Terrorism here in the US

[Aplomb]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,406664,00.html

String of Security Threats Have Federal Investigators on Alert for Attacks

Tuesday, August 19, 2008
By Catherine Herridge


WASHINGTON — Just two weeks before the start of the Democratic National Convention a string of security scares have federal investigators working to downplay potential terrorist threats.


Almost two weeks ago, a jihadist Web site posted a call to poison a major city's water supply. The posting, reportedly discovered Aug. 9 on a site favored by Al Qaeda, called for an attack on "atheist Europe," a reference that some terror watchers believe represents Western nations in general.


Just days later a Canadian immigrant was found dead in a Denver hotel room with a pound of cyanide, only blocks away from the site of the Democratic National Convention.


Both cases have mobilized federal investigators into action, although they say that neither case carries any real terror threat.


One U.S. official confirmed intelligence analysts are reviewing the Web posting, but said it appeared to be a garden-variety threat the intelligence community sees from time to time.


The FBI also said that it continues to investigate the case of 29-year-old Saleman Abdirahman Dirie of Ottawa, but the Dirie case may not lead anywhere. The key witness with all the answers — Dirie himself — is dead after investigators say he ingested a concoction of the chemical and water.


FBI spokeswoman Kathy Wright told FOX News that the bureau knows where Dirie got the cyanide, but she said releasing the details now could hinder their investigation.


Wright said that there is “no information [tying] him to the Democratic convention later this month in Denver or to terrorism.”


At this time, no one is linking the discovery of cyanide in Denver, to the Web posting.



But the incidents have sent up red flags, and made some question the bizarre timing of the two.


The U.S. official commenting about the water-supply threat added it appeared to be in the “aspirational” category — in other words, it is an effort to encourage like-minded followers to execute their own operations in the name of Al Qaeda.


Last month government officials quietly stepped up counterterror efforts because of their growing concern that Al Qaeda or similar groups might try to capitalize on high-profile events like the Olympics and the upcoming conventions.


For a would-be terrorist planning a strike, the Web threat provided tips on how to carry out an attack, counseling operating in small groups to avoid detention. According to one security expert, some jihadists favor smaller, less-elaborate attacks that have a greater chance of success, particularly those targeting a country's economy.


The post offers other advice, telling planners not to use their cars near the target site or their cell phones during the execution of operations and, of course, to leave the country immediately after the operation is done.


The official said that the call to poison a city's water supply is the type of threat that can spread fear and panic, but stressed that it is not feasible.


It's unclear whether the response to the two incidents have anything to do with the Department of Homeland Security's declared period of heightened alert. But experts say this is a time frame when terrorists may have more incentive to attack.

[MagnetMan]

Both cases have mobilized federal investigators into action, although they say that neither case carries any real terror threat.

Uh huh... so someone could just have a pound of cyanide for reasons other than terrorism?

[American Patriot]

Maybe.

I could probably get a pound or two of it pretty easily. Rat poison...

[Aplomb]

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08...powder-threat/

McCain Office Receives Envelope With White Powder, Threat

by FOXNews.com
Thursday, August 21, 2008

DEVELOPING …

John McCain’s Denver campaign office received an envelope containing white powder and a threatening note Thursday afternoon.

Spokesman Jeff Sadosky told FOX News the office has been evacuated and the campaign notified federal and local law enforcement, who are taking all precautions.

The letter was opened at about 5 p.m. ET.

[American Patriot]

Reports are saying a second office has received the same thing in another state.

[American Patriot]

Manchester New hampshire

[Aplomb]

Fox is reporting on it now. The staff in Centennial is being checked out at a local hospital. The place is evacuated. All mail over there is being quarantened right now. It hasn't been released who the letter threatens.

[Aplomb]

http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCan...=10112&sp=true

McCain Colo. office evacuated after letter threat


DENVER (Reuters) - A suburban Denver campaign office of U.S. presidential candidate John McCain was evacuated on Thursday, and several people went to a hospital, after receiving an envelope containing a threatening letter and an unidentified white powder, a campaign spokesman said.


The letter arrived in the mail in the afternoon, and the campaign immediately notified local and federal law enforcement authorities, said Jeff Sadosky, a spokesman for the campaign in suburban Washington, D.C.


