Terrorists Using Blogs To Engage Counter-terrorist Experts Online
October 30, 2009 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Featured
This is an interesting article from the UK. Although I have never received any response from known terrorists on this site, I’ve often wondered if someone like Adnan G. el Shukrijumah, Adam Gadahn or others go online to research and read stories and posts about themselves. When someone like Gerald Posner does an in-depth investigative piece on a terrorist like el Shukrijumah, does el Shukrijumah see it? My assumption has always been that he does. Many well known terrorists have an obvious strong desire for attention in the media and this article makes that case.
A senior Arab Afghan adviser to al Qaeda and the Taliban has openly challenged an Australian counter-terrorism expert in a series of blog posts. Abu Walid al Masri has written direct responses to Leah Farrall, an Australian academic who writes the All things Counter Terrorism blog and has years of experience fighting terrorism with the Australian Federal Police.
Farrall recently described al Masri as “one of Mullah Omar’s most trusted advisers” in an op-ed for the Australian. He has written 12 books in Arabic relating to Afghanistan and al Qaeda, and has just re-emerged as an author for the Taliban’s flagship magazine publication, in which he recently encouraged the Taliban to engage in the kidnapping of British and American soldiers. Because of this, Al Masri has been one of Farrall’s “main academic interests for many years” and she was shocked read his blog posts about her: “To say that I am blown away by this would be a pretty massive understatement”.
In his first blog post, Abu Walid al Masri joked that Farrall’s “focus on academic research will give us a bit of comfort and space so we can work safely in the field (terrorism). Therefore I thought it would be a good to distract her with these dialogues so the rest of the gang can do the work.”
He compares Farrall to the “beautiful female soldiers” who tortured “our brothers” in Abu Ghraib, and then begins the dialogue sardonically:
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New Terror Plot Details Reveal Attempt To Rent Trucks
October 1, 2009 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
KUSA-TV in Denver reports that video footage turned over to the FBI shows alleged terror suspect Najibullah Zazi and several others attempting to rent trucks from a local truck rental agency in Colorado, a week before the 9/11 anniversary.
The footage captured on security videotapes reportedly shows the men asking about the trucks in a Colorado U-Haul International office.
In the report, U-Haul International spokeswoman Joanne Fried told the station that FBI agents seized security videotapes of Zazi who was with two or three other men inside the rental location in suburban Aurora.
Sources said Zazi and the others asked methods of deposit on the trucks, but left and never came back.
Earlier we reported that other alleged accomplices of Zazi but not the terror suspect himself attempted to rent a U-Haul in Queens new York on Sept. 9.
From KUSA-TV
New details uncovered by 9Wants to Know on Wednesday revealed a Denver airport shuttle driver may have been planning an attack similar to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Twenty-four-year-old terror suspect Najibullah Zazi and several accomplices were videotaped trying to rent U-Haul trucks in Aurora, U-Haul International, Inc. confirmed Wednesday afternoon. Sources say the attempts at renting U-Haul trucks happened in the week leading up to the Sept. 11 anniversary.
In the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City, American terrorists used rental trucks packed with explosives to level a federal building, killing 168 people and injuring more than 600 others. In 1993, terrorists used a vehicle filled with explosives in an attack on the World Trade Center that killed six people and injured more than 1,000 others.
Former Department of Justice Attorney and author of the Patriot Act, Bryan Cunningham, said this information could detail a plot larger than previously thought.
“If you’re now talking about them trying to use U-Hauls as bombs, that is a much, much, much bigger operation. Remember Oklahoma City?” said Cunningham. “This creates a much bigger order of magnitude threat.”
9/11 Conspirators Refuse to Appear in Court
September 21, 2009 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Incident Reports
Fox news is reporting that in a bizarre moment, the three 9/11 conspirators who are acting as their own attorneys refused to come to court Monday. The prosecution says the men should be forced to attend, even forcibly extracted from their cells, but the judge declined to do so.
A military judge agreed Monday to another delay in the war crimes trial of five Guantanamo prisoners charged in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Army Col. Stephen Henley agreed to the U.S. government’s request for a 60-day continuance, a delay intended to give President Barack Obama’s administration enough time to decide whether it should move the case to a civilian court.
Rusty Shackleford – NYC Terror Plot And The Post-9/11 Catch-22
Rusty Shackleford has a terrific article up on PJTV. In it he looks at an important question facing the law enforcement community, and as well, society. Do we arrest potential terrorists early and possibly allow them to plead to lesser charges, or do we wait and risk a possibly catastrophic terror attack? It’s a difficult question,and one that is not easily answered.
