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Posts Tagged terrorism
Terrorism, Vigilance and the Limits of the War on Terror
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 5/Oct/2010 15:51
Terrorism, Vigilance and the Limits of the War on Terror is republished with permission of STRATFOR.
By George Friedman
The U.S. government issued a warning Oct. 3 advising Americans traveling to Europe to be “vigilant.†U.S. intelligence apparently has acquired information indicating that al Qaeda is planning to carry out attacks in European cities similar to those carried out in Mumbai, India, in November 2008. In Mumbai, attackers armed with firearms, grenades and small, timed explosive devices targeted hotels frequented by Western tourists and other buildings in an attack that took three days to put down.
European security forces are far better trained and prepared than their Indian counterparts, and such an attack would be unlikely to last for hours, much less days, in a European country. Still, armed assaults conducted by suicide operatives could be expected to cause many casualties and certainly create a dramatic disruption to economic and social life.
The first question to ask about the Oct. 3 warning, which lacked specific and actionable intelligence, is how someone can be vigilant against such an attack. There are some specific steps that people can and should take to practice good situational awareness as well as some common-sense travel-security precautions. But if you find yourself sleeping in a hotel room as gunmen attack the building, rush to your floor and start entering rooms, a government warning simply to be vigilant would have very little meaning. Read the rest of this entry »
Five men arrested in Tijuana for operating a kidnapping cell
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 3/Oct/2010 22:14
“Five men were arrested in the state of Baja California for operating a kidnapping cell.
The men allegedly belong to the Tijuana Cartel faction currently run by Fernando Sánchez Arellano, alias El Ingeniero (the engineer) and were captured after an investigation into the kidnapping of 4 students led to their arrest.”
22 Men kidnapped in Mexican resort city of Acapulco
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 3/Oct/2010 22:11
“ACAPULCO, Mexico—Gunmen kidnapped 22 men who were traveling together in Mexico’s Pacific coast resort city of Acapulco, authorities said Saturday.
A shootout between drug gangs, meanwhile, left 14 people dead in remote town in the northern state of Durango, Mexican newspapers reported.
The group of men in Acapulco was visiting from the western city of Morelia and looking for a place to stay when they were abducted Thursday, said Fernando Monreal, director of state investigative police in Guerrero state, where the resort city is located.”
Grenade attacks in Monterrey
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 3/Oct/2010 22:09
“The weekend has seen four grenade attacks in Nuevo Leon. The attacks began on Friday night in the city of Monterrey.
The first was against the penal institution of Topo Chico, the second exploded 100 meters from the U.S. Consulate office and another near the Judicial building of the city. Although the attacks resulted in vehicle and property damage only one person was reported injured. Mexican Army units secured the area for investigation.
On September 30th governor Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz had claimed that violence was down in the state of Nuevo Leon.”
Terror Threats and Alerts in France
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 2/Oct/2010 09:30
Terror Threats and Alerts in France is republished with permission of STRATFOR.
By Scott Stewart
The Eiffel Tower was evacuated Sept. 28 after an anonymous bomb threat against the symbolic Parisian tourist attraction was phoned in; no explosive device was found. The day before the Eiffel Tower threat, French authorities closed the Gare Saint-Lazare in central Paris after an abandoned package, later determined innocuous, was spotted in the train station.
These two incidents serve as the latest reminders of the current apprehension in France that a terrorist attack is imminent. This concern was expressed in a very public way Sept. 11, when Bernard Squarcini, the head of France’s Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence (known by its French acronym, DCRI), told French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that the risk of an attack in France has never been higher. Never is a long time, and France has long faced terrorist threats, making this statement quite remarkable.
Squarcini has noted in recent interviews that the combination of France’s history as a colonial power, its military involvement in Afghanistan and the impending French ban on veils that cover the full face and body (niqabs and burqas) combined to influence this threat environment. Read the rest of this entry »
ACLU files a lawsuit on behalf of Anwar al-Awlaki, to prevent the US from assasinating him
Posted by Jack Sinclair in Law, News on 25/Sep/2010 18:28
American-born Anwar al-Awlaki’s treasonous speech protected by the Constitution?