McCain, 71, a Republican senator from Arizona, was taking the day off from the campaign, spending the day at his home in Sedona, Arizona.


Sadosky added, "We are taking all necessary precautions," which he said included an evacuation of the office in Centennial, Colorado, outside Denver, where dozens of people work.


He said the composition of the powder found in the envelope was not immediately known, and that he did not know to whom the parcel was addressed.


Five to 10 people who were in the office went to a nearby hospital, where "they are currently being seen by health-care professionals," Sadosky said.


Five people died in 2001 after anthrax powder was mailed to U.S. congressional offices and media outlets in the weeks following the September 11 attacks.


A U.S. Secret Service spokesman, Malcolm Wiley, said the envelope sent to the McCain campaign office was opened by a campaign staffer there, and that an FBI hazardous materials team was dispatched to the scene, along with Secret Service personnel and local authorities.


A police spokeswoman in Denver said she had no immediate information about the incident.


The Democratic National Convention is due to open in Denver on Monday.


(Reporting by Steve Gorman, Dan Whitcomb and Jill Serjeant; editing by Eric Beech)

[Aplomb]

from Fox:

Sky Ridge Medical Center said it treated a 7 patients. All were decontaminated and showed no symptoms of illness.

Preliminary tests indicated the substance was not a threat.

[American Patriot]

Anthrax takes a few days. 72 hours or so

[Aplomb]

Here's an update.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/poli...76/detail.html

Exclusive: Man Who Wrote McCain Letter Explains Actions

Marc Ramsey Says He Was Concerned About His Viet Vet Father

POSTED: 12:49 pm MDT August 22, 2008

LITTLETON, Colo. -- The man accused of sending a threatening letter to John McCain through McCain's Colorado headquarters office detailed the contents of his letter in an exclusive interview with 7NEWS Friday.Marc Ramsey, an inmate in the Arapahoe County Jail, admitted that he sent the letter.On Friday afternoon, the US AttorneyTroy Eid announced Ramsey will be charged with knowingly threatening to harm or kill through the U.S. mail. The charge is punishable up to five years in federal prison and up to $250,000 fines.

"We won't stand for threats of this kind in Colorado," Eid said. "A death threat is not a legitimate form of political expression," Eid said.Ramsey has been held at the jail since Sept. 17, 2007, on a $350,000 bond, on allegations of felony menacing, harassment and felony second-degree assault on a peace officer.Deputies said he is a prolific letter writer. Ramsey told 7NEWS he wanted to tell McCain about his father -- a Vietnam war veteran who is served at the same time as McCain, and who is suffering from two types of cancer."I referred to the situation in Vietnam. 'You're not the only one that was in the jungle, buddy,'" he said he wrote to McCain. "My point being that when election time comes, we're going to need somebody to take care of the soldiers. Not somebody who wants another war."He said that he was upset that the government takes care of McCain, but not his father, who he said suffers from Agent Orange.Ramsey said he didn't put white powder in the envelope. When asked, the only white powder he could think of that is available to inmates is baby powder.His exact letter read:

Senator McCain,IF you are reading this then you are already Dead!
Unless of course you can't or don't breathe.
There are numerous substances which are deadly for humans to inhale.
There are just as many time periods for signs of illness to show, by which time it's to late.
Who expects to develop cancer 40 years after Vietnam?
Only those that knew the risk and side effects of Agent Orange.
DoD, DOW, Diamond Shamrock, U.S. Surgeon General
You're out of time.
Allahu AkbarAkeem Ramsel El

Ramsey said he is a terrorist sympathizer.He said he didn't threaten McCain, but just wanted him to be aware that there are former soldiers out there who still need help."This is the greatest country in the world and we can't take care of our folks," he said.

