Al-Qaeda Terrorist Prisoners Plotted To Escape In Hijacked Helicopter – UK

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Al-Qaeda terrorists in a British jail were caught planning to escape in a hijacked helicopter.

Accomplices on the outside were to hire the helicopter for “business” then force the pilot to land in prison at gunpoint.

Nine Muslim inmates plotted to kidnap the jail imam during prayers with weapons hidden in the prison mosque.

According to the plan they would then move to a sports field using the imam as a shield and be picked up by the helicopter.

Wardens at Full Sutton prison in Yorkshire, acting on a tip-off, went to the plotters’ cells hours before the escape attempt was due to start.

The nine, including convicted terrorists, will now be transferred to other jails.

A source told the Sun: “This would have been one of the most damaging escapes ever. The intelligence was very strong and from a good source. It had to be acted on immediately.

“It involved some of the most dangerous al-Qaeda terrorists in jail, all of whom are a massive threat. It had been planned for months and the use of a helicopter shows it was sophisticated.”

Source

Osama bin Laden Plotting New Attacks

Osama bin Laden and the core al-Qaida leadership are plotting new attacks against the United States and its allies from safe havens
in Pakistan, a senior US official warned Thursday.

Officials have said President Barack Obama’s new Afghan-Pakistan strategy will focus on destroying safe havens for terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Read more

Report: al Qaeda Recruiting In Uk At Street Level

The al Qaeda terror network is able to “directly recruit British muslims at street level in the UK”, according to a ground-breaking new report by the UK’s premier anti-extremism think-tank.

The research paper produced by the Quilliam Foundation, just published in the US military journal, The Sentinel, says the success of attacks such as 7/7, compared with the failed bombings at Glasgow Airport and London’s West End, is proof of the “direct assistance” from senior al-Qaeda members to British homegrown terrorist, without which “few of these attacks would have ever been viable”.

Author James Brandon also rejects the consensus that al-Qaeda has adopted a strategy of “leaderless jihad”, recruiting and mobilizing followers purely through the internet. While counter-terrorism initiatives introduced since 9/11 have driven the movement underground, Brandon claims the evidence suggests al-Qaeda “continues to operate through a traditional hierarchical structure based on face-to-face contact” and is able to recruit directly in Britain.

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The report compiles evidence based on recent criminal trials to show how most of the major and successful terrorist plots in the post-9/11 era have had direct ties to high level al-Qaeda figures in the Afghanistan and Pakistan border region, calling into question the idea of terrorist self-starters’.

Brandon told the Sunday Herald: “People aren’t radicalised just by watching news about Iraq or Afghanistan or Gaza. It’s a much more complex process than that. And the key thing to understand is that there are actually people out deliberately trying to radicalise other people – people aren’t just self-radicalising. And once you understand that then it’s slightly easier to deal with, because if you can simply tackle the people involved in the radicalisation then the problem to an extent goes away.”

Terror expert David Capitanchik, formerly of Aberdeen university international relations department, said: “Unlike the IRA, which was one organisation and quite easy to infiltrate, it’s difficult to infiltrate al-Qaeda as the groups are very small.”

But professor Alex Schmid, director of St Andrews university’s centre for terrorism studies, criticised Brandon for drawing definitive conclusions from a “nebulous jihadi landscape”. He said: “I have been talking to people with access to classified intelligence and they have given me diametrically opposed accounts regarding the degree of control of core al-Qaeda on plots beyond Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East.”

via Report Claims Alqaeda Can Recruit In Uk At Street Level (from Sunday Herald).

Missing Somali-Americans Back in U.S. After Overseas Terror Mission

Many of the Somali-American men who were recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group overseas have returned to the United States, according to a source familiar with an FBI investigation into the matter — but the FBI still has not revealed publicly if it is pursuing arrests in the case.

“Some of the guys who were missing aren’t missing anymore,” the source said. “Some of them got blown up and some of them came back, and some of them are still there [in Somalia].”

For several months the FBI has been investigating at least 20 Somali-American men from the Minneapolis area who traveled to war-torn Somalia, where some of them trained and fought with an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group known as al-Shabaab, according to counterterrorism officials.

