al-Qaeda – A Wounded But Very Dangerous Enemy

Although intelligence analysts may differ as to al Qaeda’s strength, influence and operational status, there is one thing most agree on, al Qaeda is still very dangerous and poses a great threat to the US.

The Washington Post has more.

In the past six weeks, Americans have witnessed two jarringly different but completely accurate views of al-Qaeda’s terrorist network. One image was that of terrorist leaders being hunted down and killed by satellite-guided, pilotless aircraft. The other was of an agile foe slipping past U.S. defenses and increasingly intent on striking inside the United States.

New assessments of al-Qaeda by the top U.S. counterterrorism experts offer grounds for both optimism and concern a year after President Obama took office. Officials say al-Qaeda’s ability to wage mass-casualty terrorism has been undercut by relentless U.S. attacks on the network’s leadership, finances and training camps. But even in its weakened state, the group has shifted tactics to focus on small-scale operations that are far harder to detect and disrupt, analysts say.

via Al-Qaeda is a wounded but dangerous enemy – washingtonpost.com.

al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Urges Jihad

A Yemen-based offshoot of al-Qaeda has called on Muslims in the region to wage holy war against the US and its allies.

A purported audio statement by Said al-Shihri, deputy leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, warned “American and Crusader interests are everywhere”.

“Attack them and eliminate as many enemies as you can,” Mr Shihri urged.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has said it was behind a failed bomb attack on a US passenger jet as it flew into Detroit on Christmas Day.

A Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has been charged with attempting to blow up the Northwest Airlines Airbus A330.

He has allegedly said AQAP operatives trained him in Yemen, equipped him with a powerful explosive device and told him what to do.

via BBC News – Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula urges jihad.

Mexico Arrests 2 Reputed Leaders of Tijuana Drug Gang

Mexican authorities on Monday arrested two suspected leaders of a brutal drug trafficking gang that terrorized the border city of Tijuana for several years, a U.S. official said.

The capture of Raydel Lopez Uriarte and Manuel Garcia Simental apparently wipes out the existing leadership of the cartel headed by Teodoro Garcia Simental, who was captured last month. Teodoro and Manuel Garcia are brothers.

Lopez, known as “El Muletas,” and Garcia, known as “El Chiquilin,” were arrested Monday in La Paz, a city in the southern end of the Baja California peninsula, said Amy Roderick, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. She had no further details on the operation that led to their capture.

via Read Full Article – Mexico arrests 2 reputed leaders of Tijuana gang – washingtonpost.com.

Security Scare Closes Detroit Airport Concourse

Part of a Detroit airport terminal was shut down Monday after an Arabic man ignored instructions from security guards, police said.Part of Concourse A of McNamara Terminal at Metro Airport was closed for just under an hour while the security dogs checked the area, the Detroit Free Press reported.

The man allegedly refused to stop for questions during a security screening process, airport spokesman Michael Conway said.Security guards at first thought the man didn’t understand English and therefore didn’t understand their questions, but when he was taken into custody, he began to speak in English, Conway said.Police, who reported nothing unusual was found when the man’s body was searched, were conducting a background check and planned to search his luggage and car, impounded by airport police.

via Security scare closes airport concourse – UPI.com.

Iran Anniversary Punch Will Stun The West – Khamenei

Iran anniversary punch will stun the west according to Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He claims that Iran is set to deliver a “punch” that will stun world powers during this week’s 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. Not exactly new news to followers of this site. We first reported Iran’s President Ahmadinejad making the same threat a week ago, here

According to today’s reports:

“The Iranian nation, with its unity and God’s grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned,” Khamenei, who is also Iran’s commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel.

The country's top cleric was marking the occasion when Iran's air force gave its support to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a key event which led to the toppling of the US-backed shah on February 11, 1979.

His comments came as Iran said it would begin to produce higher enriched uranium from Tuesday, in defiance of Western powers trying to ensure the country’s nuclear drive is peaceful.

This year’s anniversary is expected to become a flashpoint between security forces and supporters of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who charge that the June re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged.

via Iran anniversary ‘punch’ will stun West: Khamenei.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-08

• Explosives Wash Up On In Barrels On Israeli Beaches http://bit.ly/cAevkd #

Clinton – al Qaeda Is Greater Threat Than Iran, N. Korea

Clinton told CNN’s State of the Union that there is a continuing threat from Al-Qaeda on the American people and US officials were only able to contain so far since “over the last six months, we have seen attacks foiled, people arrested and charged, so that you have to be constantly vigilant. And that is what everybody working in this government at all levels attempts to do”.

