Man Arrested on Amtrak Train After Alleged Threat

An Amtrak passenger who alarmed fellow passengers by talking about terrorist threats on a cell phone was pulled from the train and is being held in Colorado.

Ojore Nuru Lutalo, 64, was arrested Tuesday on an Amtrak passage from Los Angeles to Chicago. Passengers on the train alerted authorities after hearing the man from Elizabeth, N.J., mention al-Qaida and make threats in a cell phone conversation.

Police said in an affidavit that passengers overheard Lutalo saying he hadn’t killed anyone yet and talking about going to jail.

Passengers say the man said, “We have to work in small groups. They can hold you for 18 months. Do they have security on these trains? Are you with me or not?”

One passenger said he heard Lutalo mention al-Qaida, saying, “17th century tactics won't work, we have 21st century tactics.”

via Read Full Article.

Severe – Britain UK Raises Terrorist Threat Level

BREAKING- Britain’s terrorist threat level has been raised from substantial to severe meaning that counter-terrorism agencies believe an attack is “highly likely”.

The measure was approved at a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee and announced by Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary.

The Times understands that the decision to raise the threat level is connected to the conference on Afghanistan taking place at Lancaster Gate, London, next Thursday.

Sources said there had been intensive discussions throughout the day relating to intelligence suggesting a possible attempted “spectacular” by an al-Qaeda affiliated group.

But the shift was also described by one source as “precautionary” rather than rooted in any firm information that an identified terror cell was plotting an attack.

Mr Johnson said: “The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre has today raised the threat to the UK from international terrorism from substantial to severe. This means that a terrorist attack is highly likely, but I should stress that there is no intelligence to suggest than an attack is imminent. JTAC keeps the threat level under constant review makes its judgments based on a broad range of factors, including the intent and capabilities of international terrorist groups in the UK and overseas.

From MI5 The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) has changed the UK threat level from international terrorism from SUBSTANTIAL to SEVERE. The current threat level means that the threat of a terrorist attack is considered to be highly likely.

The Home Secretary said in a statement:

“The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre has today raised the threat to the UK from international terrorism from SUBSTANTIAL to SEVERE. This means that a terrorist attack is highly likely, but I should stress that there is no intelligence to suggest than an attack is imminent.”

New Bin Laden Videotape Not New According To Experts

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden released a new videotape on Friday however it appears to actually be the Pashto-language version of a tape released by al Qaeda several months ago.

The tape, titled “To Our People in Pakistan,” was broadly released in Arabic and Urdu on July 12, IntelCenter said. Excerpts had been aired by the Al Jazeera television network on June 3, it added.

Earlier on Friday, IntelCenter had said al-Qaeda’s as-Sahab Media had released a new video from bin Laden.

In his remarks broadcast by Al Jazeera in June, Saudi-born bin Laden said U.S. President Barack Obama had planted the seeds of “revenge and hatred” toward the United States in the Muslim world and warned Americans to prepare for the consequences.

In an audio message posted on an Islamist website in September, Osama warned Americans over their government’s close ties with Israel.

Osama is believed to be hiding in the mountainous border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

via Bin Laden videotape not new, monitoring site says | Reuters.

Terror Threats Closes Pakistan Schools

In the southern Sindh province, which is home to Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi, 50 000 schools and colleges have shut down until Sunday according to several news reports.

Pakistani schools and colleges have closed because of fears about militant attacks after twin suicide bombings at a university campus on Tuesday, officials said.
The federal government and armed forces already announced that they were closing their schools as a precaution against terrorism.

Two suicide bombers attacked the International Islamic University in Islamabad on Tuesday, killing four students and wounding at least 18 others. The bombers struck at mid-afternoon inside a women’s cafeteria and a faculty office in the Islamic law department at the school, which is popular with foreign students.
Source

“This is an internal security lapse. We have already advised the educational institutions to tighten their security,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters after the Islamabad university blasts on Tuesday.

Source

New Bin Laden Audio Tape May Indicate Upcoming Attack

al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s latest message, released today, contains language considered by many in the Intelligence community to be a valid indicator of an upcoming attack.

An AFP news report posted this afternoon cites the the concern.

“This indicator when viewed in light of the five Abu Talha videos this year, three of which have been released in the last eight days and their focus on the upcoming elections in Germany, significantly raises the threat level even further,” IntelCenter said.

News Article

Site Intelligence Group Has More

Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, addresses European peoples in a new audio message released on jihadist forums on September 25, 2009.

The audio comes in a 4 minute, 47 second video produced by al-Qaeda’s media arm, as-Sahab, and shows only a still image on bin Laden.

