Terrorism here in the US

[American Patriot]

Md. police investigate potential mail bombs at state offices

Baltimore Business Journal - by Scott Dance , Staff

Date: Thursday, January 6, 2011, 2:38pm EST - Last Modified: Thursday, January 6, 2011, 2:45pm EST





Maryland State Police are responding to two incidents of possible explosive devices mailed to state offices in Annapolis and Hanover.


Annapolis officials were notified about 12:50 p.m. that city fire units were responding to an incident in a state mail room in the Jeffrey Building on Francis Street in Annapolis. A package device injured a mailroom employee there, Annapolis spokesman Phillip McGowan said. He could not confirm that the device exploded.


State police have taken the lead on investigating the incident, as another device was discovered at Maryland Department of Transportation headquarters in Hanover, McGowan said.


State police officials could not be immediately reached.


Police spokesman Greg Shipley told WBAL Radio the first package was opened at about 12:30 in Annapolis, about the size of the book and releasing "smoke and a smell," he said. The room was quarantined.


As Annapolis fire officials responded to that incident, another was reported at MDOT headquarters.


No serious injuries were reported, Shipley told WBAL. Some employees reported singed fingers, he said. At least one employee was transported to a hospital as a precautionary measure.


Gov. Martin O'Malley issued an alert to all state offices, and all mail rooms were quarantined, Shipley said.


Listen to Shipley discuss the incidents here.


Maryland State Police are responding to two incidents of possible explosive devices mailed to state offices in Annapolis and Hanover.


Annapolis officials were notified about 12:50 p.m. that city fire units were responding to an incident in a state mail room in the Jeffrey Building on Francis Street in Annapolis. A package device injured a mailroom employee there, Annapolis spokesman Phillip McGowan said. He could not confirm that the device exploded.


State police have taken the lead on investigating the incident, as another device was discovered at Maryland Department of Transportation headquarters in Hanover, McGowan said.


State police officials could not be immediately reached.


Police spokesman Greg Shipley told WBAL Radio the first package was opened at about 12:30 in Annapolis, about the size of the book and releasing "smoke and a smell," he said. The room was quarantined.
As Annapolis fire officials responded to that incident, another was reported at MDOT headquarters.
No serious injuries were reported, Shipley told WBAL. Some employees reported singed fingers, he said. At least one employee was transported to a hospital as a precautionary measure.
Gov. Martin O'Malley issued an alert to all state offices, and all mail rooms were quarantined, Shipley said.
Listen to Shipley discuss the incidents here.

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Read more: Md. police investigate potential mail bombs at state offices | Baltimore Business Journal

[American Patriot]

Apparently these devices were "incendiary" devices as they have been described.

As far as I can tell they have not taken these things apart for complete analysis.

Both packages en route to forensic sciences in MD for eval.

Injuries to the afflicted employees were "singed hands and fingers" - but nothing serious. Apparently most folks were evacuated in both buildings to hospital as a precaution.

Both packages appeared to have come through US Postal Service. USPS Inspector is involved in investigation but has not been verified. Both packages were described as "book like packages", and an image was shown on tv just now. The image showed a brown-wrapped package with a lot of stamps on it.

One was sent to the Department of Transportation and the second was sent to the Governor's office - and was in the mail room where they open packages directly addressed to the Governor.

Package ignited instantly upon opening by the employee. The fire guy is describing the device as "incendiary" again. They can't state what is in the package yet. Smell of sulfur was evident after ignition. (Probably small quantity of gun powder or some kind of det cord - Rick's guess)

Investigation is not yet a "terrorist" investigation. They are leaving this open until they have more information.

Both packages appear similar. All mail facilities were closed down until they can determine there are no other packages.

(All from the news conference in Hanover, MD)

[American Patriot]

Next conference is shortly from Annapolis.

[American Patriot]

Wow. Stamps were "Christmas stamps".

There was a MESSAGE inside the bomb, authorities are refusing to comment on the content of the message though at this time.

[American Patriot]

TV lawyers are asking "Where's the FBI?" - this involved the US Postal Service....


And stating "this is an act of terrorism".

[American Patriot]

Conference is going on now... State Fire Marshall.

