Fort Lewis MPs Find Stolen Handgun and Suspicious Device During Stop

Military police at Fort Lewis have arrested a man after finding a handgun and a “suspicious device” in his car after making a routine traffic stop in one of the post’s training areas.

The arrest was made about 1 a.m. Friday.

In the car, the MPs found a pistol that had been reported stolen, and in the trunk, a “tape-wrapped object about the size of a deck of playing cards wired to a garage door opener.”

The MPs called out soldiers from an explosive ordnance disposal unit, who rendered the device safe by about 7 a.m.

A spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said he didn’t know whether the device proved to be a bomb.

A U.S. Army news release says the man, who was not immediately identified, was arrested for outstanding warrants and was being held at Fort Lewis.

The news release says MPs “have no indication that the suspect intended to target Fort Lewis personnel.”

Source

Police Seek Man Who Made Terrorist Threats – Caused School Lockdown

Houston County sheriff’s deputies are looking for a 23-year-old Cottonwood man wanted on terrorist threat charges, according to sheriff’s Capt. Antonio Gonzalez.

Sheriff’s officials have said Steven James Price made threats toward several people and other general threats toward Cottonwood High School.

Price was last seen this morning at his parent’s home in the 18000 block of Cottonwood Road.
According to a statement released by the Houston County Sheriff’s Office, Price is said to have made threats to at least five neighbors and other general threats toward the high school.

Deputies have placed the school on lockdown until Price can be found.

Roughly 50 percent of the students were picked up early by their parents. “It’s been a constant flow of traffic with parents coming to pick up their children for the past hour,” said Gonzalez.

Source 

2 Hostages Released From Clinton 08 Campaign Office

UPDATE: Suspect has been taken into custody. Gateway Pundit has the video and more.

Two people held hostage at Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire, have been freed.

Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign said it will release information when appropriate following a hostage situation in its Rochester, N.H. campaign office.

A man with a bomb strapped to his chest has taken two campaign workers hostage, according to WMUR-TV.
“A young woman with a 6-month or 8-month-old infant came rushing into the store just in tears, and she said, ‘You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape,’” said witness Lettie Tzizik, according to WMUR.

Other witnesses described the man as in his 40s with salt-and-pepper hair.

“There is an ongoing situation in our Rochester, NH office,” the Clinton campaign said in a statement. “We are in close contact with state and local authorities and are acting at their direction. We will release additional details as appropriate.”

Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign evacuated its Rochester campaign office in response to the situation, which has brought sharpshooters onto the roofs of businesses near the Clinton campaign. Sen. Hillary Clinton cancelled a speech she was planning to give at the Democratic National Committee winter meeting.

Rochester, a gritty, working class town that has been in decline for a number of years, is located just north of Dover on New Hampshire’s sea coast.

Source

N.Y. Cops Take Mall Terror Threat Seriously – Operation Safeguard

New York law enforcement officers have implemented a model program that enlists the publics help in watching for possible terrorist activity during the busy holiday shopping season.

An international tourist, having heard about Woodbury Common Premium Outlets’ global status, stakes out the facility during a shopping trip.

Then, during subsequent trips, he plans out an attack that would cripple major thoroughfares to New York City, as well as cost some of America’s top retail stores millions of dollars in earnings.

While such an attack remains a reality only among armchair theorists, law enforcement isn’t taking any chances.

That’s the rationale behind an annual show of force called “Operation Safeguard” that deployed 70 officers from 25 law enforcement agencies in Orange, Rockland and Sullivan counties to various shopping centers yesterday.

The deployment, which included state police, county sheriffs’ offices and local police, is meant to thwart a potential terrorist attack through a public education campaign, as well as create an unannounced presence at local malls and the roads that feed them during the busiest shopping season of the year.

“There’s no hard and fast intelligence of a terrorist threat to local malls, but when we discuss vulnerabilities in our area, those are the places that concern us,” said state police Maj. Ed Raso, one of the coordinators of the event.

Such retail stores are considered “soft targets” by anti-terrorism officials, because they have no armed guards or heavily fortified entrances. Terrorists tend to prefer such targets, as they are easier to attack, and because they deal a psychological blow to their enemies by incurring mass casualties, Raso said.

Major retail centers such as Woodbury Common and the Palisades Center in West Nyack would make potentially attractive targets.

But even smaller centers, such as the Galleria mall at Crystal Run and the Route 42 corridor stores in Sullivan County could end up as targets, said Raso, referencing similar attacks by extremists in Israel.

Troopers, sheriff’s deputies and Woodbury police officers handed out fliers to shoppers at Woodbury Common that urged “If you see something, say something.”

Such public awareness campaigns are the most effective weapon against terrorist attacks on soft targets, if they’re done year after year, Raso said.

