London Warned of Mumbai Style Terror Attack

Increased intelligence chatter picked up by authorities has led Scotland Yard to warn London businesses a Mumbai style terror attack on the capital may be in the planning stages. This according to a report in The TimesOnline. In the report, a senior detective from SO15, the Metropolitan police counter-terrorism command, said: “Mumbai is coming to London.”

The detective said companies should anticipate a shooting and hostage-taking raid “involving a small number of gunmen with handguns and improvised explosive devices”.

The warning,the bluntest issued by police, has underlined an assessment that a terrorist cell may be preparing an attack on London early next year.

It was issued by the Met through its network of “security forums”, which provide business leaders, local government and the emergency services with counter-terrorism advice.

During a “commando-style” raid by 10 gunmen on hotels and cafes in Mumbai in November 2008, 174 people were killed and more than 300 injured over three days.

Officials now report an increase in “intelligence chatter” communications captured by electronic eavesdropping agencies. One senior security adviser said the police warnings had intensified and become much more specific in the past fortnight.

“Before, there has been speculation. Now we are getting what appears to be a definite plot to carry out a firearms attack on London,” he said.

via London Warned of Mumbai Style Terror Attack By Scotland Yard.

U.S. Launched Missile Strikes on Al Qaeda in Yemen

It appears the war on terror might not be over after all. Despite  talk to the contrary earlier this year by the Obama administration, US efforts to combat terrorism around the world continues and has possibly increased in the past view months.

The U.S. has launched two missile strikes against Al Qaeda targets in Yemen, two U.S. officials told Fox News, signaling an escalation of the Obama administration’s fight against the terrorist organization.

The politically sensitive strikes Thursday, first reported by ABC News, supplement efforts already under way by the government of Yemen to go after Al Qaeda in the country, the officials told Fox News, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the operation.

Such an operation is particularly sensitive in Yemen. “It’s very difficult for Yemen to ask the U.S. for help given the nature of their population and its views about the West,” one official said. “And the U.S. doesn’t want to compromise their ability to ask for help.”

The United States has faced similar concerns in Pakistan, where reports of U.S. drone attacks on militants are common — but never acknowledged publicly by the U.S. or by Pakistan.

via FOXNews.com – U.S. Launched Missile Strikes on Al Qaeda in Yemen, Sources Say.

The Jihad Made Me Do It Insanity Defense

Prosecutors argued that Naveed Haq, was a jihadi terrorist on a mission for martyrdom; the defense countered that the prosecutions case proved their client was insane. In the end, what we’ll term the “jihad made me do it” insanity defense didn’t work and Haq was found guilty of aggravated first-degree murder and seven other counts.

From The Washington Times

Jihadists take note: The insanity defense may not work for you. On Tuesday, Naveed Haq, a self-styled soldier of Islam, was found guilty of aggravated first-degree murder and seven other counts related to a 2006 shooting rampage in Seattle. The prosecution successfully argued that Haq was a jihadi terrorist on a mission for martyrdom; the defense said that just proved he was crazy.

The facts are open and shut. On July 28, 2006, Haq forced his way into the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and opened fire with two semiautomatic pistols, wounding five women and killing campaign director Pamela Waechter. Haq was a methodical killer. When the wounded Ms. Waechter attempted to flee, Haq ran her down and shot her in the head.

Haq explained his jihadist motives in detail after the shooting. He bragged about the killings in prison phone calls to relatives, tapes of which were played during the trial. “I’m proud of what I did,” the murderer told his mother Nahida. “I’m a soldier of Islam.” He said that she should be proud of him. “I’m a martyr now,” he claimed. “I’m going to go to heaven.” His mother argued with him that he was sick, that he was not in his right mind. “Yes I am,” Haq said. “That’s the path I’ve chosen. … I did this for a reason. I wanted to be a martyr. I wanted to die on the battlefield.”

