of the specifics of the FBI’s report, and federal prosecutors in New Mexico told ABCNews.com they had no current cases involving the illegal smuggling of Iraqis.

The FBI report, issued last week, says the smuggling organization “used to smuggle Mexicans, but decided to smuggle Iraqi or other Middle Eastern individuals because it was more lucrative.” Each individual would be charged a fee of $20,000 to $25,000, according to the report.

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U.S. Growing Numb To Terror Threats As Real Threat Lurks

To Americans who have grown skeptical of terrorism warnings, the professionals in the intelligence community say they understand. They also say this time, it could be for real.

That’s because the level of worldwide jihadist activity this year appears disturbingly familiar to those who hunted Al Qaeda even before the 9/11 attacks.

“What you’ve been seeing has had a feeling, to me, a lot like the summer of 2001, where you’ve got a lot of things happening,” a senior U.S. intelligence official said on Friday.

“It would not surprise me at all to see another terrorist event this summer in the United States,” the official told the Daily News.

Yet many Americans have grown deeply distrustful of such doomsday scenarios which rarely materialize.

President Bush has seeded much of this confusion – as he did last week amid reports of Al Qaeda’s rebirth – when he simultaneously called Osama Bin Laden a “serious threat” and boasted that the U.S. has hurt his ability to strike the homeland.

Add to that several recent arrests of homegrown terrorists in the U.S. hatching sketchy plots hyped by government officials as “the real deal” with “unimaginable” consequences, and the terror-fatigued public’s skepticism may be near a peak.

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UK Is Monitoring 30 Terror Cells And 2000 Suspects

Britains security services believe up to 30 Islamist militant cells are plotting attacks and they are monitoring 2000 suspects and another 2000 sympathisers, the new security minister said today.

Alan West told BBC radio that the scale of the security operation was “quite dramatic” as he backed extending the 28-day limit on the time suspects can be held without charge.

He issued the warning following three botched car bombings in London and Glasgow at the end of last month – attempts that came just days after Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister.

“I have come back to this after about 16 months away from it and I have to say I was quite concerned when I saw what the level of threat is,” said Lord West, the former chief of defence intelligence and now the security and counter-terrorism minister.

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Is Al-Qaeda Infiltrating United States Using Medical Visas

Medical clinics across the country have been flooded with requests from foreign nationals from Pakistan and other Muslim countries to help them gain visa entry into the U.S. as patients.

The post-9/11 trend concerns authorities who fear al-Qaida could be using the medical industry to infiltrate terrorist cells into the country.

Medical clinics across the country have been flooded with requests from foreign nationals from Pakistan and other Muslim countries to help them gain visa entry into the U.S. as patients.

The post-9/11 trend concerns authorities who fear al-Qaida could be using the medical industry to infiltrate terrorist cells into the country.

Some clinics have sponsored foreign patients only to have them fail to show up at their facilities.

The Caster Eye Center in Beverly Hills, Calif., for example, stopped granting such foreign requests after a couple of no-shows.

“In the last few years, we have granted this request only twice. The first was for someone in Uganda, and the other was for someone in Sri Lanka,” said Diane Sylvester, surgery coordinator at the Caster Eye Center, one of the leading Lasik eye surgery clinics in Los Angeles. “On both occasions, we issued the letter of invitation, and on both occasions the patient in question never showed up at our facility.”

Read Article – WorldNetDaily

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Bin Laden Video Released By As Sahab

He himself said ‘By Him in Whose Hands my life is!
I would love to attack and be martyred,
then attack again and be martyred,
then attack again and be martyred.’

Those are the words of Osama Bin Laden in a short clip from a longer As Sahab video obtained this morning by LauraMansfield.com.

The Bin Laden clip appears to be a short portion of an older video of the Al Qaeda leader speaking to his followers about martyrdom. There are no indications as to the date when the clip was filmed.

Bin Laden is shown dressed in dark, with a camouflage jacket, and a dark cap. He has a ring and a watch on his right hand, and gestures freely with both hands.