Asked to characterize how many of those men are now back on American soil, the source would only say that “several” have returned. Federal authorities believe the men went to Somalia to join al-Shabaab, which has been warring with the moderate Somali government since 2006.

Usama bin Laden weighed in Thursday on the battle. In an audiotape posted online, the Al Qaeda leader urged Somalis to fight against the Somali government, insisting, “The war which has been taking place on your soil these past years is a war between Islam and the international crusade.”

via FOXNews.com

U.S. Zeros In On Chitral Pakistan In Hunt For bin Laden

Where’s Osama? Try Chitral, once a trekkers’ paradise in Pakistan that has been sealed off to outsiders and is now regularly buzzed by American spy drones.

The U.S. won’t say it officially, but an exhaustive Daily News investigation finds the world’s biggest manhunt for the monster who murdered nearly 3,000 people on 9/11 has zeroed in on Chitral’s stunning peaks and deep valleys.

Six U.S. and foreign officials confirmed to The News that northwestern Pakistan’s impenetrable Hindu Kush mountains – which boast some of the world’s tallest climbs – in the Chitral region have been eyed as Bin Laden’s hideout since 2006 by Osama hunters aiming for the big kill.

A lengthy review of evidence, including recent Predator fly-bys, Bin Laden’s tapes since 9/11 and interviews with three dozen experts on Al Qaeda, Pakistan and special operations, point to these vast mountains as the terror chief’s most likely haven.

Captured Al Qaeda leaders have given up as his hideout. “Debriefings of Al Qaeda leaders arrested confirmed this,” said Rohan Gunaratna, author of “Inside Al Qaeda.”

Two senior foreign officials said the nearby town of Kalam also is suspect.

Source

Australian Wildfires Could Fuel ‘Forest Jihad’ Terrorists, Experts Say

Firefighters and homeowners aren’t the only ones keenly watching Australia’s massive wildfires, responsible for killing at least 173 people in the southern part of the continent.

Terrorism experts suspect Muslim extremists are watching closely, too — and taking note of the devastation.

While Australian authorities have revealed no evidence linking the wildfires to extremists, terrorism experts say the large death toll, the huge swath of destruction and the massive financial blow to the country are proving to Islamic terrorists that arson can be a highly effective — and simple — tool of holy war.

In November, an extremist Web site called on Muslims to launch a “forest jihad” in Australia, Europe, Russia and the United States. The posting, which quoted imprisoned Al Qaeda terrorist Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, said setting forest fires was legal under “eye-for-an-eye” Islamic law.

“Scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels’ forests when they do the same to our lands,” the posting read.

The author of the posting indicated that Nasar — also known as Abu Musab Al-Suri — was urging terrorists to use sulfuric acid or gasoline to start the fires.

“Forest fires track well with the latest discussion trends seen in the Al Qaeda forums — easy to do, big impact, low security risk, high media coverage,” said Al Qaeda expert Jarret Brachman.

“We’ve seen these kinds of appeals for action, be it setting fire to forests in Australia, to creating oil slicks on mountain roads in Europe, to poisoning water supplies and driving buses off bridges in the United States.

“The fact is that the Al Qaeda ideology is starting to branch out to more of an ‘anyone, anywhere, anytime, anyhow’ approach.”

Brachman, author of “Global Jihadism: Theory and Practice,” said “forest jihad” fits well in the growing interest among terrorists to establish “Al Qaeda armies of one.”

“Could [militants] do this? Yes,” said Steve Emerson, executive director of The Investigative Project on Terrorism. “It wouldn’t be difficult, in the same way that terrorists could poison stored food supplies.”

Perhaps more troubling, Emerson said, is that there is very little authorities can do to prevent terrorists from setting deadly wildfires.

“It would be absolutely impossible to protect against,” he said. “Airport parameters are hard enough to protect. Imagine trying to protect something 100,000 times as big.”

Read Full Article

We first posted on this threat in August of 2007

Pyro-Terror: Are Greek Wildfires An Act Of Terrorism – Story Link

A top prosecutor ordered an investigation Monday into whether recent arson attacks in Greek forests could be considered terrorism, the Public Order Ministry said.

