Research – Terrorisms New Target Is the Economy

Jihadist terror organizations have set economic terrorism as their new target, intending to harm and paralyze Western economies, the United Sates in particular, claims Prof. Gabriel Weimann, expert researcher of terrorism over the Internet at the University of Haifa. Prof. Weimann monitored websites hosted by terrorist and terrorism-supporting organizations and concludes: “For the Jihadists, the present economic crisis signifies an ideal opportunity and platform to leverage a economic terrorist campaign.”

In the course of a study that was carried out over a number of years, Prof. Weimann surveyed public and encoded websites run by Islamic terrorist organizations, forums, video clips, and practically all the information related to Islamic Jihad terrorism that is flowing through the network.

According to Prof. Weimann, the focus on economic terrorism was set in motion with the September 11 attack on the Twin Towers, when Osama bin Laden stated on the video tapes that he sent out that these attacks mostly damaged the United States’ economic base and that these attacks, which cost $500,000 to carry out, cost the U.S. $500 billion.

via newmedia-eng.haifa.ac.il »Read Full Article.

News Outlets Request Terror Plea Agreement Be Unsealed

The Associated Press and Newsday are asking a federal judge to make public a plea agreement between prosecutors and a man who says he was plotting to attack New York subways.

The news organizations argued in court papers that the public has a right to see the documents unless there’s an overriding reason to seal them.

Najibullah Zazi pled guilty earlier this week to terrorism charges and admitted plotting to bomb the New York City subways.

Source

What Is The Next US Terror Threat

The past decade was defined by acts of terrorism starting with the Sept 11 attacks in 2001 that led to two wars and big changes in the way Americans travel and live.

What could the next decade hold?

To find out, USA TODAY reporters sat down with some of the nation’s top officials who deal with terrorism and intelligence issues day-to-day, including the White House national security adviser, the Homeland Security secretary and the FBI’s top intelligence adviser. Others interviewed: the New York City police commissioner, the Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman and the only person who has led both the top-secret National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency.

The interviews took place this month, in the aftermath of the foiled bombing of a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas Day that focused the nation’s attention once again on the terror threat.

The officials offer different perspectives: The “nightmare scenario” of terrorists gaining access to weapons of mass destruction. The rise of the “lone wolf” terrorist, acting alone and using a new breed of hard-to-detect explosives. The radicalization of some people in the Caribbean, close to U.S. shores. The Internet as a weapon.

And the prospect that the battle against terror is being won.

Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Read Interviews – Source

White House national security adviser Gen. James Jones talks about the biggest nightmare scenario for the U.S.  the acquisition of a weapon of mass destruction by a terrorist organization.

Experts Question U.S. National Terror Alert System

Despite the palpable level of angst that a source described over an al Qaeda threat against the United States, the national terror threat level remains at “Elevated” or “Yellow” where it has been stuck since 2005.

Information gathered since an attempted airliner bombing on Christmas Day has U.S. officials concerned that al Qaeda in Yemen has “trained and equipped … viable operatives” to strike U.S. targets, including targets unrelated to aviation, a reliable source familiar with the investigation told CNN.

“I have not seen people this ramped up on the terror front like this for probably two years,” the source said. “The palpable level of angst is incredible.”Read more on the new threat

The threat level for the aviation sector didn’t change after the Christmas Day incident it has been at “High” or “Orange” since 2006 when British officials uncovered a plot to use liquid explosives to bring down Transatlantic flights. A security expert calls the current color-coded system “useless.”

“It’s ineffective as communicating to the American public. And it’s obsolete in terms of kind of managing national preparedness levels,” said James Carafano, a homeland security expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “It really is useless.”

The system officially known as the Homeland Security Advisory System was implemented in March 2002 just months after the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

The terror alert system is most recognizable by a color coded graphic, which includes: Severe (red), High (orange), Elevvated.

NationalTerrorAlert.com will continue to maintain a live web alert, adapting to any new alert, once DHS has made a final decision. For those of you fetauring the alert on your website, we don’t anticipate you having to make any changes.

via National Terror Alert System.

Lady Al Qaeda Aafia Siddiqui Removed From Courtroom

A jury was chosen Thursday in the “Lady Al Qaeda” trial, but not before the defendant interrupted the process with more outbursts and was tossed from the courtroom.

A day after she demanded Jews be excluded from the jury, Aafia Siddiqui went to deliver more rants about Jews and the 9/11 terror attacks.

“I have nothing to do with 9/11,” she said when a potential juror who cited her personal experience on Sept. 11 was dismissed.

Siddiqui is on trial in Manhattan federal court for attempted murder.

She was arrested by Afghan police after being caught in July 2008 with two pounds of sodium cyanide, a list of New York targets, and instructions for chemical and biological weapons, prosecutors say.