Read More at LauraMansfield.com

Terror Leader: U.S. Attack Will Dwarf London Bombings

As senior intelligence and law enforcement officials met again today in the White House Situation Room to deal with the “summer terror threat,” a top terror commander said an attack was coming that would dwarf the failed bombings in London and Glasgow.

Taliban military commander Mansour Dadullah, in an interview broadcast on ABC News’ “World News With Charles Gibson,” said the London attacks were “not enough” and that bigger attacks were coming.

“You will, God willing, be witness to more attacks,” he told a Pakistani journalist in an interview conducted just four days ago.

Just last month, Dadullah presided over what was termed a terror training camp graduation ceremony in Pakistan, supposedly dispatching attack teams to the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany.

In this new interview, Dadullah talked about the ease with which he and his men operate inside Pakistan.

“We have many friends,” he said. “It is very easy for us to go in and out of the tribal areas. It is no problem.”

Indeed, the rugged mountains of Pakistan have emerged as a safe haven for al Qaeda and the Taliban.

“They are the central front for al Qaeda,” said Seth Jones, who studies the area for the RAND Corporation, a national security think-tank. “They are the area al Qaeda has based its international and regional operations. It is a very serious threat to the U.S. security,” he said.

Pakistan continues to deny al Qaeda enjoys a safe haven in its territory.

Source -Read More At The Blotter

Latest Tape – Did al-Qaeda Send A Coded Signal To Attack

Fearing a possible coded signal to attack, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials are studying an unusual pattern of words in the latest audiotape from al Qaeda’s No. 2 man, Ayman al Zawahri.On the tape, posted on the Internet Wednesday, Zawahri repeats one phrase three times at the end of his message.

Have I not conveyed? Oh God be my witness.

Have I not conveyed? Oh God be my witness.

Have I not conveyed? Oh God be my witness.

A new FBI analysis of al Qaeda messages, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, warns that “continued messages that convey their strategic intent to strike the U.S. homeland and U.S. interests worldwide should not be discounted as merely deceptive noise.”

Intelligence analysts are also investigating technical clues that Zawahri’s most recent audio message was phoned in via computer phone, using voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.

The ease and frequency of Zawahri’s propaganda messages is one of the factors that have led U.S. intelligence analysts to worry abut a possible attack against the United States this summer.

The new FBI analysis, reviewing more than 70 al Qaeda messages over the last 14 years, found a recurring theme of “the duty to kill Americans — both military and civilian.”

Source – The Blotter

“Have I not conveyed? Oh God be my witness”. These are the same words used by Muhammad in his final sermon, delivered on the Ninth Day of Dhul Hijjah 10 A.H (632 A.D.) in the Uranah Valley of mount Arafat in Mecca.

“Ye people! Listen to my words: I will deliver a message to you, for I know not whether, after this year, I shall ever be amongst you here again. O people! verily your blood, your property and your honor are sacred and inviolable until you appear before your Lord, as this day and this month are sacred for all. Verily you will meet your Lord and you will be held answerable for your actions. Have I not conveyed the message? O Allah! Be my witness. He who has any trust with him, should restore it to the person who deposited it with him. Beware, no one committing a crime is responsible for it but he himself. Neither the son is responsible for the crime of his father, nor the father responsible for the crime of his son.”

In the final passage Muhammad states it again saying, “All those who listen to me shall pass on my words to others and those to others again; and may the last ones understand my words better than those who listen to me directly. Be my witness, O God, that I have conveyed your message to your people”.

From his words, Muhammad appeared to know that this would be his final sermon and in many ways it was his farewell. Is al-Zawahiri using these words to convey the same message…? A farewell, believing his time is short. If so, it could be significant.

National Intelligence Estimate – al Qaeda Preparing To Strike U.S.

Al Qaeda is stepping up its efforts to sneak terror operatives into the United States and has acquired most of the capabilities it needs to strike here, according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment, The Associated Press has learned.

