Terror Networks Are Nations Biggest Threat – Obama

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President Obama today told Chinese students that he believes terror networks such as al Qaeda are the greatest threat to the United States. Obama said that although the terror groups are small in number they present a great danger because they have no conscience. He explained to the students that although they may be small in number, armed with nuclear or biological weapons, just a few individuals could still kill hundreds of thousands of people.

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Ill. Prison Could Be Used For Terror Suspects

A White House official says the Obama administration could buy a prison in northwestern Illinois. to house a limited number of terror suspects from Guantanamo Bay.
The maximum security Thomson Correctional Center is located about 150 miles west of Chicago. It was completed in 2001 but has remained nearly empty due to state budget issues.

Ill. Gov. Quinn issued a statement Saturday saying only that members of the Obama administration will visit to see if Thomson can be put to better use by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Quinn is expected to talk about the matter Sunday.

via Ill. prison could be used for terror suspects – 11/14/09 – Chicago News – abc7chicago.com.

Terrorists Smuggle Fatwas Out of Secure Prisons – UK

According to the Times UK, some of Britain’s most dangerous Al-Qaeda leaders are promoting jihad from inside high-security prisons by smuggling out propaganda for the internet and finding recruits. In an authoritative report, Quilliam, a think tank funded by the Home Office, claims “mismanagement” by the Prison Service is helping Al Qaeda gain recruits and risks “strengthening jihadist movements”.

Abu Qatada, described by MI5 as “Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe”, has published fatwas, religious rulings, on the internet from Long Lartin prison, in Worcestershire, calling for holy war and the murder of moderate Muslims, it reveals. Abu Doha, said to be Al-Qaeda’s main recruiter in Europe, has taken courses in Belmarsh prison, south London, enabling him to mentor other inmates.

via Read Full Article.

Five Sept. 11 Suspects to Face Trial in New York

Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama administration official said Friday.

Attorney General Eric Holder plans to announce the decision later in the morning.

President Obama, speaking in Tokyo, said he will insist that Mohammed be subject to “the most exacting demands of justice” and called the move both a prosecutorial and a national security decision.

“I’m absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheik Mohammad will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice. The American people insist on it. My administration will insist on it,” he said.

via Read Full Article.

Are Pakistans Nuclear Weapons Safe?

The prospect of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of al Qaeda or the Taliban in Pakistan is perhaps the most immediate threat facing the US. It’s thought that Pakistan has an arsenal of nearly 100 missiles, however; no one is certain of the total, or for that matter where many of the nuclear weapons are located. While government officials have publicly stated that our military is poised and ready to enter the country should it appear the safety of Pakistan’s nukes is at risk, the challenge to locate and protect each missile and missile site would be daunting if not impossible should this nuclear nightmare ever begin to unfold.

Seymour M. Hersh has written an article in the New Yorker detailing the situation

In the tumultuous days leading up to the Pakistan Army’s ground offensive in the tribal area of South Waziristan, which began on October 17th, the Pakistani Taliban attacked what should have been some of the country’s best-guarded targets. In the most brazen strike, ten gunmen penetrated the Army’s main headquarters, in Rawalpindi, instigating a twenty-two-hour standoff that left twenty-three dead and the military thoroughly embarrassed. The terrorists had been dressed in Army uniforms. There were also attacks on police installations in Peshawar and Lahore, and, once the offensive began, an Army general was shot dead by gunmen on motorcycles on the streets of Islamabad, the capital. The assassins clearly had advance knowledge of the general’s route, indicating that they had contacts and allies inside the security forces.

Pakistan has been a nuclear power for two decades, and has an estimated eighty to a hundred warheads, scattered in facilities around the country. The success of the latest attacks raised an obvious question: Are the bombs safe? Asked this question the day after the Rawalpindi raid, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “We have confidence in the Pakistani government and the military’s control over nuclear weapons.” Clinton—whose own visit to Pakistan, two weeks later, would be disrupted by more terrorist bombs—added that, despite the attacks by the Taliban, “we see no evidence that they are going to take over the state.”

via Read The Full Article.

Worrisome Al Qaeda Videos Found By FBI

The FBI has reportedly recovered two highly inflammatory Al Qaeda videos from the house of Pakistan-born Canadian, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who was arrested last month along with another person, David Coleman Headley, a Pakistan-born American national.

The new videos were recovered from the house of 48-year-old Rana, who has been living in Chicago for nearly a decade.

Produced by the media wing of Al Qaeda, one of the videos is titled “Bombing of Denmark Embassy”.