“A lot of people get busy in their lives and in their jobs, and they put public safety on the back burner,” he said.

Source

New Bin Laden Message Released – Calls On European Countries To End U.S. Cooperation

As expected, al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has released a new message to the people of Europe.

A new message purportedly from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden calls on European countries to end military cooperation with the US in Afghanistan.

“The American tide is ebbing, so it is best for you to press your leaders to change their policies,” bin Laden said, addressing Europeans and referring to their countries’ military contributions in Afghanistan.

Al Jazeera television broadcast two short excerpts of an audiotape.

Bin Laden said his Taliban allies had no knowledge of plans for the September 11 terror attacks in the US in 2001 – a main reason for the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

“The events of Manhattan were retaliation against the American-Israeli alliance’s aggression against our people in Palestine and Lebanon,” he said. “I am the only one responsible for it. The Afghan people and government knew nothing about it. America knows that.

“Europe went along with it (the US invasion of Afghanistan) because they had no other alternative, only to be a follower,” he said.

“The American tide is ebbing, with God’s help, and they will leave back to their countries.

“Therefore it is better for you to stand against your leaders who are dropping in on the White House, and to work seriously to lift the injustice against the believers,” he said, accusing US forces and their allies of intentionally killing women and children in Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda announced several days ago that it would release the tape soon.

It is bin Laden’s fourth message this year.

Source

Man Arrested In Disturbance Aboard Alaska Airlines Flight

A 38-year-old Wyoming man accused of causing a disturbance on an Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Anchorage has been arrested.

FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez says Kirk Frederick Forest of Cheyenne, Wyo., was arrested for interfering with a flight crew. A court appearance was scheduled Thursday.

Gonzalez says the man made a threat against the plane.

The FBI spokesman says the nature of the threat is still being investigated, but Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Amanda Tobin Bielawski says the man allegedly said the word “bomb.”

The incident happened about 20 minutes before the flight was to land at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

The flight deck was locked, and the man was restrained.

The plane landed at 2:47 p.m. Wednesday, and was taken a remote area of the airport.

All 156 passengers and the flight crew got off the plane and took an airport bus to the terminal.

Canadian Defence Minister – Dirty Bomb or Nuclear Device Greatest Threat To North America

Canadian Defence Minister Peter Mackay says the greatest threat facing North America is international terrorists smuggling a nuclear weapon onto the continent through a busy container port.

At an Ottawa conference of transportation security experts on Wednesday, Mackay raised the spectre of radicals detonating a crude radioactive dispersal device or a conventional nuclear bomb after smuggling it in one of the millions of cargo containers arriving annually on foreign ships.

“The greatest threat to North America right now is on the water,” he told the audience. “This is an area where, God forbid, if someone with ill intent decided to send a dirty bomb or some kind of a nuclear device into our country, this is an area where we are vulnerable.

“With the number of movements of containers coming into this country today, this is an area we have to be completely and extremely vigilant and rigorous in terms of security.”

His assessment of the maritime threat is the bluntest yet from a government minister and echoes concerns high-ranking U.S. officials have expressed publicly for years: al-Qaida has nuclear ambitions, is working to develop the nuclear capabilities to match, and just one of the containers arriving annually on North America’s shores could be a Trojan Horse harbouring the unthinkable.

Gary Gilbert, of the giant U.S. company Hutchinson Port Holdings, which operates 48 international ports handling 60-million containers annually, later suggested to delegates it may only be a matter of time before that happens.

“We have seen drugs come in, we have seen illegal aliens, we have seen weapons,” he said. “Why can’t it be a weapon of mass destruction?”

A nuclear device arriving undetected in a North American port could be shipped to virtually any point in the continent by rail or truck.

The U.S. is now ringing its major cities, and eventually much of the country, with radiation detectors.

Triggering a nuclear device within a major port would also cause devastation. The Port of Los Angles, for example, is the trans-shipment point for much of the state’s gasoline supply, as well as 3.3 million direct and indirect jobs.

The U.S. also has custom agents screening U.S. bound containers at certain foreign port.

Source

Police Seize Suspected Enriched Uranium – 3 Arrested In Plot To Sell It In Slovakia

There is an old Chinese proverb, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step”.  There is no telling what the final destination  might have been for the 2.2 lbs of uranium seized by police in Slovakia today.

Police have arrested two people in Slovakia and one in Hungary in connection with the seizure, underlining fears in the West that terrorist groups are seeking to build a nuclear device.

The Slovak news agency SITA and its counterpart in the Czech Republic, CTK, citing unconfirmed reports, said that the material was enriched uranium, an integral part of a nuclear bomb.