When an American team tried to question her, she allegedly grabbed an unsecured M-4 rifle and opened fire.

Siddiqui has repeatedly said she is boycotting her own trial and has attempted to make her case directly to prospective jurors and the judge.

via ‘Lady Al Qaeda’ trial: Suspected terrorist Aafia Siddiqui tossed from courtroom after outburst.

Pakistan Seeks Terrorism Charges Against Americans

Pakistani police will ask a court to charge five Americans detained in the country this month with planning terrorist attacks and jail them for life, a police official said on Thursday.

The young Americans, from Virginia, are accused of contacting militants groups over the Internet in a bid to wage holy war. Pakistani officials have said the Taliban had planned to use them to carry out attacks inside U.S. ally Pakistan.

“A joint investigation team has concluded its probe and we'll present them before a court on January 4 to seek life imprisonment sentences under anti-terrorist laws,” said Usman Anwar, police chief in Sargodha, where the men were arrested.

“We'll prove in the court that their aim was just to spread terrorism under the garb of jihad and for that, they were in touch with Taliban and other Arab militants in tribal areas.”

Pakistan's Pashtun tribal lands bordering Afghanistan are known sanctuaries for al Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled the U.S.-led assault on Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks on United States.

Washington is pushing Pakistan to root out militants who cross the border to attack U.S.- and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan.

Emails showed that the Americans had plans to travel to a Pakistani nuclear power plant, according to police.

via Pakistan seeks terrorism charges against Americans | Reuters.

Ex-CIA Operative Warns of Terror Attack – 60 Minutes

Henry Crumpton a former CIA operative with the most direct experience fighting al Qaeda on the ground and who predicted the 9/11 attacks has “no doubt” the terrorist organization will strike U.S. soil again and will talk about this and more in an interview on 60 Minutes, Sunday evening.

Henry Crumpton, the ex-CIA mastermind of the war on the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan right after 9/11, also tells 60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan the U.S. needs to be in Pakistan making deals with locals to fight the Qaeda and Taliban leaders hiding there.

Logan’s story, including a rare interview with the head of the Afghan intelligence service, will be broadcast Sunday, Dec. 27, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

“There will be an attack in the homeland …sadly…I think we’ll be hit again,” says Crumpton. Asked by Logan whether he had any doubts, he replies, “None.” The former CIA man on the ground in Afghanistan days after 9/11 says the future attack could be greater than the one that killed nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001.

Crumpton is in the best position to make such a statement. It was he, with a few other CIA operatives, who enlisted Afghan tribal fighters to dislodge al-Qaeda and their Taliban hosts from Afghanistan in the weeks after the 9/11 attack.

via Ex-CIA Operative Warns of Terror Attack – 60 Minutes – Source.

Homegrown Terror Cases Increase Significantly In 2009

Fox news  reports that out of 30 homegrown terror plots discovered in the US since  9/11,  ten were discovered in 2009 representing a significant increase that has terror experts concerned.

The five young Americans accused last week of traveling from Washington to Pakistan to wage jihad cap what appears to be a record year for homegrown terror plots, exposing a dangerous trend that experts say poses the biggest challenge America’s security officials have ever faced.

Not including the Pakistan case, the Rand Corporation says that of the nearly 30 homegrown terror plots uncovered in the U.S. since Sept. 11, 2001, 10 surfaced in this year alone, including two actual attacks, in Little Rock, Ark. and Fort Hood, Texas.

That puts “the level of activity in 2009 much higher than that of previous years,” Rand Senior Adviser Brian Jenkins told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last month.

“There’s definitely a rise in jihad recruits and volunteers in the United States, whether they’re concerning plots here in the U.S. or whether they involve material support to terror plots overseas,” says counterterrorism analyst Steve Emerson, author of “American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us.”

Danny Coulson, former deputy assistant director of the FBI, agrees.

via Homegrown Terror on the Rise in 2009 – Local News | News Articles | National News | US News – FOXNews.com.

Why Are Ayman al Zawahiri and Adam Gadahn Still Alive

While this article from ABC News points out that despite an increase in US drone strikes, many high-value targets such as Adam Gadahn and Ayman al-Zawahiri are still walking around, increased intelligence and capability in the areas where they are believed hiding suggests they may not be for much longer.

The reappearance of two of al-Qaeda’s best known figures this weekend overshadowed last week’s news that an unmanned U.S. drone had killed a behind-the-scenes al-Qaeda operative named Saleh al-Somali in a remote northern region of Pakistan.

Both Adam Gadahn and Ayman al-Zawahiri popped up alive and well on the internet, showing once again that CIA drone attacks have not managed to knock out the high-visibility, high-value Taliban and Al Qaeda targets the U.S. has been seeking in the region since the 9/11 attacks.