The 54-minute DVD is narrated by Abu Yahya al-Libi, an Al Qaeda spokesman who reportedly escaped from American custody in Afghanistan.

In his presentation, al-Libi explicitly calls for violent action to retaliate against Denmark for the publication of cartoons of Prophet Mohammad by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

According to an FBI affidavit, the DVD also prominently features video of a man who carried out a suicide car bombing of the Danish embassy in Islamabad June 2, 2008.

Rana and Headley, who are allegedly part of an Lashkar-e-Taiba plot, are said to have been ready to launch new terror attacks in India.

via Read Full Story.

Terror Attack Warnings Issued in Pakistan

Pakistan continues to face terrorist threats and intelligence agencies have issued increased security warnings in face of possible terror strikes across the country.

According to local media reports, the county’s major government building, offices and officials from law enforcement agencies have been placed on militant hit lists.

Awami National Party (ANP) leaders including North Western Frontier Province information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain and other leaders are among the target list of pro-Taliban militants, a Press TV correspondent reported on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the military said at least five militants were killed and eight others injured during an offensive in the South Waziristan Agency in northwest Pakistan.

Security forces have also claimed to have seized several landmines and rocket launchers in Quetta city in southwest Pakistan late on Saturday.

via Source.

Suicide Bomber Strikes Near Nuclear Facility in Pakistan

A Taliban suicide bomber has killed seven people near a nuclear weapons complex in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Bill Roggio at The Long War Journal has the details .

The suicide bomber detonated outside a security checkpoint near the Kamra Air Weapon Complex in the district of Attock, Geo News reported. Three security personnel and four civilians were killed in the blast, and 12 more were wounded.

[...].

The Kamra Air Weapon Complex is one of three military industrial production facilities in the Wah Cantt, according to Global Security. The Pakistani Ordnance Factories, a collection of 14 factories that produce arms and ammunition for the Pakistani armed forces, and Heavy Industries Taxila are also contained within the Wah Cantt. More than 40,000 Pakistanis are employed at the factories.

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UPDATE: A Taliban suicide bomber killed seven people outside a key Pakistani air force facility yesterday, with officials quick to deny suggestions the target was linked to the country’s nuclear program. Source

Senator Calls For Tighter Restrictions on Peroxide

I agree withe Sen. Schumer on this one. Sen. Schumer (D-NY) is calling for a nationwide “awareness” program of sales of peroxide, a chemical widely used in over-the-counter hair dye formulas but also used by terrorists to make explosives.

You may recall, this was one of our suggestions in the recent National Homeland Security Dialogue (QHSR)

A recipe to make a homemade liquid bomb using concentrated peroxide, known as TATP, was found in Zazi’s computer, law enforcement officials say. It was said to be the same recipe used by terrorists in the London transit bombings that killed 56 and wounded more than 700 commuters on July 7, 2005

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Terrorists Launch Simultaneous Attacks In Lahore Pakistan

Militants launched a series of simultaneous attacks against police facilities in Lahore Pakistan today, killing at least 18 people and plunging the Pakistani city into chaos.

Attackers armed with weapons and suicide jackets attacked the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) headquarters in the city centre and two police training centres on the outskirts just after 9am this morning.

Police said two of the attacks were over but one, at the Elite Police Training School, was continuing, with reports of explosions and intermittent gunfire. Helicopters hovered overhead as authorities deployed paramilitary forces across Punjab province.

At least three people were reported to have died at the training facility, located among fields on edge of the city. Police and paramilitary rangers surrounded the facility and appeared to be preparing to storm the building.

According to reports, the attackers included women, which would be a new departure in Pakistan’s rapidly escalating battle against extremist militancy.

Meanwhile, in North West Frontier province a Taliban suicide bomber exploded his vehicle next to a police station killing 10 people, including school children.

via Several killed as militants attack Pakistan police buildings | World news | guardian.co.uk.

Napolitano Says Al-Qaeda-Style Terrorists Are in U.S.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said terrorists with al-Qaeda leanings are in the U.S. and that the threat of attack “is always with us.”

“It is fair to say there are individuals in the United States who ascribe to al-Qaeda-type beliefs,” Napolitano said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. “And so it makes information-sharing, it makes effective law enforcement and it makes the shared responsibility of law enforcement ever so important.”

Information-sharing between federal, state and local law- enforcement agencies is “much improved” since the Sept. 11 attacks, she said.