She noted that there is “nothing new” about Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s tape claiming responsibility for the airline bombing attempt over Detroit last Christmas adding that “it is really important for people to just go along with their daily lives. you cannot be deterred or discouraged or fearful about what is happening and we just have to do everything we can to keep America safe”.

Clinton said it is “very difficult to make that kind of assessment” about Al-Qaeda threat alert on the American soil since last year describing Al-Qaeda members as “a very committed, clever, diabolical group of terrorists who are always looking for weaknesses and openings”.

“I do not see them as stronger, I see they are more creative, more flexible, more agile. They evolve”, she added while saying “the biggest nightmare that any of us have is that one of these terrorist member organizations within this syndicate of terror will get their hands on a weapon of mass destruction”.

via read Full Article.

Serial Firebombing Suspect Captured by Police

A 26-year-old man accused of throwing fire bombs at two police stations, a school, a house and one that destroyed a truck was arrested early Sunday after a high-speed freeway pursuit that started in Del Mar Heights and ended in Temecula. Edward Batties of San Diego was taken into custody on Interstate 15 about 5:30 a.m. after his SUV ran over spike strips just past the U.S. Border checkpoint, said San Diego Fire-Rescue spokesman Maurice Luque.

Batties is accused of throwing five Molotov cocktails in a series of incidents that began Friday night, Luque said.The first bomb was tossed at the Mid City police station on Landis Street in City Heights about 11 p.m. The device was thrown into the yard and rolled under a car but caused no damage, Luque said.

The second incident was reported a few minutes later at Monroe Clark Middle School on Thorn Street. That bomb landed in the school yard and caused insignificant damage.On Saturday just after 4 p.m. firefighters were called to West Mission Bay Drive near Mission Boulevard in Mission Beach where a Chevy Silverado was fully involved in flames, Luque said. Investigators determined the truck was set on fire deliberately and witnesses told police they saw a white Ford SUV driving away

via Read Full Article.

Schumer Protests Elimination of Anti-terrorist Coast Guard Unit

Sen. Chuck Schumer is protesting an Obama Administration plan to eliminate an anti-terrorist Coast Guard unit that keeps watch over the city’s harbor.

“They are our eyes and ears,” Schumer said of the elite, 90-member Coast Guard unit established after 9/11. The unit provides terror-related surveillance and security for waterfront events like the Fourth of July fireworks.

Obama’s federal budget, released last week, calls for transferring the unit to Boston, where it would be combined with Beantown’s Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team.

“If there was ever a plan that was penny wise and pound foolish, this is it,” Schumer said.

He sent Napolitano a letter asking her to abandon the plan – and vowed to block it in Congress if she does not.

“The whole New York delegation will rally against this,” he said.

via Sen. Schumer calls out Napolitano over elimination of anti-terrorist Coast Guard unit.

Drug Cartels Tighten Grip, Mexico Becoming Narco-state

Chris Hawley of the Arizona Republic covers the declining situation in Mexico, in this must-read article.

For months, the leaders of Tancitaro had held firm against the drug lords battling for control of this central Mexican town.

Then one morning, after months of threats and violence from the traffickers, they finally surrendered.

Before dawn, gunmen kidnapped the elderly fathers of the town administrator and the secretary of the City Council. Within hours, both officials resigned along with the mayor, the entire seven-member City Council, two department heads, the police chief and all 60 police officers. Tancitaro had fallen to the enemy.

Across Mexico, the continuing ability of traffickers to topple governments like Tancitaro’s, intimidate police and keep drug shipments flowing is raising doubts about the Mexican government’s 3-year-old, U.S.-backed war on the drug cartels.

Far from eliminating the gangs, the battle has exposed criminal networks more ingrained than most Americans could imagine: Hidden economies that employ up to one-fifth of the people in some Mexican states. Business empires that include holdings as everyday as gyms and a day-care center.

And the death toll continues to mount: Mexico saw 6,587 drug-related murders in 2009, up from 5,207 in 2008 and 2,275 in 2007, according to an unofficial tally by the respected newspaper Reforma.

Cartels have multiplied, improved their armament and are perfecting simultaneous, terrorist-style attacks.