The draft National Intelligence Estimate is expected to paint an increasingly worrisome portrait of al Qaeda’s ability to use its base along the Pakistan-Afghan border to launch and inspire attacks, even as Bush administration officials say the U.S. is safer nearly six years into the war on terror.

Among the key findings of the classified estimate, which is still in draft form and must be approved by all 16 U.S. spy agencies:

Al Qaeda is probably still pursuing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and would use them if its operatives developed sufficient capability.

The terror group has been able to restore three of the four key tools it would need to launch an attack on U.S. soil: a safe haven in Pakistan’s tribal areas, operational lieutenants and senior leaders. It could not immediately be learned what the missing fourth element is.

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LA-London American Airlines Flight 136 Diverted To JFK

American Airlines flight 136 from Los Angeles-to-London was diverted to John F. Kennedy International Airport this morning, a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokeswoman told news sources.

The flight 136 departed Los Angeles International Airport at 9 pm Eastern time bound for London’s Heathrow airport. It was diverted to JFK Airport in New York and has now been cancelled.

News sources say that a member of the flight crew alerted security on the ground that there may be a suspicious person on board, and the decision was made to divert the flight.

The TSA boarded the aircraft when it landed at around 4 am,and took the passenger into custody. The cabin was searched and passengers were re-screened but nothing was found.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he had received a report the man in question was an American Airlines employee who was traveling in a private capacity.

American Airlines said the suspicious passenger appeared to be an employee that used an employee bus to board the aircraft, which “raised some eyebrows” with flight crew.

An American Airlines flight attendant had taken the employee shuttle bus and bypassed security at LAX, according to a spokeswoman for the airline.

After speaking with the man on the aircraft, the attendant suspected he was not an American Airlines employee and notified the pilot, according to the spokeswoman.

Authorities have interviewed the person in question. Officials say there is no indication the incident represents a serious threat.

Report – al Qaeda Has Rebuilt

U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded al-Qaeda has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since just before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The Associated Press has learned.The conclusion suggests that the group that launched the most devastating terror attack on the United States has been able to regroup along the Afghan-Pakistani border despite nearly six years of bombings, war and other tactics aimed at crippling it.

Still, numerous government officials say they know of no specific, credible threat of a new attack on U.S. soil.

A counterterrorism official familiar with a five-page summary of the new government threat assessment called it a stark appraisal to be discussed at the White House on Thursday as part of a broader meeting on an upcoming National Intelligence Estimate.

The official and others spoke on condition of anonymity because the secret report remains classified.

Counterterrorism analysts produced the document, titled “Al-Qaida better positioned to strike the West.” The document focuses on the terror group’s safe haven in Pakistan and makes a range of observations about the threat posed to the United States and its allies, officials said.

Al-Qaeda is “considerably operationally stronger than a year ago” and has “regrouped to an extent not seen since 2001,” the official said, paraphrasing the report’s conclusions. “They are showing greater and greater ability to plan attacks in Europe and the United States.”

The group also has created “the most robust training program since 2001, with an interest in using European operatives,” the official quoted the report as saying.

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Fake Company Purchases Radioactive Material

Congressional investigators set up a bogus company with only a postal box and within a month obtained a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that allowed them to buy enough radioactive material for a small “dirty bomb.”

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who will ask the NRC about the incident at a Senate hearing Thursday, said the sting operation raises concerns about terrorists obtaining such material just as easily.

Nobody at the NRC checked whether the company was legitimate and an agency official even helped the investigators fill out the application form, Coleman said in an interview Wednesday.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission acknowledged that more checking is needed in such licensing and said that since being told of the GAO sting operation it has tightened licensing procedures.

“We’ve fixed the problem,” said NRC Commissioner Edward McGaffigan in an interview Wednesday. He said that such licenses now will require visits to the company or in some cases company officials will have to come to NRC offices.

The license that was obtained allowed for the purchase of up to five portable moisture density gauges widely used in construction, in which are encased small amounts of cesium-137 and americium 241, two highly radioactive isotopes.

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