On Thursday, McCain staffers at the Centennial office notified the Secret Service that it had a "threatening letter" against McCain and the letter contained some type of white powder.The call prompted a full-scale hazmat alert as staffers evacuated the building.The Secret Service, the Army National Guard's Weapons of Mass Destruction First responder team, the FBI, the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office, the South Metro and Parker Fire departments and the U.S. Postal inspectors responded to the Centennial office.Five McCain staff members were taken to area hospitals as a precautionary measure and 12 staff members were quarantined outside the Centennial office after the scare.Seven people drove themselves to Sky Ridge Medical Center, but none showed any symptoms of exposure to a toxic substance, hospital spokeswoman Linda Watson said.All patients were released Thursday night when the white powder was determined not to be hazardous.Colorado National Guard spokesman Rick Breitenfeldt said the Civil Support Team completed its testing of the powder early Friday. It is not anthrax or another lethal or toxic substance, he said. However, the exact substance is not known.McCain officers across the U.S. were alerted to be on the lookout for similar letters. A threatening letter with a Colorado mailing address was sent to McCain's campaign office in Manchester, N.H., but it has not been positively linked backed to Ramsey."Our guys did not find any powder. There were maybe a couple of grains of something inside an envelope and they had to kind of work to get a sample," said Andy Lyon of the Parker South Metro Fire Rescue Authority. "It was described to me as maybe they found a couple of granules of something. It tested positive for protein, what was described to me as a weak positive. Well, protein could be a protein shake."The Denver threat came four days before the Democratic National Convention opens in Denver.

[Aplomb]

And there you have it. People initially saw the white powder...but first you see it, now you don't.

"My point being that when election time comes, we're going to need somebody to take care of the soldiers. Not somebody who wants another war."

Akeem Ramsel El, the self-described terrorist sympathizer supports whom? Why?

[Jag]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/u...us-and-europe/

Are Terrorists Plotting New Attacks On US and Europe?

September 18, 2008

According to the website HomelandSecurityUS.com, Islamic terrorist operatives may be dispatched, in place, and ready to execute a terror operation inside the U.S. and/or Europe.

The article cites a disturbing communication discovered on a high level Arabic language forum. The post apparently suggests that some type of terrorist operation is now underway, targeting sites within the U.S. and Europe.

According to the website, information developed within the last 24 hours by a deep-cover intelligence operative, Islamic terrorists have been dispatched and may be in place, preparing to execute unspecified terrorist attacks.

Neither the targets nor the types of attacks were able to be identified from an analysis of the communications, although it appears possible that the European and American operations could be conducted in tandem. Also unclear is the timetable of potential attacks, although the wording pertaining to the “anticipated celebration” of the success of such attacks suggests that they will be carried out within the next few days.
Full Article

Jag

[vector7]

Al-Qaida Threatens 'October Surprise' Attack

Monday, September 22, 2008 11:49 AM By: Tim Collie

http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/oct...mo_code=6B0C-1

After two major terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Yemen — along with a new U.S. push at insurgent strongholds along the Afghan border — U.S. intelligence is worried about a massive "October surprise" attack geared to sway the U.S. elections.

America's military and intelligence agencies intercepted a series of messages from al-Qaida's leadership last month that seemed designed to warn local cells to prepare for imminent attacks. One such operation may have been the attack that brought down a Marriott Hotel in Islamabad where the newly inaugurated president of Pakistan was scheduled to dine.

The attacks would likely be at American bases or allies abroad, since most experts think the group’s ability to penetrate the U.S. homeland has deteriorated since 9-11. Still, al-Qaida is aggressively recruiting both North African and European operatives who may have a greater ability to enter the United States and blend in before launching an attack, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

“We are not aware of any specific, credible al-Qaida plot to attack the U.S. homeland, but we do receive a steady stream of threat reporting from sources of varying creditability,” said Ted Gistaro, U.S. national intelligence officer (NIO) for transnational threats. “As the election nears, we expect to see an uptick in such threat reporting — of varying credibility — regarding possible attacks.“

Other intelligence experts agreed, adding that a pre-election attack would probably occur overseas.

“There is an expectation that al-Qaida will try to influence the November elections by attempting attacks globally," said Roger Cressey, a former Bush and Clinton White House counterterrorism official.

An official familiar with the new intelligence told the The New York Sun that the intercepted messages amounted to “Be on notice. We may call upon you soon.” It was sent out through many channels, ranging from couriers to encrypted electronic communications to other means. There were no specifics as to where or when.

Though some might scoff at the quadrennial worry of the October surprise in U.S. elections, al-Qaida has attacked other nations on the eve of major elections. On March 11, 2004, the group carried out a series of bombings on Madrid commuter trains. Three days later, the party aligned with the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq was defeated.