In September, U.S. authorities indicted Najibullah Zazi, 24, an Afghan immigrant and former Denver airport shuttle-van driver, on federal terrorism conspiracy charges. They found bomb-making instructions on a laptop computer in his rental car.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the case had connections to al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that attacked the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.

Napolitano said she met in New York today with leaders in financial security in order to discuss ways to protect the nation’s financial system from cyber-terrorism or other attacks.

“The financial institutions of this country are part of our bedrock infrastructure,” she said. “They need to be protected. We need to be able to protect them.”

Nuclear Engineer From Cern Lab Arrested for al-Qaeda Links

From the UK’s Times Online – Fueling fears that al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations could be targeting the nuclear industry, French agents have arrested a researcher from Europe’s top atomic lab on suspicion of links to al-Qaeda.

The 32-year-old man, who was detained along with his brother, works for the prestigious European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) in Geneva, Switzerland, according to French police sources.

[...]

The suspect is believed to have been in contact with members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an Algerian-based terrorist organisation which joined Osama bin Laden’s network in 2007.

A source said French intelligence officers had intercepted messages in which the man had suggested targets in France.

”He had expressed a wish or a desire to commit terrorist actions, but had not materially prepared them,” said the source.

The suspect had been under surveillance for about 18 months after he was identified during an investigation into a French network which sent Islamic radicals to Afghanistan.

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al Qaeda Recruiting a Growing Number of Americans

Paul Cruickshank has written an article for Newsweek  that details the recent surge in the number of American residents joining Al Qaeda, and why its menace to Homeland Security is now more acute than at any time since September 11.

From the Article

But 10 days ago federal agents in Denver foiled an alleged plot on U.S. soil  that, for the first time, appears to have posed a true and severe threat to the U.S. homeland. Najibullah Zazi, a permanent resident of Afghan nationality, pled not guilty Tuesday in his arraignment in Brooklyn to charges including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. He is believed to have trained to make bombs with Al Qaeda in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan and to have initiated plans—apparently without assistance from undercover agents—with others in the United States to perpetrate a terrorist attack in New York City. The FBI, in other words, has just thwarted the most serious plot, by far, on U.S. soil in the last eight years.

And this is just the beginning. The threat from Al Qaeda to the U.S. homeland is arguably more acute now than at any time since September 11. This is not because Al Qaeda has become a stronger foe. (On the contrary, Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network has actually been weakened in the last two years by intensified U.S. missile strikes against its leadership in FATA and a sharp backlash among Muslims worldwide against its violent excesses.) It is because a growing number of Americans have gone to FATA, the global hub of Al Qaeda’s terrorist operations, to join the jihad in Afghanistan—something which was very rare until recently—and Al Qaeda, opportunistically, has recruited them for attacks on their country.

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Infiltration of al-Qaeda, Powerful New Weapon

The Washington post details what is being called, “the most important new weapon in the Western arsenal”. That weapon is said to be the recruitment of spies inside al-Qaeda and affiliated organizations. “Human sources have begun to produce results,” Richard Barrett, head of the United Nations’ al-Qaeda and Taliban monitoring group, said Tuesday in the Post’s report. Barrett is the former chief of Britain’s overseas counter- terrorism operations.

HotAir.com say’s,
The real scoop here is that this isn’t a scoop. If you follow the news about U.S. airstrikes in Pakistan even casually, as we do at HA, you know that something unusual’s been going on over the past 18 months. Check out the graph Bill Roggio put together over the summer, then scroll down and examine the dates on which most of the big jihadi fish were caught. Virtually all of them are from January 2008 or later, and Roggio’s list doesn’t even include now-liquidated Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, who was iced in August.

[...]

Given all the above, I have no objection to intel agents leaking to WaPo that we have spies in place — surely AQ has figured that out by now — and frankly, I wish they’d do more of it as psyops to sow paranoia among the jihadist elite about turncoats in their midst. There are, reportedly, rifts inside Al Qaeda that a shrewd strategist could exploit.

From The Washington Post

Current and former senior U.S. officials, who spoke about intelligence matters on the condition of anonymity, confirmed what one former CIA official called “our penetration of al-Qaeda.” A senior administration official said that success had come “because of, first of all, very good intelligence capabilities . . . to locate and identify individuals who are part of the al-Qaeda organization.”

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair referred obliquely in an interview with reporters earlier this month to the use of spies, saying that “the primary way” that U.S. intelligence determines which terrorist organizations pose direct threats is “to penetrate them and learn whether they’re talking about making attacks against the United States.” News

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