From the Article
Hollywood would have you believe that terror plots are always disrupted only moments before the bomb is about to be triggered. In real life there are no superheroes, and the consequences of waiting too long to act are just too dire to consider. In the real world, if a terrorist has his hand on the trigger, it’s already too late.
If you intervene too early, a group of serious terrorists intent on doing real harm may appear to be only a bunch of kids with fantasies full of grandeur and a lot of bravado. The weak evidence of an actual criminal conspiracy in these cases may lead prosecutors to seek lesser charges such as “lying to immigration officials.”
New ‘Code Red’ System Alerts Local Residents of Emergency
Great story and example of how some areas are taking the lead in community readiness and preparedness. Instead of calling 911 for an emergency, what if 911 called you? While it may sound weird, it’s based in reality. In Lawrence County, there’s a new program to alert citizens to an emergency. Called “Code Red,” it’s a program that is urging people to sign up so they’re not left out.
[...]
Code Red will notify residents through an alert by phone, through texting, or e-mail, about the need to evacuate, shelter in place, or give them instructions to find shelter or food in case of a problem.
“The Code Red System will be able to highlight certain areas of the county, or the county as a whole,” Slone said. “This is going to truly be a step, a big step in the direction of being prepared.”
Denver Terror Cell Plotting Attack At Center of New York Probe
September 15, 2009 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Incident Reports
The New York Daily News is reporting the Queens New York terror raids yesterday, are a part of FBI probe into Denver-based cell plotting attack on 9/11 scale.
According to the report here, the FBI probe that triggered raids in Queens is now focused on a Denver-based terror cell plotting another attack said to be on the scale of 9/11.
From the NY Daily news Article
Hundreds of FBI agents are on the ground in Colorado, conducting round-the-clock surveillance on five suspects including a man who recently visited Queens, sources told The News.
New York authorities searched three Flushing apartments and detained several men – later released – after getting a warrant to look for bomb-making components, explosive powders and fuses.
“The FBI is seriously spooked about these guys planning another 9/11,” a former senior counter-terrorism official told the News. “This is not some … FBI informant-driven case. This is the real thing.”
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters it’s an ongoing investigation with plenty of “substance.”
The 24-7 counter-terror operation included Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants used to intercept calls and e-mails, as well as overseas-linked wiretaps to eavesdrop on Arabic and Pashto-speaking targets.
From The Denver Post
The focus of an anti-terrorism investigation turned to Denver today, one day after federal authorities raided several New York City homes in an investigation sparked by a suspected al-Qaeda associate from Colorado.
Multiple news organizations are reporting that the suspect, a man known to friends as Najibullah, traveled to New York from Colorado, prompting the raids. The reports say agents in New York were looking for bomb-making components.
There has been no official announcement about the investigation’s details. Kathleen Wright, spokeswoman for the Denver FBI, said she could not confirm or deny that the agency is surveilling or investigating a terror suspect in Colorado.
Denver police referred calls to the FBI.
Denver Man Detained And Released
A Denver man, detained and then released Monday in connection with the New York City terrorism raids, had recently traveled to Pakistan before he showed up in New York last Thursday with bomb-making documents, other law enforcement officials told ABC News.
Hundreds of FBI agents are “on the ground in Colorado, conducting round-the-clock surveillance on five suspects,” the Daily News reported.
America Hiroshima Plotter Adnan Shukrijumah,”Jaffar The Pilot” Is On The Move
September 11, 2009 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Featured
“Jafar the Pilot,” leader of al Qaeda’s post-9/11 ambitions for a nuclear attack, is on the move again. The Daily Beast’s Gerald Posner reports that he may be using a Saudi diplomatic passport.
One of the world’s most wanted terrorists, with a $5 million bounty on his head and a suspected desire to attack the United States with nuclear weapons, has been traveling across the Middle East recently with relative impunity, courtesy of a Saudi diplomatic passport, a U.S. intelligence source tells The Daily Beast.
Five-foot-four Adnan Gulshair el Shukrijumah was selected after 9/11 by Osama bin Laden to be the terror group’s next Mohamed Atta for any second wave of attacks on America. The Saudi-born el-Shukrijumah was the son of a radical Muslim cleric who moved his family to the U.S. in 1985 and settled eventually in Miramar, Florida, a Fort Lauderdale suburb. There he became friends with José Padilla, who was later arrested as an “enemy combatant,” and also with Mandhai and Shueyb Mossa Jokhan, who were jailed for plotting to blow up Florida power plants, a National Guard armory, and Jewish businesses. Adnan attended flight schools in Florida and Oklahoma, and within al Qaeda was dubbed Jafar al-Tayyar (“Jafar the Pilot”).