But al-Qaida’s ultimate goal is to launch another major attack on the U.S. homeland — preferably with nuclear or biological weapons. Whether that hurts the Republican or Democrats seems beside the point, according to one expert.

Last year, Osama bin Laden labeled the entire American system a failure, Gistaro told a panel at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in August. He called on Americans to convert to Islam, and not cast a vote one way or the other in elections.

“He [bin Laden] claimed that there is no difference between Democratic or Republican candidates winning presidential or congressional elections so long as ‘big corporations’ support candidates,” Gistaro said.

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

[vector7]

Islamic takeover of U.S. already under way
Expert warns 'mainstream media' providing 'talking points' of Arab countries

---

Posted: October 03, 2008
8:31 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

An expert on terrorism is warning the United States should be fighting Islamization, which she believes already is under way. And author Brigitte Gabriel should know: She watched it happen in her native Lebanon.

"Lebanon used to be the only majority Christian country in the Middle East," Gabriel told radio talk show host Andrea Shea King in a recent hour-long interview "Most people today do not know that. We were the majority, the Muslims were the minority, but as the years went by, the Muslims became the majority because of their birth rate, but also because of our open-border policy.

"We welcomed everyone into our country," Gabriel said, and people didn't realize that the "minority," the Muslims in the society, "was not tolerant" and "did not believe all people were equal."

"They tried to impose their way of thinking on us, and they succeeded," she said.

An excerpt of her interview can be heard here:
The result, Gabriel said, was that a radical terrorist organization tied to Islam, Hezbollah, now rules in Lebanon.

As WND reported, Gabriel is fearful that terrorists believe now is the time to strike at America, while it is distracted by financial tension and election turmoil. She expressed the concerns during an interview with KSFO's Barbara Simpson, when she also discussed her new book, "They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It
Gabriel's new interview with King is available on BlogTalkRadio.
(Story continues below)

She noted it's been seven years since the Sept. 11, 2001, act of war on U.S. soil by Islamists, but America is falling to Islam's attack, and the battle already is far advanced.

"They do not need to fire a single bullet to destroy us," she said. "They are taking over our country culturally, just like they have taken over Europe."
She said Islam is being taught across the U.S. as part of world history courses for seventh graders.

"A three-week course is teaching students to memorize and recite Islamic prayers and verses from the Quran," she said. "Students have to adopt Islamic names, fast for a day to experience Ramadan, the holiest of Islamic religious, and write about their experience as a Muslim at the end of the program. The exercises during the class include encouraging students to incorporate Arabic phrases such as Allahu Akbar in their speeches, and for students to imagine they were meeting disciples on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

This is a state-approved curriculum, using state-adopted textbooks that have been part of the instructional program in California for over a decade."
WND reported this week that a new study shows U.S. textbooks provide "information" such as that Jesus was a Palestinian and the nation of imposes terrorism on others but is not a victim a terrorism.

"Now it is being rolled out nationwide. One book I discuss in particular is 'Across the Centuries,' published by Houghton Mifflin. The Muslim Council on Education has been busy working with the State Department of Education and America's top three publishers who …are literally rewriting history," Gabriel said.

"'Across the Centuries' is a staple in the State of California. This textbook is at best, a well of misinformation. It is 558 pages long and covers the 1500 years from the fall of the Roman Empire and the French Revolution. The text includes 55 pages devoted to Islam, seven pages noting the Middle Ages in Europe, and six pages of Christian history. The chapter on the Byzantine Empire received only six pages. The chapter on Islam accounts for 10 percent of the text, while Christianity and Judaism are almost entirely absent," she said.

"This is public education approved by the State Board of Education nationwide! Our students are being indoctrinated into Islam in our public schools and we don't even have a clue! How can this be allowed to be taught in public schools in America? Most people do not know about it because it is flying under the radar!" she said.

At the university level it's worse, she said.

"What's been happening for the last 16 years, and the Gulf states ... because of the money coming from the oil, they have been pumping millions of dollars into our universities appointing Arab professors who are anti-American, anti-Israel, who have been basically brain-washing our students into believe we are the problem," she said.