Read Full Article

Beat Officers Prevent Terror Attack Stopping Suspicious Tourist

London – Further evidence that behavioral profiling does work. A terrorist attack on London was averted because two beat patrol officers stopped a man who was acting suspiciously while filming with a mobile phone, police claimed yesterday.The Algerian man said that he was a tourist, but when his phone was examined it yielded 90 minutes of footage of stations, security cameras and shopping centers.

Police took the unprecedented step of releasing the “hostile reconnaissance” video to counter criticism that they are using anti-terrorism powers to question tourists and photographers. “I’d much rather justify what we did do in stopping someone than having to justify why we didn’t do it against the backdrop of a burning building and a terrorist atrocity,” Detective Superintendent Chris Greany, of City of London Police, said.

He admitted that his officers did “get it wrong sometimes” but said that they were acting in the public interest in stopping people. He added: “We don’t just stop people for a laugh we’re trying to make London safer.

via Read Full Article.

Homegrown Terror Cases Increase Significantly In 2009

Fox news  reports that out of 30 homegrown terror plots discovered in the US since  9/11,  ten were discovered in 2009 representing a significant increase that has terror experts concerned.

The five young Americans accused last week of traveling from Washington to Pakistan to wage jihad cap what appears to be a record year for homegrown terror plots, exposing a dangerous trend that experts say poses the biggest challenge America’s security officials have ever faced.

Not including the Pakistan case, the Rand Corporation says that of the nearly 30 homegrown terror plots uncovered in the U.S. since Sept. 11, 2001, 10 surfaced in this year alone, including two actual attacks, in Little Rock, Ark. and Fort Hood, Texas.

That puts “the level of activity in 2009 much higher than that of previous years,” Rand Senior Adviser Brian Jenkins told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last month.

“There’s definitely a rise in jihad recruits and volunteers in the United States, whether they’re concerning plots here in the U.S. or whether they involve material support to terror plots overseas,” says counterterrorism analyst Steve Emerson, author of “American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us.”

Danny Coulson, former deputy assistant director of the FBI, agrees.

via Homegrown Terror on the Rise in 2009 – Local News | News Articles | National News | US News – FOXNews.com.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-14

• Flight 297 Passenger Talks About AirTran Incident http://www.wsbtv.com/video/21890485/index.html #
• Airtrans Flight 297 Passenger – Incident Bigger Than AirTran Claims http://bit.ly/5CgpAQ #
• Ahmadinejad – U.S. Blocking Return of Mahdi http://bit.ly/7chW7q #
• TSA Conducting Full Review Of Document Leak http://bit.ly/8E77xJ #
• Is Pakistani Terrorist Group LeT Going Global? http://bit.ly/6d5Um2 #
• McChrystal – bin Laden Death,Capture Tied to al Qaeda Defeat http://bit.ly/5cxilF #
• Report – Authorities Search for 5 Missing D.C. Area Muslim Men http://bit.ly/5eMS4K #
• Dallas Area Moves To Top 10 Of Terrorism Targets http://bit.ly/7ThGa6 #
• Dolphins and Sea Lions Ready To Fight Terrorism http://bit.ly/6FLtvX #
• High-Ranking Al Qaeda Leader Reportedly Killed http://bit.ly/52KSRt #
• Terror Alert Warning at Mumbai’s Radio Club http://bit.ly/5aHKz9 #
• TSA Leaked Security Manual – Lawmakers Seek To Stop Reposting http://bit.ly/5m5uq8 #
• Could Terrorists Stage Cyberterrorism Attack From Canada http://bit.ly/5Odpvc #
• Filipino abductors free 9 more hostages, hold 48 http://j.mp/6P51go #
• Deja vu, United Airlines Flight 227 Passengers Removed, What Happened? http://bit.ly/5LydCb #
• Pakistan To Deport 5 U.S. Terror Suspects http://bit.ly/8rpAVE #
• Italian Premier Berlusconi Punched in Face at Rally http://bit.ly/8C7Fxq #
• Recent Arrests Raise Fears of American Jihad http://bit.ly/7TNcIU #
• Arrest Early Or Risk Potential Terror Attack http://bit.ly/4ptsmA #
• High Alert in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Gujarat http://bit.ly/6Bgc3m #

Terror Suspects Got British Security Guard Licenses

Ten Pakistani students suspected of terror links who obtained security clearances to work as guards showed flaws in Britain’s vetting system, critics say.