Meanwhile, a fire broke out on the fringes of Athens a day after a massive effort prevented the birthplace of the Olympics from being devastated by flames.

Dimitris Papangelopoulos, who is responsible for prosecuting terrorism and organized crime, ordered the investigation to determine “whether the crimes of arsonists and of arson attacks on forests” could come under Greece’s anti-terrorism law, the ministry said in a statement.

The probe also will seek to establish the identities of the alleged perpetrators.

Could it happen here?

The threat of similar pyro-terrorist attacks pose a significant risk to the U.S. and the fires in Greece should be a wake-up call.

In 2003 an FBI memo alerted law enforcement agencies that an al-Qaeda terrorist being held in detention had talked of masterminding a plot to set a series of devastating forest fires around the western United States.

Terror Group Urges Forest Fire Jihad – Story Link

The threat of a forest fire jihad has been made on numerous occasions. This story is again another reminder to remain vigilant and immediately report any suspicious activity.

Australia  has been singled out as a target for “forest jihad” by a group of Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a weapon of terror.

US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website calling on Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to “start forest fires”, claiming “scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels’ forests when they do the same to our lands”.

The website, posted by a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network, argues in Arabic that lighting fires is an effective form of terrorism justified in Islamic law under the “eye for an eye” doctrine.

The posting — which instructs jihadis to remember “forest jihad” in summer months — says fires cause economic damage and pollution, tie up security agencies and can take months to extinguish so that “this terror will haunt them for an extended period of time”.

Forest Fire Jihad Being Threatened On Terrorist Websites – Story Link

U.S. officials monitoring terrorist web sites have discovered a call for using forest fires as weapons against “crusader” nations, in what may explain some recent wildfires in places like southern California and Greece.

A terrorist website was discovered recently that carried a posting that called for “Forest Jihad.” The posting was listed on the Internet on Nov. 26 and reported in U.S. intelligence channels last week.

The statement, in Arabic, said that “summer has begun so do not forget the Forest Jihad.”
The writer called on all Muslims in the United States, Europe, Russia and Australia to “start forest fires.”

The posting quoted imprisoned Al Qaida terrorist Abu Musab Al-Suri, as saying “Jihad is an art just like poetry, music, and the fine arts. There are people that draw and there are others that are jihadists. They both act upon inspiration.”

Al-Qaeda YouTube Warning To Britain

AL-Qaeda last night issued a chilling video threat to Britain — on YouTube.

Rants by key henchmen of Osama bin Laden are accompanied by footage of a black-clad gunman riddling the Union Flag with bullets.

The Stars and Stripes is also peppered — along with Israel’s flag.

Fanatic Abu Hareth Muhammad al-Oufi — a former Guantanamo Bay inmate — vents his fury at the West while fondling an automatic rifle and brandishing a grenade. Read more

Al-Qaeda Releases Video Aimed At Germany

The terrorist network Al-Qaeda has released a new video with a message directed at Germany, a US security organization that specializes in screening Islamist internet pages said Saturday afternoon.

The 30-minute video was made by someone calling himself ‘Abu Talha, the German,’ according to an email sent by the Washington- based IntelCenter.

The video message is titled ‘Rescue Plan for Germany.’

‘This is the most significant and high-profile address by al-Qaeda to Germany and perhaps any European country,’ the center said.

The statement is in German with Arabic subtitles. The substance of the message however was not yet available.

Osama Bin Laden Releases New Audio Message

Osama bin Laden says in a new audio message that Israel attacked Gaza because of the “great and swift decline in America’s influence,” CBS News reports.

“Israelis are in a rush to get rid of their enemies in Gaza, and replace them with [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas and his administration, in order for him to protect their backs,” the network quotes bin Laden as saying. “They thus carried out this horrific butchery before the end of Bush’s term in office before the American weakness shows even more.”

Bin Laden, the head of al-Qaeda, has been in hiding since the United States invaded Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The network says it downloaded the unauthenticated 22-minute-long message from an Islamist website.

The Associated Press says bin Laden criticized governments in the region for keeping Arabs from fighting to “liberate Palestine.”