"The children, who have been educated in American universities for the last 16 years, have graduated and are now working ... not influenced ... by our patriotic education as Americans, but they have been influenced by Arab thinking ... [and] hatred based on revenge," she said.
"The writing is on the wall. Who would have thought that Shariah would come to Harvard University with regulated women-only gym hours? That an imam in Des Moines, Iowa, gave an opening prayer at the 2007 Iowa Legislature's opening session in which he called on Allah to give victory over those who disbelieve? Muslim taxi drivers in Minnesota who refuse to pick up passengers carrying alcohol? The first Islamic public school, the Kahlil Gibran Academy, that opened in 2007, funded by tax dollars! American colleges designating Islamic prayer rooms on campus for use by Muslims only!" Gabriel said.

"Those of us who come from the Middle East and see what's happening in the U.S. ... shake our heads in amazement," she said, calling her book a warning. "We are coming up to a very important election. This is the time we need to understand what is at stake, why our voice counts, why we need to go out and vote. This is the time to make a difference before it is too late," she said.
She said that's why besides her book, she's launched the ActForAmerica.org website.

"We launched this out of American Congress for Truth as our activism and political lobbying arm because I realized talking by itself is only wasting hot air and is entertainment. Action is the only way that's going to make a difference," she said. "History reveals that the apathetic give way to the passionate, the complacent are subdued by the committed. ACT for America.org is mobilizing people all over the country and giving them the tools to resist the Islamic infiltration in our society on every level: schools, governments, universities and corporations.

"Our work is vital in educating the American public about what is happening behind the scenes," she said.

"I encourage people to go to our website Act for America.org. I know we have citizen action training seminars coming up in Kansas City and in Indianapolis within the next two weeks. Sign up and attend them if you are in those areas. And check where we have chapters across the country and either join a chapter, or if there's no chapter in your community, sign up to lead one. Organized power at the grass roots level trumps the voices of political correctness," Gabriel said.

"The radical Islamists promised to destroy us, and as you know from the recent war in Lebanon, that country is now nearly Islamic," she said.
"We are not waiting for this phenomenon to occur here in the war against Islamofascism. We are not simply hoping for spontaneous grassroots eruptions that may or may not come. We are making it occur by organizing grassroots chapters and supporters across America. We will force elected representatives to choose. To align themselves with the grassroots voices of America or the voice of political correctness."

Gabriel was born and raised in Lebanon. When she was 10, her home was bombed by radical Islamists. She spent two and a half months in a hospital with injuries, and then she survived with her parents for seven years hidden in an underground bomb shelter, subsisting without electricity or heat on a meager diet of rice, lentils and tufts of grass that grew outside the shelter. She crawled beneath sniper fire for sips of water from a nearby ditch.
Those who have lived through such experiences are horrified at Americans' attitudes, she said.

"I have two guests staying with me, also from Lebanon, who ran to Israel for their lives when Israel withdrew out of Lebanon. And this is their first trip to America. I took them to New York and to, D.C., last week and we were walking around and they were stunned at the gullibility of Americans. I took them to an air show this past week and they saw Muslims in our military. They looked at me in utter shock and said, 'Do Americans know these same Muslims would turn their guns against their fellow Americans, military men and women in the same tents, and kill them in the name of Islam? What is America thinking?'" Gabriel said.

"We are not only fighting a military jihad, we are fighting a cultural jihad and we need to wake up. We are as much at war with the cultural jihad as we are with the military jihad," Gabriel said.

"Islam is coming to America while we are asleep at the wheel and only focusing on al-Qaida attacking us militarily. The Muslims are taking us over culturally and remember, they don't even have to fire one bullet," she said.
Gabriel's book, according to "American Jihad" author Steve Emerson, is "riveting, compelling and spellbinding. This is a must read for the entire American public."

"A compelling and captivating personal story with a powerful lesson about threats to freedom in our time," said R. James Woolsey, director of Central Intelligence from 1993-1995.

"There is a threat. We must do something about it. We must stop them," Gabriel said.

Earlier, in an interview with WND columnist Larry Elder published in two parts, "Because they hate," and "Because they hate, part 2," Gabriel said al-Qaida already is inside the U.S., as is Hezbollah.