[American Patriot]

The "explosion" is described as "A small puff of smoke".

Chemical smell - sulfur.

[American Patriot]

Mail rooms are shutdown (for sure, verified). They are searching for similar packages. They were manila type bubble wrap envelopes.

I have the two conferences turned around backward.

Similar packages were sent to Rome and Greece recently. Anarchist groups claimed those incidents. No "connection" at this time yet.

[American Patriot]

Another suspicious package found, Unified Communications Center (For the DHS) in D.C.

The letter apparently has "HAZMAT" written on the front of the letter. Was nice of them to note it for the postal handlers.

[Toad]

Another suspicious package found, Unified Communications Center (For the DHS) in D.C.

The letter apparently has "HAZMAT" written on the front of the letter. Was nice of them to note it for the postal handlers.

/HeadSmack!

[American Patriot]

My installation was locked down last night over a "threat directed at families living in base housing at Schriever, AFB". Also Ellicot schools were locked down at the same time. (Ellicot is a few miles east of the base here, on the prairie.

Don't know much more....

[vector7]

Exclusive: Wall Street Execs On New Terror Threat Info

Security officials are warning the leaders of major Wall Street banks that al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen may be trying to plan attacks against those financial institutions or their leading executives.

Intelligence officials stress the threats are general in nature and there is "no indication of a targeted assassination plot" against any Wall Street executive. But NBCNewYork.com has learned officials fear the names of some top banking executives have been discussed by terror operatives overseas.

Intelligence analysts added they have a general but growing concern that operatives in Yemen may again try to send package bombs or biological or chemical agents through the mail to Wall Street bankers.

In recent weeks, the FBI' Joint Terrorism Task Force and NYPD officials have been briefing bank executives and their security departments on the nature of the threat information. Much of it gleaned from al Qaeda writings like 'Inspire' magazine that recently warned of attacks targeting financial institutions.

[American Patriot]

Crashing the stock market by screwing up Egypt hasn't helped. It's time for more drastic measure huh?

[American Patriot]

'Al-Qaida on brink of using nuclear bomb'




By Heidi Blake and Christopher Hope, The Daily Telegraph February 1, 2011

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Qai...#ixzz1CuvTHlLq




Al-Qaida members participate in military training in Afghanistan in this file photo.

Photograph by: Agence France-Presse Files, National Post, With Files From News Services

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Qai...#ixzz1CuvPKpTg

Al-Qaida is on the verge of producing radioactive weapons after sourcing nuclear material and recruiting rogue scientists to build "dirty" bombs, according to leaked diplomatic documents.


A leading atomic regulator has privately warned that the world stands on the brink of a "nuclear 9/11".


Security briefings suggest that jihadi groups are also close to producing "workable and efficient" biological and chemical weapons that could kill thousands if unleashed in attacks on the West.


Thousands of classified American cables obtained by the WikiLeaks website and passed to The Daily Telegraph detail the international struggle to stop the spread of weapons-grade nuclear, chemical and biological material around the globe.


At a Nato meeting in January 2009, security chiefs briefed member states that al-Qaida was plotting a program of "dirty radioactive IEDs", makeshift nuclear roadside bombs that could be used against British troops in Afghanistan.


As well as causing a large explosion, a "dirty bomb" attack would contaminate the area for many years.


The briefings also state that al-Qaida documents found in Afghanistan in 2007 revealed that "greater advances" had been made in bioterrorism than was previously realized. An Indian national security adviser told American security personnel in June 2008 that terrorists had made a "manifest attempt to get fissile material" and "have the technical competence to manufacture an explosive device beyond a mere dirty bomb".


Alerts about the smuggling of nuclear material, sent to Washington from foreign U.S. embassies, document how criminal and terrorist gangs were trafficking large amounts of highly radioactive material across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.


The alerts explain how customs guards at remote border crossings used radiation alarms to identify and seize cargoes of uranium and plutonium.


Freight trains were found to be carrying weapons-grade nuclear material across the Kazakhstan-Russia border, highly enriched uranium was transported across Uganda by bus, and a "small time hustler" in Lisbon offered to sell radioactive plates stolen from Chernobyl.