How Do We Know of The Existence of Adnan?
Newly declassified documents, as well as other evidence, make it clear that intelligence was gained during Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s interrogations. His confessions led to the identification of at least three al Qaeda sleeper agents who operated on U.S. soil. They are: Uzair Paracha, Adnan El Shukrijumah and Iyman Faris.
A senior CIA intelligence analyst told The Daily Beast that the agency had tracked Adnan “somewhere in late spring to early summer” on several trips in the Middle East. On those travels, he used an alias—which the analyst did not disclose—and traveled with relative impunity on a Saudi diplomatic passport.The news of Adnan’s travels was alarming to the American intelligence community because it had previously concluded he was in Pakistan, coordinating the fight against Western forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. A U.S. counterterrorism official summarized to me the mainstream U.S. intelligence view: “It is generally believed that El Shukrijumah stays in the tribal areas of Pakistan—where he probably thinks he’s more secure—and does not travel abroad.”
According to the same analyst, who disclosed the discovery of Adnan’s travels on a Saudi diplomatic passport, the CIA requested “offline” that the State Department make an official inquiry of the Saudis about the passport to determine its authenticity. The CIA provided the State Department both the passport number and the alias. According to the CIA analyst, the State Department refused, telling the agency that its information was “not reliable enough” to question the Saudis.
Read the Full Article At The Daily Beast
We’ve featured several posts on Adnan Shukrijumah,”Jaffar The Pilot”, including the following:
A Mystery Man That Keeps The FBI Up At Night
Eight years ago, as 19 Al Qaeda operatives in the United States put the finishing touches on what would become the Sept. 11 attacks, a frail, asthmatic computer engineer from South Florida paid a visit to this tiny Muslim enclave where he’d lived as a boy.
Adnan Gulshair Muhammad el Shukrijumah, then 25, kept a low profile over the course of the week. He hung out with a small circle of devout older men who were leaders of the local Islamic community. They prayed in mosques, went fishing and enjoyed long walks and leisurely dinners, recalled one of the hosts, Imtiaz Mohammed.
Shukrijumah spoke fondly of his father, an influential Islamic scholar and Charlieville community leader two decades earlier. He also spoke of his family life in Miramar, Fla., his computer technician business and his travels to the Middle East and other exotic locales.
But Shukrijumah said nothing about why he was in Trinidad, nor what his plans were, acquaintances here say.
Two years later, the FBI put out an urgent all-points bulletin for Shukrijumah, depicting him as one of Al Qaeda’s most well-trained, intelligent and deadly operatives. He was described as the ultimate “sleeper agent,” intent on attacking the U.S., possibly with weapons of mass destruction.
Law enforcement officials and terrorism experts now believe Shukrijumah is one of several young, street-smart leaders of Al Qaeda handpicked by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, to keep the terrorist network alive and humming in the face of U.S.-led efforts to unravel it.
Paul L. Williams is a former consultant to the FBI on organized crime and terrorism. Since then, he has become an award-winning investigative journalist and written several books. In his new book, “The Al Qaeda Connection,” he claims Osama bin Laden has obtained nuclear weapons and smuggled them into the U.S. through Mexico for use in a plot known as “American Hiroshima.”
Ryan Mauro: Much has been written about the “American Hiroshima” report. How did you first learn about the plot?
Paul Williams: I have a unique background. I hold a Ph.D. in philosophy from Drew University and I am a seasoned and award-winning journalist. I came upon the story of bin Laden’s acquisition of tactical nuclear weapons while working as the editor/publisher of The Metro and a consultant on organized crime for the FBI. Several members of the Chechen Mafia, who had emigrated to Little Odessa, muscled into the operations of the Bufalino Crime Family in Northeast Pennsylvania by selling choice No. Four heroin, guns of every description, and stolen high-end cars from New York and New Jersey .
I learned that they came to the U.S. after Makhmud and his associates sold tactical nukes and nuclear materials to Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. I began to search for evidence of this sale and came upon stories in The Jerusalem Report and The London Times and Arab stories in Muslim magazines, Al-Watan al-Arabi and al-Majallah This led me to other sources and reports of further sales of nukes from the former Soviet Union to al-Qaida not only by the Chechens but also the Russian Mafia and black-marker arms-dealers, including Semion Mogilevic from the Ukraine . Such information can be obtained by any journalist with a telephone, a computer, and a library card.