Despite promises by government ministers to tighten up a system for checking the backgrounds of foreign nationals applying for sensitive security posts, 10 members of a suspected Islamist terror cell in Manchester had obtained permission by the British Home Office to work as security guards, The Sunday Times of London reported.

The newspaper said the students — who were arrested but never charged in an alleged Easter plot to bomb two Manchester shopping centers and a nightclub — had, in the months before their arrests, obtained licenses from the Security Industry Authority to work as security guards.

Source

High-Ranking Al Qaeda Leader Reportedly Killed

It appears that our speculation yesterday was correct. Fox news is reporting today that a  high-ranking Al Qaeda figure reportedly was killed Thursday in a U.S. drone aircraft attack in north Pakistan.

The attack, first reported by NBC News, was officially denied by Pakistani officials, though sources told Fox News that neither Usama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri were among those killed.

Pakistani media report six militants were killed in the attack, including four foreign fighters, a classification in the tribal areas that typically refers to Al Qaeda.

The attack was part of the expanded use of Predator drones recently authorized by the White House, sources told Fox News, though the drone attacks, which began during the Bush Administration, never have been officially confirmed because of political sensitivity in Pakistan.

The Obama administration reportedly is talking with Pakistan about expanding the program from Waziristan to Baluchistan, a controversial move since it is outside the tribal areas near the Afghanistan border.

Baluchistan is where Afghan Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding.

via Read Full Article.

Five Missing Americans Probed for Terror Links

UPDATE: Five Americans arrested at a house linked to a militant group in eastern Pakistan have told investigators they came to the country to take part in “jihad” or holy war, police said Thursday.

U.S. officials believe the five are men who were reported missing more than a week ago by their families in the Washington, D.C., area. The families asked the FBI for help after finding a farewell video left by the men showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended.

Source

——-

Five young Americans captured in Pakistan are under investigation for possibly trying to meet up with a terror group, authorities said Wednesday. Two U.S. officials said one of the men left a “farewell” video behind saying Muslims must be defended, and showing images of U.S. casualties.

Frantic relatives and worried FBI agents have been searching for the five college-age men for more than a week, since their disappearance in late November. The missing students have family roots in the northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., area.

Two U.S. officials said one of the group _ they did not say which one _ left behind what investigators believe was a farewell video message, in which he talks about defending Muslims and shows images of U.S. casualties. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

Read Article

Two Arabs Killed In North Waziristan Drone Strike

Two Arab nationals were killed in a missile strike on a car by US drones in Spalga village in North Waziristan on Tuesday morning. An interesting aspect of this story is the number of other drones that were reported flying in the area at the time.  This has raised speculation that the men in the vehicle were HVT’s (high value targets), or other HVT’s are may be in the area.

A senior government official based in Miramshah, headquarters of North Waziristan, told The News by telephone that the drone fired two missiles on the car. He said two Arab nationals were travelling in the car when it was struck by the drone. Four drones were flying at the time of the attack over the area.

The Taliban sources also confirmed that both the men killed in the drone attack were foreigners and belonged to Saudi Arabia. Both of them had just left their homes and were on their way to the Afghan border, where they were supposed to meet their colleagues, the Taliban sources said.

They said the identity of the two ‘guest fighters’ could not be ascertained as their bodies had been blown apart. A tribesman of Spalga village, Hafiz Rasool, told The News by telephone that the car was torn into pieces after being hit by the drone. The wreckage scattered in a wide area and same was the case with the two bodies.

Read Full Article

Dolphins and Sea Lions Ready To Fight Terrorism

The Navy has approved a plan to step up anti-terrorism efforts at a Washington base by sending specially trained dolphins and sea lions into surrounding waters.