In one incident in September 2009, two employees at the Rossing Uranium Mine in Namibia smuggled almost half a ton of uranium concentrate powder - yellowcake - out of the compound in plastic bags.


"Acute safety and security concerns" were even raised in 2008 about the uranium and plutonium laboratory of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the nuclear safety watchdog.


Tomihiro Taniguchi, the deputy director general of the IAEA, has privately warned America that the world faces the threat of a "nuclear 9/11" if stores of uranium and plutonium were not secured against terrorists.


But diplomats visiting the IAEA's Austrian headquarters in April 2008 said that there was "no way to provide perimeter security" to its own laboratory because it has windows that leave it vulnerable to break-ins.


Senior British defence officials have raised "deep concerns" that a rogue scientist in the Pakistani nuclear program "could gradually smuggle enough material out to make a weapon", according to a document detailing official talks in London in February 2009.


Agricultural stores of deadly biological pathogens in Pakistan are also vulnerable to "extremists" who could use supplies of anthrax, foot and mouth disease and avian flu to develop lethal biological weapons.


Anthrax and other biological agents including smallpox, and avian flu could be sprayed from a shop-bought aerosol can in a crowded area, leaked security briefings warn.


The security of the world's only two declared smallpox stores in Atlanta, America, and Novosibirsk, Russia, has repeatedly been called into doubt by "a growing chorus of voices" at meetings of the World Health Assembly documented in the leaked cables.


The alarming disclosures come after Barack Obama, the U.S. president, last year declared nuclear terrorism "the single biggest threat" to international security with the potential to cause "extraordinary loss of life".

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Qai...#ixzz1CuuHQZOc

[American Patriot]

Wasn't GW Bush accused, repeatedly of "making things up" and "scaremongering" over saying these things?

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/...115655219.html

Official: US Terror Threat Perhaps 'Most Heightened' Since 9/11

VOA News February 09, 2011
[IMG]http://media.voanews.com/images/480*300/AFP_NapolitanoSecurityThreat_9Feb11.jpg[/IMG] Photo: AFP

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testifies before the House Committee on Homeland Security during a hearing on Understanding the Homeland Threat Landscape - Considerations for the 112th Congress, February 9, 2011



U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the terrorist threat against the United States is evolving and, in some ways, may be at its most heightened state since the September 11, 2001 attacks.


Napolitano told the House Homeland Security Committee Wednesday that al-Qaida still poses a threat to the U.S. despite its diminished capabilities.
She said the U.S. also faces threats from a number of al-Qaida associated groups, which have shown an increased emphasis on recruiting Americans and other Westerners to carry out attacks.


The director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Mike Leiter, said he considers the Yemen-based offshoot, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the most significant risk to the United States. He said radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, one of the group's leaders, is using the Internet to talk directly to Americans.


The U.S. Army psychologist charged in the deadly 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas (Major Nidal Malik Hasan ) had been in e-mail contact with the U.S.-born al-Awlaki.


Intelligence officials have said al-Awlaki recruited and trained Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, the Nigerian man charged with attempting to blow up an airliner flying from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.


Napolitano said her department is working to provide state and local law enforcement with the information and resources they need to combat the threat of violent extremism within their own communities.

[American Patriot]

This SITE Intelligence Group handout photo obtained Nov. 10, 2009, shows Anwar al-Awlaki, a former U.S. resident living in Yemen who the U.S. now considers a bigger threat than Osama bin Laden.

Photograph by: SITE Intelligence Group handout, AFP/Getty Images




WASHINGTON — American-born Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki now poses a greater terror threat to the United States than al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, the Obama administration said Wednesday.


In testimony before the House homeland security committee, National Counterterrorism Center director Michael Leiter told lawmakers bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders increasingly have "less operational control" over splinter terror groups such as al-Awlaki's al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.


"I actually consider al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, with al-Awlaki as a leader within that organization, probably the most significant risk to the U.S. homeland," Leiter said.
Leiter pointed to the continued "offensive pressure" that the U.S. is putting on al-Qaida in Pakistan, particularly through stepped-up drone attacks, as the main reason bin Laden's group has less capability to strike the U.S.


