Inauguration – Tips To FBI About Suspicious Activity On The Rise

The FBI said Saturday it is receiving more and more tips about suspicious activities and items as the inauguration approaches, though there have been no specific or credible threats.

“The closer you get to the event, the more threat streams come in. People become a little bit more aware and want to do the right thing and pick up the phone and call us and tell us,” said John Perren, the special agent in charge for counterterrorism at the FBI’s Washington field office.

“Agencies want to forward us everything they have, just to ensure that this inauguration will be the safest inauguration there has ever been,” Perren said.

The FBI is one of 58 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that are part of the largest inaugural security operation in history.

There is no credible intelligence, at this point, that indicates terrorists plan to disrupt the events. But intelligence officials are concerned about potential attack scenarios, such as a car bomb or other explosive devices.

Should such an incident occur over the next three days, the bureau is ready with emergency response equipment that stretches down a city block on 5th Street.

There is a 40-foot bomb truck to handle suspicious items with a bomb-detecting robot that performs jobs considered too dangerous for a person. The FBI has a separate truck with a 12,000-pound blue steel ball that is strong enough to contain blasts of explosives.

There is also a mobile command center with seven laptops, 15 televisions, six cell phones, a microwave, mini fridge and 12-cup coffee maker; an armored assault vehicle; and evidence response team trucks to process a crime scene.

The FBI will have as many as 1,000 employees helping to secure the inauguration, with 155 two-person intelligence teams dressed in plain clothes and strategically placed to look for specific threats.

“We’re very, very confident that if anything happens, we know how to respond to it,” Perren said.

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Tulsa State Trooper Honored For Subduing Man With A Gun

At first glance you might ask why we posted this story. In fact, even if you read most of it, you may ask the same question. It’s what is at the very end of this story that caught our attention. The State Trooper is quoted as saying:

“It was one of those deals of being in the right place at the right time,” Robinson said. “I believe he would have loaded up that gun and gone to town because he was praying for Allah to help him carry out his mission.”

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All Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Sheldon Robinson was looking for was a burger and an oil change on his day off.

But Thursday he got a standing ovation from members of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority for his heroic actions in between.

On Sept. 5, Robinson dropped his wife and two children off at the Burger King restaurant at 41st Street and Memorial Drive and was pulling into an auto dealership across the street for an oil change when his cell phone rang.

“My spouse told me there was a man inside with a gun, saying he was going to kill everybody,” said Robinson, an 11-year veteran of the highway patrol who is assigned to the Creek and Muskogee turnpikes.

Robinson turned around in time to see people fleeing the building, including his wife, who grabbed the couple’s two children and hid in a nearby trash container area, closing the doors behind her.

It was only an instant, but Robinson said it seemed like hours before he got his truck turned around and pointed for the Burger King.

“I was relieved to see them in the Dumpster area, but I knew I had to go in there and see what was going on,” he said.

Robinson, wearing his trooper badge around his neck and carrying his weapon, parked his truck and peered in the window of the Burger King.

Inside was a man dressed in black. A Glock .40-caliber handgun and a full box of ammunition sat on the tabletop next to him.

Three other people were looking for a way out when Robinson passed

them as he entered the restaurant.

When the man briefly removed his hand from his gun, Robinson, who had approached from the man’s blind side, grabbed his arm.

Now alone in the restaurant, the two men wrestled on the floor before Robinson got one of his handcuffs around the man’s arm.

“The second one didn’t lock in place, so we went down again,” Robinson said. “He was a pretty stout guy.”

Robinson had the man fully cuffed by the time Tulsa police officers arrived.

“It was one of those deals of being in the right place at the right time,” Robinson said. “I believe he would have loaded up that gun and gone to town because he was praying for Allah to help him carry out his mission.”

Jerome Norvell Denson, 24, of Tulsa was arrested on charges of attempting to perform an act of violence and possession of a firearm while in the commission of a felony. He remains in jail awaiting a preliminary hearing.

For his actions, Robinson, 40, was named Trooper of the Month.

“He was off-duty and in my opinion he prevented a very serious loss of life or injury from happening,” said Maj. Dennis Gann, who is in charge of law enforcement and emergency services on the turnpike system. “He had to make a very quick decision and put his own personal safety aside to subdue the assailant. Obviously, that was a good thing.”

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U.S. Warned India of Potential Terror Attack – U.S. Connection Being Investigated

NSA Now Tracking Captured Phones, U.S. Connections.

Brian Ross and ABC News report U.S. intelligence agencies warned their Indian counterparts in mid-October of a potential attack “from the sea against hotels and business centers in Mumbai.

In addition,  U.S. intelligence agencies have been tracking the phones and SIM cards recovered by Indian authorities from the Mumbai terrorists leading to a “treasure trove” of leads in Pakistan and several possible connections to the United States, officials say.

Officials say one of the cell phone SIM cards may have been purchased in the United States but would not provide any more details because of the ongoing nature of the investigation.

The phones also include the same Thuraya satellite phone intercepted in November by the Indian spy agency RAW, the Research and Analysis Wing, which runs an extensive electronic intercept operation.
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