Bin Laden asks Europeans to cease their alliance with the US and withdraw their forces from Afghanistan, saying: “An intelligent man doesn’t waste his money and sons for a gang of criminals in Washington, and it is a shameful thing for a person to be in a coalition whose supreme commander has no regard for human life…

Site Intelligence Group

Thomas Hegghammer at Jihadica thinks bin Laden may be laying the groundwork for an attack that is months away, or hoping to inspire a grassroots group or individual in Europe to take action on his behalf.

…My guess is that these messages are primarily intended to influence German public opinion at a crucial juncture in the Western campaign in Afghanistan. Germany is a pivotal player in the coalition; her withdrawal could initiate a vicious (or virtuous, depending on one’s preferences) circle of European withdrawals from the Afghanistan enterprise. Al Qaida is focusing the weakest link in the coalition, just as the Madrid bombers were advised to do.

jihadica

US Closes Facilities in South Africa Over Security Concerns

South Africa’s top crime fighter says police are in control of the situation after the United States closed all its facilities in the country on security concerns. Police Commissioner Bheki Cele told a media briefing in Cape Town the national police service is working closely with the US Embassy after all US facilities were closed Tuesday.

“Our intelligence has had meetings…with American personnel…and we are working on it. It happen[ed] [a] few hours, less than 24 [hours ago]. There are things that have happened, there are things that are happening and we are in constant contact with them, so we cannot begin to release, what have we done, and what is happening, as we are seated here,” Cele said.

Read Full Article

Self-Storage Facilities Eye Sensors to Detect Terrorist Threats

Prior to the 1993 World Trade Center and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombings, the perpetrators used self-storage facilities to hide explosives and briefly housed the trucks used to carry out the attacks. A 2004 FBI memo to self-storage facility owners warned, “Terrorist plots that involve IED’s [improvised explosive devices] have utilized rental storage facilities to house parts of the bomb or other supplies until the plotters have the time to assemble the weapon or prepare the attack.”

Because of this threat, LifeStorage, a self-storage facility based in Chicago, has more than doubled the money it spends on counterterrorism technology. Potential for covert, illegal activity is especially high at facilities capable of housing cars or trucks and those with 24/7 drive-up access where surveillance is minimal and entry unrestricted, said a company statement.

The company began working with Defentect, a defense technology firm, to install sensors that detect terrorist weapons such as radiological devices used to make so-called dirty bombs.

Storage facilities are attractive to criminals and terrorists because they are “inexpensive, accessible and anonymous for the most part,” Defentect President Frank O’Connor said.

LifeStorage has spent $135,000 to install Defentect’s chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive threat-detection sensors.

Matt Clark, vice president of operations at LifeStorage, said “We’ve always been at the cutting edge of technology in our industry and we believe this is a real valuable feature to our facilities.”

Defentect is currently equipping LifeStorage facilities with its DM3 software, and gammatect sensors that “report threat level gamma radiation… and provide isotope identification,” according to the Defentect brochure. The DM3 software system allows for effective “management, monitoring, and messaging,” and it “enables customers to add radiation detection and other sensors to their security systems.”

Defentect was established about three years ago. It has contracts with 12 facilities, and with over 52,000 self-storage companies in the United States, there is room for expansion, according to O’Connor. The main hurdle is the technology’s cost.

“The problem has been that [self-storage] owners often do not work off of huge margins,” O’Connor said.

via Read Full Article.

Germany Raises Terror Alert Level In Response To Threat

The German government raised its terrorism alert level after al Qaeda posted a video on the Internet threatening attacks in Germany if this month’s elections do not come out the way the terrorist organization wants.

“The federal elections offer a special [opportunity] for propaganda and operative activity by terror groups,” the Interior Ministry said on Friday. “A new video posted on September 18 by al Qaeda underlines this. The security services have therefore increased the threat level, which leads to increased security measures especially at airports and railway stations.”

[...]

In his nearly 26-minute video statement, a man identified as Bekay Harrach, using the pseudonym Abu Talha and speaking in German, says that, if the September 27 elections vote into power parties that do not pledge to pull German troops from Afghanistan, there will be a “rude awakening.”

The speaker calls on Muslims in Germany to stay away from public life during the first two weeks after the elections, implying that any attacks would take place then.

via Germany boosts terrorism alert level – CNN.com.

See Related Post – Germany – al Qaeda Releases New Video, Threatens ‘Bad Awakening’

Terror Threat Forces England Out of Badminton Tournament

The England team has withdrawn from the World Badminton Championships in India because of “a specific terrorist threat” against the tournament.

The eight-strong squad, which includes the Olympic silver medallist Nathan Robertson, pulled out of the event, which starts tomorrow in Hyderabad, after a reported threat by the Muslim extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The tournament’s organisers said they were disappointed by the decision of the England team, which was also accused by its Scottish counterpart of over-reacting.