American Civil Liberties Union files a lawsuit on behalf of Anwar al-Awlaki to stop Obama administration from targeting Yemeni-based cleric.
Video here:
Obama invokes the state secrets privilege regarding al-Qaida terrorist Al-Awlaki
Posted by Jack Sinclair in Law, News on 25/Sep/2010 18:20
Anwar al-Awlaki, an American born in New Mexico - yet another home-grown terrorist, educated in an American Mosque
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Saturday invoked the state secrets privilege which would kill a lawsuit on behalf of U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, an alleged terrorist said to be targeted for death or capture under a U.S. government program.
Believed to be hiding in Yemen, al-Awlaki has become the most notorious English-speaking advocate of terrorism directed at the United States.
E-mails link al-Awlaki to the Army psychiatrist accused of the killings at Fort Hood, Texas, last year. Al-Awlaki has taken on an increasingly operational role in al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the Justice Department said in a court filing, including preparing Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in his attempt to detonate an explosive device aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.
In its court papers, the Justice Department said that the issues in the case are for the executive branch of government to decide rather than the courts.
Sangin, Afghanistan: Taliban stronghold, “Afghanistan’s Fallujah”
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 21/Sep/2010 01:11
By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent
“I’d tell anyone now don’t come here because I’d never want to come here again,” one soldier told me this summer at a Sangin patrol base hemmed in by all sides by insurgents.
“This place is different to anywhere else; really it’s a Taliban stronghold,” he added.
The town is likely to remain a Taliban redoubt because it always has been and there is little desire, or resources, to tackle Sangin’s problems. The centre for the narcotics trade and a hub for warring tribes the complexities of Sangin’s problems are deep.
But the town is also the testing ground for the Taliban where an average of 400 external fighters come each year to “earn their stripes” and the fighting is of an intensity not found anywhere else in Helmand. On average there are 15 small arms fire contacts a day and 15 IEDs found a week.
No wonder then that troops nicknamed Sangin the “bastard child of Helmand” or “Afghanistan’s Fallujah”.
The 9/11 Anniversary and What Didn’t Happen
Posted by Brian in Opinion, Threat Watch on 20/Sep/2010 15:10
The 9/11 Anniversary and What Didn’t Happen is republished with permission of STRATFOR.
By Scott Stewart
Sept. 11, 2010, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, was a day of solemn ceremony, remembrance and reflection. It was also a time to consider the U.S. reaction to the attack nine years ago, including the national effort to destroy al Qaeda and other terrorist groups in order to prevent a repeat of the 9/11 attacks. Of course, part of the U.S. reaction to 9/11 was the decision to invade Afghanistan, and the 9/11 anniversary also provided a time to consider how the United States is now trying to end its Afghanistan campaign so that it can concentrate on more pressing matters elsewhere.
The run-up to the anniversary also saw what could have been an attempted terrorist attack in another Western country. On Sept. 10 in Denmark, a potential bombing was averted by the apparent accidental detonation of an improvised explosive device in a bathroom at a Copenhagen hotel. The Danish authorities have not released many details of the incident, but it appears that the suspect may have been intending to target the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which has been targeted in the past because it published cartoons featuring the Prophet Mohammed in 2005. Groups such as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have tried hard to ensure that the anger over the cartoon issue does not die down, and it apparently has not. It is important to note that even if the perpetrator had not botched it, the plot — at least as we understand it so far — appears to have involved a simple attack plan and would not have resulted in a spectacular act of terrorism.
Yet in spite of the failed attack in Denmark and all the 9/11 retrospection, perhaps the most interesting thing about the 9/11 anniversary in 2010, at least from an analytical perspective, was what did not happen. For the first time, the al Qaeda core leadership did not issue a flurry of slick, media-savvy statements to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. And the single statement they did release was not nearly as polished or pointed as past anniversary messages. This has caused us to pause, reflect and wonder if the al Qaeda leadership is losing its place at the ideological forefront of the jihadist cause. Read the rest of this entry »
Biggest Newspaper in Mexico’s most violent city will restrict drug war coverage.