Some analysts are warning that Mexico is on the verge of becoming a “narco-state” like 1990s-era Colombia.

“We are approaching that red zone,” said Edgardo Buscaglia, an expert on organized crime at the Autonomous Technological University of Mexico. “There are pockets of ungovernability in the country, and they will expand.”

via Drug cartels tighten grip; Mexico becoming ‘narco-state’ – Read Full Article.

Interagency Teams Can Now Question Terror Suspects

Interagency interrogation teams have started to question key terrorism suspects under a classified charter approved last week, but authorities have been slower to resolve pressing issues that emerged since Christmas — including how to draw the line between gathering intelligence and building a legal case, according to federal officials and experts following the process.

The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, announced to fanfare by White House officials last summer, was not formally authorized until Jan. 28, under a previously unreported 14-page memo signed by the president's national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones. The delay became a matter of political debate last month after members of Congress asked why the group had been not deployed to interrogate Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is accused of trying to detonate an explosive Dec. 25 on an airliner about to land in Detroit.

via Interagency teams can now question terror suspects – washingtonpost.com.

Anthrax Contaminated Heroin Continues To Spread

British authorities today warned drug users that heroin in London was highly likely to be contaminated with anthrax, after a first confirmed case there and following nine deaths in Scotland.

“While public health investigations are ongoing, it must be assumed that all heroin in London carries the risk of anthrax contamination,” said Dr. Brian McCloskey, who is director of the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in London.

“Heroin users are advised to cease taking heroin by any route, if at all possible, and to seek help from their local drug treatment services.”

McCloskey added that the risk to the general population was “negligible.”

Anthrax has been found in 19 heroin users in Scotland since

via Anthrax contaminated heroin spreads | News.com.au.

Intel Chief – U.S. May Target Americans Involved in Terrorism

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair acknowledged Wednesday that government agencies may kill U.S. citizens abroad who are involved in terrorist activities if they are “taking action that threatens Americans.”

Blair told members of the House intelligence committee that he was speaking publicly about the issue to reassure Americans that intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense “follow a set of defined policy and legal procedures that are very carefully observed” in the use of lethal force against U.S. citizens.

Blair’s unusually frank remarks come as the issue of targeting Americans for lethal action has attracted more notice.

via Intelligence chief acknowledges U.S. may target Americans involved in terrorism – washingtonpost.com.

Christmas Day Bombing Suspect Gives Info on Yemen Radical

The Nigerian suspect in a failed Christmas Day airliner bombing turned against the cleric who claims to be his teacher and has helped the U.S. hunt for the radical preacher, a law enforcement official said Thursday.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who faces terrorism charges in the Christmas bombing, has been cooperating with the FBI for days, providing information about his contacts in Yemen and the al-Qaeda affiliate that operates there.

His cooperation against U.S.-born Yemeni radical Anwar al-Awlaki is significant because it could provide fresh clues for authorities trying to capture or kill him in the remote mountains of Yemen. Al-Awlaki has emerged has a prominent al-Qaeda recruiter and has been tied to the 9/11 hijackers, Abdulmutallab and the suspect in November's deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

via Official: Christmas Day suspect gives information on Yemen radical – USATODAY.com.

Radical preacher says Detroit bomber was his student

A radical cleric has said the Nigerian man accused of the failed Christmas Day attack on an aircraft over Detroit was his student but he didn’t tell him to carry out the bombing.

Anwar al-Awlaki, the US born cleric who has spent time in Britain, is believed to be hiding out in a remote area of Yemen and is said to have links to al-Qaeda.

In an interview with a Yemeni journalist, carried on the website of the TV station al-Jazeera, Awlaki said: “Brother mujahed [holy fighter] Umar Farouk — may God relieve him — is one of my students, yes.

“We had kept in contact, but I didn’t issue a fatwa [religious ruling] to Umar Farouk for this operation.”

Awlaki said he supported the attack in which Abdulmutallab tried to detonate a homemade bomb in his underwear, but it would have been better if the target was a military one.

“I support what Umar Farouk did after seeing my brothers in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan being killed,” he told the interviewer.

“If it was a military plane or a US military target it would have been better…(but) the American people have participated in all the crimes of their government.

“Some 300 Americans are nothing compared to thousands Muslims they have killed.”

Awlaki is thought to be involved in recruiting new members for al-Qaeda’s offshoot in Yemen, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP).

Source

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