Thomas Lund of the Badminton World Federation said: “It’s unfortunate that the English team made their decision before we had had an opportunity to properly brief the team management.”

Anne Smillie, chief executive of Badminton Scotland, which said its players will stay, told the BBC the English players would have to live with the knowledge that they have pulled out of a major world event. Welsh Badminton has three players at the tournament.

Source

Germany Openly Warns of Terror Threat

A recent routine police operation uncovered a possible terror suspect. The development illustrates just how tense the security situation is in Germany, with the government issuing the clearest warnings yet of a possible attack by Islamist terrorists. How much do the country’s security officials know?

The officers were exceedingly polite, waiting for Ali R. to complete his Friday prayers, pack his things and leave the mosque in the western German city of Essen. Only then did they approach the imam and ask him to come with them. They took him to the Büren Prison near the northwestern city of Paderborn, where detainees are held pending deportation. The action was taken in response to a request by the German foreigners registration authority, which had been seeking Ali R., a medical student, since March, because his German residence permit had expired. The officers were not particularly enthusiastic about their mission, which was just another routine police operation. As a result, their search of Ali R., 29, was perfunctory at best.

via The Great Fear: Germany Openly Warns of Terror Threat – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International.

Sacha Baron Cohen Threatened By Terrorists Over Bruno

Sacha Baron Cohen has stepped up his security after being threatened by a terrorist organization that is angered at its portrayal in the film “Bruno.”

The al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a coalition of Palestinian militias in the West Bank, said it was “very upset” that it featured in the film starring Baron Cohen’s homosexual fashionista alter ego.

Baron Cohen’s Austrian character ridicules the terrorist group when he attempts to get himself kidnapped during a meeting with Ayman Abu Aita, who is identified in the film as the leader of the Martyrs’ Brigades.

Read Article

Airlines Suspend Operations From Peshawar Pakistan

Three airlines from the Middle East– Gulf Air, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways – have suspended their operation from Peshawar airport in northwest Pakistan citing security reasons.

Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Pervez George said the three airlines had stopped their operations to and from Peshawar airport”temporarily”.

“The airlines have not given any specific reason for suspending their operations but they have assured us that it will be for a few days only,” George said.

However, an employee of Gulf Air told PTI that the airline had made the decision following news reports that the Taliban might try to target commercial aircraft. The reports said some detained militants had disclosed the Taliban&aposs plans in this regard.

The three airlines will divert their operations to Islamabad airport.

Source

DHS Report Concludes General Aviation Security Threat is Limited

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) recently welcomed a conclusion in a recent report conducted by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (DHS-0IG) that “general aviation presents only limited and mostly hypothetical threats to security.”

“This report validates what we in the general aviation community have said before: General aviation does not represent a significant security threat,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “The industry has always emphasized security, and in the years since the 9/11 attacks, we have remained diligent and adopted numerous measures to ensure that our aircraft, crews and passengers are safe and secure.”

Following are the key findings included in the 30-page study by the DHS-OIG:

* “We determined that general aviation presents only limited and mostly hypothetical threats to security. We also determined that the steps general aviation airport owners and managers have taken to enhance security are positive and effective.”

* “The current status of [general aviation] operations does not present a serious homeland security vulnerability requiring TSA to increase regulatory oversight of the industry.”

* “Although [TSA's Office of Intelligence] has identified potential threats, it has concluded that most [general aviation] aircraft are too light to inflict significant damage, and has not identified specific imminent threats from [general aviation] aircraft.”

“We recognize that this report doesn’t mean our industry can take its eye off the ball on security,” Bolen continued. “We will continue working with policymakers to promote effective proposals for enhancing security while recognizing the business aviation community’s need for mobility and flexibility. At the same time, we welcome this recognition of our industry’s long-standing commitment to security, and the effective measures we’ve taken to minimize security threats.”

US Embassy in Sudan Warns of Terror Threat

The U.S. embassy in Sudan is warning of a threat by Islamist extremists to attack the Sudanese government as well as “Western interests.”

A statement on the U.S. embassy website warned that a post on a radical Islamist website threatened an attack on the Sudanese government. It indicated the threat is related to the recent death of a suspected Islamic extremist.

The statement provided few details of the threat, but warned that calls for violence against the government as well as “Western interests” could also be made during prayers on Friday, and urged Americans in Sudan to exercise caution.

Sudan has been on the U.S. government’s list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1993. Sudanese officials have been pushing Washington to remove Sudan from the list in recent years, as the country has cooperated in sharing intelligence as part of the war on terror. The United States says terrorists remain active in the country.

Source

Next Page »