"We estimate thousands have already been smuggled into America. ... Hamas is here. ... They have cells in over 40 states. ... We also need to reform our immigration and visa programs. We need to monitor who is coming into our country and why. ... We need to increase human intelligence. … I want everyone who fits the terrorist profile to be profiled. We have men between the ages of 16 and 40 who have committed terrorist acts around the world in the name of Islam. They are not little old ladies from Ohio with blue hair. They are not children going to on their Easter vacation," she said.

Elder asked: "What happens if a Democrat wins the 2008 election?"

"We are doomed. Our enemies want the Democrats to win. This last election, jihadist websites were playing victory songs and declaring the Democrats are our allies in the war against America," she said.

[Jag]

http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200811110596

November 12, 2008

$50,000 reward offered in John Amos bomb threats

Officials with the John Amos Power Plant are offering a $50,000 reward for information about the people responsible for a string of bomb threats against the Putnam County plant.

By Veronica Nett
Staff writer


WINFIELD, W.Va. -- Officials with the John Amos Power Plant are offering a $50,000 reward for information about the people responsible for a string of bomb threats against the Putnam County plant.

John Amos has received five threats within the last four weeks, with the most recent on Monday, said Joe Haynes, the plant's community-relations manager.

The plant also received threats on Oct. 23, 24, 28 and 30, he said.

"The Oct. 23 one was phoned in to one of the contractors," Haynes said. "The others were written on the walls of bathroom facilities in graffiti. Once somebody sees it and reports it we have to take it seriously."

This is not the first time the Appalachian Power plant, which is an operating unit of American Electric Power, has received bomb threats.
Employees were evacuated twice last summer after threats were found written on the walls in the plant's bathroom, Haynes said.

The Putnam County Sheriff's Department, the State Police and the FBI are involved in the investigation.

A bomb threat is defined as a "threat of terrorist acts," which is a felony offense under state law and is also a federal offense. Under state law, a person found guilty can be fined from $5,000 to $25,000 and sentenced to one to three years in jail.

State Police swept the plant's parking lots on Thursday, Haynes said, and a number of drug-related citations were issued. State Police would not comment Tuesday and directed media inquiries to the plant.

Haynes said police theorize that individuals are making the threats to avoid submitting to random drug testing. He said all plant employees and contractors are randomly tested.

There are about 3,000 contractors working at the plant to install a scrubber within the plant's power-generating unit. There are also about 400 Amos, AEP and independent workers on site.

The threats were made by people "on the inside," Haynes said.


http://www.nationalterroralert.com/u...-bomb-threats/

Jag

[Jag]

Al Qaeda says order given for US attack “far bigger than 9/11”

DEBKAfile Updates DEBKA-Net-Weekly Exclusive
November 16, 2008, 4:43 PM (GMT+02:00)
Osama bin Laden plans to test Barack Obama like two former US presidents

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that US president-elect Barack Obama, European and Russian heads of state in Washington for the G20 conference over the weekend were briefed about a probable early al Qaeda attack.

Obama and his team have been advised that a new al Qaeda strike is highly probable in the United States or against a key US target in Europe, North Africa or the Middle East.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly 372 of Nov. 14 disclosed that al Qaeda’s Yemen base, a reliable barometer for Osama bin Laden’s schemes, issued a Directive to All Fighters in Arabia on Nov. 9 presaging a major operation in the United States that will “change the political and economic world” and be “far bigger than 9/11.”

To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click HERE .

The notice said “the operation is very near” and “precise instructions were in the hands of “the fighters, who are already on their way to America” armed with bin Laden’s orders. The pretext offered for the attack is the rejection by the US and Europe of al Qaeda’s four-year old truce offer whose original pre-condition was the withdrawal of their armies from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The day after the new president’s election, al Qaeda issued a little-noticed statement declaring Barack Obama a murtad, i.e. an apostate whose betrayal of Islam is judged the most heinous. Believers have the duty to execute a murtad unlike other non-believers whose death sentence is optional.

Thursday night, Nov. 14, Central Intelligence Director Gen. Michael Hayden said: “Al Qaeda, operating from its safe haven in Pakistan’s tribal areas, remains the most clear and present danger to the United States.” He was addressing a Washington think-tank.