I further learned that the sales to al-Qaida have been verified by a host of intelligence officials and weapons inspectors, including Hans Blix, former director general of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. The sales were even verified by bin Laden and al-Zawahiri in their pronouncements that they have obtained a small arsenal of nuclear weapons from black-market sources. My research took me farther into dealings between bin Laden and Dr. A. Q. Khan and the fact that over 20 nuclear scientists and technicians from Khan’s research laboratories in Pakistan worked with al-Qaida on a regular basis to maintain and modify the weapons that had been purchased and to develop other weapons from the highly enriched uranium and plutonium that bin Laden hade purchased from Uzbekistan and other countries.
Dr. Mahmood and Dr. Majeed, two of the leading officials at the Khan facility, confessed to CIA and ISI interrogators that they participated in al-Qaida’s nuclear projects. The fact that the Chechens possessed the nukes should be no surprise to any reporter or investigator. In 1995, the Chechens under Com. Shamail Basayev planted a radiological bomb in Izmailovsky Park near Moscow . The bomb was made of cesium-137, and, if detonated, would have killed thousands of Russians. This incident represented the first case of a nuke to be deployed as a weapon of terror. Later that same year, Dzokhar Dudayev, the leader of the Chechen Mafia, offered to sell his collection of nuclear weapons to the United States in exchange for U. S. recognition of Chechnya ’s independence. The Clinton Administration declined and so the weapons were sold to al-Qaida.
Wanted – Adnan el Shukrijumah Jafer The Pilot
DETAILS: Adnan G. El Shukrijumah is wanted in connection with possible terrorist threats against the United States.
REWARD: The Rewards For Justice Program, United States Department of State, is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading directly to the capture of Adnan G. El Shukrijumah.
Wanted Info
9/11 Phone Calls Released To the Public
September 11, 2009 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
Desperate to contact their loved ones, these are the telephone calls of the victims of 9/11. These calls have been released with the consent of their relatives and this is the first time many of them have been made available to the public.
Link: 
This is Kevin Cosgrove. He was the Vice President of Aon Corporation and was 46 years old. He was on the 105th floor of the South Tower, when he saw the attacks of the North Tower. He made a phone call to his wife, telling her that he was okay and that he was on his way down. Right after he got off the phone, the South Tower was attacked.
This tape goes from when the 911 phone call was first made to the collapse of the South Tower and his final heartwrenching cry of “OH, GOD! O-!” as the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.
WARNING - This is very disturbing.
9/11 Video – Remembering What We Saw
You need to watch this…This home video of the 9/11 terror attack on the World Trade Center was filmed from a 36th floor apartment very close to the North Tower. It’s a view of 911 that you may not have seen and one that you should.
The events of 9/11 are familiar to everyone. Perhaps so much so that over time many have become desensitized to the actual events of that day. To me, what is absolutely chilling, is how the video captures the personal experience of the couple shooting the video. It is their comments, telephone calls, shock and anguish that brings back a flood of emotions from that day.
Take a few moments to watch, remember and never forget… (Due To the number of viewers page may need to be refreshed to load)
World Wildlife Fund – WWF Condemns ‘Offensive’ Ad With It’s Logo
The World Wildlife Fund is speaking out after bloggers and twitterers condemned the environmental group over a tasteless and unapproved ad exploiting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York’s World Trade Center.
The online ad shows a swarm of airplanes about to attack New York with a caption reading: “The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.”
The ad bears the WWF’s trademark panda logo.
It began drawing attention Tuesday when it won a best of 2009 award from The One Club, a non-profit group that promotes excellence in advertising, says the New York Daily News.
But the WWF says the image was created on specifications by a Brazilian ad agency and was rejected.
“WWF strongly condemns this offensive and tasteless ad, and did not authorize its production or publication,” the group said in a news release issued late Tuesday.
“It is an unauthorized use of our logo and we are aggressively pursuing action to have it removed from websites where it is being currently featured.”
Officials with The One Club did not return the paper’s phone calls.
From the LA Times there is more.
9/11 Drill Down For Safety – Getting America Prepared
September 2, 2009 by national
Filed under Emergency Preparedness
It has been eight years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington killed some 3,000 innocent people. How soon we forget. Fortunately, there are people like Len Pagano who haven’t forgotten. Pagano is president and CEO of the Safe America Foundation, located in Marietta. On Sept. 11, Safe America rolls out a project called, “9/11 Drill Down for Safety,” a series of emergency drills designed to teach businesses and families how best to respond to emergency situations ranging from natural disasters to terrorist thuggery.
Former Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta is the honorary chairman of the program, which has the backing of the National Association of Emergency Managers, the U.S. Medical Reserve Corps, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a host of corporate sponsors.
In a news conference at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mineta said, “Safe America is championing this project because we believe we need to shift the attention from what government can or can’t do to what individuals and families can do on their own. If individuals are trained, they are just as likely to survive on their own than if they wait for first responders to arrive.”