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 20/Sep/2010 14:20
AP – A man mourns in front of the coffin containing the body of Diario de Juarez newspaper photographer Carlos …
Terrorism wins: Journalism muzzled by fear of violence.
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – The biggest newspaper in Mexico’s most violent city will restrict drug war coverage after the killing of its second journalist in less than two years, just as international press representatives will urge the government to make security for journalists a national priority.
In a front-page editorial Sunday, El Diario de Juarez asked drug cartels warring in this city across from El Paso, Texas, to say what they want from the newspaper, so it can continue its work without further death, injury or intimidation of its staff.
At least 22 Mexican journalists have been killed over the past four years, at least eight of them targeted because of their reports on crime and corruption, says the Committee to Protect Journalists, a U.S.-based media watchdog group that plans to present its report to Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Wednesday. At least seven other journalists have gone missing and more have fled the country, the report says.
Many media outlets, especially in border areas, have stopped covering the drug war. Until Sunday, El Diario was not one of them.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lt_mexico_journalist_killed;_ylt=ArQATucxvqH6bWOxrLzbGWN0fNdF
New report: Obama administration weak on domestic terrorism
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News on 17/Sep/2010 22:05
A terrorism expert agrees with the assessment of a new report that shows the Obama administration is not adequately dealing with the threats of homegrown terrorism attacks.
The report, compiled by the former heads of the 9/11 Commission, says the U.S. government was slow to take seriously the threat posed by homegrown radicals and has failed to put systems in place to deal with the growing phenomenon.
It also points out that there is still no federal agency specifically charged with identifying radicalization or working to prevent terrorist recruitment of U.S. citizens and residents.
Furthermore, the report concludes that terrorism today is more likely to come as small-scale attacks, much like that of last November’s shootings at Fort Hood shooting or the failed car bomb attempt at Times Square in May.
Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch notes that in the latter example, the Obama administration did not want to admit that it was an Islamic plot.
A Hoodie and a Camera = Terrorist?
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 10/Sep/2010 14:08
Wired’s Threat Level reports that the TSA has a new ad campaign that asks people to report suspicious activity around airports. The picture on the ad is some what concerning because it shows a guy taking pictures as suspicious activity. Many people take pictures and a lot of them take pictures of airplanes. I am an aviation buff, and the only way to get a good picture of an airplane is when it is on the ground at an airport. Maybe the TSA should worry less about photographers and more about questioning young men between 18-30, who look nervous.
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
Police commandos kill 3 Islamic militants in al-Qaida-linked group resposible for bombings, kidnappings and beheadings
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 5/Sep/2010 18:38
Police commandos in the southern Philippines have killed three Abu Sayyaf militants, including the brother of a top rebel commander.
The assault took place on remote Jolo Island and was aimed at capturing an Abu Sayyaf bomb-maker who is wanted by U.S. authorities. He is identified as Malaysian-born Zulkifli bin Hir, who goes by the alias Marwan. But a police spokesman said there was no sign of Marwan when the assault was over.
Among those killed was Gafur Jumdail, whose brother, Gumbahali Jumdail, is also on the U.S. State Department’s list of known terrorists.
The al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group is blamed for a years-long rebel campaign in the southern Philippines that has included bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.
http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2010/09/05/philippine-police-raid-leaves-3-militants-dead/
Michigan Muslim and pal charged by Dutch police with “preparation of a terrorist attackâ€
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 31/Aug/2010 23:40
“Two men taken off a Chicago-to-Amsterdam United Airlines flight in the Netherlands have been charged by Dutch police with “preparation of a terrorist attack,” U.S. law enforcement officials tell ABC News.
U.S. officials said the two appeared to be travelling with what were termed “mock bombs” in their luggage. “This was almost certainly a dry run, a test,” said one senior law enforcement official.
The men were identified as Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi, of Detroit, MI, and Hezem al Murisi, the officials said. A neighbor of al Soofi told ABC News he is from Yemen.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/united-flight-arrested-terror-charges-amsterdam/story?id=11517664
Detroit, Michigan, folks. What else is in Detroit, Michigan?
Oh, yeah, this:
More and more “homegrown” terrorists are going to be in the news, mark my words.
And remember: it’s not a phobia if the threat is real.