“Today, virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to the tribal areas. Whether it is command and control, training, direction, money, capabilities, there is a connection to the FATA (Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.)”

Hayden also mentioned Yemen and Somalia as important al Qaeda theaters of operation.

In private, most heads of the intelligence agencies fighting al Qaeda admit that an attack on the United States or major American interest outside is only a matter of time.

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5715


murtad? A new one for me and if true this says it all.....

The day after the new president’s election, al Qaeda issued a little-noticed statement declaring Barack Obama a murtad, i.e. an apostate whose betrayal of Islam is judged the most heinous. Believers have the duty to execute a murtad unlike other non-believers whose death sentence is optional.

Jag

[American Patriot]

I would not think that people phoning in bomb threats would be "terrorists". The fact they are threatening and scaring people is certainly and act of terrorism, but "real terrorists" wouldn't tell anyone before hand.

So, whomever is calling in the threats to the power plant are dumbasses, not really terrorists.

[vector7]

Al-Qa'ida chief brands Obama a 'house negro'

Al-Zawahiri tries to undermine President-elect's appeal to Muslims in first video message since election

By David Usborne in New York
Thursday, 20 November 2008


AP
Al-Qa'ida's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, insulted Obama in the terror group's first reaction to his election.

Related Articles

• Obama brings US in from the cold
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In the first comments fromal-Qa'ida since the American elections, the second-in-command of the terror group has branded President-elect Barack Obama as a "house negro", an insult designed to imply he is a black man merely doing the bidding of white masters.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qa'ida's deputy leader, also mocked Mr Obama as being the "direct opposite of honourable black Americans" such as Malcolm X, the Muslim African-American rights leader of the 1960s.

As a welcome message to the soon-to-be president, it was predictably aggressive and belligerent, though it contained no specific threats of attack. "You have reached the position of president, and a heavy legacy of failure and crimes awaits you. A failure in Iraq to which you have admitted, and a failure in Afghanistan to which the commanders of your army have admitted."

The message was a clear attempt to dampen global enthusiasm after the election of Mr Obama and the attendant hopes that his taking office in January will spell a fundamental shift in American foreign policy, already highlighted by his renewed promises to close Guantanamo Bay and begin the troop withdrawal from Iraq.

There seemed little initial reason to doubt the authenticity of the message posted on the web or that that isZawahiri speaking. Accompanying the 11-minute taped audio was footage of Malcolm X, still images ofZawahiri and also of Mr Obama, including one of him wearing a Jewish skull cap during a visit to Israel. The message, posted on jihadi web forums and entitled "The departure of Bush and the arrival of Obama", was condemned by the outgoing administration of George Bush. Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said it only amounted to just "more despicable comments from a terrorist".

Zawahiri used the term abeed al-beit to insult Mr Obama as well as Condoleezza Rice, the outgoing Secretary of State, and her predecessor, Colin Powell, which translates as "house slaves". The English subtitles on the posting turned it into "house negroes", however, a term that Malcolm X used to employ about black leaders he believed were not standing up to whites.

The attempt by al-Qa'ida to expropriate the memory of Malcolm X and uphold him as more worthy than Mr Obama will infuriate the black community in America.

The message sought, however, to address Muslims around the world as much as it did the United States, seeking to warn them against being lulled into the belief that, by electing Mr Obama, America was changing policy direction or altering its attitudes to the rest of the world.

"America has put on a new face but its heart is full of hate, mind drowning in greed, and spirit which spreads evil, murder, repression and despotism continue to be the same as always," the al-Qa'ida deputy insisted. Zawahiri also attempts to characterise the victory of Mr Obama in the US elections as an acknowledgement by Americans that Mr Bush's policies had failed and an "admission of defeat in Iraq". "If Bush has achieved anything, it is in his transfer of America's disaster and predicament to his successor. But the American people, by electing Obama, declared its anxiety and apprehension about the future towards which the policy of the likes of Bush is leading it, and so it decided to support someone calling for withdrawal from Iraq."

He assails Mr Obama for pledging to redeploy some of the troops in Iraq to Afghanistan, insisting his strategy in the country is doomed to fail and he would be rewarded with humiliation in the same way as Mr Bush and Pervez Musharraf. "Be aware that the dogs of Afghanistan have found the flesh of your soldiers to be delicious, so send thousands after thousands to them," he said.

