Everyday Citizens Can Defend the Homeland

[Adlerian Thinker]

There were no explosives inside container at McDonalds. The Consolidated Bomb Squad confirms that the set of wires inside of a container found at McDonald's Wednesday morning had the makings of an improvised explosive device had there actually been explosives inside. The item was left on the floor of the McDonalds on the corner of Wedge Parkway and Mt. Rose Highway, causing a response by Reno Police Department, Washoe County Sheriffs, and the bomb squad. Responding law enforcement personnel found the gray device – wrapped in duct tape – with wires attached to it, around 7:45 a.m. after an unknown citizen flagged down a Reno police officer outside the restaurant to tell them about the device left near the tables within the business. It was not enclosed or in a suitcase, according to officers. It is still unknown if the device was an explosive.
Source: http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9145515&nav=menu113_1_3

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/09/us-officials-worry-terrorists-could-align-with-drug-cartels/

U.S. Officials Worry Terrorists Could Align With Drug Cartels

There is real danger that Islamic extremist groups such as al-Qaeda and Hezbollah could form alliances with wealthy and powerful Latin American drug lords to launch new terrorist attacks, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Extremist group operatives have already been identified in several Latin American countries, mostly involved in fundraising and finding logistical support. But Charles Allen, chief of intelligence analysis at the Homeland Security Department, said they could use well-established smuggling routes and drug profits to bring people or even weapons of mass destruction to the U.S.

“The presence of these people in the region leaves open the possibility that they will attempt to attack the United States,” said Allen, a veteran CIA analyst. “The threats in this hemisphere are real. We cannot ignore them.”

Much as the Taliban tapped Afghanistan’s heroin for money, U.S. officials say the vast profits available from Latin American cocaine could provide al-Qaida and others with a ready source of income. The rebel group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has long used drug money to pay for weapons, supplies and operations — and is also designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S.

“We’ve got a hybrid that has developed right before our eyes,” Braun said.

Latin America’s drug kingpins already have well-established methods of smuggling, laundering money, obtaining false documents, providing safe havens and obtaining illicit weapons, all of which would be attractive to terrorists who are facing new pressures in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Allen, of the Homeland Security Department, said there was currently a “low probability” of cooperation between terrorists and drug organizations, but the “fertile ground” of Latin America — where government corruption is common and institutions often weak — means that the possibility deserves renewed U.S. attention.

“It would be an unprecedented act. But we cannot rule it out,” he said.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/09/credible-threat-at-middle-tennessee-state/

Credible Threat at MTSU - Student Arrested On Terrorism Charges

MTSU Update -A 19-year-old student at Middle Tennessee State University has been arrested on terrorism charges after threatening e-mails forced the cancellation of classes.

Murfreesboro Police spokesman Kyle Evans says Justin Davis of Nashville was charged Thursday with an act of terrorism and one count of arson. He was jailed on $500,000 bond and did not yet have a lawyer.

Police say Davis is cooperating with investigators about the case but no motive has been revealed.

University President Sidney McPhee sent an e-mail to all faculty, staff and students at the university in Murfreesboro, closing the campus at noon on Thursday.

MTSU spokeswoman Lisa Rollins said an e-mail through Yahoo.com was sent Wednesday to an administrator on the business faculty, threatening the entire student community with bodily harm.
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Rollins said the e-mail did not say how people would be harmed. She said concern was heightened by the setting of three small fires on campus recently.

After classes ended Wednesday, an e-mailed threat was more widely circulated. Rollins said also a remodeled residence hall had been temporarily evacuated Wednesday night.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/oct08/iafis_101008.html

CATCHING TERRORISTS AND CRIMINALS
By Their Fingertips, Literally
10/10/08

FBI fingerprint expert at work
The database is fed by more than 86,000 agencies.

A man was arrested in Florida for loitering. Police fingerprinted him and electronically submitted his prints to the FBI’s fingerprint database. Within five minutes, Florida police were notified that their loitering suspect was wanted in California on murder charges. California officials were also notified.

Our Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System responds quickly to requests like this 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to help our local, state, and federal partners—and our own investigators—solve and prevent crime and apprehend criminals and terrorists.

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IAFIS houses some 56 million criminal prints (plus nearly 250 million civil prints) submitted by more than 86,000 criminal justice agencies. Included in our criminal database are fingerprints from 73,000 known and suspected terrorists processed by the U.S. or by foreign law enforcement agencies who work with us.

IAFIS keeps communities safe. There’s no better way to illustrate how IAFIS works than to show how it’s been used. Other recent cases:

* Texas Rangers reported four suspicious individuals along a remote part of the U.S.-Mexico border to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Customs took the four into custody and, after determining they were in the U.S. illegally, took their fingerprints and sent them electronically to IAFIS. Lo and behold, there was a hit: one of the men was wanted on murder charges in North Carolina.

* In Virginia, a federal program giving credentials to transportation workers sent a potential employee’s prints to IAFIS. Good thing—the man was wanted by Miami authorities for murder (suffice to say he didn’t get the job!)

* Police in New York City arrested an individual on assault charges. His prints were sent to IAFIS, which sent back word that the man was wanted not only by local authorities in Pennsylvania on murder charges but also by the FBI on unlawful flight charges.

IAFIS’ expanded use. We’re taking part in a pilot project that allows near real-time sharing of prints and other information in IAFIS and the Department of Homeland Security’s Automated Biometric Identification System, or IDENT. This means not only do the FBI and agencies like Customs and Border Protection have the benefit of each other’s biometric information, but also that local, state, and federal agencies using IAFIS have access to certain immigration data relevant to their cases.

We’ve already seen some successes. For example, Border Patrol agents working at a port of entry along the California-Mexico border encountered a man coming from Mexico claiming to be a U.S. citizen but who said he left his alien card at home. Suspicious, the agents fingerprinted the man and sent his prints to the joint IDENT/IAFIS program, which informed them that he was wanted by Los Angeles police on murder, rape, and burglary charges.

What’s ahead for our fingerprint operations? Our Next Generation Identification System will incorporate additional biometrics, like iris and facial imaging and palm prints, to enhance identification of terrorists and criminals even more. Says Tom Bush, who heads our Criminal Justice Information Services Division that manages IAFIS, “IAFIS has been a fantastic tool in support of criminal justice and the war on terror—NGI will give us bigger, better, and faster capabilities, and lead us into the future.”

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/11/world-bank-under-cyber-siege-in-unprecedented-attack/

World Bank Under Cyber Siege in Unprecedented Attack

It is still not known how much information was stolen. But sources inside the bank confirm that servers in the institution’s highly-restricted treasury unit were deeply penetrated with spy software last April. Invaders also had full access to the rest of the bank’s network for nearly a month in June and July.

In total, at least six major intrusions — two of them using the same group of IP addresses originating from China — have been detected at the World Bank since the summer of 2007, with the most recent breach occurring just last month.

In a frantic midnight e-mail to colleagues, the bank’s senior technology manager referred to the situation as an “unprecedented crisis.” In fact, it may be the worst security breach ever at a global financial institution. And it has left bank officials scrambling to try to understand the nature of the year-long cyber-assault, while also trying to keep the news from leaking to the public.

While it remains unclear how much data has been pilfered from the bank, it’s a lot. According to internal memos, “a minimum of 18 servers have been compromised,” including some of the bank’s most sensitive systems — ranging from the bank’s security and password server to a Human Resources server “that contains scanned images of staff documents.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,435681,00.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/10/2-detained-in-possible-pipe-bomb-explosion-in-san-francisco/

2 Detained In Possible Pipe Bomb Explosion In San Francisco

Police questioned two men in their 20s in connection with an apparent pipe bomb explosion in San Francisco’s Bayview District early Friday morning, a police sergeant said.

Officers responded to reports of either an explosion or shots fired at about 5:20 a.m. in the 1100 block of La Salle Avenue and found remnants of what appeared to be a pipe bomb, Sgt. Neville Gittens said.

A description of a suspect vehicle was broadcast to authorities, and about five minutes later officers in the area of Eddy Street and Van Ness Avenue in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood saw a pickup truck matching the description.

Police stopped the truck on South Van Ness Avenue between 14th and 15th streets in the city’s Mission District. Two men in the vehicle were taken into custody and were being interviewed by police at about 8:30 a.m., according to Gittens.

The bomb squad responded to search for any possible additional explosives or illegal materials, and about six residents of an apartment complex across the street were asked to shelter in place, Gittens said.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/11/fbi-terrorism-unit-to-investigate-palm-desert-theater-threater/

FBI Terrorism Unit To Investigate Palm Desert Theater Threat

An FBI terrorism division is investigating as a credible threat a letter that contained a suspicious substance found at a Palm Desert theater.

Initial analysis by the FBI tested negative for biological or chemical hazards. Tests also indicated that the substance was not harmful.

The discovery of the substance at about 2 p.m. prompted authorities to evacuate about 20 employees of the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert after a theater worker opened the envelope. The theater was then sealed, Riverside County Fire Capt. Fernando Herrera said.

Four employees came in contact with the substance and were quarantined for decontamination, Riverside County sheriff’s Deputy Herlinda Valenzuela said. The employees were treated by the Riverside County Fire Department’s Hazardous Material team, where they were stripped and cleansed with water and their clothes bagged and confiscated.

No injuries or illnesses were reported. It’s not clear what the substance was or who the letter was addressed to, but the envelope did contain a letter, Valenzuela said.

The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating the substance after it was packaged and sent to the FBI’s crime analysis lab, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Freshman arrested in threats at MTSU. Fires and threatening e-mails, which warned of “large-scale devastation,” prompted Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) to suspend classes on Thursday. Authorities arrested a 19-year-old freshman they believe is responsible. The freshman will face terrorism and arson charges and is reportedly cooperating with authorities. His arrest followed a day of intensified police presence on campus and the cancellation of classes for the rest of the week. Officials decided not to evacuate campus Thursday before the suspect’s arrest, though police presence was intensified and signs were posted at residence halls notifying students not to admit anyone they did not know. The FBI issued a no-fly zone over the campus while law enforcement tactical teams swept the area for a suspect or witnesses. The FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Murfreesboro Police Department, Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department, Rutherford County Emergency Management, and MTSU Campus Police were involved in the investigation.
Source: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081010/NEWS03/810100422/1017/NEWS01

[Adlerian Thinker]

Report: A disaster waiting to happen. Despite millions spent on technological upgrades, Georgia’s first responders will likely face communication problems in the event of a large-scale disaster, according to a state audit released this week. Law enforcement, fire departments, and other response agencies have found ways to communicate with their neighboring counterparts for daily operations, such as car accidents. But a major tornado or hurricane could produce a situation sending disaster zone agencies together that have not worked together before. A lack of familiarity among those agencies could cause difficulty in communications, especially when state agencies respond and find local agencies have changed their communications technology or procedures, the 46-page Department of Audits and Accounts report said. While new radios with better technology fill in gaps that previously hampered communication, the state lacks an umbrella of leadership to coordinate improvements to communication, an ongoing effort since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the audit found.
Source: http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/100908/geo_341826411.shtml

[Adlerian Thinker]

Police investigate more homemade explosives. For the second time, police investigated a report of a homemade explosive device in the Howell area. The latest incident occurred Sunday morning. A Sheriff said Monday that the family found a bottle with an unknown liquid and tinfoil in their mailbox October 5, but they did not call police until Sunday after reading about a soda bottle bomb found. “It had disintegrated; the bottle shrunk and the cap popped off,” the sheriff explained. “It wasn’t deemed dangerous, so it was removed.” What was left of the second bottle was taken to a lab for analysis. In the first incident, a man discovered a bottle wrapped in duct tape inside his mailbox just after 9 a.m. Saturday when he went to get the mail at his home. Michigan State Police Bomb Squad personnel determined it was an explosive device and were able to incapacitate it. That device also was taken to the state police crime lab for analysis. No injuries were reported in either incident.
Source: http://www.livingstondaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081014/NEWS06/810140307

[Adlerian Thinker]

White powder scares cost law enforcement time, money. Firefighters and federal agents have responded to more than 30,000 incidents involving suspicious powders, liquids, or chemicals since 2001 in what authorities say is the terrifying legacy of the anthrax attacks after 9/11. Postal service and law enforcement officials say thousands of the incidents are hoaxes involving white powder sent through the mail and thousands more are emergency calls to report powder found on countertops, in mailrooms, and elsewhere. There is no official count of the number of white powder calls in the seven years since letters poisoned with anthrax killed five people. But in just the past year, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has responded to 2,893 incidents, many of which involved white powder, a spokesman says. The FBI, which is called when a threatening note is found or when it otherwise appears a crime may have been committed, looked into more than 900 biological incidents from January 2007 to August 2008, “the majority of those incidents being white powder letters,” a spokesman says. So far this year, “several dozen people” have been convicted under federal hoax and domestic terrorism laws. None of the incidents since 2001 has involved anthrax or any substance nearly that dangerous.
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-10-12-powder_N.htm

[Adlerian Thinker]

Pa. Obama office evacuated due to letter, powder. Authorities are trying to find out who sent a threatening letter with a suspicious substance inside to one of the Democratic presidential candidate’s Philadelphia campaign offices. The office was evacuated for less than an hour after the discovery. Police say a volunteer brought in the mail and opened a letter that had a suspicious substance inside. Officials evacuated the office, took the letter outside, and called police. A hazardous materials crew responded, but investigators say initial tests determined it was brown sugar.
Source: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/news-67/1224038652288760.xml&storylist=penn

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspect causes stir at justice center. Three Onondaga County Sheriff’s Deputies were hurt in an altercation at the Onondaga County Justice Center Tuesday night. Investigators say they were conducting a strip search on a suspect when he pulled out a glass vial and smashed it on the floor. The suspect then began fighting with deputies until he was eventually restrained, however the vial had a noxious gas in it, which filled the room, causing eye irritation and coughing. Officials later determined it was phencyclidine, better known as PCP. Three officers had to be taken to the hospital after the incident. They are all expected to be okay. They also had to evacuate part of the building so that a HAZMAT team could decontaminate the area. That process only took about an hour.
Source: http://news10now.com/content/all_news/126054/suspect-causes-stir-at-justice-center/Default.aspx

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bombs made at sewage plant? A 24-year-old man accused of setting off explosives in the desert last week might have been constructing improvised explosive devices at a Pima County wastewater treatment plant where he worked, authorities said. Bomb squad investigators think the man may have been constructing the devices at the plant and at two places he lives in. A search warrant says investigators found ammunition magazines and an ammunition can in his white Toyota Tacoma pickup. Another search warrant says authorities found a 50-pound bag of ammonium nitrate, a digital camera, CDs, and other evidence of explosives at one of his homes and in his locker at the treatment plant. The documents do not describe his job at the plant. A background check by deputies found that the man considered himself a loner, made idle threats against a Pima Community College employee, and showed diagrams of bomb-making activities, as well as photographs of vehicles he destroyed with bombs, the court documents state.
Source: http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/262687

[Adlerian Thinker]

Addison woman admits making bomb threat to avoid jury duty. An Addison woman Thursday admitted threatening to blow up the DuPage County Courthouse after being called for jury duty. She was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to perform 100 hours of public service after she pleaded guilty to attempted disorderly conduct. Authorities said the woman threatened to blow up the courthouse March 4 during a telephone call with a jury commission member regarding her two failed appearances for jury summonses. Deputies searched the Wheaton facility, but no explosives were found.
Source: http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=243179

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/15/uk-threat-of-large-scale-terror-plot-being-monitored/

UK - Threat Of Large Scale Terror Plot Being Monitored

Lord West, who advises the Prime Minister on security matters, told the House of Lords: “There is another great plot building up again and we are monitoring this.”