“There is only one strong way to bring the return of Al-Aqsa and Palestine, and that is jihad in the path of God,” the terrorist leader says, according to AP. “The duty is to urge people to jihad and to enlist the youth into jihad brigades.”

“Muslim nation, you are capable of defeating the Zionist entity with your popular capabilities and your great hidden strength — without the support of [Arab] leaders and despite the fact that most of [the leaders] stand in the barracks of the Crusader-Zionist alliance,” he says.

via Source – USATODAY.com.

President Bush Warns Of Continued Terror Threat

Eight days before ending his two terms in office as President George W. Bush said “There is still an enemy out there who wants to attack America and Americans.” The homeland is still threatened. That is the most urgent threat facing Barack Obama. He was answering media questions for the last time.

President Bush issued a stern warning about what he called the continuing terrorist threat confronting the nation, using the haunting words of Islamic extremists to support his assertion that they remain determined to attack the United States.

Abandoning his practice of only rarely mentioning al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Bush repeatedly quoted him and purported terrorist letters, recordings and documents to make his case that terrorists have broad totalitarian ambitions and believe the war in Iraq is a key theater in a wider struggle.

“Iraq is not a distraction in their war against America” but the “central battlefield where this war will be decided,” Bush said in an address before the Military Officers Association of America.

Citing the internal communications of terrorists was a dramatic new tactic to advance familiar arguments from Bush in defense of his strategy. The remarks came less than a week before the nation observes the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and two months before midterm elections in which the administration’s national strategy and competence promise to be pivotal questions. That debate was underscored by sharp criticism of Bush yesterday by Democratic congressional leaders.

Source

CIA Helping To Track 4000 UK Terror Suspects

The CIA has begun an unprecedented intelligence-gathering operation in Britain to help MI5 monitor 4000 terrorist suspects.

More than four out of 10 CIA operations to prevent attacks on US soil are now conducted against targets in Britain.

This has led to friction between British and American spies, with some US intelligence officers irritated that resources are being diverted to gather intelligence on suspects in their closest ally’s backyard. British intelligence officers do not know the identity of all the CIA informers and are uneasy about some of the uses to which the intelligence has been put.

MI5 as a whole is glad of the help, however, and works closely with its sister service. US spies share information when it concerns security in Britain.

Intelligence from CIA informers is believed to have helped thwart more than one terrorist atrocity on British soil. Information passed on by a CIA source in Britain was also instrumental in locating Rashid Rauf, a British-born al-Qaeda operative killed by a US air strike in Pakistan on November 22.

A British official said: “There is a great deal of CIA activity inside the UK. The CIA has been given a free rein to raise, handle and process from intelligence sources inside the UK.

“In many cases we do not know who their assets are. Several of the recently foiled terrorist plots inside the UK were uncovered by informants run by US source handlers. We’ve been able to interdict these plots.”

via CIA tracking 4000 UK terror suspects | theage.com.au.

Terror Threat In London Severe – Highest Level Since 9/11

Security chiefs in London are extremely concerned that Israel’s actions in Palestine will provoke a furious response by Islamic extremists based in the UK, with 4,000 active terrorists identified by a former head of the Met.

With the death toll in Gaza reaching 340 London has been put on a “high state of alert” following the violent clashes outside of the Israeli Embassy in Kensington and the worrying statistic that 4,000 terrorism suspects are active in the UK.

Lord Stevens the head of the Met disclosed the figure that up to 4,000 terrorism suspects are active in the UK, and stated that police and MI5 were “still too under funded and undermanned to cope with the task they face in the decades to come. And that’s how long this will last.”

Security chiefs in London are concerned that the escalation of violence in Gaza with the prospects of a ground offensive by the IDF could provoke a violent response by Arab and Muslim Londoners with minority elements influenced by Al-Qaeda plotting reprisal attacks in London.

MI5 have outlined the possible security threats posed by Al Qaeda:

Explosive devices

These can be delivered to their targets in vehicles, by post or by a person. Currently an explosive device within a vehicle is the most prevalent means of attack. Unlike the Provisional IRA, who also used this method, Al Qaida networks often seek to ensure that their target is hit by employing a suicide operative within the vehicle to detonate the device at the required moment.