"I think there remains certainly ideological inspiration from al-Qaida's senior leadership but less and less operational control, and I think that is in large part due to the offensive pressure that we are applying to al-Qaida in Pakistan. I think to some extent, that's quite good. It reduces the likelihood again of a large-scale organized attack."


"I think the negative aspect of it is it allows the franchises to innovate on their own. In the case of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and Yemen, folks like Anwar al-Awlaki, they have been quite successful at being innovators, (which has) made our jobs more challenging."


Of particular concern to the Obama administration is al-Awlaki's ability to radicalize Muslims in the United States, as evidenced by his email communications with Nidal Hasan, the U.S. army major accused in the November 2009 shooting spree in Fort Hood, Texas, that left 13 dead and two dozen injured.


"Al-Awlaki is the most well-known English-speaking ideologue who is speaking directly to folks here in the homeland," Leiter said. "Al-Awlaki probably does have the greatest audience on the Internet. In that sense, he is the most important."
salberts@postmedia.com


Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/Osama+Anw...#ixzz1DUpckbUT

[American Patriot]

Homegrown terror plots focus of hearings

The House Homeland Security Committee will open hearings Wednesday into the domestic terror threat in the U.S. The panel will look at the radicalization of American Muslims.

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By Richard A. Serrano February 8, 2011Washington Bureau



WASHINGTON — Abdulhakim Muhammad was born Carlos Bledsoe, played high school football and attended business school in college. He mowed his grandmother's lawn. He also converted to Islam at a Memphis mosque, studied in Yemen and, while there, fell in with a group of extremists.


By the time he returned to the U.S., federal law enforcement officials say he had been dangerously radicalized as a domestic terrorist. When he allegedly opened fire with an SKS automatic rifle on a Little Rock, Ark., Army recruiting station, he became part of a rising trend — one of 50 Americans arrested on terror charges in the last two years.


From May 2009 to last November, authorities broke up 22 homegrown terror plots, compared with 21 during the previous eight years.


The House Homeland Security Committee opens hearings Wednesday into the terrorist threat in the United States. In the weeks ahead, the panel will hold sessions on the domestic radicalization of American Muslims.


Most of the suspects are being recruited in this country by foreign organizations through the Internet, community activities or, in some instances, local mosques.


For Al Qaeda, tapping into a new generation of potential terrorists already here is easier and cheaper than finding ways to get attackers into the country, though the result has not approached anything close to the death toll of Sept. 11, 2001.


"The threat is real, the threat is different, and the threat is constant," Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said recently.


Some suspects have displayed a chilling dedication.


Muhammad, charged with killing one soldier and wounding another, has written the judge asking to plead guilty to capital murder. He is ready to die for Al Qaeda.


"I wasn't insane or post-traumatic, nor was I forced to do this act," he wrote from jail. The shootings, he said, were "justified according to Islamic Laws and the Islamic Religion, Jihad — to fight those who wage war on Islam and Muslims."


The committee chairman, Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), has rebuffed claims from religious and civil-rights groups that the hearings will unfairly target Muslim Americans. He remains determined to blunt what he calls "the significant change in Al Qaeda tactics and strategy."


"Al Qaeda has realized the difficulty it faces in launching attacks against our homeland from overseas," he said Tuesday. "Thus, it has adjusted its tactics and is now attempting to radicalize from within our country."


Terror consultant Evan F. Kohlmann testified in the 2008 trial of Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, a Philadelphia cab driver convicted and given life for his part in a six-man conspiracy to "kill as many Americans as possible" at the Ft. Dix army base in New Jersey.


Kohlmann said the Internet, videos and other electronic and digital platforms helped drive the plot.


"The information age means you don't need training camps to become a terrorist; all you need is an Internet connection," he said. "The Web is terrorism's new frontier, offering both persuasive inspiration and practical instruction. In fact, these homegrown terrorist cells come at essential zero cost to Al Qaeda."


Only two cases have produced bloodshed since the 2001 attacks — the Little Rock ambush and the Ft. Hood, Texas, shooting in 2009 that killed 13 and injured 32.


Other plots were broken up by government informants or undercover agents, though in some cases defense attorneys have complained that authorities helped them plan their crimes and build their bombs, only to arrest them at the last minute.