His comments came the day after the House of Lords forced the Government to abandon plans to extend detention without trial for terror suspects to 42 days.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, dropped the measure from the bill after it was defeated in the upper house but warned critics they were exposing the country to a greater risk.

During a debate on the Counter-terrorism Bill, Lord West repeated the government’s intention to keep the proposals in a separate piece of legislation to be introduced if needed in the face of an emergency.

He told peers: “Some of the measures that we have put into place in the past 15 months have made us safer, but that does not mean that we are safe.

“The threat is huge. It dipped slightly and is now rising again within the context of ’severe’.

“There are large complex plots. We unravelled one, which caused damage to al-Qaeda and the plots faded slightly.

“However, another great plot is building up again, which we are monitoring.

“We have done a great deal to protect ourselves and to look after our water supplies, our resilience, underground trains, our preparedness and communications.

“We have done all the things that we need to do, but the threat is building - the complex plots are building.”

The Daily Telegraph reported two weeks ago that security sources believed terrorist activity was nearing “critical”.

The threat level is at the “severe end of severe” according to sources who say the level of “ambient activity” among terrorist cells has increased in recent months and they are now operating at full stretch.

The source said: “We are not chasing shadows. These are potential threats to security and life. Police and the security network are operating at full capacity.”

The assessment, which has five levels, has only been “critical,” meaning an attack is “imminent,” during last year’s attack on Glasgow airport and the July 2005 London bombings.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/16/southwest-airlines-passenger-arrested-with-possible-explosive-at-li-airport/

Airline Passenger Arrested With Pipe Bomb At L.I. Airport

UPDATE; - Newsday has updated information and has apparently confirmed the device was a pipe bomb.

From Newsday -A Las Vegas man attempted to bring a pipe bomb on board a jet at Long Island MacArthur Airport yesterday morning, federal officials said in court documents.

The suspected pipe bomb that was found in Steven Nobles’ baggage “could have functioned. It could have detonated,” federal prosecutor John Durham said at Nobles’ arraignment in U.S. District Court in Central Islip late yesterday afternoon.

Federal magistrate Kathleen Tomlinson denied bail to Nobles, pending a hearing today, saying Nobles “certainly was old enough to take into the account the circumstances under which he was operating this morning.”

According to a complaint filed by FBI agent James McCarthy, Nobles was stopped at 7:28 a.m. by Transportation Security Administration officers during a routine search when they noticed a 7-inch-long knife in his carry-on bag. Nobles was preparing to board Southwest Flight 384 to Las Vegas.

After searching Nobles’ bag, the officers then noticed the bomb, McCarthy said.

Suffolk Police and the FBI were called and part of the airport was temporarily evacuated.

A search of Nobles’ luggage found “explosive fireworks, electrical circuit boards, a battery with electrical tape and 14 . . . .22-caliber rounds used in a nailgun to drive nails into concrete,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said in the complaint that Nobles told him that “the device in the carry-on bag was a pipe bomb.” Nobles also said he “built the pipe bomb using a metal pipe, fuses and gunpowder from M-80 fireworks, smoke bombs and other fireworks,” McCarthy said. In addition, the agent said Nobles told him he hoped that when the device went off it would “cause a giant smoke cloud, a flash of light and hopefully a loud noise,” McCarthy said.

However, Nobles “denied intending to detonate the pipe bomb on the airplane and claimed that he had inadvertently carried it to the airport,” McCarthy said.

A Southwest Airlines passenger was found carrying a possible explosive a small pipe bomb or firework in his carry-on luggage at MacArthur Airport, police said.

Investigators said the man was trying to board a flight to Las Vegas when they discovered the device.

Also found in the man’s checked luggage was ammunition for a starter gun, m-80’s and a knife, law enforcement sources said.

Part of the airport terminal was evacuated as a precaution.

The man is currently in custody and was questioned by members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a law enforcement official said.

Some investigators are describing the device as more like a large firework than an actual pipe bomb.

The Suffolk County Bomb Squad and the FBI were among the agencies that responded.

Investigators believe the man acted alone.

Spokesmen for the FBI and the US Attorney said it was too soon to detail what the criminal charges will be.

According to a criminal complaint filed this afternoon in federal court on Long Island, Steven Nobles was charged with attempting to board a plane with a 7inch folding knife, a pipe bomb and fireworks.

Nobles had a one-way ticket to Las Vegas on Southwest Airlines Flight 384, the FBI said.

The court papers say that during a routine security screening of Nobles’s carry-on items, security officers discovered a knife and what appeared to be a pipe bomb.

A search of Nobles’s checked luggage revealed fireworks, electrical circuit boards, a battery, and ammunition for a nailgun, the FBI said.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/16/economic-terrorism-is-the-stock-market-being-manipulated/

Economic Terrorism - Is The Stock Market Being Manipulated?

Attributing the recent volatility on the stock market to economic terrorism or financial terrorism is perhaps a bit of a stretch however rumors are circulating on the Internet and elsewhere that it may be at least partially to blame.

This past weekend, on a Fox News special report “Rescue the Rescue” hosted by Neil Cavuto, Mike Huckabee brings up the possibility that the US stock market meltdown could be caused by terrorists bent on causing a financial crash. He notes that for 11 consecutive days there has been a large spike in the volume of sell transactions in the last 30 minutes that the US markets are open.

Watch the video here.

So is this all just speculation?

While searching various blogs and forums we came across an interesting post on GodLikeProductions.com. One in which the poster with uncanny accuracy called the big drop on October 9th, attributing his prediction to a ‘pattern’.

The post reads:

THE DOW WILL TAKE A DIVE AT 3:08 PM EST. SYSTEMATIC PATTERN OF NON INVESTOR CASH INFUSION SOLVED.

Trust me there is a pattern here.

Tune in at 3:08 and BEH@LD. Posted at 12:51PM on Oct. 9th

You can see it and the thread of the post here: GodLikeProductions

It’s interesting to note, shortly after 3:00 the market indeed began to dive,closing at -654
It’s not just the blogs suggesting that this may be a form of financial terrorism

Jim Cramer of CNN’s Mad Money also has suggested that this needs to be investigated.

Cramer suggests the damage being done to stocks through short selling, where Wall Street’s most legendary institutions are losing value at alarming rates, could be the work of financial terrorism.

Cramer’s been talking to the short sellers he knows, and that’s the theory they’ve been putting forward. His sources said that it’s doubtful that the market’s traditional short sellers are behind the negative action we’ve seen lately. So there is the possibility that someone else has been trying to wreak havoc in the markets rather than just profit from the problems of Goldman Sachs.

Cramer, who was merely relaying what he heard, did say that, given the fact that the U.S. is in a “financial nationally emergency,” the “financial terrorism thing, to me, has to be put on the table just because the regular short sellers are not doing this.”

The Mad Money host urged the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority, which just banned short selling in financial stocks and now requires stricter disclosure from short sellers, to find out who’s on the other side of these trades.

And there is more…

First is an article by Michael Webster that appeared on Right Side News, last month.

Financial Terrorism on Wall Street?

U.S. government law enforcement agencies including the SEC, FBI and DOJ are on alert and are believed investigating terror and other related short selling illegal manipulation of the market place.

It was reported that between August 26 and September 11, 2001, groups of speculators, including Middle Eastern country investors, some reported connected to terrorist such as Al Qaeda and the Ben Laden family, these groups were believed connected to predicting the demise of certain airline and buildings including the New York Trade Center. Still others were identified by the American Securities and Exchange Commission as Israeli citizens, who sold “short” a list of 38 stocks that could reasonably be expected to fall in value as a result of the pending 911 attacks. According to the reports these speculators operated out of the Toronto, Canada and Frankfurt, Germany, stock exchanges and their profits were specifically stated to be huge.

Apparently none of the suspicious transactions could be traced to Bin Laden because this news item quietly dropped from sight, leaving many people wondering if it tracked back to American firms or intelligence agencies

The feds have seen a possible similar trend operating on Wall Street recently and no end to the panic selling on Wall Street without government intervention. U.S. corporate regulator, the SEC, is seeking to ease the terror by implementing emergency rules relating to short selling.

This possible action will be stronger than the recent use of the emergency powers that the SEC invoked in July to slap a temporary ban on “naked” shorting of 19 companies, including the mortgage insurers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and a number of major investment banks and commercial banks. The new aim will be to stop “unlawful manipulation” of American companies and their stock and to hopefully help to maintain orderly markets.

And this article by Joe Besecker of Emerald Asset Management Company.

Terror Attack on US Financials? Details of SEC Short Ban.

The following is excerpted from that article, referencing the musings of Mr. Besecker:

“He [Joe Besecker] raised an intriguing issue: None of the many hedgies he knew were pressing their bets recently. The bear raids on the banks and brokers were NOT a case of piling on by US based hedge funds. And from what he was seeing and hearing about in terms of order flow, the vast majority of the financial short selling the past week or so were being done overseas. It appears that the lion’s share of shorting was coming out of overseas bourses such as London and Dubai.It may not be a coincidence that the financial short selling ban is both here and in London.

Then there is another coincidence: The huge increase in shorting of the financials occurred on the anniversary of 9/11. And on top of that, the same institutions attacked on 9/11/01 were the ones suffering in recent days.

Joe asked the question: Is anyone investigating whether this is a case of financial terrorism?

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm

New E-Scams & Warnings

red envelope Get e-mail updates when new scams and warnings are posted here

FRAUDULENT SPAM E-MAIL PURPORTEDLY FROM
FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR JOHN S. PISTOLE

10/16/08—A spam e-mail claiming to be from FBI Deputy Director John S. Pistole is currently being circulated. This attempt to defraud is the typical e-mail scam using the name and reputation of an FBI official to create an air of authenticity.

As with many scams, the e-mail advises the recipient that they are the beneficiary of a large sum of money which they will be permitted to access once fees are paid and personal banking information is provided. The appearance of the e-mail leads the reader to believe that it is from FBI Deputy Director John S. Pistole.

This e-mail is a hoax. Do not respond.

The IC3 continues to receive and develop intelligence regarding fraud schemes misrepresenting the FBI and/or FBI officials. The scam e-mails give the appearance of legitimacy through the use of pictures of FBI officials, seal, letterhead, and/or banners.

These fraud schemes claim to be from domestic as well as international FBI offices. The typical types of schemes utilizing the names of FBI officials and/or the FBI are lottery endorsements and inheritance notifications, but can cover a range of scams from threats and malicious computer program attachments (malware) to online auction scams.

These scams use the social engineering technique of employing the FBI's name to intimidate and convince the recipient the e-mail is legitimate.

Please be cautious of any unsolicited e-mail referencing the FBI, Director Mueller, Deputy Director Pistole, or any other FBI official claiming that the FBI is endorsing any type of Internet activity.

Always be cautious when responding to requests or special offers delivered through unsolicited e-mail:

* Guard your personal information and your account information carefully.
* You should never give any personal, credit, or banking information in response
to unsolicited e-mails.

If you have received this e-mail, or a similar e-mail, please file a complaint at www.ic3.gov.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/oct08/cyberthreat101708.html

THE CYBER THREAT TODAY
Major Attacks on the Rise
10/17/08

Crooks and spies using the Internet to commit crimes against U.S. businesses and to attack government networks are getting more sophisticated, and the increasing number of such crimes not only impacts the economy but threatens national security.

That’s the message Shawn Henry, recently appointed head of our Cyber Division, delivered to a group of reporters on Wednesday, revealing that we have thousands of open cases into cyber crimes and organized cyber attacks and detailing our strategy to protect the nation’s networks.

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One case in point: We joined our international partners yesterday in announcing a major takedown of a transnational criminal network that was buying and selling stolen financial information through an online forum known as “Dark Market.”

“The business of the United States is done on the Internet,” said Henry, a veteran cyber crime investigator. And the information that flows electronically 24/7 is increasingly the target of not only identity thieves and scammers, but organized crime groups, terrorists, and overseas governments.

“There are a number of countries who have an interest in stealing information from the United States,” Henry said, explaining that as many as two dozen nations have taken an “aggressive interest” in penetrating our networks. In the past year, he added, “the malicious activity has become much more prevalent.”

Malicious activity could come in the form of attacks that deny access to websites, that compromise sensitive information, or that introduce “botnets” that spread viruses and covertly co-opt computers to carry out data theft.

“There are a number of countries who have an interest in stealing information from the United States,” Henry said, explaining that as many as two dozen nations have taken an “aggressive interest” in penetrating our networks.

New groups of hackers—virtual gangs—are a growing threat as well, banding together to pool their expertise and carry out coordinated cyber attacks. Henry pointed out that in years gone by, if a gang wanted to rob a bank, it needed crooks with various skills—safe cracker, get-away driver, look-out, etc. That’s essentially what we’re seeing in the cyber world today, only these virtual gang members have never met in the physical world. “There are organized groups that are very successful,” Henry said.

The 3 Ps. To address the rising threat, the Cyber Division has a threefold strategic plan—“Prioritize, Proactive, Partnerships.”

By prioritizing our efforts, we can go after the most critical threats. Being proactive means adopting the same time-tested investigative techniques that have been so successful in our physical crime investigations—the use of informants, electronic surveillance, and placement of undercover agents to penetrate and dismantle virtual criminal operations.

The third “P”—partnerships—means building even stronger relationships with law enforcement agencies worldwide. He said we’ve worked with such countries as Great Britain, Canada, Russia, and Turkey to swap best practices and techniques. We’ve also sent agents to Romania to work with law enforcement there, leading to nearly 100 arrests in cyber crime cases representing “tens of millions of dollars” in losses, Henry said.

And the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3—a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center—continues to assist state and local law enforcement in fighting cyber crime. Since its establishment in 2000, IC3 has received more than a million complaints. In the last couple of years, there’s been an “uptick” in the number of reports, according to Henry. Lately, they’re coming in at the rate of nearly 20,000 per month.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/18/al-qaeda-no-4-killed-in-pakistan/

Al-Qaeda No. 4 Killed In Pakistan

A missile attack from a U.S. drone aircraft is believed to have killed Khalid Habib, an Egyptian who is described by the CIA as the No. 4 in the Al-Qaida hierarchy, according to a former member of a militant group in the region.

The attack, on the village of Taparghai in Pakistan’s volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan, killed four people, some of them Arabs, according to initial Pakistani intelligence reports on Thursday. Habib was in a parked Toyota pickup, the favored vehicle of insurgents, when he was hit by the missile.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/17/las-vegas-boy-believed-kidnapped-by-mexican-drug-cartel/

Las Vegas Boy Believed Kidnapped by Mexican Drug Cartel - Grandfather Captured

UPDATE - Grandfather Capture By Police In California - A senior law enforcement agency involved in the manhunt for the grandfather of a kidnapped Vegas boy has confirmed to FOX News that Clemens Fred Tinnemeyer has been arrested.

Investigators captured Tinnemeyer near the Riverside, Calif., area after receiving tips of his whereabouts.

Officials were looking for a motor home and his truck, but there is no word on whether or not that was found with Tinnemeyer.

Tinnemeyer will be facing a judge soon.

Metro Police Capt. Vincent Cannito had said Friday that Tinnemeyer, 51, was a “person of interest” in the nationwide search for 6-year-old Cole Puffinburger.

Millions of dollars stolen from a Mexican drug cartel by 6-year-old Cole Puffinburger’s grandfather may have been the catalyst for the Wednesday morning home invasion that led to the boy’s kidnapping, according to sources and authorities.

The three men believed to be Mexican nationals who stormed Cole’s east valley home were looking for money Clemens Fred Tinnemeyer had stolen through drug trafficking, primarily in methamphetamine, according to Las Vegas police.

When the men couldn’t find the money, they took Cole, Capt. Vincent Cannito said Friday.

“They wanted to send a very clear message,” Cannito said. “Message sent, message received. They got the attention of an entire nation.”