Martin Korch, a Slovak police spokesman, would not confirm the exact nature of the material but said that it was worth $1 million.

He said that the joint Slovak-Hungarian police raid took place along their common frontier, near Ukraine.

“Three people have been taken into custody, two in Slovakia one in Hungary,” he said.

Uranium enrichment can yield either fuel for nuclear power stations or be used for nuclear warheads.

In Washington the arrests will be seen as a vindication of years of work with police in former Iron Curtain states, where a combination of a supply of nuclear materials and poor law enforcement have made US officials concerned that al-Qa’eda or other terrorist groups could acquire materials for a “dirty” nuclear bomb or something even more powerful.

A spokesman for the FBI said: “The director has expressed his concern that al-Qa’eda is planning future attacks and we know they have actively sought weapons of mass destruction materials to attack the US.”

News of the seizure came as the New Scientist published details of a secret report by Swedish and Russian experts. They are said to have exposed “gaping holes” in arrangements to stop theft of plutonium and highly-enriched uranium from sites in northwest Russia.

Slovak police seize ‘enriched uranium’ in raid – Telegraph

Cherryvale Mall Terror Suspect Pleads Guilty

A Rockford, Ill., man, admitted today in Federal Court that he planned to set off several grenades in garbage cans at a shopping mall in Rockford last December. The defendant, Derrick Shareef, 23, pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Shareef was arrested on Dec. 6, 2006, by agents of the FBI-led Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) when he met with an undercover agent at a store parking lot in Rockford to trade a set of stereo speakers for four hand grenades and a hand gun. He has remained in federal custody since he was arrested. Shareef was scheduled to stand trial beginning December 10, 2007.

Shareef entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge David Coar, who set sentencing for March 14, 2008. Shareef faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. While there is no plea agreement, the Government anticipates that a remaining count of attempted arson will be dismissed at sentencing.

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said they were pleased with the conviction. At the time of Shareef’s arrest, they noted that there was no imminent risk of harm once the threat allegedly posed by Shareef was detected by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and the charges alleged that hewas acting alone.

The indictment against Shareef alleged that he planned to set off several grenades at the CherryVale Shopping Mall, near the junction of Interstate 90 and Interstate 39 on the east side of Rockford, about 90 miles northwest of Chicago. The mall, which has approximately 130 retail stores, is owned by CBL & Associates Properties, Inc., based in Chattanooga, Tenn. The mall was among several potential targets that Shareef allegedly discussed during the course of the investigation – the others were primarily local government facilities. At all times Shareef allegedly was acting on his plan between Nov. 29 and Dec. 6, 2006, Shareef was in contact with an acquaintance, who unbeknownst to him was cooperating with the FBI, and an undercover agent who was posing as the cooperating individual’s friend.

The Chicago FBI’s JTTF is comprised of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies from throughout the Northern District of Illinois, all of whom contributed to the investigation.

as-Sahab Orders Cyber Jihadists To Post New Bin Laden Video On Western Websites

Osama Bin Laden apparently wants to ensure that a Western audience views his latest video message which is expected to show up on the web in the coming hours.

The new al-Qaeda video containing Bin Laden’s latest message “must be posted to Western websites,” according to the terror network’s media arm as-Sahab. It has ordered cyber jihadists to post the video as soon as it is released.

“You must spread the new message from Sheikh Osama bin Laden in every way, especially via Western websites,” said As-Sahab, which produces al-Qaeda’s videos and audiotapes.

In a web message announcing the imminent posting of bin Laden’s new message, entitled “To the European people”, As-Sahab also gives instructions on how best to distribute the new video.

“Any means of distributing the video should be used in order to get the truth across to them about their war which they are losing and reveal to them the reality which they ignore,” said As-Sahab.

These and other comments posted on the Internet by al-Qaeda followers signal that bin Laden’s new message could cover the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, where troops from various countries are deployed.

Given that it is a message aimed at a Western audience, it is believed to have already been translated and subtitled in English, as have previous messages by bin Laden and by al-Qaeda’s number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri directed at the United States.

The last two messages from bin Laden, released after three years of silence, were those of 11 September and 22 October this year.

The last one, in particular, made history in that it was the first message in which bin Laden admitted that some of his followers in Iraq had made mistakes. It called on Jihadists to unite.

Shots Fired In Inside Greenspoint Mall – Houston Texas

UPDATE: 

According to the Greenspoint Management District, the situation started when the boyfriend of a female mall employee called, threatening to harm her.

The woman, who worked at Body Luxuries, called mall security, but her boyfriend arrived before security could get there.

He then pulled the gate down over the front of the shop, barricading them both inside.

Witnesses reported hearing two gunshots.