Some were poorly organized and carelessly planned. Others fell apart by pure luck, such as when a car bomb failed to ignite on a Saturday evening in New York's Times Square. It was placed there by Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen, Connecticut financial analyst and father of two. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life without parole. Yet he left for prison unnerved. "Allah Akbar!" he told the court.


Mitchell D. Silber, director of intelligence analysis for the New York City Police Department, said "the vast majority" of Americans who embrace violent jihad do not start out as religious people or very knowledgeable about Islam teachings. But through "self-identification," they begin to study Islam, usually after some crisis in their life.


Indoctrination follows, and the individual "intensifies his beliefs, wholly adopts extremist ideology and concludes, without question, that action is required," Silber said. Then "potential targets are chosen, surveillance and reconnaissance begins" and finally, "jihadization" with an assault rifle or car bomb.


In Hempstead, Texas, a window washer named Barry Walter Bujol was seen visiting his local library to go online and read the latest postings from Al Qaeda leaders, such as American-born Anwar Awlaki. He allegedly exchanged e-mails with Awlaki, who sent him an attachment called "42 Ways of Supporting Jihad."


Bujol often went to the library after prayer services at a nearby mosque. The father of two young children, he had recently become a devout Muslim. Last year, he was indicted for attempting to aid terrorists; he faces 20 years in prison if convicted.


In Little Rock, Muhammad is scheduled for trial on Feb. 23, despite wishing to plead guilty. Prosecutors hope he gets what he wants — the death penalty. In one of his letters to the judge, Muhammad wrote, "I await sentencing."
richard.serrano@latimes.com

[vector7]

Threats Claim 160 Nuclear Bombs Hidden All Over U.S.

March 29, 2011 10:04 PM
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Attorney Tracy Rizzo was the recipient of one of 25 threatening letters claiming there are nuclear bombs hidden all over the country. (Credit: CBS)

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CHICAGO (CBS 2) – The threats came in the mail and to date, there have been 25 letters that warn of nuclear bombs destroying America.

People who got them called the FBI and CBS 2′s Kristyn Hartman learned, the Bureau’s Chicago office is leading the investigation.

FBI Special Agent Andre Zavala said, “Yes, they alarmed a lot of people.”

Attorney Tracy Rizzo was alarmed. A number of days ago, an envelope, with a Chicago postmark and a hand-written address to her private investigations firm, came in the mail.

LISTEN: Newsradio 780′s Dave Marsett reports
The letter inside said, “The Al-Qaeda organization has planted 160 nuclear bombs throughout the U.S. in schools, stadiums, churches, stores, financial institutions and government buildings.” It also said, “This is a suicide mission for us.”

The writer, who claims to be Osama Bin Laden, tells the reader the nukes are remotely controlled. “It was clear the writer wanted to scare me,” said Rizzo, “Yes, it frightened me.” Rizzo was one of eight people in the Chicago area to contact the FBI.

Agencies in Oregon, California, Texas and Florida also got the letter with the Chicago postmark.

“There are items in the letter that lead us to believe it is a hoax,” said Zavala. “There are several demands documented that aren’t fully coherent.”

He said much of what’s in the message doesn’t add up, but in a post 9-11 world, the FBI can’t let it go – even if it does appear to be a hoax.

“The FBI investigates every element. We can’t take that chance,” said Zavala.

So, why the threats?

The writer alluded to how families in Afghanistan have to live. The FBI said it will find that writer, and when it does, he could face 5 to 10 years in prison for each letter mailed. Anyone who’s received a similar letter should call the FBI.

[American Patriot]

In other words, there really aren't 160 bombs scattered around.

I find it highly unlikely anyway.

160 conventional bombs with nuclear material to make a dirty bomb MAYBE. But nukes? Highly unlikely.

Two or three might be a more credible threat - but one hundred and sixty? Nope.

[Ryan Ruck]

Springfield, Missouri Fire Department Investigating After Explosive Device Found Near Cox South Hospital

August 13, 2011

Springfield fire officials tell KSPR an explosive device was located and diffused just after 8:00 p.m. Friday night. It was found just off South National Avenue south of Cox South Hospital. Investigators say they do not know who left the explosive there and would not comment on its size or potential for damage had it gone off. We'll have more information as it becomes available.