Tinnemeyer hasn’t been seen in Las Vegas since May 21, and sources said the 51-year-old man is in hiding. Sources have also said he was an alleged money launderer for the cartel and owes them between $8 million and $20 million.

Cannito would only say that the amount of money was in the “millions.”

Police have added Tinnemeyer and his white, four-door 2004 Dodge Ram pickup to the Amber Alert network that has been sent out to multiple states. Numerous federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are also investigating the case.

“Tinnemeyer has stolen a large sum of money, all proceeds of illegal drug activity,” Cannito said. “There are millions of dollars involved in major drug trafficking that this individual was a part of.”

Police are also looking into potential involvement in illegal narcotics activity by other family members.

“It would be no understatement that other members of the family are involved as well,” Cannito said.

The involvement of a Mexican drug cartel in the kidnapping, sources have said, raises questions about the well-being of the boy. Cannito wouldn’t comment on whether a cartel was involved, but didn’t understate the severity of the situation.

“These are extremely dangerous people,” Cannito said. “We said it yesterday, we’ll say it again: This is as bad as it gets.”

Violence involving cartels have risen in Mexico in recent months to include women and children, according to media reports, and reports of torture and beheadings have become almost commonplace.

“The pressure (from authorities) that’s being put upon drug cartels in Mexico, and specific individuals vying for the control of the Mexican cartels, has caused an escalation in violence,” DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen said from the agency’s office in Los Angeles.

“It’s violent. It’s horrific,” she said. “And if you look at what’s happened with many of the beheadings that have happened down there, the killings that are done, are definitely to send a message, to terrorize and impact the community.”

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/18/al-qaeda-web-forums-abruptly-knocked-offline/

Al-Qaeda Web Forums Abruptly Knocked Offline

Four of the five main online forums that al-Qaeda’s media wing uses to distribute statements by Osama bin Laden and other extremists have been disabled since mid-September, monitors of the Web sites say.

The disappearance of the forums on Sept. 10 — and al-Qaeda’s apparent inability to restore them or create alternate online venues, as it has before — has curbed the organization’s dissemination of the words and images of its fugitive leaders. On Sept. 29, a statement by the al-Fajr Media Center, a distribution network created by supporters of al-Qaeda and other Sunni extremist groups, said the forums had disappeared “for technical reasons,” and it urged followers not to trust look-alike sites.

For al-Qaeda, “these sites are the equivalent of pentagon.mil, whitehouse.gov, att.com,” said Evan F. Kohlmann, an expert on online al-Qaeda operations who has advised the FBI and others. With just one authorized al-Qaeda site still in business, “this has left al-Qaeda’s propaganda strategy hanging by a very narrow thread.”

[Adlerian Thinker]

Man charged with trying to bring pipe bomb on airplane. A Las Vegas man attempted to bring a pipe bomb on board a jet at Long Island MacArthur Airport Thursday morning, federal officials said in court documents. The suspected pipe bomb that was found in a carry-on baggage “could have functioned. It could have detonated,” a federal prosecutor said at the man’s arraignment in U.S. District Court in Central Islip late Thursday afternoon. But the airplane passenger’s attorney said he had not intended to harm anyone and inadvertently placed the device in his luggage as he was returning to visit his mother after a year of working on Long Island. Sources familiar with the investigation said that at this point federal prosecutors and FBI agents do not believe the passenger was bent on terrorism, but at the very least displayed poor judgment. A spokesman for the Eastern District U.S. Attorney said it was not clear whether the bomb could have gone off accidentally. FBI agents and Suffolk police were still analyzing the device. According to a complaint filed by an FBI agent, the passenger was stopped at 7:28 a.m. by U.S. Transportation Security Administration officers during a routine search when they noticed a 7-inch-long knife in his carry-on bag. He was preparing to board Southwest Flight 384 to Las Vegas. After searching his bag, the officers then noticed the bomb. Suffolk police and the FBI were called, and part of the airport was temporarily evacuated. A search of the man’s checked luggage found “explosive fireworks, electrical circuit boards, a battery with electrical tape, and 14 .22-caliber rounds used in a nail gun to drive nails into concrete,” according to the FBI. The passenger said he “built the pipe bomb using a metal pipe, fuses and gunpowder from M-80 fireworks, smoke bombs, and other fireworks,” the FBI said.
Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/crime/ny-limac175886742oct17,0,5617714.story

[Adlerian Thinker]

Streets near bus station reopen after bomb scare. Emergency responders quelled a bomb scare at the Greyhound Bus Station that caused the temporary closure of a two-block radius in downtown San Antonio, Texas, Thursday afternoon. The San Antonio Fire District chief said hazardous material and Bomb Squad crews responded about noon for a call of a possible bomb device inside a suitcase in the baggage claim area of the bus station in the 500 block of North St. Mary’s Street. Upon investigation, fire officials were able to determine that the bag had an “old military style smoke grenade” and another item that appeared to be a timer inside. “It was not a (bomb) device,” he said. Police reopened the downtown streets near the bus station about 30 minutes after the call came in, he said.
Source: http://www.mysanantonio.com/31112549.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

I don't always post one from this sector, but this is very curious.

Mexico’s delisting of U.S. meat plants a mystery. MeatPoultry.com reports that Mexican officials have recently barred six U.S. meat processors from exporting products to Mexico, following a recent audit by Mexican officials. But the “whys” behind their move remain a mystery. Two companies on this list — Caviness Beef Packers Ltd. and Walt’s Wholesale Meats — have told reporters they are not even exporting meat products to Mexico. Cargill Meat Solutions officials have been quoted as saying the company has not been given any reasons for its Friona, Texas facility being delisted. Other meat plants cited include: JBS Swift & Co., Cactus, Texas; Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. Waterloo, Iowa; and Washington Beef LLC, Toppenish, Washington. Meanwhile, Tyson Foods confirmed that its Waterloo, Iowa, pork plant has been temporarily suspended from exporting product to Mexico.
Source: http://www.usagnet.com/story-national.php?Id=2419&yr=2008

[Adlerian Thinker]

New Jersey mandates flu shots for children. While New York strongly recommends that children get an annual flu shot, New Jersey is the first state to mandate it, sparking protests from parents Thursday. Hundreds of parents and other activists rallied outside the New Jersey Statehouse yesterday to protest the state’s requirement that children from 6 months to 5 years old who attend day care or preschool get the flu vaccine, along with a pneumococcal vaccine, by December 31. Instead, many voiced support for a bill that would allow parents to opt out of the mandatory vaccinations. Flu kills about 36,000 Americans a year; last year 83 children died from flu, according to the Center for Disease Control.
Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-liflu175886739oct17,0,3059680.story

[Adlerian Thinker]

USFK holds mass anti-terror exercise. A five-base anti-terror exercise took place last week at the U.S. Army Garrison in South Korea. On Thursday, the first terror strikes began at camps Red Cloud, Casey, Hovey, Stanley, and Castle. “In some cases, vehicles self-detonated. In other cases, we’d have a gunfight, with us having to simulate shooting occupants trying to enter the base,” said the director of plans, mobilization, training, and security for the garrison, also known as Area I. The multiple-attack scenario, planned by U.S. Forces Korea’s J-34 anti-terrorism section, is more representative of what a well-organized terrorist network could do than smaller exercises are, he said. Area I renovated its installation operations center to make room for more technical personnel. It also updated emergency equipment and held meetings with 2nd Infantry Division officials on coordination during terror attacks and natural disasters, he said.
Source: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58213

[Adlerian Thinker]

Police detain Iranian citizen taking photo of U.S. Embassy in Baku. The police arrested an Iranian citizen taking photos of the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan. The policemen detained a 49-year old Iranian citizen and took him to the police office at approx 11.00AM on 15 October, the police told Trend News. The police office set the man free after prevention talk and giving explanation. The police office informed the relevant organizations of this case. An investigation is being held on this matter.
Source: http://news.trendaz.com/index.shtml?show=news&newsid=1322777&lang=EN

[Adlerian Thinker]

West Point reports theft of items totaling $400K; reward offered. Army investigators are offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to whoever stole more than $400,000 worth of equipment from a warehouse at West Point. According to the Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID), the crime occurred between 5 p.m. September 16 and 7 a.m. September 17 in a storage facility near Washington Gate. The perimeter fence around the warehouse was cut, CID reports said, and the “door to the building, although secured with lock and key, was easy to open with a strenuous pull.” The stolen goods included 330 Motorola Portable Astro Digital XTS 5000 radios, worth $1,142 each, and about 600 Ni-Cad batteries worth $87 each. Investigators publicized the theft and introduced the reward this week.
Source: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081016/NEWS/81016005

[Adlerian Thinker]

‘Incendiary device’ disrupts day near St. Louis. A packaged “incendiary device” exploded in a suburban St. Louis parking garage on Thursday, injuring the man who picked it up, rocking an office high-rise and forcing hundreds of people to evacuate. The parking garage is shared by an office building and a residential building. No damage was apparent from outside the complex. Buildings were evacuated, leaving several hundred people to mingle for hours on a lawn. A nearby Ritz-Carlton hotel was among the emptied buildings in Clayton. The busy, well-to-do suburb is the seat of St. Louis County and home to many of the region’s biggest law firms, financial offices and other white-collar businesses, as well as posh hotels and restaurants. Searches of nearby buildings did not turn up any additional devices through late afternoon.
Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j1s-oO4LRE17yv90uXHm62muwRdQD93RUKP82

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/21/al-qaeda-linked-website-chatter-talks-of-pre-election-terror-attack/

Al-Qaeda-linked Website Chatter Talks Of Pre-election Terror Attack

An Al-Qaeda linked website suggested in a message this week they would welcome a pre-election terror attack on the U.S. as a way to usher in a John McCain presidency.

The message, posted yesterday on the password-protected al-Hesbah Web site, said if al-Qaeda wants to exhaust the United States militarily and economically, “impetuous” Republican presidential candidate McCain is the better choice because he is more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“This requires presence of an impetuous American leader such as McCain, who pledged to continue the war till the last American soldier,” the message said. “Then, al-Qaida will have to support McCain in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of his predecessor, Bush.”

SITE Intelligence Group, monitors the Web site and translated the message.

“If al-Qaida carries out a big operation against American interests,” the message said, “this act will be support of McCain because it will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaida. Al-Qaida then will succeed in exhausting America till its last year in it.”

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/20/delta-force-commanders-account-of-the-hunt-for-osama-bin-laden/

Delta Force Commander’s Account of The Hunt For Osama bin Laden

Dalton Fury is the nom de plume of a Delta Force commander who led U.S. troops in Afghanistan’s Tora Bora mountains in the end of 2001, when Osama a bin Laden was in full flight. Fury’s new book, Kill Bin Laden: A Delta Force Commander’s Account of the Hunt for the World’s Most Wanted Man, is a riveting account of one of the most important — but also least understood — battles in the war on terror.

TIME: When you hear a U.S. Presidential candidate saying. “I promise we’ll kill Osama Bin Laden,” what runs through your mind?

Dalton Fury: What runs through my mind is that it doesn’t really matter who is going to go in the White House next year. If there’s no intelligence on where [bin Laden is] located, then you can have Mickey Mouse in the White House. If they had good actual intelligence now, they would have hit him a Hellfire missile, or even potentially sent a special team in there. But it’s just not as easy as saying, “When I get elected, I’ll kill him,” because if we knew where he was now, we would have already made the attempt.

Are we getting better intelligence now?

I think we’re always improving, We’re trying to build a better mousetrap, but you know, it’s hard to fight [al-Qaeda] with conventional weaponry. The answer isn’t always money. You can buy a thousand more Predator drones, and put them over there and clog the airspace, but they’re not stupid — they know when the Predators are up there. So yeah we’re going to make them fly higher and have more powerful cameras and all that stuff, but I think that because [al-Qaeda leaders] live in mud huts and they’re barely washing and bathing themselves… that we somehow treat them as if they are inferior human beings.

How aware were they of your abilities, the abilities of the Delta Force?

I’d be naive to say that they weren’t aware of it. I think they’re smart enough and have shown a propensity to understand how the Internet works and how to get around being discovered by using various means.

The view that exists in the U.S., is that bin Laden’s living in a cave somewhere, that he’s cut off from the rest of the world.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspected pipe bomb detonated on Hwy. 99. A suspicious device believed to be a possible pipe bomb was safely detonated about two p.m. Tuesday on Highway 99 in Bakersfield, the California Highway Patrol reported. The highway was closed during the operation and reopened at 2:33 p.m. The nature of the device will not be known until its remains have been examined. No further details were disclosed.
Source: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20081022/NEWS01/810220330/1002

[Adlerian Thinker]

Closed Maine suspension bridge used for anti-terror testing. DHS is using the closed-down Waldo-Hancock Bridge in Prospect, Maine, to conduct tests on how better to protect suspension bridges from terrorist attacks. The 77-year-old span over the Penobscot River between Prospect and Verona Island has sat idle since it was shut down nearly two years ago, replaced by the new Penobscot Narrows Bridge. DHS is now working with the Maine Department of Transportation (DOT) on testing that involves looking at vibrations and how they affect the old bridge. Crews from the DOT and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were on the bridge for several days earlier this month conducting tests, some of which created explosion-like booms that echoed up and down the Penobscot River near the bridge.
Source: http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=6984

[Adlerian Thinker]

Powder-laced letters mailed to Chase branches in 9 cities. More than 30 letters containing a suspicious powder were mailed to Chase bank branches and federal banking regulators’ offices in nine cities, authorities said Tuesday in what was being investigated as a first, if extreme, public backlash over the nation’s financial crisis. Initial tests on the powder proved negative for poisonous or otherwise dangerous toxins, the FBI said. An FBI spokesman in Oklahoma, where eight letters turned up, said local preliminary assessments showed the powder was harmless calcium. Additional tests were being run on the letters Tuesday as officials zeroed in on possible suspects near Amarillo, Texas, where the letters were postmarked. A law enforcement official said the letters were mailed to Chase bank branches in or near Atlanta; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas; Denver; Newark, New Jersey; New York; Oklahoma City; and Washington. They all appear to be from the same source and began showing up on Monday.
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/22/BU2913LUT2.DTL&tsp=1

[Adlerian Thinker]

Powder shuts down post office. Discovery of a suspicious powder that turned out to be a harmless chemical forced closure of a U.S. post office in Pass Christian, Mississippi, for more than 4 hours Tuesday morning. The Pass Christian Fire chief said postal workers found a greenish-yellow powder on the outside of a package while sorting mail from a truck on the rear loading dock of the post. The powder was noticed by two postal workers and a truck driver. He had just hauled in a load of mail aboard an 18-wheeler. All three apparently came in contact with the powder, the fire chief said, and were quarantined until the substance was identified. Hazardous materials experts responded from agencies including the Gulfport Fire Department and the state Department of Environmental Quality. Also on scene were U.S. postal inspectors from Mobile.
Source: http://www.sunherald.com/local/story/897295.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb threats cancel court. Bridgeton, New Jersey, officials had to close municipal court Tuesday following two phoned-in threats directed at the judge Wednesday afternoon, according to police. The threatening calls were received at the county 911 center at 1:14 and 2:13 p.m., according to police. City hall was evacuated and searched by a Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department K-9 both times. The first call included a threat against the judge, while the second informed authorities that the first call was not a hoax. Police believe the same person may have made both calls and have identified a “solid suspect.”
Source: http://www.nj.com/bridgeton/index.ssf?/base/news-3/122465583086590.xml&coll=10

[Adlerian Thinker]