Despite the President-elect never having been a practising Muslim,Zawahiri accuses him of having "abandoned" his Muslim faith. "You were born to a Muslim father but chose to stand in the ranks of the enemies of the Muslims, and pray the prayer of the Jews, although you claim to be Christian, in order to climb the rungs of leadership in America," he said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...o-1026322.html

[Beetle]

Phoenix Imam Tells Muslims To Disregard U.S. Laws
by Robert Spencer

11/19/2008


“A Muslim must try his best to abide by the rulings of Sharia [Islamic law] whenever possible as much as he can. He should not allow himself to be liable to those western laws that contradict the clear-cut Islamic rulings.” The rulings of Sharia, mind you, include stoning for adultery, amputation of the hand for theft, and institutionalized discrimination against women and non-Muslims. But the speaker was not some fanatic Wahhabi in Saudi Arabia; it was the Phoenix-based imam Omar Shahin, president of the North American Imams Foundation. This is probably one reason why, as The Arizona Republic reported Monday, the FBI has stepped up scrutiny of Shahin and other Muslim leaders in Phoenix.

Omar Shahin has been in the news before. He is the spokesman for a group of six imams who sued US Airways after being removed from a flight in 2006 when passengers and crewmembers reported that they were behaving suspiciously. The imams were handcuffed and later interrogated, then released with no charges, whereupon Shahin led a news conference to condemn prejudice against Muslims. All six imams later sued the airline, airport police and an FBI agent, claiming they had been singled out solely because they were Muslim. “We did nothing,” Shahin maintained in a report on Boston Herald.com -- and the Council on American Islamic Relations seized on the incident as evidence of American “Islamophobia.” “We are concerned that crew members, passengers and security personnel may have succumbed to fear and prejudice based on stereotyping of Muslims and Islam,” said CAIR’s executive director, Nihad Awad, in the same report.

The imams also initially sued the anonymous passengers who reported them, before House Republicans pushed through a measure protecting whistleblowers in such circumstances. As I discuss in my new book Stealth Jihad, if this initiative had been successful, the only winners would have been Islamic jihadists who wanted to hijack airplanes. Any ruling against the passengers would have essentially placed Muslims beyond the pale of security-related scrutiny, because someone who reported suspicious behavior by a Muslim in an airport or airplane would have faced a real risk of being sued for discrimination.

continued

Shahin’s questionable activities didn’t begin with this lawsuit, either. In the '80s, he was an imam at the Islamic Center of Tucson, which the Republic identified as “a hub for adherents to the radical Wahhabi school of Islam, some of whom later became important aides to Osama bin Laden in the al-Qaida terrorist group.” The report by Sean Holstege and Dennis Wagner also notes that Shahin raised funds for two Islamic charities that were ultimately shut down on accusations that they were funneling contributions to the jihad terrorist group Hamas.

Yet despite all this, “Shahin has served as a Muslim community liaison with the FBI and the Phoenix police,” according to the Republic. How did a man with a record like Shahin’s ever get into the good graces of the FBI? He was able to do so because many officials in positions of influence in the United States are standing by passively as the stealth jihad advances. They are ignorant of what is happening, and those who do know are making sure not to tell them. Willfully blind officials appear dedicated to “multiculturalism” and “diversity” no matter what the cost. They hinder the investigation of and resistance to the stealth jihad.

There is no gauging the extent of stealth jihadist infiltration into American intelligence and law enforcement agencies. But there is no question that the chief enabler of that infiltration has been political correctness among American officials. In this great war against the global jihad network, no one wants to appear anti-Arab or anti-Muslim -- and this has led more or less directly to some serious lapses in national security.

If America is to survive, it is eventually going to have to choose national security over political correctness -- and call upon Islamic leaders like Omar Shahin to stop teaching Muslims in the U.S. to disregard American laws when they conflict with Islamic norms. The spectacle of the FBI increasing scrutiny of a man whom they have worked with in the past is ludicrous beyond belief. How many more imams in America will teach Muslims that when Islamic law and U.S. law contradict each other, it is U.S. law that must give way, before those sworn to uphold and defend U.S. law wake up to what is happening?

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=29545