Archive for category Threat Watch
9/11 and the 9-Year War
Posted by Brian in Opinion, Threat Watch on 8/Sep/2010 15:40
9/11 and the 9-Year War is republished with permission of STRATFOR.
By George Friedman
It has now been nine years since al Qaeda attacked the United States. It has been nine years in which the primary focus of the United States has been on the Islamic world. In addition to a massive investment in homeland security, the United States has engaged in two multi-year, multi-divisional wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, inserted forces in other countries in smaller operations and conducted a global covert campaign against al Qaeda and other radical jihadist groups.
In order to understand the last nine years you must understand the first 24 hours of the war — and recall your own feelings in those 24 hours. First, the attack was a shock, its audaciousness frightening. Second, we did not know what was coming next. The attack had destroyed the right to complacent assumptions. Were there other cells standing by in the United States? Did they have capabilities even more substantial than what they showed on Sept. 11? Could they be detected and stopped? Any American not frightened on Sept. 12 was not in touch with reality. Many who are now claiming that the United States overreacted are forgetting their own sense of panic. We are all calm and collected nine years after.
At the root of all of this was a profound lack of understanding of al Qaeda, particularly its capabilities and intentions. Since we did not know what was possible, our only prudent course was to prepare for the worst. That is what the Bush administration did. Nothing symbolized this more than the fear that al Qaeda had acquired nuclear weapons and that they would use them against the United States. The evidence was minimal, but the consequences would be overwhelming. Bush crafted a strategy based on the worst-case scenario. Read the rest of this entry »
In Tamaulipas, Mexico, violence consumes everyone.
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 8/Sep/2010 01:35
In Tamaulipas, violence consumes everyone. Terror paralyzes the authorities, businessmen, politicians and all its citizens. The war between the Gulf Cartel and its rival Los Zetas has the border state on the verge of collapse.
REYNOSA, Tamaulipas .- The news of the murder of 72 Central and South American migrants on a ranch in the municipality of San Fernando, which appeared on Tuesday, August 24, shocked the world, but not Tamaulipas. The locals say that this case is not even 10% of what happens in the state and is covered up by the authorities.
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/terror-and-silenced-screams-violence.html
Mexican Drug Cartels Cripple Mexico’s biggest natural gas fields
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 8/Sep/2010 01:31
“The meandering network of pipes, wells and tankers belonging to the gigantic state oil company Pemex have long been an easy target of crooks and drug traffickers who siphon off natural gas, gasoline and even crude, robbing the Mexican treasury of hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Now the cartels have taken sabotage to a new level: They’ve hobbled key operations in parts of the Burgos Basin, home to Mexico’s biggest natural gas fields.
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/mexican-drug-cartels-cripple-pemex.html
Mexican Senate: drug gangs dominate or influence 71% of municipalities in Mexico.
Posted by Jack Sinclair in Law, News, Threat Watch on 8/Sep/2010 01:28
A Mexican Senate committee reported last Tuesday that drug gangs have dominated the mayors of some 195 municipalities and influence another 1536, which account for a staggering 71% of the total two thousand 439 municipalities in Mexico.
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/senate-narco-controls-71-of-mexican.html
Mexican Military opens fire on innocent family in tragic mistake – kills Father and Son
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 8/Sep/2010 01:25
“In what has been deemed a tragic and fatal error, elements of the Mexican Army opened fire on a vehicle whose driver ignored orders to stop in a military checkpoint.
The incident resulted in the death of a father and son and five family members injured.”
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/fatal-error-military-open-fire-on-nuevo.html
Mexican who ordered assassinations of U.S. consulate and her husband appears in TX court
Posted by Jack Sinclair in Law, News, Threat Watch on 8/Sep/2010 01:22
Jesus Ernesto Chávez Castillo, known as "El Camello," or the camel,
“Jesus Ernesto Chvez Castillo, who told Mexican authorities that he ordered the assassinations of a a U.S. consulate employee and her husband, appeared in U.S. District Court in San Antonio on Friday after his extradition.
A man suspected of ordering the assassination of a U.S. Consulate worker and her husband in Juárez in March appeared Friday in a San Antonio courtroom under tight security and a shroud of secrecy.
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/consulate-slayings-mastermind-in-texas.html
Mexico: Dismembered Bodies Dumped in Front of Children’s Museum
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 8/Sep/2010 01:17
Two dismembered bodies were found by police early Tuesday in front of a children’s museum in Chilpancingo, the capital of the southern Mexican state of Guerrero.State police received a call that two naked bodies with the heads, arms and legs cut off had been dumped in front of the La Avispa Museum.
The dismembered bodies were left near the part of the building that contains two mechanical dinosaurs. The bodies appeared to be men between the ages of 20 to 30 years old.At the scene were two torsos, two heads, one wrapped in duck tape, two complete legs from the femur to the foot, which had tennis shoes with a red stripe around the laces and the other two legs were cut in pieces. There were also four dismembered hands and arms, two of them up to the elbows.
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/dismembered-bodies-found-in-front-of.html
WARNING: Graphic, disturbing images
Freelance Journalist Released in Afghanistan
Posted by Gary in News, Threat Watch on 7/Sep/2010 17:47
Freelance Japanese journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka, himself a Muslim, was released Saturday after 5 months of captivity in Kunduz Province, Afghanistan.
From: The Japan Times
Kosuke Tsuneoka
During his five months in captivity, he said he never met anyone who supported the government led by President Hamid Karzai.
Financial aid from overseas, including Japan, is spent on government-controlled areas, which amounts to only 10 to 20 percent of the country, which is widening the wealth disparity, Tsuneoka said.
One of the captors told him there is no hospital in Archi, a town in Kunduz Province, where he stayed. “He asked me, ‘Can’t Japan help us?’ “
$100K Reward for EDUARDO RAVELO – FBI Most Wanted
Posted by Gary in Threat Watch on 6/Sep/2010 17:41
From: FBI
Eduardo Ravelo
Photograph taken in 1998
Ravelo is known to be a Captain (Capo) within the Barrio Azteca criminal enterprise and is allegedly responsible for issuing orders to the Barrio Azteca members residing in Juarez, Mexico. Allegedly, Ravelo and the Barrio Azteca members act as “hitmen” for the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Drug Trafficking Organization and are responsible for numerous murders. Ravelo has ties to Mexico and El Paso, Texas. He may have had plastic surgery and altered his fingerprints.
Wanted for engaging in the affairs of an enterprise, through a pattern of racketeering activities; conspiracy to conduct the affairs of an enterprise, through a pattern of racketeering activities; conspiracy to launder monetary instruments; conspiracy to possess heroin, cocaine and marijuana with the intent to distribute.
CAUTION
Eduardo Ravelo was indicted in Texas in 2008 for his involvement in racketeering activities, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and conspiracy to possess heroin, cocaine and marijuana with the intent to distribute. His alleged criminal activities began in 2003.
US drone strike kills 8 militants in North Waziristan, Pakistan
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 5/Sep/2010 21:21
“Eight militants, including three foreign fighters, were killed and 12 more injured when a US drone targeted their compound in the volatile North Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan.
The drone fired two missiles at a compound in Datta Khel village, 45km west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan Agency late last night, security officials said today.
Foreign militants killed in the attack included Arabs and Central Asians linked to al-Qaeda, officials said.
This was the third US drone strike in the region in 24 hours.
The area was targeted by US missiles twice on Friday, killing six militants in the first strike and four foreign militants in another.”
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/us-drone-strike-kills-8-militants-north-waziristan