Senate receives bomb threats, no evacuation. Several Senate offices have received bomb threats Wednesday afternoon, but the offices have not been evacuated and Capitol Police are investigating the threats. Capitol Police sent out this alert to Senate offices: “Several offices have received a bomb threat by phone and email. The United States Capitol Police are actively investigating. There is no need for staff to take any precautions at this point. If your office receives a threat please take note of the time, caller I.D., and wording.” One Senate aide who alerted Politico to the bomb threats says all three Senate office buildings — Dirksen, Hart, and Russell — have received the calls. It is not clear which offices received threats and exactly what the callers said when they called in the bomb threat.
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/22/politics/politico/thecrypt/main4539195.shtml

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb threat reported before Kansas City explosion. Authorities are investigating two bomb threats made shortly before an explosion and two-alarm fire that ripped a popular Kansas City restaurant. The Monday blast blew a sizable hole in the brick veneer on the Hereford House restaurant. Damages are estimated at more than $1 million. The restaurant is closed indefinitely. Less than an hour before the explosion, someone called Kansas City police saying a bomb was at a nearby gas station. A few minutes later, another report said a bomb was under the gas tank at a liquor store.
Source: http://www.kansas.com/news/updates/story/570655.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Plot to bomb Xcel Center ends with guilty plea. A 23-year-old Flint, Michigan, man has admitted to plotting to detonate a homemade bomb in the tunnels near the Xcel Energy Center, hoping it would cause a power failure and prompt cancellation of the Republican National Convention. The man pleaded guilty in federal court in Minneapolis on Tuesday to illegally possessing Molotov cocktails. According to the plea agreement, he spent about 90 minutes at the Hennepin County Library on August 18 researching recipes for homemade bombs. He bought the supplies for Molotov cocktails a few days later. He said that if he could bomb the Xcel Center on September 1, “they might call off the convention.” He added that a “power outage would say a lot” and that it was his “main purpose.” He also said that he would like to bomb the Xcel Energy Center on September 4 so that the convention would “end with a bang.” On August 22, he allegedly made two jugs of a homemade napalm-like substance for use in the Molotov cocktails. He was seen traveling to a remote location in Rosemount to allegedly assemble and test the Molotov cocktails.
Source: http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/conventions/32322889.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUMEaPc :E7_ec7PaP3iUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

[Adlerian Thinker]

Wickliffe man arrested after homemade bombs found. A Wickliffe man was arrested Wednesday after authorities found homemade explosive devices, flash powders, fuses and chemical compounds in his house. The search stemmed from an investigation into multiple incidents of homemade or improvised devices being detonated at city parks dating back to 2004, police said. No one was injured in the past explosions, but there were reports of minor property damage.
Source: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/10/wickliffe_man_arrested_after_h.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/27/eduardo-arellano-felix-mexico-drug-cartel-leader-captured-in-tijuana/

Eduardo Arellano Felix - Mexico Drug Cartel Leader Captured In Tijuana

The head of a major family drug-dealing cartel in Tijuana, a city bordering the United States which is plagued by rampant gang violence, has been arrested, police said Sunday.

Eduardo Arellano Felix, nicknamed “the Doctor”, was arrested in an operation Saturday night, said spokesmen of the National Defense Ministry (Sedena) and Federal Public Security (SSPF).

The police exchanged fire with the gangsters before getting into the house where he had been hiding, they said.

With Eduardo’s detention, “the generation of the (Arellano) brothers who formed that criminal structure has been dismantled,” SSPF Vice Minister Facundo Rosas told a press conference.

Eduardo Arellano was fully identified for his burnt scars in both arms and chest, Rosas said.

“The detention of Eduardo Arellano Felix means a strong blow to that criminal group,” and he will face charges of drug trafficking, use of arms exclusive to the Mexican army and kidnapping, said the official.

analysts warn that the arrest will not necessarily dismantle the trafficking organisation.

“Those people watching the drugs trade say that at any moment another member of the family, or another cartel, could swoop in and recover control,” he said.

Arellano Felix was located in a house in the border area of Tijuana, and fired on federal agents after being encircled, police said.

A three-hour gun battle with more than 100 police and soldiers ensued before his arrest.

He was found with a girl, aged 11, believed to be his daughter, police said.

His drug cartel, also known as the Tijuana cartel, is allegedly one of the four large drug mafias operating in Mexico and is blamed by the US justice department for importing and distributing hundreds of tonnes of cocaine and marijuana in the US.

It has also been blamed for the murder and torture of police officers, informants and rivals.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/26/lasar-beam-spy-camera-new-tool-in-the-war-on-terror/

Lasar Beam Spy Camera - New Tool In the War On Terror

A laser that can scan a crowd and identify people who have been handling explosives is being secretly tested at British airports and railway stations.

The device no bigger than a shoe box could also be used by police and MI5 surveillance teams to identify Islamic terrorists outside mosques or community centres.

The laser can pick out suspects in large crowds and highlight explosive residue on their clothing and luggage.

It could also be used to guard against terrorists targeting the 2012 Olympics in London.

The Explosive Residue Detection system can be covertly attached to CCTV systems and automatically highlights people who may have been handling explosives or who recently fired a weapon.

Professor John Tyrer, of Loughborough University, who helped to develop the equipment, said: ‘When you handle an explosive, the chemicals -such as Semtex and TNT leave traces. With this technology we are able to see this telltale residue and identify possible suspects.

‘Using laser technology we can see the explosives on people’s clothes, on their hands or on items like backpacks such as those used by the July 7 London bombers.’

He added: ‘This equipment could be carried by surveillance teams or could be set up to monitor a street, a railway, airport terminal or national stadium.’

When the equipment scans a crowd, it alerts an operator when explosive particles are detected. The system uses a combination of lasers and the latest camera technology to produce images showing the suspect and highlighting the explosive traces.

Once explosive residue is detected, the system automatically alerts the operator. It does not need to be constantly monitored.

Unlike sniffer dogs detecting particles in the air, the system can be operated just a few metres from a target without anyone knowing they are being monitored.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Surprise cancellation: Congress overrules Pentagon, intel chief on mapping sats. Congress withdrew funding for two proposed satellites, known as the Space-based Imagery Collector, confirmed a spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence. The congressional action put lawmakers at odds with the U.S. Defense Secretary and Director of National Intelligence. On September 8, they gave the go-ahead for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to spend $1.7 billion to build and launch two BASIC satellites by 2012. The two U.S. commercial imagery companies, GeoEye of Virginia and DigitalGlobe of Colorado, had argued they could provide the same imagery at lower cost. The deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for space had argued that BASIC would be an important addition to commercial imagery purchases. “We see BASIC being integrated with current operations more tightly than we could ever tie [commercial imagery],” he said. “These targets and operations will have operational security implications that the combatant commander may not be comfortable supporting with a commercial imagery purchase.” That argument did not gain traction among defense analysts, who responded that the NRO can get the same satellite imagery for less than half the cost by buying it from commercial satellite companies. U.S. agencies currently acquire imagery from about a dozen less sharp-eyed U.S. and foreign-owned commercial satellites.
Source: http://www.c4isrjournal.com/story.php?F=3784874

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb squad removes box at LIRR. The Nassau County bomb squad and Metropolitan Transportation Authority police were investigating an unattended package spotted at the Farmingdale Long Island Rail Road station Sunday afternoon, officials said. Police responded to the station at about noon and evacuated a nearby apartment building, Nassau police said. Service was suspended on the LIRR’s main line between Hicksville and Deer Park for about three hours. The box was removed by the Nassau bomb squad, officials said. Police and railroad officials did not provide any other details.
Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/crime/ny-sfdsdf5899678oct27,0,5728163.story

[Adlerian Thinker]

Discovery of bomb closes El Paso highway. Police closed a heavily traveled El Paso highway for a while Monday after someone found an unexploded bomb beside the highway. A Fort Bliss statement says someone collecting cans found the bomb about ten a.m. Monday on Fort Bliss land near the eastern rest area on Loop 375, known locally as Transmountain Road. Officials at the Army post say the bomb was found about two feet from the highway guard rail. El Paso police officers sent to the scene closed the road and asked for help from the Fort Bliss Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit, which set off the bomb safely about 12:30 p.m. The highway was reopened about one p.m.
Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6081202.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Resident finds alleged pipe bomb in mailbox. Authorities are investigating whether a suspicious device found in a mailbox Sunday is a pipe bomb. A woman called 911 after spotting the device in her mailbox at about 7:40 a.m., according to a Clark County Sheriff’s sergeant. The woman said she went outside to retrieve her newspaper when she noticed her box was open. Inside, she found the device, which consisted of paper wrapped in wire and partially burnt. Members of the Metro Explosive Disposal Unit, consisting of authorities from Multnomah, Clark, and Clackamas counties, responded to remove the device. It will take at least a couple days for explosive experts to determine whether the device is a pipe bomb.
Source: http://www.columbian.com/article/20081027/NEWS02/810279995/0/FRONTPAGE

[Adlerian Thinker]

‘MacGyver’-type device exploded mailbox. A Des Moines woman reported her mailbox exploded Saturday night. According to police reports, the explosion was caused by a “MacGyver-type device.” The woman told police she heard what sounded like a gun-shot from the front of her house. She went outside to investigate and saw her mailbox was damaged and hanging from the post. The event remains under investigation.
Source: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081027/NEWS03/81027009/1001/NEWS&community=dmsouth

[Adlerian Thinker]

Anthrax scare on campus. On October 23, a faculty member in Bellarmine Hall found a suspicious white powder in a piece of mail. He immediately reported the incident to Campus Security and Saint Joseph’s University’s Environmental Safety Office, and the area was secured. Bellarmine was evacuated and Philadelphia police and fire personnel, as well as a hazardous materials unit, investigated the scene. The building was reopened after it was discovered that nothing harmful was present. Security was present near the scene for the remainder of the day, and also provided extra supervision on October 24, according to the assistant director of Public Safety Operations.
Source: http://media.www.sjuhawknews.com/media/storage/paper763/news/2008/10/29/News/Anthrax.Scare.On.Campus-3510649.shtml

[Adlerian Thinker]

Workers investigate white powder in Rantoul postal box. Emergency workers are investigating a white powder found in a blue U.S. Post Office drop box in Rantoul. The Champaign Fire Department hazardous materials team and Rantoul police and fire departments are investigating. They cordoned off a two-block area near the postal box. A postal worker was picking up the mail from the box, and when the mail shifted, a white powder emerged, said the Rantoul Fire Department captain. He said emergency workers do not yet knows what the powder is, but they are treating it as hazardous while they investigate.
Source: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2008/10/28/workers_investigate_white_powder_in_rantoul_postal _box

[Adlerian Thinker]

UVa investigates suspicious letter. The Environmental Sciences Building at the University of Virginia has been evacuated because of a Hazardous Materials scare. According to a university spokesperson, a suspicious letter arrived in the mailing department. The letter was suspicious because of the writing on the envelope. The letter has not been opened. It is not known where the letter came from or to whom it was addressed. Police, fire, and HAZMAT crews were called to the scene, and the building was evacuated. State police are en route to x-ray the letter and figure out what is inside. There have been no reports of injuries.
Source: http://www.charlottesvillenewsplex.tv/news/headlines/33455709.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Observer receives suspicious package. Police and law enforcement officials were called late in the morning of October 28 to the Charlotte Observer building, after a suspicious package was received in the mail. Authorities said the package was not hazardous. A Charlotte Fire Department official says it is the second time this week that a suspicious package has been mailed to uptown area businesses. The Charlotte fire captain said the fire department’s Hazmat team responded to a call from the Observer about a suspicious package. Among the contents of the package was a powdery substance. The matter has been turned over to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police and federal officials.
Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/breaking/story/284053.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

‘Works bomb’ in mailbox injures woman. A woman of Harrison County thought the green water bottle that she discovered in her mailbox last week was trash left as a prank – until she grabbed it. The liquid in the bottle exploded in her face, setting off a burning sensation and injuring an eye. She was taken by ambulance to Harrison County Hospital, where she was treated for exposure to caustic chemicals and released. The Harrison County sheriff’s department is investigating what it believes was an intentional act of leaving what is commonly called a “Works bomb” — the name comes from a household cleaner – in the mailbox. The incident Friday appears to have been isolated, an officer said. No other area police agencies — including Corydon police, the Indiana State Police post at Sellersburg, and Kentucky State Police in Campbellsburg — have received similar reports.
Source: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20081030/NEWS02/810300472

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/10/31/khalid-habib-killed-by-us-forces-planner-of-next-al-qeada-terror-attack/

Khalid Habib Killed By U.S. Forces - Planner Of Next al Qeada Terror Attack

Khalid Habib, the al Qaeda figure believed to be organizing a new terror attack against the United States is dead.

The official says the U.S. now has evidence that Khalid Habib was killed in an unmanned air strike two weeks ago in the South Waziristan region of Pakistan. Until now, there had been no official confirmation of reports of Habib’s death from local militants in the area.

“He was the person responsible for planning and organizing attacks in the Pakistan and overseas, including the U.S.,” the senior official said. “This was a really big deal that has not received much attention.”

Considered the number four leader of al Qaeda, Habib was a long-time associate close to both Osama bin Laden and Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Habib had been reported killed by Pakistani officials several times over the last few years, only to re-emerge at the center of what U.S. official say is the al Qaeda operational command.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/11/03/uk-terrorists-attempting-to-infiltrate-top-bio-laboratories/

UK - Terrorists Attempting To Infiltrate Top Bio Laboratories

The security services have intercepted up to 100 suspects posing as postgraduate students who aim to acquire weapons material and expertise.

Dozens of suspected terrorists have attempted to infiltrate Britain’s top laboratories in order to develop weapons of mass destruction, such as biological and nuclear devices, during the past year.

The security services, MI5 and MI6, have intercepted up to 100 potential terrorists posing as postgraduate students who they believe tried accessing laboratories to gain the materials and expertise needed to create chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, the government has confirmed.

It follows warnings from MI5 to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that al-Qaeda’s terror network is actively seeking to recruit scientists and university students with access to laboratories containing deadly viruses and weapons technology.

Extensive background checks from the security services, using a new vetting scheme, have led to the rejection of overseas students who were believed to be intent on developing weapons of mass destruction. A Foreign Office spokesman said the students had been denied clearance to study in the UK under powers ‘to stop the spread of knowledge and skills that could be used in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery’.

He added: ‘There is empirical evidence of a problem with postgraduate students becoming weapons proliferators.’ The overseas students, a number of whom are thought to be from ‘countries of concern’ such as Iran and Pakistan, were intercepted under the Academic Technology Approval Scheme, introduced by universities and the security services last November.

The findings raise questions over how many terrorist suspects may have already infiltrated the UK’s laboratory network. Rihab Taha, dubbed ‘Dr Germ’, who worked on Saddam Hussein’s biological weapons programme, studied for her PhD in plant toxins at East Anglia University’s School of Biological Sciences in Norwich.

In addition, a number of well-educated Iraqi scientists - funded by Baghdad - infiltrated several British microbiology laboratories in the run-up to the Gulf war of 1990-91. Britain has about 800 laboratories in hospitals, universities and private firms where staff have access to lethal viruses such as Ebola, polio and avian flu or could acquire the technology and expertise to develop deadly weapons. Whitehall sources remain concerned about the number of countries intent on acquiring the materials and knowledge to develop a nuclear or biological warfare capability.

John Wood of the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control said: ‘Any scientist would say it’s important that we know who is working in our laboratories, and also why they are working there.’

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/11/02/official-saudi-arabia-prevented-us-terror-attack-in-2003/

Official - Saudi Arabia Prevented US Terror Attack In 2003

Saudi Arabia foiled a terror attack against the United States five years ago, a Saudi official said Sunday.

The official said the 2003 plot, which was first reported Sunday in Al-Watan newspaper, was one of 160 foiled terror plots the kingdom announced last month that it had foiled. At the time, authorities provided no details about the alleged plots.