Gadahn, a Southern California Muslim convert turned al-Qaeda propagandist, criticized America and its allies in a 17-minute video released Saturday morning. On Sunday, Zawahiri, long considered Osama Bin Laden’s top lieutenant, released an audio statement, blasting Arab government figures as “Obama’s henchmen” and slaves of “the new world order.”

Read Full Article

bin Laden Death,Capture Tied to al Qaeda Defeat

Call it a hunch, and I know many will disagree, but I have a feeling the net may be closing in around Osama bin Laden.

Osama bin Laden is an iconic figure among extremists who must be captured or killed in order to defeat al Qaeda, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said on Tuesday.

“I don’t think that we can finally defeat al Qaeda until he’s captured or killed,” General Stanley McChrystal told lawmakers as he testified before a Senate committee.

At the same time, McChrystal cautioned that killing or capturing the Saudi-born leader of the group that mounted the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States would not by itself dismantle al Qaeda.

Source

Subway Airflow Tests To Prepare For Possible Terror Attacks

A team of researchers convened by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is slated to begin a series of tests Monday at 20 MBTA stations to determine how airborne contaminants would spread in a terrorist attack on Boston’s subway system.

“We hope to gain information from airflow tests that tell us what type of (protective measures) to take and where to place that,” said Teresa Lustig, program manager of the Chemical/Biological Division of the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security. “Unfortunately, as we know, terrorists have targeted these types of systems in the past.”

Threats of a chemical attack have been made against the New York subway system since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In 1995, a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system by domestic terrorists killed 12 people and injured dozens. Boston’s MBTA system has never received a threat or attack, said MBTA Police Chief Paul MacMillan.

“But we know by their very nature that subway systems are vulnerable to a terrorist attack,” MacMillan said during a press briefing today at Haymarket Station. “This will help us prepare — and improve — our response plan.”

via Subway airflow tests to prepare T for possible terror attacks – Local News Updates – The Boston Globe.

Gordon Brown Tells Pakistan, Find Bin Laden

Gordon Brown told Pakistan to “take out” Osama bin Laden yesterday as Western frustration at its failure to capture the al-Qaeda leader burst into the public glare.

With America and Britain seeking support for their decisions in the next two days to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan, Mr Brown told the Pakistani leadership that it had not done enough to catch the men — believed to be hiding in the north of the country — responsible for the September 11 attacks.

His criticism was aimed at the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence service, which the West has long believed to be too close to extremist groups harbouring bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Mr Brown told President Asif Ali Zardari in a telephone call on Saturday that he intended to press home the message on Thursday when Yousuf Raza Gilani, the Pakistani Prime Minister, visits London.

via You’ve had eight years, now get us bin Laden, Brown urges Pakistan – Times Online.

U.S. Reviews Air Defenses to Thwart Terror From Skies

I’m not sure how one can ever place a price tag on preventing another 9/11…or worse.

The commander of military forces protecting North America has ordered a review of the costly air defenses intended to prevent another Sept. 11-style terrorism attack, an assessment aimed at determining whether the commitment of jet fighters, other aircraft and crews remains justified.

Senior officers involved in the effort say the assessment is to gauge the likelihood that terrorists may succeed in hijacking an airliner or flying their own smaller craft into the United States or Canada. The study is focused on circumstances in which the attack would be aimed not at a public building or landmark but instead at a power plant or a critical link in the nation’s financial network, like a major electrical grid or a computer network hub.

The review, to be completed next spring, is expected to be the military’s most thorough reassessment of the threat of a terrorism attack by air since Al Qaeda’s strikes on Sept. 11, 2001, transformed a Defense Department focused on fighting other militaries and led to the Bush administration’s “global war on terror.”

The assessment is partly a reflection of how a military straining to fight two wars is questioning whether it makes sense to keep in place the costly system of protections established after those attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Though the last of the air patrols above American cities were discontinued in 2007, the military keeps dozens of warplanes and hundreds of air crew members on alert to respond to potential threats.

“The fighter force is extremely expensive, so you always have to ask yourself the question ‘How much is enough?’ ” said Maj. Gen. Pierre J. Forgues of Canada, director of operations for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or Norad, which carries out the air defense mission within the United States military’s Northern Command

via Read Full Article.

Al-Qaeda Sleeper Agent In Marion Federal Prison

KFVS reports a man the U.S. government considers a terrorist with ties to Al-Qaeda is now being held at the Marion, Illinois federal prison. Ali Al-Marri, 43, is serving an eight year sentence for being a so called “sleeper agent.” He has admitted to training in Al-Qaeda camps and having contact with the alleged planner of the September 11th attacks.

via Source.

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