Suicide bombers are also deployed to carry an explosive device into the vicinity of a target individual or location. On some occasions the terrorists decide, as they did in the Madrid commuter train attacks in March 2004, to detonate their devices remotely, so that they can go on to perpetrate further attacks.”

Shootings

Al Qaida have orchestrated a campaign of shootings and close quarter attacks targeted against Westerners in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Most recently, on 6 December 2004, gunmen mounted an assault on the US consulate in the Saudi city of Jeddah, in which five of the consulate staff and four of the attackers were killed. Al Qaida claimed responsibility for this attack. In Europe, an extremist shot dead the Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam in November 2004.

Kidnappings

There has been an increase in the number of kidnappings taking place, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. The kidnapping of UK citizen Kenneth Bigley in Iraq in September 2004 resulted in his murder.

Surface to air missiles

An unsuccessful missile attack was attempted on an Israeli charter plane departing from Mombasa, Kenya, in November 2002. Similar attacks have been carried out in recent months against coalition aircraft in Iraq.

Chemical, biological and radiological CBR devices

To date, no such attacks have taken place in the UK. Alternative methods of attack, such as explosive devices, are more reliable, safer and easier for terrorists to acquire or use. Nevertheless, it is possible that Al Qaida and some other associated networks may seek to use chemical, biological or radiological material against the West. Usama bin Laden has referred to such devices on several occasions. In November 2001, he said that “if America used chemical or nuclear weapons against us, then we may retort with chemical and nuclear weapons. We have the weapons as a deterrent”.

In a June 2002 article, Al Qaida spokesman Sulaiman Abu Gaith also said “it is our right to fight [the Americans] with chemical and biological weapons”.

In April 2005, Kamel Bourgass, an Algerian with known links to Al Qaida, was convicted of plotting to manufacture and spread poisons, including ricin, in the UK.

via Read More Thelondondailynews.com.

Belgian Police Break Up Terror Plot Linked to al-Qaeda

A planned terror strike in Europe that Belgian police claim to have foiled on Thursday was linked with al-Qaeda, authorities say. Some of the 14 suspects arrested had recently traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan, officials said, and had planned to launch a suicide strike — although its target remains unknown. “When you have people returning from Afghanistan as most of these people had, they’re sufficiently hard-core that the question isn’t whether they’ll be undertaking plotting activity, but when, and in what form,” said a European counter-terrorism official with knowledge of the case. “What’s important for us to learn is, if the Taliban or their al-Qaeda allies decide to strike us today, who are they going to do it with: their old European networks, [or] via Pakistani groups, jihadist organizations in north Africa, or maybe other operatives? The situation evolves constantly, and we’ve got to keep up with it.” Read more

Feds Warn Of Possible al Qaeda Terror Threat To New York Subway Trains

Feds Warn Of Possible NYC Terror Plot, FBI: “Plausible But Unsubstantiated” Report Of Al Qaeda Plans To Attack Subway System

The FBI has warned New York area law enforcement of a “plausible but unsubstantiated” al Qaeda suicide bomb attack against the area’s commuter rail systems over the holiday.

An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says the FBI has received a “plausible but unsubstantiated” report that al Qaeda terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said the warning was issued as a routine matter, but added that there may be an increased police presence in New York and other large metropolitan areas.

A US official said the FBI report had been issued “out of an abundance of caution” and that “there is nothing concrete to suggest the plot went beyond the talking stage.”

The report indicates that al Qaeda terrorists “in late September may have discussed targeting transit systems in and around New York City. These discussions reportedly involved the use of suicide bombers or explosives placed on subway/passenger rail systems,” according to the document.

“We have no specific details to confirm that this plot has developed beyond aspirational planning, but we are issuing this warning out of concern that such an attack could possibly be conducted during the forthcoming holiday season,” states the warning, which is dated Tuesday.

While federal agencies regularly issue all sorts of advisory warnings, the language of this one is particularly blunt.

Intelligence and homeland security officials are working with local authorities to try to corroborate the information “and will continue to investigate every possible lead,” the memo says.

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