It was unclear why Saudi authorities never publicly revealed the alleged 2003 plot previously and why it first surfaced in Al-Watan, which is government guided, on Sunday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the 2003 plot involved militants who planned to hijack a plane and blow it up over a densely populated city in the United States.

The militants planned to transit through the U.S. to another destination, according to the official. That way, they could avoid applying for the hard-to-get U.S. visas, a requirement for Saudis, the official added.

The official said the militants were preparing to execute the alleged plot when it was halted.

The official would not provide more details about the alleged plot including what city the militants planned to target and whether any arrests were made.

Over the past few years, the Interior Ministry has said the militants it has arrested had been planning to carry out attacks inside and outside the kingdom.

The issue of al Qaeda operatives in the kingdom has been in the news recently following Interior Minister Prince Nayef’s announcement last month that authorities indicted 991 suspected militants on charges that they participated in terrorist attacks carried out in Saudi Arabia over the last five years.

[aggies for conservatism]

Great thread!

[Adlerian Thinker]

Great thread!

Thanks. Just trying to keep people informed.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Clovis police: Cannon experts called in for suspicious package. Clovis police and Cannon Air Force Base explosive experts were called in Thursday night after a baseball team spotted a suspicious item at Bell Park. Officials were unable to determine if the package contained explosives. They disposed of the package on the scene. Police closed off more than a block of Ash Street along the entrance to the park. The Clovis High baseball team was practicing on the field when they noticed a package around 5:30 p.m.
Source: http://www.cnjonline.com/news/police_30786___article.html/cannon_package.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/11/03/masked-gunman-waving-american-flag-shuts-down-101-freeway-in-california/

Masked Gunman Waving American Flag Shuts Down 101 Freeway In California

UPDATE: “The reason appears to be anti-war, but I don’t know the specifics,” Sgt. Lorenzo Duarte. Duarte said of the masked gunman that stopped 101 Freeway traffic for hours starting this morning around 7:10 a.m.

SWAT members tried to communicate with the man with a bullhorn and after three hours, he put his handgun down, but police did not immediate move in, according the Assocated Press. No shots or injuries have been reported.

A portion of the 101 Freeway is closed in both directions in downtown Santa Barbara after a masked gunman was spotted on a freeway overpass.

Witnesses say the gunman, wearing brown fatigues and a black ski mask, was spotted waving a gun around on the La Cumbre overpass around 7:10 a.m. Monday.
Sergeant Lorenzo Duarte with the Santa Barbara Police Department says the man is armed with a handgun and is waving an American flag. Some witnesses say the man is shouting anti-Obama slogans.

The freeway was shut down in both directions at La Cumbre as a precaution and traffic is being diverted through downtown Santa Barbara. The California Highway Patrol reports the freeway closure has caused a massive traffic backup throughout the area. The roadway will remain closed until further notice, according to the CHP.

Dozens of police officers, including members of the Santa Barbara SWAT team, have surrounded the area and are attempting to begin negotiations with the gunman, officials said.

The man’s motive was not immediately known, although he may be suicidal.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bridgeport train station evacuated in bomb scare. Authorities say hundreds of Metro-North Railroad passengers were delayed during a weekend bomb scare at Bridgeport’s train station. A search by local and Metropolitan Transportation Authority police late Saturday concluded the threat was a hoax. Two suspicious packages were found, but they did not contain explosives. The station was evacuated for over an hour Saturday night, delaying about 700 passengers on six west and eastbound trains. A Metro-North spokesman says it is rare for an entire station to be shut down, but that Bridgeport police were correct to err on the side of caution. Information was not available about what was inside the suspicious packages, and whether they were left there by accident or intentionally to cause alarm.
Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct--trains-bombscare1102nov02,0,3463173.story

[Adlerian Thinker]

Saudi official: 2003 terror plot against U.S. foiled. Saudi Arabia foiled a 2003 terror plot by militants who planned to hijack a plane and blow it up over a densely populated American city, a Saudi official said Sunday. The official said the plan, first reported Sunday in government-guided Al-Watan newspaper, was for the attackers to transit through the United States to another destination so they could avoid applying for visas. The official said the militants were preparing to execute the alleged plot when it was halted. The Saudi official said the alleged hijacking plan was one of 160 terror plots the kingdom announced last month that it had foiled. At the time, authorities provided no details about any of the alleged plots, and it was unclear why Saudi authorities never publicly revealed the 2003 plan previously.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081102/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_saudi_terrorism;_ylt=AqmzO1g_ZarX9EjxTuRqVMgLew gF

[Adlerian Thinker]

Costume triggers bomb scare near Boise State dorm. The Boise Police Bomb Squad was called to Boise State University (BSU) the morning of November 1 after a student noticed something that looked suspicious near a bike rack. Boise Police shut down part of the university campus and more than 300 people were evacuated until police were sure the area was safe. After investigating, BPD bomb technicians and detectives say it appears the item was never a viable explosive device, although it was made to look like one. Officials brought in a robot to handle the device. As another precaution, BSU campus security and Boise Police made a campus-wide sweep checking for anything else that may be connected to this incident, but nothing else was found. The item was taken by Boise Police detective for further investigation.
Source: http://www.2news.tv/news/local/33700754.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb threat forces evacuation of two Detroit Blue Cross offices. After layoff notices were delivered to about 100 employees this week, a telephoned bomb threat sent 3,000 Michigan Blue Cross Blue Shield workers home before lunch on Friday from both of the health insurance giant’s downtown headquarters building complexes. A Blue Cross spokeswoman said police are investigating the threat, but she would not speculate whether the layoffs were related. A search of the 21-story headquarters building on Lafayette in Bricktown and offices on Jefferson downtown failed to locate any explosives, Detroit Police officials said. According to the company’s procedure, they did not sound alarm but security guards searched the building floor by floor. A member of the sheriff’s bomb squad said at about 2:05 p.m. that the building had been cleared
Source: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081031/METRO/810310445&imw=Y

[Adlerian Thinker]

Mysterious substance caused stir at federal courthouse. A white powdery substance mailed to the Judge Filemon Vela Federal Courthouse caused a scare Monday afternoon, according to emergency response officials. At around 2 p.m., a secretary at the court opened a package containing a white powder, said the fire department chief. The fire department dispatched their Hazardous Materials Unit who donned “haz-mat” suits as they began studying the substance. The team used a Mobile Chemical ID device to determine that the substance was not toxic. “It was something that if they have prolonged contact could hurt,” the fire chief said. The package was turned over to the FBI pending further investigations.
Source: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/substance_91421___article.html/fire_perez.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb scare at federal courthouse. Early Monday, the streets and local businesses around the courthouse in Minot were evacuated. A package was delivered to the courthouse that was believed to be a bomb. At 10:27 a.m., a call came in at the Minot Police Department alerting authorities. The phone call led the police, the FBI, and the Bomb Squad to the federal courthouse. A suspicious package was mailed to the courthouse that caused concern. The police blocked off the streets around the courthouse and asked nearby businesses to close. The Bomb Squad detonated the package and determined there was no bomb inside. The FBI is taking over the investigation.
Source: http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=23820

[Adlerian Thinker]

Mail containing powder sent to government office. Envelopes containing a white powder believed to be flour were delivered to numerous government buildings throughout Marion County on Monday, as well as a newspaper office in Gainesville. Authorities believe the envelopes were sent by the same person – or people – who sent one to the Star-Banner in September. Authorities do not believe any of the envelopes containing the powder were hazardous. In Marion County, the letters were received at the headquarters of the Marion County Commission and Marion County Public Schools, as well as the Marion County elections office and the Social Security Administration. Envelopes were also received at three schools, two churches, and a library on Monday. A Marion County Fire Rescue spokeswoman said it appears that all of the envelopes were sent by the same mailer and all had an Ocala return address that investigators believe is fictitious. Early Monday morning, the Gainesville Sun received an envelope containing what later was determined to be flour and cornstarch, according to a representative from the newspaper. The envelope had a handwritten return address from Ocala. The sender appeared to have used the name Osama bin Laden, which was misspelled and spelled backwards on the envelope. Police and other law enforcement officials said that, in spite of the apparent benign nature of the powder, they are continuing to investigate.
Source: http://www.ocala.com/article/20081103/NEWS/811030271/0/News01

[Adlerian Thinker]

Embassies threatened ahead of executions. According to Indonesian police, the United States and Australian embassies in the country’s capital received bomb threats on Tuesday. Police were investigating the threats to blow up the embassies, apparently sent via text message, if the Bali bombers are executed. Security has been increased across Indonesia in the last few days ahead of the expected executions of three Islamic militants sentenced to death for their role in attacks on two nightclubs in Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people. “A bomb threat against the U.S. and Australian embassies was sent via a mobile phone text message,” a National Police spokesman said, adding an investigation was underway. The state Antara news agency quoted a Central Jakarta police spokesman as saying the text message threatened to blow up the two embassies if the three militants were executed. A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Jakarta said that the embassy remained open.
Source: http://www.welt.de/english-news/article2671321/Embassies-threatened-ahead-of-executions.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

2 boys arrested after bomb goes off in Leesville Wal-Mart. Two people were injured when a homemade bomb went off inside the Leesville, Louisiana, Wal-Mart on Saturday, Leesville Police reported. Two 16 year old boys were arrested in connection to the incident. Police said the device went off around 8:30 p.m. and was initially reported to them as gunshots coming from the sporting goods area of the store. It was later discovered that it was a “small bomb” that had been detonated by the teens in the men’s clothing section of the store. A customer and an employee suffered minor injuries during the explosion. One of the unnamed juveniles was charged with criminal trespass and has been released to his parents. The other teen faces charges of manufacture and possession of a bomb, theft of goods, simple arson, two counts of counts of negligent injury, disturbing the peace, and aggravated assault. Police said the store was cleared, and the boys were arrested after officials reviewed security tape from the store.
Source: http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20081104/NEWS01/811040320

[Julia Gray]

Obama's new civilian military force will be like the Hitler's SS force -to control US citizens. You saw how Joe the plumber was attacked. Can you imagine the black panther types brandishing automatic weapons throughout your city? Or at your door asking why your tax payment is late?

Somebody please tell me this is not happening to us.
Scared.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Strange package arrives at GOP headquarters. A worker found a 9x12 manila envelope that had arrived in the mail November 4 addressed to a Fayette County Republican chairman. “What scared us was the return address on the envelope,” said the John McCain Election Chairman for Fayette County. “The return address read: Michael Arch Angel of Divine Intervention Way, Holy Cow, J.C. We didn’t fool around, we called the police.” Fayetteville police and firefighters arrived around 11 a.m. November 4 to begin their investigation.
Source: http://www.fayettedailynews.com/article.php?id_news=2468

[Adlerian Thinker]

Vaccinations against bird flu should happen now, say experts. People should be vaccinated now against bird flu rather than waiting for a global pandemic to erupt, an international panel of experts — including a leading British influenza specialist — says in a new report. The idea is to give people a vaccination now against bird flu to build up the immune system, while there is still plenty of time to organize the program, and then give them a booster shot when the pandemic is imminent. The primed people could be protected in a week as opposed to six weeks. In a report in the latest edition of the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, the researchers point out that a conventional vaccination policy against bird flu requires two doses of H5N1 vaccine before people are protected “which may be logistically difficult to organize.” They say there may be no warning before a pandemic suddenly appears, as the early danger signs may be missed.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/128049.php

[Adlerian Thinker]

D.C. hospital gets ‘dirty bomb’ sensors. The largest private hospital in the nation’s capital began installing sophisticated new radiation detectors on Tuesday in an effort to better prepare for a terrorist attack with a radiological “dirty bomb.” The sensors, which will be placed out of public view at the 926-bed Washington Hospital Center, will immediately let doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff know if someone contaminated with dangerous radiation enters the emergency room or other areas of the hospital. The goal is to prevent victims of an attack from compounding the disaster by contaminating the hospitals and emergency workers who are there to treat them. The sensors, which can differentiate between dangerous radiation and the radiation used in cancer treatments, will be tested for several months to see how well they work. They are designed not to trigger an alarm if patients — such as those treated for cancer — walk past.
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-11-04-hospitalsensors_N.htm

[davidthe patriot]

Obama wants a CIVILIAN MILITARY to police US Citizens.
He talked about this many times, but the press never asked
him about specific plans.

I urge everyone to watch the free film Terrorstorm online.

Learn the truth about false flag operations such as Operations
Northwoods, the Gulf of Tonkin, the US Liberty attack and
more.

Obama's domestic military may report you for having an
" oppositional bumper sticker " or overhear a statement
they deem oppositional.

Get the truth at infowars.com, and real patriot sites like
gcnlive.com

[farmnurse]

Obama's new civilian military force will be like the Hitler's SS force -to control US citizens. You saw how Joe the plumber was attacked. Can you imagine the black panther types brandishing automatic weapons throughout your city? Or at your door asking why your tax payment is late?

Somebody please tell me this is not happening to us.
Scared.

It's funny but when I first heard about Obama wanting a civilian force, both the Black Panthers and Hitler comes to mind. Hitler could mesmerize with his words too. He managed to get family turning on family, neighbor on neighbor. As for the Black Panthers, look at the voting poll incident in Philly

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/11/06/white-house-concerned-over-al-qaeda-terror-attack-during-transition/

White House Concerned Over al Qaeda Terror Attack During Transition

President Bush on Thursday said he is concerned that al Qaeda will try to test the incoming Obama administration with a terror attack on U.S. soil, and said he will meet with the president-elect Monday to talk about homeland defense and the economy.

Terrorists, the president said, “would like nothing more than to exploit this period of change to harm the American people.”

White House press secretary Dana Perino stressed that the U.S. government has no specific intelligence of any imminent attacks.

“I don’t know anything specific, but we do know this a heightened period of concern,” Mrs. Perino said. “We know that al Qaeda and others try to test a new administration.”

“That is something that we’re very concerned about. We’ve seen that in other countries,” Mrs. Perino said, mentioning the example of a 2004 bombing in Madrid, Spain that killed 191 people.

That bombing, however, was committed just before national elections in an attempt to influence the outcome, by what authorities deemed to be terrorists trying to imitate al Qaeda.

But Mr. Bush, speaking to more than 1,000 executive branch employees from across the federal government on the South Lawn, said the terrorist threat is a main reason that “all of must ensure that the next president and his team can hit the ground running.”

[Adlerian Thinker]

Obama's new civilian military force will be like the Hitler's SS force -to control US citizens. You saw how Joe the plumber was attacked. Can you imagine the black panther types brandishing automatic weapons throughout your city? Or at your door asking why your tax payment is late?

Somebody please tell me this is not happening to us.
Scared.

http://forums.hannity.com/showpost.php?p=41053471&postcount=1

This thread is about the 17 sectors of national infrastructure protection, and how we, as citizens, can do our part to defend thse vital infrastructures.

Please take your discussion of Obama's "Civilian Defense Force" to the appropriate thread.

Thank you.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Obama wants a CIVILIAN MILITARY to police US Citizens.
He talked about this many times, but the press never asked
him about specific plans.

I urge everyone to watch the free film Terrorstorm online.

Learn the truth about false flag operations such as Operations
Northwoods, the Gulf of Tonkin, the US Liberty attack and
more.

Obama's domestic military may report you for having an
" oppositional bumper sticker " or overhear a statement
they deem oppositional.

Get the truth at infowars.com, and real patriot sites like
gcnlive.com


http://forums.hannity.com/showpost.php?p=41053471&postcount=1

This thread is about the 17 sectors of national infrastructure protection, and how we, as citizens, can do our part to defend thse vital infrastructures.

Please take your discussion of Obama's "Civilian Defense Force" to the appropriate thread.

Thank you.