Pagano estimates there will be as many as 200,000 people involved in the “9/11 Drill Down for Safety Program.” Among the drills will be efforts to test how special needs populations can be evacuated, determining the most effective way to communicate to high school and colleges students through text messages and looking at how to shelter people in a business location.
The drills will be as varied as the locations in which they take place. In Atlanta, UPS will simulate how to protect employees during a potential tornado. The Allstate Insurance office in Marietta will do an employee family preparedness plan. York, Maine will conduct neighborhood preparedness drills. In Washington, D.C., Howard University will carry out student pre-evacuation program planning. San Francisco will focus on day care centers.
Safe America Foundation
Make The Pledge On Facebook
Twitter Could Help In A Disaster
Text messaging, Twitter and social networking Web sites could help families stay in touch in the wake of a disaster, a national safety group said Tuesday.
The Safe America Foundation announced a campaign to train families about alternate ways of staying in touch if traditional communication methods are not working. The Atlanta-based group is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on this “Drill Down for Safety” program to make people more aware of communication options during an emergency.
Read Article
CIA Report Hints at Impact of Interrogations on 9/11 Mastermind
Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-described architect of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, looms large in a declassified CIA report on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques. The inspector general’s report, released this week, says Mohammed wasn’t much help before he was waterboarded but went on to become “one of the U.S. government’s key sources on Al Qaeda.” Such revelations have fueled the fiery debate over the effectiveness of the CIA’s tactics and whether the United States should condone methods that many deem torture.
But additional details of his interactions with interrogators may raise more questions than they answer — potentially saying more about the captive than his captors.
Intelligence officials described to the Washington Post a scene almost out of the halls of academia, with the once-resistant high-level detainee giving “terrorist tutorials” to them in a makeshift lecture hall. He even scolded one listener for poor note-taking and his inability to recall details of an earlier lecture.
The CIA report makes it clear that Mohammed wasn’t willing to divulge much before interrogators resorted to the controversial tactics.
“KSM, an accomplished resistor, provided only a few intelligence reports prior to the use of the waterboard, and analysis of that information revealed that much of it was outdated, inaccurate or incomplete,” the report said.
But after he was subjected to waterboarding — or simulated drowning — and prolonged sleep deprivation, among other harsh interrogation techniques, Mohammed began to cooperate and apparently even enjoy revealing secrets.
Mohammed “seemed to relish the opportunity, sometimes for hours on end, to discuss the inner workings of Al Qaeda and the group’s plans, ideology and operatives,” a person familiar with the sessions told the Washington Post. “He’d even use a chalkboard at times.”
While it is impossible to know for sure whether less coercive techniques would have gained the same information, those who defend the tactics believe the results are clear.
Mullen – 9/11 Plotters Still Alive And Planning More Attacks
August 27, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
Those who plotted the deadly attacks on World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, are still alive and planning to carry out more terror strikes, a top US military general has said. “The people behind that deadly day are still at it. They live and plan and train in safe havens along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border,” Navy admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said.
“They would like nothing better than to see either country or both fall prey to the grip of an extremist ideology. To the degree we let them succeed, we let ourselves become vulnerable,” Mullen said in his address to the 91st annual American Legion Convention, Louisville, Kentucky.
“My mission, the one currently given to me by the President, is to prevent that from happening. And that’s what we’re going to do,” Mullen said.
While Pakistanis are themselves waging their war against extremists, Mullen said, in Afghanistan, the war being waged to defeat al-Qaida and its extremist allies is led by an international security force with Afghans.
via 9/11 plotters still alive and planning more attacks: Mullen – US – World – NEWS – The Times of India.
NYC to Expand Emergency Notification System
After what New York City authorities are calling a successful terror drill over the weekend at the World Trade Center site, the city is moving to expand a “Notify NYC” system that alerts residents and businesses by e-mail, text message and telephone to emergencies either city wide or in a targeted area or borough.
New York City is moving to expand a “Notify NYC” system that alerts residents and businesses by e-mail, text message and telephone to emergencies, including terror attacks, either city wide or in a targeted area or borough.
Often called “reverse 911″ the system has been used or tested successfully in a number of other cities across the country as a way to move residents to safety in the face of natural calamities — hurricanes, flooding or dam collapse and is also intended to work in terror or other “man made” emergencies, officials say.
In New York it has been successfully used, city officials say, in a pilot program across four neighborhoods. It was launched following the former Deustche Bank fire right off the site of Ground Zero. In that case residents did not know what was the source of smoke, or whether they needed to take shelter or evacuate.