A Naval base near Washington’s Puget Sound is stepping up its security by employing aquatic mammals to patrol its restricted waters. The animals’ deployment in 2010 will mark the realization of a program that has been more than three years in the making.The dolphins and sea lions to defend the base were trained as part of the Navy Marine Mammal Program in San Diego. Working with human handlers, dolphins will search surrounding waters for rogue divers and swimmers.

Tom LaPuzza, a spokesman for the program, told Scientific American that upon finding a diver, the dolphin will return to the handler and the handler will assess the severity of the threat.“[T]he handler will place a strobe light or a noisemaker on the dolphin’s nose … The dolphin is trained to swim to the intruder, bump him or her from behind—which would knock the device off its nose—and then quickly swim away while military personnel take over.”Sea lions are trained to carry cuffs in their mouths that clasp shut around a diver’s leg when bumped by the sea lion. Cuffs are attached to a tether, so military personnel can haul in the intruder after he is cuffed.

Source – Read Full Article

Dallas Area Moves To Top 10 Of Terrorism Targets

The Dallas Morning news reports that Dallas is now officially one of the nation’s top 10 terrorist targets – a designation that sounds alarming but which state and local officials have sought for years, because it means millions in federal funds to beef up security.

The Department of Homeland Security’s precise reasons remain secret, but there were plenty of educated guesses Wednesday about the many factors that justify putting Dallas on a list with New York and Washington.

They include population growth, huge sports venues, economic impact, and even the fact that an ex-president calls the city home.”We thought they should be a top-tier city last time … considering the number of critical infrastructures, key resources, the population, soft targets, the economic importance,” said Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety and Gov. Rick Perry’s chief homeland security adviser. “We’re glad that the threat-based formula that Homeland Security is using finally recognizes that.”

Source

Is Pakistani Terrorist Group LeT Going Global?

Excellent article appearing in Time and cause for concern according to several intelligence experts.

Among all the sensational details emerging from the terrorism charges against David Coleman Headley, the American national charged with involvement in last year’s terrorist attack in Mumbai, it’s easy to miss this one: Headley is alleged to have been working for the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). For intelligence experts in Washington, however, the LeT connection may be the most sensational allegation of them all – if the charges against Headley hold up, it will mean that the “Army of the Righteous,” originally dedicated to neighborhood jihad, is now ready to take on the world.

In charges unsealed on Monday, U.S. prosecutors claim that Headley, who changed his name from Daood Gilani, traveled to Mumbai several times between 2006 and 2008, photographing and videotaping some of the targets that were hit last November in a three-day rampage by 10 LeT gunmen that left 166 people dead. Headley is also accused of carrying out surveillance for a plot to attack the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which sparked outrage across the Muslim world in 2005 by publishing cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad.

via Suspect Headley: Pakistani Terrorist Group Going Global? – Yahoo! News.

U.S. To Resume Hunt for Terror Leader bin Laden

There’s been a significant increase in talk regarding Osama bin Ladens possible location over the past few days, leading some to speculate the al Qaeda terror leader may be on the move.The National Post reports that the United States will launch a new effort to track down bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding in the mountains along the Afghan-Pakistan border, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday.

Intelligence reports suggest the Al-Qaeda chief “is somewhere inside north Waziristan, sometimes on the Pakistani side of the border, sometimes on the Afghan side of the border,” said national security adviser James Jones.

Asked if President Barack Obama’s administration planned a fresh attempt to go after Al-Qaeda’s leader, Mr. Jones said: “I think so.”

Bin Laden was a “very important symbol of what Al-Qaeda stands for” and it was crucial to make sure he was on the run or captured, Mr. Jones, a retired Marine general, told CNN’s “State of the Union” program.

His comment that Bin Laden sometimes crossed to the Afghan side of the mountainous border contrasted with previous accounts from U.S. officials that suggested the Al-Qaeda chief was hiding in Pakistan.

via U.S. to resume hunt for Bin Laden: official.

Next Page »