[Adlerian Thinker]

It's funny but when I first heard about Obama wanting a civilian force, both the Black Panthers and Hitler comes to mind. Hitler could mesmerize with his words too. He managed to get family turning on family, neighbor on neighbor. As for the Black Panthers, look at the voting poll incident in Philly

http://forums.hannity.com/showpost.php?p=41053471&postcount=1

This thread is about the 17 sectors of national infrastructure protection, and how we, as citizens, can do our part to defend thse vital infrastructures.

Please take your discussion of Obama's "Civilian Defense Force" to the appropriate thread.

Thank you.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2931c542-ac35-11dd-bf71-000077b07658.html

Chinese hack into White House network

ByDemetri Sevastopulo in Washington

Chinese hackers have penetrated the White House computer network on multiple occasions, and obtained e-mails between government officials, a senior US official told the FT.

The cyber attackers managed to penetrate the White House system for brief periods that allowed them to steal information before US government experts each time patched the system.

US government cyber experts suspect the attacks were sponsored by the Chinese government, although they cannot say for definite.

“We are getting very targeted Chinese attacks so its stretches credulity that these are not directed by government-related organisations,” said the official.

The National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force, a unit established in 2007 to tackle security, detected the attacks. The official stressed the hackers had accessed only the unclassified computer network, and not the more secure classified network.

“For a short period of time, they successfully breach a wall, and then you rebuild the wall . . . it is not as if they have continued access,” said the official. “It is constant cat and mouse on this stuff.”

The US has increased efforts to tackle cyber security in the past year, especially since Chinese hackers penetrated the Pentagon last year, in an attack that obtained e-mails from the system serving Robert Gates, the defence secretary.

Separately, US government cyber investigations have determined that an attack this summer on the Obama and McCain campaign computer networks originated in China. Details of the attack were first reported by Newsweek. The secret service told the Obama and McCain campaigns that their networks had been comprised by foreign hackers.

The cyber attackers successfully downloaded large quantities of information from the campaign networks, which security agencies believed was an attempt to learn more about the contenders’ policy positions.

A second US official said government cyber experts had determined that the attacks originated from China, but he cautioned that they could not determine whether they were related to the government.

“There is no doubt that foreign governments are actively targeting cyber space not only for sensitive information but to influence our most sensitive processes such as the US presidential election,” said Sami Saydjari, head of the Cyber Defence Agency, a private company that advises government. “This underscores the need for president-elect Obama to take leadership in the cyber space race that is well under way.”

While the US has raised concerns about cyber attacks, many foreign governments believe the US is also engaged in electronic spying. Bob Woodward, the veteran Washington Post reporter, this year revealed that the US had been spying on the Iraqi government.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Courthouse cleared after anthrax threat. An Election Day anthrax scare was not taken lightly at the Jefferson County Courthouse November r 4. Crews from Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency, Brookville Fire Co., Brookville Borough Police Department and Clarion County Emergency Response Team treated this incident as if it was a “worse case scenario.” While opening up the mail a woman from the Tax Claim Office found an envelope with a note inside that read “Can you spell Anthrax.” The envelope had an out-of-state address. The evacuation took less than five minutes. No injuries were reported. Initial reports stated that there was no powder, but crews responded to the incident as if there was an actual danger. Crews from the Clarion County Emergency Response Team donned protective clothing and self-contained breathing apparatus and entered the courthouse, removing the letter and other possibly contaminated items in the Tax Claim office. Those items were bagged and sealed inside a plastic bucket and removed to the decontamination tent, where the outside of the bucket was hosed off. The sealed bucket was turned over to the Brookville Police to be held until the FBI could take custody. An inspector for the U.S. Postal Service was also on scene.
Source: http://www.leader-
vindicator.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20188904&BRD=2758&PAG=461&dept_id=572984&rfi=6

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspicious package at Cambridge Springs prison triggers bomb scare. Three police agencies converged at the Cambridge Springs prison November 5 after a suspicious-looking package was x-rayed and appeared to contain a bomb. The superintendent said at 8:55 a.m. mail room employees reported that a package from incoming mail was examined after staff heard a beeping noise coming from the box. An X-ray revealed a device that appeared to be wrapped in wires, at which time the prison went into lockdown, the affected area was evacuated and all staff and inmates were accounted for. In addition to Cambridge Springs Police Department, personnel from the Pennsylvania State Police and the Erie Bomb Squad were called to the scene. After the contents of the package were verified as being a medical device and not a bomb, the prison resumed its normal operations at about 12:35 p.m.
Source: http://www.meadvilletribune.com/local/local_story_310225230.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Mayday call probed as hoax. A Mayday call to the U.S. Coast Guard about a sinking vessel in Oyster Bay Harbor is being considered the latest in a rash of hoax calls on Long Island that are currently under federal investigation, an official said. A Coast Guard spokeswoman said details regarding the specific number of hoax calls are not being released at this time, but she said numerous incidents have occurred across the Island during the past month to two months. Coast Guard Station Eatons Neck, Nassau police and Suffolk police responded to the call but found no vessel and no missing boater. Reporting a false or fictional incident is a federal offense, a Coast Guard officer said. A felony, it is punishable by 6 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. “It’s a waste of resources,” she added. She said pursing hoax calls “puts our boat crews at risk” and could place boaters at risk — since crews could be pursuing hoax calls instead of handling real emergencies. She said the incidents are under investigation by Coast Guard investigators. Officials would not say whether any of the incidents are related.
Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/nassau/ny-lihoax1106,0,6136271.story

[Adlerian Thinker]

Once thought safe, WPA Wi-Fi encryption is cracked. Security researchers say they have developed a way to partially crack the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption standard used to protect data on many wireless networks. The attack, described as the first practical attack on WPA, will be discussed at the PacSec conference in Tokyo next week. There, a researcher will show how he was able to crack WPA encryption and read data being sent from a router to a laptop computer. The attack could also be used to send bogus information to a client connected to the router. To do this, the researcher and his co-researcher found a way to break the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) key, used by WPA, in a relatively short amount of time: 12 to 15 minutes, according to the PacSec conference’s organizer. They have not, however, managed to crack the encryption keys used to secure data that goes from the PC to the router in this particular attack
Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=security&articleId=9119258&taxonomyId=17&intsrc=kc_top

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,448508,00.html

"CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — A beheaded man was hung from an overpass Thursday, a gruesome display even for this northern border city long used to drug-related violence.

Shortly after the grisly sighting about 5 a.m., police found the victim's head in a black bag in a nearby plaza, said state police spokesman Alejandro Pariente."

Reminiscent of the thugs who did a similar thing in Fallujah.

[Adlerian Thinker]

‘Disgruntled employee’ makes bomb threat. An anonymous caller told the Wells County Sheriff’s Department on Thursday there was a pipe bomb in a Harvey, North Dakota, flour mill. Earth Harvest Mills was evacuated after the call was received about 8:40 a.m. Police searched the mill complex but did not find a bomb. Investigators are trying to establish whether there had been an actual bomb in the building, a police spokeswoman said. An Earth Harvest Mill spokesman said that “Some disgruntled employee called in,” and “It was all just fabrication.” He did not identify the employee and the Harvey Police chief said the threat remains under investigation.
Source: http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=92172&section=News

[Adlerian Thinker]

Chinese hack into White House network. Chinese hackers have penetrated the White House computer network on multiple occasions, and obtained e-mails between government officials, a senior U.S. official told the Financial Times. The cyber attackers managed to penetrate the White House system for brief periods that allowed them to steal information before U.S. government experts patched the system. U.S. government cyber experts suspect the attacks were sponsored by the Chinese government, although they cannot say for certain. “We are getting very targeted Chinese attacks so its stretches credulity that these are not directed by government-related organizations,” said an official. The National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force, a unit established in 2007 to tackle security, detected the attacks. The official stressed the hackers had accessed only the unclassified computer network, and not the more secure classified network. “For a short period of time, they successfully breach a wall, and then you rebuild the wall… it is not as if they have continued access,” said the official.
Source: http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2127655/posts

[Adlerian Thinker]

Teen arrested in Lee homemade bomb case. A teen has been arrested after a homemade bomb exploded at a Leesburg business Tuesday morning, officials say. No injuries were reported in the explosion at South Georgia Heating and Cooling. Agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation say they found three additional devices, two of which had been detonated, at a nearby housing project where they believe the 16-year-old suspect resides. The teenager was arrested nearby and brought back by police before being taken to an area youth detention center, officials say. While patting him down, police found bottles of toilet bowl cleaner, which was believed to be a chemical used to make the bombs. Investigators were still trying to determine why the teen picked the company as a target, but they said that the first priority was ruling out the election as a possible motive. The bombs, which were mostly soda bottles filled with certain chemicals, were all recovered Tuesday. “Joey,” the GBI’s bomb removal robot, removed the remnants of the bomb at the targeted business. The Leesburg Police Chief and his officers were on scene during the entire event and kept a block of Magnolia Street closed down until the area was rendered safe. Police officials at the scene said they were tipped off about the teen’s involvement when they say he approached someone speaking about a class project he was working on. They say the teen hasn’t been in school since August.
Source: http://www.albanyherald.com/stories/20081105n1.htm

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb squad removes suspicious package. A “suspicious” metal briefcase found behind an office complex at East First and Arbutus avenues led to a bomb squad call-out and some tense minutes at a couple of nearby schools. Just after 1 p.m. an office employee in a building at 676 E. First Ave. reported the case to police. The package was located behind the building, near the southwest corner of a parking lot that serves the Assembly of God Church. Chico police immediately blocked off Arbutus between East First and East Third avenues and notified both Hooker Oak School and Kings Christian School or the situation. Hooker Oak was locked down for a period, but the students in both schools were allowed to leave campus at the usual time. At the same time police contacted various utility and cable television companies to determine if any of their staff might have inadvertently left the case behind. The packaged was placed in a bomb-hauling trailer and taken to the Chico Municipal Airport, where the bomb disposal team blew it up. As of press time there was no word on what was found in the case after it was destroyed.
Source: http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_10924213

[Adlerian Thinker]

TSA unveils security checkpoints at the new Indianapolis International Airport. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) today unveiled the security checkpoints at the new Indianapolis International Airport. The checkpoints blend advanced technology features and passenger-calming checkpoint elements. The new checkpoints include millimeter wave technology that enables TSA officers, in a matter of seconds, to detect weapons, explosives and other metallic and non-metallic threat items without physical contact. The technology passes harmless electromagnetic waves over the body to create an image that looks much like a fuzzy negative. For screening carry-on bags, TSA will deploy multi-view X-ray technology to Indianapolis. Multi-view X-ray systems provide a significant increase in detail and sophistication from current, single-view X-ray and can be upgraded so the machines evolve as threats evolve. TSA employs a layered approach to security using people, process and technology. These layers, including advanced technology, behavior detection officers and federal air marshals, work together at airports like Indianapolis International to create a secure transportation environment.
Source: http://www.tsa.gov/press/releases/2008/1107.shtm

[Adlerian Thinker]

Grand Valley State University suspends student for threat. A Grand Valley State University student was suspended and since has withdrawn from the school after authoring threatening e-mail messages that promised to leave dozens dead at the downtown Grand Rapids and Allendale campuses. The message was sent October 14 to the Grand Rapids Press and “selected individuals on campus,” prompting a quick risk assessment from Grand Valley officials, police and the FBI. A university vice president said public safety officials and experts at Grand Valley convened within minutes of being alerted by the press of the message to determine it was not credible. “We are confident that at no time were people in jeopardy,” said the university vice president. “The university moved and acted as quickly as possible.”
Source: http://www.mlive.com/chronicle/news/index.ssf/2008/11/grand_valley_state_university.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Unknown substance triggers illness, evacuations at Cal-EPA. The 11th floor of the California Environmental Protection Agency was evacuated as a hazmat crew examined the contents of a package that sickened a number of employees. A captain with the Sacramento Fire Department said 13 people were taken to area hospitals with breathing difficulties. Outside the building, emergency responders administered oxygen to a number of others. There were also complaints of eye irritation. Employees told News10 that the substance, a liquid, smelled like sulfur. The workers’ symptoms began after a package sent from a household hazardous waste facility arrived at the EPA building. The package contained large manila envelopes according to a Cal EPA spokesperson. She said several reports were on some paper inside the envelopes and for some reason the reports were wet. When workers pulled the reports out of the envelope an odor made them feel sick. Authorities said the package came by routine delivery Tuesday. After it was opened employees took it to the Cal-EPA loading dock where hazmat specialists assessed it. There are 3,500 workers in the building. They were allowed to stay inside and were not in any danger during the emergency.
Source: http://www.news10.net/news/story.aspx?storyid=50430&catid=2

[Adlerian Thinker]

Mailbox bomb explodes in Storm Lake. Police are investigating a homemade bomb that exploded inside a Storm Lake, Iowa, mailbox. According to police statement issued today, Storm Lake officers responded Tuesday night to a report of an exploded homemade bomb in a mailbox. Officers said the device was what officials often call a MacGyver bomb, which consist of corrosive chemicals mixed inside a plastic container. No one was injured and no property was damaged by the bomb on Tuesday, but officials warn such devices have the potential to be very dangerous.
Source: http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2008/11/12/news/latest_news/c25e4b698a48f737862574ff00839288.txt

[Adlerian Thinker]

Anthrax scare leads to partial FAU evacuation. An administration building on the campus of Florida Atlantic University (FAU) was evacuated Wednesday because of a powder-filled letter feared to be anthrax. The suspicious letter was discovered shortly after 10 a.m. at the Kenneth R. Williams Administration Building on FAU’s main campus. “Police were notified that a suspicious package had come into our (human resources) department,” an FAU spokesman said. There were two envelopes inside “that had very different messages on it, one of which included the reference to anthrax,” he said. Hazardous materials crews were called to the campus while police evacuated the building. Two employees who handled the suspicious package were moved to isolation. “They opened up the first envelope and they didn’t find anything in there,” a member of the Boca Raton fire-rescue said. “After they opened the second envelope, there’s also nothing in there, so really this turned out to be a hoax.” The administration building was reopened shortly after noon. Classes were not affected. Authorities are investigating whether the package was sent by a disgruntled employee.
Source: http://www.wpbf.com/news/17963571/detail.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Tight security after threat on Shawano County and City leaders. A Shawano city alder confirms the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating implied threats against city and county officials. The alder says the FBI warned community leaders that a religious organization just outside of Shawano has made implied threats against them. The group has had a contentious relationship with people in the Shawano area for years. The alder says it has now escalated to threats against roughly 60 people. Action 2 News has information that the implied threats are against everyone from the mayor to city council members to even the police chief. The alder says the threats are not specific. The FBI released a statement: “The FBI made a public announcement to 60 potential victims in Shawano, Wisconsin, on Wednesday, November 5th. The FBI advised these individuals that they were potential victims of an implied threat that was discovered as part of an ongoing investigation.”
Source: http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=9339457

[Vinner38]

:pray:Absolutely!!!!!!
I am an X Army Ranger and we can get it done.
The Japs didnt attack the homeland in WWII because they were indeed afraid of the American People.
Yes we can protect and defend
Liberals get out of the way.
But Buy ammo while you still can!!!!!!!:doh:

[Hereintheusa]

Adlerian I just want to make a public statement - We dont always see eye to eye and we have had some major disagreements but I want you to know that I wish you would post more in other areas because you are someone who I enjoy debating with and some of the newer conservative posters on this forum could do far worse than to read your posts.

This forum is rapidly going downhill in quality and we need people like you to post more.

Like I said we may not always see eye to eye and we have had our differences but I do respect what you say on here and you do make me think.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Adlerian I just want to make a public statement - We dont always see eye to eye and we have had some major disagreements but I want you to know that I wish you would post more in other areas because you are someone who I enjoy debating with and some of the newer conservative posters on this forum could do far worse than to read your posts.

This forum is rapidly going downhill in quality and we need people like you to post more.