——————

Police are checking out a report that shots are being fired inside the Greenspoint Mall located in Houston Texas. A area of the mall has been closed off. It’s uncertain, but the suspect may still be inside. SWAT officers can be seen entering the building.

There’s no immediate word on any injuries.

Live Video via Fox News

As-Sahab – Osama bin Laden To Send New Message To Europe

SITE Intelligence Group has learned that a new message is forthcoming from Usama bin Laden, the head of Al-Qaeda, addressing the European people. The message is produced by As-Sahab, the multimedia arm of Al-Qaeda. The announcement of this impending released was posted to jihadist forums today, Monday, November 26, 2007.

It carried the statement,”Soon, God willing, (we will post) a new message to the European people from the lion Imam who defeated the Americans and tyrants, Sheikh Osama bin Laden,” said the pro-al Qaeda Web site which regularly posts messages from the militant leader.

“Let this message be posted by various Western Web sites so that we deliver to them the truth of their lost war and (confront) them with the purposely hidden fact,” it said, adding that the message was produced by al Qaeda media arm As-Sahab.

It did not give any further details.

The Web site did not give a specific timeframe, but usually messages are released within 72 hours after they are announced.

Bin Laden’s last message was released on October 22. The Saudi-born militant then urged unity between Iraq’s Sunni rebels.

SITE Institute

UK – Top Officer Warns Of Nuclear Terror Threat

Atlas Shrugs alerted us to this story on her site. Ian Dickinson knows what is at stake and speaks without hesitation of the true dangers we face.

A nuclear attack by terrorists causing widespread panic, chaos and death is inevitable and will happen soon, a senior Scottish police officer has warned.

Ian Dickinson, who leads the police response to chemical, biological and nuclear threats in Scotland, has painted the bleakest picture yet of the dangers the world now faces.

Efforts to prevent terrorist groups from obtaining materials that could be made into radioactive dirty bombs – or even crude nuclear explosives – are bound to fail, he said. And the result will be horror on an unprecedented scale.

“These materials are undoubtedly out there, and undoubtedly will end up in terrorists’ hands, and undoubtedly will be used by terrorists some time soon,” he declared. “We must plan for failure and prepare for absolute terror.”

[...]

He said: “An incident will continue for days and all the public will see is people dying without reason. What will we do when our children come home from school with blisters on their skin and their parents don’t know what to do?

“What happens if 10 deaths, 50 deaths, 100 deaths start occurring in an unconnected and random way all over the country? The public will be rightly and understandably terrified.”

Casualties caused by radiation, which most people don’t understand, would trigger widespread “panic and fear”, said Dickinson. And the response of the emergency services “would be chaotic” because of a shortage of resources.

[...]

Dickinson delivered his dire warnings to an international conference in Edinburgh last week. More than 300 experts from 70 countries were taking part in a high-level meeting organized by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency on the risks of nuclear terrorism.
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Update – Fort Huachuca Terror Threat Report

The Washington Times provides an update on a story we ran here: Tucson TV Station Broadcasts Arizona Fort Huachuca Terror Threat Report

Fort Huachuca, the nation’s largest intelligence training center, changed security measures in May after being warned that Islamist terrorists, with the aid of Mexican drug cartels, were planning an attack on the facility.

Fort officials changed security measures after sources warned that possibly 60 Afghan and Iraqi terrorists were to be smuggled into the U.S. through underground tunnels with high powered weapons to attack the post, according to multiple confidential law enforcement documents obtained by The Washington Times.

“A portion of the operatives were in the United States, with the remainder not yet in the United States,” according to one of the documents, an FBI advisory that was disbursed to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the CIA, Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Justice, among numerous other law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. “The Afghanis and Iraqis shaved their beards so as not to appear to be Middle Easterners.”

According to the FBI advisory, each Middle Easterner paid Mexican drug lords $20,000 “or the equivalent in weapons” for the cartel’s assistance in smuggling them and their weapons through tunnels along the border into the U.S. The weapons would be sent through tunnels that supposedly ended in Arizona and New Mexico, but the Islamist terrorists would be smuggled through Laredo, Texas, and join the weapons later.

A number of the Afghans and Iraqis already are in a safe house in Texas, the FBI advisory said.

Fort Huachuca, which lies about 20 miles from the Mexican border, has members of all four service branches training in intelligence and secret operations. About 12,000 persons work at the fort and many have their families on base.

Lt. Col. Matthew Garner, spokesman for Fort Huachuca, said details regarding the current phase of the investigation or security changes on the post “will not be disclosed.”

“We are always taking precautions to ensure that soldiers, family members and civilians that work and live on Fort Huachuca are safe,” Mr. Garner said. “With this specific threat we did change some aspects of our security that we did have in place.”

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