Like I said we may not always see eye to eye and we have had our differences but I do respect what you say on here and you do make me think.

I am humbled by your post. I post as often as I can. The nature of my job often makes me work many hours, and then there is my family. I do like coming here to spar. That does include our sparring. Folks like you demand that I remain mentally nimble, and that I do appreciate.

It says your location is Indianapolis. If you are ever in the Speedway area, stop by Charlie Browns, best breakfast in the city. Safest place to eat, what with all the cops who have breakfast there.

I'll buy you a cup of coffee.

[Hereintheusa]

I am humbled by your post. I post as often as I can. The nature of my job often makes me work many hours, and then there is my family. I do like coming here to spar. That does include our sparring. Folks like you demand that I remain mentally nimble, and that I do appreciate.

It says your location is Indianapolis. If you are ever in the Speedway area, stop by Charlie Browns, best breakfast in the city. Safest place to eat, what with all the cops who have breakfast there.

I'll buy you a cup of coffee.

I will hold you to that.

Dont be humbled its the truth - I have been re-reading some of my posts and tbh I come across as a bit of a wanker sometimes but its only because I get so engaged in debate and get carried away.

Keep up the good work, we will disagree again of that I am sure but its obvious your a good bloke who just wants the best for his country and his fellow Americans.

No need to reply :)

[Adlerian Thinker]

I will hold you to that.

Dont be humbled its the truth - I have been re-reading some of my posts and tbh I come across as a bit of a wanker sometimes but its only because I get so engaged in debate and get carried away.

Keep up the good work, we will disagree again of that I am sure but its obvious your a good bloke who just wants the best for his country and his fellow Americans.

No need to reply :)

My wife tells me I'm a bit of a wanker myself. She's always right, damn her.

Saturday mornings, anytime from 8am to 10am. Look for a bloke in either an FBI hat, or a Chicago PD hat. Coffee's on me.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/11/17/uk-al-qaeda-buying-ambulances-and-other-emergency-vehicles-on-ebay/

UK - al-Qaeda Buying Ambulances and Other Emergency Vehicles on Online

MI5 have warned Britain’s cash-strapped National Health Services that dozens of ambulances–along with old police cars and fire engines past their sell-by date–are being snapped up by al-Qaeda operatives in the United Kingdom to mount suicide bomb attacks.

So serious is the problem that counter-terrorism officials at the Home Office have written to eBay, the Internet auctioneer, asking them to stop selling emergency service vehicles, equipment and uniforms.

But eBay has insisted it can only halt the sales if a new law is passed by Parliament. That could take many months to enact.

The use of ambulances is of particular concern to Britain’s terrorist chiefs. They say the tactic has already been used in Iraq with devastating effects.

A report by Lord Carlisle–the government terrorist czar who last month warned about the possibility of private planes being used for an attack on London–has been issued to all of Britain’s 48 police forces warning of the danger of selling-off emergency service vehicles.

Lord Carlisle, who works closely with the Terrorism Analysis Centre in London set up since the 9/11 attacks, said ambulances were the ideal weapon of choice for terrorists.

“It is almost rare that police will stop such vehicles on suspicious grounds. An ambulance rigged with high explosives could drive into any ultra-sensitive target like a nuclear power station or even Whitehall”, said a senior MI5 source.

The Association of Chief Police Officers has warned that the risk could be “highly significant” if the law is not tightened.

Every year dozens of police cars, ambulances and even fire engines are sold on eBay for as little as £1,500 ($2,230).

Many are still in working order. Those that need repair can be easily fixed to pass as genuine emergency service vehicles.

“An ambulance could carry half a ton of explosives. A rigged police car could carry half that amount. So could a fire engine”, states the MI5 report.

MI5 counter-terrorism officers say such attacks have been successfully carried out in Iraq and Israel.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/11/17/pasco-airport-on-orange-alert/

Pasco Airport on Orange Alert

The airport has been on “Orange Alert” all weekend, one step below the highest warning, the “Red Alert.”

According to the TSA website, the national threat level was yellow Sunday.

TSA officials would not comment on why they stepped up the level.

Passengers told Action News it took them longer to get through airport security over the weekend.

“It was inconvenient, but he was doing his job,” said Ronald Williams, who flew to Seattle. “I know in security, everybody has got to have a system. When the system breaks down, that’s when things happen.”

There “vehicle inspections in progress” signs posted at the airport, but Action News did not see anyone checking cars.

TSA officials did not return calls, but their website points out that threat levels sometimes rise around election time.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/11/17/debka-report-g20-conference-briefed-on-possible-al-qaeda-terror-attack-plan/

Debka Report - G20 Conference Briefed On Possible al Qaeda Terror Attack Plan

An Israeli intelligence site claimed Sunday that “US president-elect Barack Obama, European and Russian heads of states in Washington G20 conference were briefed over the weekend about a probable early al Qaeda attack.”

Isreali intelligence news site, “Debka”, also claimed that “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.”

The “Debka” claim coincided with a regional intelligence report that Israeli Mossad and Indian RAW regional chiefs have held an important meeting in a European capital and discussed “possible preparatory reaction” to a new mystery yet to unfold. Regional watchers have also cautioned against fast growing strategic and secret cooperation between certain foreign elements in the neighborhood of Pakistan.

DEBKA report claimed 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.”

Israeli source claimed that the Al Qaeda “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.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/11/17/recent-arizona-incidents-get-fbis-attention/

Recent Arizona Incidents Get FBI’s Attention

The FBI has sharpened its scrutiny of some Phoenix-area Muslim leaders because of their links to two controversial incidents and a federal probe into the financing of terrorist groups.

No Arizonan has been accused of supporting terrorist groups or actions. However, a Mesa man was charged with lying to the FBI during the financing investigation.

The events that triggered the stepped-up scrutiny were the federal probe into a Muslim charity accused of funneling money to the Palestinian group Hamas; a target-shooting episode in Phoenix this year involving a large group of Muslim men and boys firing hundreds of rounds from AK-47s and other guns; and the high-profile removal in 2006 of six Arizona-bound imams from a jetliner after passengers and crew complained of their behavior.

Shooting Incident

Shortly before noon on a sunny Sunday in March, two Toyota SUVs rolled to a stop along a dirt road in north Phoenix.

About 20 young Muslim males climbed out, armed with assault rifles, a shotgun, a sniper rifle and handguns. The location near Happy Valley Road and 51st Avenue is a desert recreation site for off-road motorists, hikers and bikers, dozens of whom were enjoying the spring-like weather.

For more than an hour, the shooters blasted away at a granite rock and empty cans in front of a hill.

Officials estimate the fusillade totaled 500 to 1,000 rounds. Some shooters left before police arrived and detained 10 adults and five boys, including an 11-year-old.

The young men and boys told officers the weapons belonged to their parents. They said they were not aware it was illegal to use firearms in the residential area.

Six were arrested and charged with felony weapons violations in Maricopa County Superior Court. Among them were the 20- and 21-year-old sons of two imams at Phoenix-area mosques, as well as the 20-year-old son of Abdallah.

[...]

The Abdallah case

The FBI’s scrutiny of Abdallah came to light in January 2007, when agents raided his Mesa house and loaded what a neighbor said was two vans full of evidence.

Court records show that Abdallah, a 54-year-old Palestinian, denied during interrogation that he had been a fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation during the 1990s, when the Islamic charity could still legally receive donations.

At the time of the raid, federal investigators were pursuing a criminal case against the foundation based on allegations that it had channeled money to Palestinian terrorists. The organization had been banned after the 9/11 attacks.

The Abdallah case points to the FBI’s continued interest in Arizonans who have raised money for any charity suspected of supporting militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb threat freezes PSU Schuylkill. Penn State Schuylkill campus did not open until noon Wednesday after a bomb threat was called in late Tuesday night, according to the school’s manager of human resources. The Manager said the Schuylkill County 911 Center received the threat at 11:35 p.m. Tuesday. All campus buildings, including residence buildings, were searched by officers from Penn State Schuylkill, Penn State University Park, Orwigsburg police, Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania State Police and Pennsylvania Capitol Police, the manager said. The police declared the campus clear by about 7:30 a.m.
Source: http://www.republicanherald.com/articles/2008/11/13/news/local_news/pr_republican.20081113.a.pg3.pr13psubombthreat_s1. 2085305_loc.txt

[Adlerian Thinker]

Pasco airport on “Orange Alert.” The airport has been on orange alert all weekend, one step below the highest warning, the red alert. According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) website, the national threat level was yellow Sunday. TSA officials would not comment on why they stepped up the level. Passengers told KIMA 29 News it took them longer to get through airport security over the weekend. The “vehicle inspections in progress” signs were posted at the airport, but KIMA 29 news staffers did not see anyone checking cars. TSA officials did not return calls.
Source: http://www.kimatv.com/news/34557394.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspicious package causes Franconia metro station to close. A suspicious package caused metro officials to shut down the Franconia Springfield Metro Station Saturday. A Metro spokeswoman says the report about the package came in around 11:30 Saturday morning and police shut down the station as a precaution while they investigated. Shuttle bus service continued while the package was inspected, and the station is now open.
Source: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=600&sid=1518596

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspicious package closes part of Constitution Ave. for hours. A suspicious package shut down Constitution Ave. between 12th and 14th Streets in NW for several hours Saturday. The package was found in the ballroom at Melon Auditorium where a black tie affair for special dignitaries is to take place Saturday evening, according to sources at the scene. Hazmat crews and the FBI were on the scene. No information pertaining to the contents of the package has been released at this time.
Source: http://www.news8.net/news/stories/1108/570255.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb squad checking package at Purdue. A suspicious package on Purdue’s campus has led to the evacuation of 150 people from the Purdue Armory located at 3rd Street and North University Street in West Lafayette. A Purdue groundskeeper discovered the box at 8:45 a.m. outside the Armory. He said it was an ammunitions box on top of a plastic tool box. A Police Department Captain said a bomb squad is currently investigating the package. Emergency crews have set up a command center near the Armory.
Source: http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/local/region_3/news_wlfi_wlaf_bomb_squad_checking_package_at_purd ue_200811171025

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb threat closes Bremerton ferry dock. The Bremerton ferry dock was shut down Tuesday afternoon after a ferry to Seattle received a bomb threat. The crew of the ferry Hyak, which can hold 2,500 passengers and 144 vehicles, received a bomb threats within minutes of sailing for Seattle, said the Coast Guard. The ferry went back to Bremerton and all the passengers disembarked safety. The Coast Guard launched three 25-foot boats from Seattle to provide a safety zone around the dock. Washington State police and the Coast Guard are investigating.
Source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/388343_ferry19.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Man receives probation for bottle bomb. A federal judge has sentenced a man to one year of probation for helping another man make a homemade explosive that went off in a Powers Lake mailbox. The twenty-one-year-old pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting destruction of letter boxes and mail. He faced a maximum penalty of six months in prison. Authorities say the two men made a plastic bottle bomb using cleaning solution and other materials. The bottle exploded inside the mailbox, destroying mail.
Source: http://www.kxmc.com/News/299398.asp

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb scare holds Pitt State hostage. Police and campus officials evacuated two Pittsburgh State University (PSU) buildings Tuesday after police received a bomb threat. Around 4:30 p.m., Pittsburg Police received a bomb threat to Kelce Hall by phone. PSU police were soon notified and the building was evacuated, along with adjacent Hughes Hall and nearby Horace Mann Student Welcoming Center. Once the building was secured and turned over to Pittsburg State police, bomb-sniffing dogs from the Kansas Highway Patrol were called to the scene. When dogs arrived around 8 p.m., patrolmen and campus police completed a search, then repeated the process with the two dogs.
Source: http://www.morningsun.net/news/x776451014/Bomb-scare-holds-Pitt-State-hostage

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspicious package found at fitness center. A suspicious package at a fitness center caused a few tense moments in Salt Lake, Utah, Monday. A citizen spotted the package in the parking lot of 24 Hour Fitness just before 11:30 a.m. It was placed between two cars near the tires, said a Salt Lake police spokeswoman. The bomb squad was called to investigate and quickly rendered the device safe, she said. The suspicious package turned out to be the top of a paper shredder wrapped with duct tape on top of a black plastic box, she said. Whoever left the device in the parking lot apparently intended to make it look like an explosive device, she said.
Source: http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705264043,00.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Mailed powder raises alarm at government buildings. Five branches of the Department of Children and Family Services received letters Monday containing a white powdery substance and what investigators called rambling political rhetoric, authorities said. Authorities said Tuesday no one at any of the offices targeted – in El Monte, West Covina, Lancaster, Baldwin Hills and Chatsworth - exhibited any symptoms of illness as a result of coming into contact with the powder. Police have no suspects. Hazardous materials crews who responded to the El Monte DCFS office about 2:30 p.m. Monday initially believed the powder was rat poison, an El Monte police Lt. said. However, FBI officials are conducting further tests. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever sent the substance to the Lancaster office. A statement from the Board identified the substance found at the Lancaster office as arsenic. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is working with the postal inspection services on the case.
Source: http://www2.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_11019361

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://voanews.com/english/2008-11-21-voa3.cfm

Analysts say al-Qaida appears to be trying to capitalize on the global economic crisis. They say traffic on al-Qaida-linked Web sites indicates terrorist sympathizers see the financial turmoil as punishment for al-Qaida's enemies. VOA's Michael Lipin has this report from Washington.

Al-Qaida number two Ayman al-Zawahiri video statement about president-elect Obama 19 Nov, 2008
Al-Qaida number two leader Ayman al-Zawahiri's video statement about President-elect Obama, 19 Nov. 2008
The world's financial crisis appears to have energized Islamic militants and their supporters.

Groups that monitor terrorist Internet traffic have seen a flurry of messages on al-Qaida-linked Web sites that gloat over the West's economic difficulties, and urge militants to take advantage.

On one Web site monitored by the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, a user says, "now is a golden opportunity. If America is hit now, it will never survive, unless God permits it."

Think about it. What if we got another 9-11 type attack now?

[Hereintheusa]

http://voanews.com/english/2008-11-21-voa3.cfm

Analysts say al-Qaida appears to be trying to capitalize on the global economic crisis. They say traffic on al-Qaida-linked Web sites indicates terrorist sympathizers see the financial turmoil as punishment for al-Qaida's enemies. VOA's Michael Lipin has this report from Washington.

Al-Qaida number two Ayman al-Zawahiri video statement about president-elect Obama 19 Nov, 2008
Al-Qaida number two leader Ayman al-Zawahiri's video statement about President-elect Obama, 19 Nov. 2008
The world's financial crisis appears to have energized Islamic militants and their supporters.

Groups that monitor terrorist Internet traffic have seen a flurry of messages on al-Qaida-linked Web sites that gloat over the West's economic difficulties, and urge militants to take advantage.

On one Web site monitored by the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, a user says, "now is a golden opportunity. If America is hit now, it will never survive, unless God permits it."

Think about it. What if we got another 9-11 type attack now?

Do you really believe that everything AQ has suffered as a result of US operations around the globe they are still as effective as they were 5 years ago? I simply cannot believe that this terrorist outfit has the global reach that it once did. Their leadership structure has been decimated and as far as terrorist organizations they have been an astounding failure.

Yes they managed to pull off an audacious attack on the USA but they have not followed it up with anything, not even a single solitary suicide bomber in a mall or walmart. You have to admit that if a guy can go on a rampage at a school then AQ should have no problem in taking out the odd walmart here and there.

I am not saying they are no longer a threat but we keep hearing these stories about how AQ are going to do this and that and then nothing ever happens.

If AQ are stil as effective as they were on 9/10/2001 then this President and the US military have failed. I simply cannot believe that.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Do you really believe that everything AQ has suffered as a result of US operations around the globe they are still as effective as they were 5 years ago? I simply cannot believe that this terrorist outfit has the global reach that it once did. Their leadership structure has been decimated and as far as terrorist organizations they have been an astounding failure.

Yes they managed to pull off an audacious attack on the USA but they have not followed it up with anything, not even a single solitary suicide bomber in a mall or walmart. You have to admit that if a guy can go on a rampage at a school then AQ should have no problem in taking out the odd walmart here and there.

I am not saying they are no longer a threat but we keep hearing these stories about how AQ are going to do this and that and then nothing ever happens.

If AQ are stil as effective as they were on 9/10/2001 then this President and the US military have failed. I simply cannot believe that.

Its not about being as effective. I truly think they are not.

But if an organization like al Qaeda, with a proven track record of attacks here and around the world, makes noise about taking advantage of our economic woes to kick us while we are down (and why wouldn't they? Sound strategy.), then we would do well to pay attention.

It's much harder for an organization like al Qaeda to take out the odd WalMart, because they do plan, the do practice, and they do procure supplies, all of which provide us with opportunities to detect the leakage.

Just like mentally ill people who commit violence, there is no such thing as someone just "snapping." There are signs of an impending dust-up, one needs to know where to look, and what to look for.

Having a proven violent organization openly state that now's a good time to attack us, it's time to shake the bushes, check our sources, and make sure we are prepared.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/11/23/us-kills-al-qaeda-mastermind-of-airline-liquid-bomb-plot-rashid-rauf/

US Kills Al Qaeda Mastermind of Airline Liquid Bomb Plot - Rashid Rauf
In what would be another major blow to al Qaeda, a CIA missile strike reportedly killed the long-sought British al Qaeda figure believed to have coordinated and planned the 2006 plot to use liquid bombs to blow up eight aircraft bound for the United States and Canada.

27-year old Rashid Rauf was killed, according to Pakistani officials, in an unmanned Predator missile strike against a home in the North Waziristan village of Khaisur shortly before dawn today.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official told ABCNews.com his death cannot be officially confirmed until the results of DNA tests are known because the bodies were burned beyond recognition in the attack.

But the official said the U.S. believes it is certain Rauf was killed.

[Adlerian Thinker]

This one appears to be gang-related.

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/11/22/southcenter-mall-shots-fired-in-shopping-mall-tukwila-washington/

Southcenter Mall - Shots Fired In Shopping Mall - Tukwila Washington

UPDATE: The gunman remains at large and police are searching for him, police said.

The mall, located off Southcenter Parkway, is being locked down, officials said. It will remain closed for the rest of the night.

An off-duty sergeant with the Washington State Patrol at the scene said one victim underwent CPR after being hit. At least two victims later were rushed to the hospital.

Two people were put in handcuffs by officers at the scene, the trooper said, but it is not known what connection - if any - they had with the shooting.

UPDATE from KOMO: At least one person was hit by gunfire in a shooting Saturday afternoon inside Southcenter Mall as it was filled with pre-Thanksgiving shoppers, witnesses said.

An off-duty sergeant with the Washington State Patrol at the scene said the victim is undergoing CPR after being hit.

Two people were put in handcuffs by officers at the scene, the trooper said.

Other witnesses told KOMO News they heard at least three shots fired just after 3:30 p.m. in front of the Forever 21 store near the mall’s food court.

The gunfire sparked immediate panic, and people started running for the exits.

Police raced to the scene in their patrol cars, lights flashing.

Shoppers are being evacuated from the mall, and officers are trying to determine exactly what happened and whether a shooter remains at large.

KOMO

A spokesperson with the Tukwila Police Department confirms that there have been multiple shots fired at Southcenter Mall this evening.

There are eyewitness accounts of several shots fired within the mall and shoppers running for safety.

Tukwila Police have also confirmed they are on the scene, but have so far given no details on any possible injuries or suspects.

New crews are on their way to the mall right now.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Hamilton man charged with local bomb threats. The FBI arrested a Hamilton, Ohio, man for threatening to blow up several local landmarks. The man is accused of sending an e-mail detailing his plot to WKRC, a radio station, and FBI headquarters. The e-mail, sent November 13, used a fictitious name and claimed bombs would go off the next day on the Brent Spence Bridge, at Argosy Casino, Paul Brown Stadium, and the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, among other targets. The Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested the man Thursday at a hotel. There was no sign the man actually possessed explosives.
Source: http://www.local12.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=0fcb9aa8-da34-4de0-896c-fbacba395a52

[Adlerian Thinker]

FBI seeks caller in plane bomb threat. The Sacramento and Louisville, Kentucky, offices of the FBI said they are looking for information about a bomb threat that was called in Friday. Delta Flight 6081 left Milwaukee, Wis., and had already landed at the Greater Cincinnati International Airport when the call came in, the FBI said. The caller said there was a bomb on the plane. Investigators did not find any explosive devices on board. The FBI said officials tracked the call to a phone number that is associated with a truck stop in Ripon, California. Surveillance video shows a man using the phone near the time when the threat was made.
Source: http://www.my58.com/news/18027944/detail.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

First responders concerned about safety at meth lab scenes. First responders in Elkhart, Indiana, are trying to improve safety when they encounter drug scenes. Police are raiding an increasing number of meth labs and are working with firefighters to develop safety protocols. The labs are now turning up within the city limits at an increased rate. One of the most recent cases involved one found in an apartment unit last month. It caught on fire and exploded, injuring two people. Another was found in the upstairs of a vacant home in Elkhart. The increase has also caught the attention of the Elkhart Fire Department, which is training with the police department on safety measures.
Source: http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/34826379.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

U.S. faces Al-Qaida terrorist threats, lacks vigilance since 9/11, speaker says. The nation has become complacent since the September 11th attacks and lacks a healthy respect for the risks we face from terrorism, a 33-year veteran of law enforcement, who is also an attorney and internationally recognized source on risk management, said at the 56th International Association of Emergency Managers Conference November 18, 2008, in Kansas City, Kansas. He said that for a public safety agency or any other organization to be a “mission-ready organization” it has to be vigilant in terms of hiring good people, making them accountable, and continuously training. He suggested testing employees daily. He said when an employee signs on to a computer at the beginning of a shift, a drop-down box with a quick quiz would keep employees learning. He said employees should be tested regularly about their core critical roles before a disaster. “When a disaster occurs, most don’t know [their core roles] until after the fact,” he said.
Source: http://www.govtech.com/em/articles/563725

[Adlerian Thinker]

Man arrested in Bengals’ stadium bomb threat. FBI officials said Friday they arrested a man who allegedly threatened to blow up the Cincinnati Bengals’ stadium and other area landmarks. The 42 year old man is accused of sending e-mails to two local media outlets and to the FBI threatening Paul Brown Stadium, four bridges over the Ohio River, the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, and an Indiana casino, a FBI spokesman said. The man was arrested Thursday at a hotel in Erlanger, Kentucky, and was being held on federal charges of making bomb threats and distributing a bomb hoax. The man’s father said his son has mental issues and is on medication and he said he doesn’t believe his son really planned to carry out any threats.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27841930/

[Adlerian Thinker]

Police still believe bomb threats linked to drugs; plant officials not so sure. West Virginia State Police continue to investigate a possible connection between drug use and the nine bomb threats at American Electric Power’s John Amos plant in Putnam County. “There is talk about any time a drug test is announced, there is a bomb threat,” said a spokesman for the West Virginia State Police. “They’ve had union and nonunion workers. Maybe these were a way to evade drug tests by some of the workers.” The plant’s community-relations manager said he is unaware of any disputes or conflicts within the plant that may be the source of the threats. Drug tests are routine for union employees, said the director of the Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation. “When you have a job this big, a number of people come in from out of the area to fulfill a huge manpower need. I think that’s where the problem came from,” he said. On November 6, State Police conducted a drug sweep through the John Amos parking lot, said the spokesman for the West Virginia State Police. No arrests were made, but there were several citations issued, he said. The sweep was a direct result of the State Police’s theory that the bomb threats are related to drugs, he said.
Source: http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200811221354?page=1&build=cache

[Adlerian Thinker]

Man jailed for alleged death threats. A man who was recently released from prison may be headed back after allegedly making death threats against two judges and his former attorney. The defendant faces three felony counts of making death threats and remains in the Oklahoma County jail since his October 17 arrest. A man who picked up the defendant at a bus station tipped investigators to his alleged intentions. He told the Oklahoma County sheriff’s department that the defendant wanted revenge and had targeted people such as a special judge and a former district judge and his wife.
Source: http://www.kfsm.com/Global/story.asp?S=9402220

[Adlerian Thinker]

Envelope placed on police car shuts downtown street. The 700 block of Jackson Street in Toledo, Ohio, was closed for more than two hours Saturday afternoon while authorities investigated a suspicious envelope found on a police car parked outside the downtown Safety Building. Police said once the envelope was opened, they learned it did not contain a threat or any hazardous material — rather, just a black, 3.5-inch computer disk. The envelope was addressed to “Toledo Police Department,” but it did not have a return address, according to police. The Northwest Ohio Bomb Squad and the Toledo Fire Department were called to the scene. A police official said the envelope and disk would be turned over to the department’s detective bureau, which would review the material.
Source: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081123/NEWS02/811230369

[Adlerian Thinker]

Preparing for the “Big One.” A new scientific study outlines the devastation that would follow a massive Tri-State earthquake. FEMA released the results of the report, based on a 7.7 magnitude quake predicted to hit the Indiana area. This 900-page study is the first of its kind to be conducted on such a large scale. The Department of Homeland Security and FEMA have put together the report for Tri-State first responders and emergency officials so they can start formulating response plans to the Big One. The study shows several thousand buildings, mostly single-family homes, would be destroyed across Southern Illinois, Southern Indiana, and Western Kentucky. Thousands more buildings would face moderate to severe damage. The report indicates the most crippling damage would be to the Tri-State’s infrastructure, knocking out communications, water and electricity to tens of thousands of people several days after the quake and leaving some without services for several weeks. FEMA’s report shows 17 hospitals in Western Kentucky and one in Indiana would not be functional the day after the quake, but most highway bridges would be left relatively un-damaged and still useable. First responders in Western Kentucky will meet on December 12 to review the new data and work on their response plans.
Source: http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=9396720

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb scare closes Broadway at C-470. A motorist spotted a plastic bin containing white cylinders with wires coming out of the pipes on Broadway near C-470 early Tuesday morning. Douglas County’s bomb squad was called in to investigate the bin, closing down both directions of Broadway. The ramps from C-470 were shut down, preventing traffic to get on Broadway. C-470 remained open. The bomb squad X-rayed the plastic container which was 3 feet by 2 1/2 feet in diameter and found it was a concrete pouring sample. The sample is used in strength-testing of the concrete in road construction projects. It is made up of plastic pipes with wires coming from the pipes. Broadway was reopened to traffic at 5:45 a.m.
Source: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/18056818/detail.html#-

[Adlerian Thinker]

Accident: American MD82 near Austin, green laser injures crew member. On November 22, an American Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-82, flight AA479 from Dallas Fort Worth to Austin, Texas, was on approach to Austin approximately 10nm out, when an intense green laser was flashed at the cockpit. The crew managed to land their airplane safely. One crew member received an eye injury and had to be transported to a hospital.
Source: http://avherald.com/h?article=410991aa

[Adlerian Thinker]

Armed man on train wanted revenge. Charging documents say a man seen with an assault rifle in a Baltimore cab intended revenge, not harm to any public officials in Washington. Charging documents say the 25-year-old told the unlicensed cab driver he “wanted a ride to ‘D.C., to the White House.’” The man told police, “he was going to Washington to shoot the people that shot him.” The cabbie forced the man out at a MARC station after seeing the weapon under a blanket, and then flagged down police. The man boarded a MARC commuter train. But as police arrived, he fled and jumped about 20 feet to the street, breaking his ankle. Police charged him Friday with weapons offenses, concealment, and possession of an illegal rifle and magazine. He waived a bail hearing Friday.
Source: http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=1525072

[Adlerian Thinker]

Arrest in shining of laser light at CHP copter. For the second time in a week, a Bay Area man has been arrested on suspicion of shining a laser pointer at a law enforcement helicopter, the California Highway Patrol said Monday. El Cerrito police arrested the man shortly before 3 a.m. Monday for shining the blinding beam at the Highway Patrol helicopter, which was about 1,000 feet overhead, authorities said. The pilot was briefly incapacitated by the beam. Another officer onboard spotted where the laser was coming from and called El Cerrito police, who arrested the man near his home, CHP spokesman said. On November 17, the Santa Clara County sheriff’s office arrested a man from Campbell on suspicion of shining a green laser at police helicopters and several other aircraft over the past three years. Similar arrests have been made in Concord and Los Gatos, authorities said.
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/25/BAT014BELD.DTL

[Adlerian Thinker]

Concern over Cowboys stadium security grows. There are six months to go before the first event is held at the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and police officers and firefighters in the city are expressing concerns over who will pay for and planned security there. Unions representing Arlington’s fire and police forces said safety for the new stadium seems to be measured in terms of what the Cowboys are willing to pay rather than what is really needed. Texas Stadium in Irving is different from other stadiums across the country in that fans can leave the parking lot from any direction and immediately be funneled onto a major freeway. For a home game, the stadium runs anywhere from 120 to 150 officers for security and traffic control. Fifteen firefighters and one engine are also kept in company. But other NFL stadiums keep a much higher number of officers on staff on game days. The Superdome in Louisiana uses 240 officers. The Bucs use around 400 officers in their downtown Tampa stadium. Arlington public safety officials estimate it will take anywhere from 225 to 250 officers to run security and traffic control for game days in Arlington. They want to use 60 firefighters and EMS personnel. If the Cowboys agree with the assessment, they will pay for it. But if the Cowboys do not agree, the city of Arlington will have to pay for the additional staffing.
Source: http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=7929062&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2008/11/29/president-briefed-over-severe-widespread-attack-on-defense-department-computers/

President Briefed Over Severe, Widespread Attack On Defense Department Computers

Senior military leaders took the exceptional step of briefing President Bush this week on a severe and widespread electronic attack on Defense Department computers that may have originated in Russia — an incursion that posed unusual concern among commanders and raised potential implications for national security.

Defense officials would not describe the extent of damage inflicted on military networks. But they said that the attack struck hard at networks within U.S. Central Command, the headquarters that oversees U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and affected computers in combat zones. The attack also penetrated at least one highly protected classified network.

Military computers are regularly beset by outside hackers, computer viruses and worms. But defense officials said the most recent attack involved an intrusive piece of malicious software, or “malware,” apparently designed specifically to target military networks.

“This one was significant; this one got our attention,” said one defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity when discussing internal assessments.

Although officials are withholding many details, the attack underscores the increasing danger and potential significance of computer warfare, which defense experts say could one day be used by combatants to undermine even a militarily superior adversary.

Bush was briefed on the threat by Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mullen also briefed Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Explosion damages Saylorsburg mailbox. A Saylorsburg mailbox was damaged in an explosion sometime late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. Police said the mailbox was damaged by an explosive type device.
Source: http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081128/NEWS/81128003

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspicious white powder investigated in Eaton County. Authorities are investigating why a suspicious envelope containing a white powder was sent to an Eaton Township home. An analysis of the powder by state health officials found that it was harmless, said an Eaton County sheriff’s Lt. At about 12:40 p.m. Wednesday, the homeowner reported receiving the envelope, the Lt. said. A HAZMAT team from the Windsor Township Fire Department as well as Michigan State Police assisted in analyzing and safely collecting the package so it could be taken to a lab for testing. The investigation is continuing.
Source: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20081127/NEWS01/81127002

[Adlerian Thinker]

Police issue warning of mailbox bombs in county. Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Deputies are investigating several cases of criminal mischief where rural mailboxes in the town of Sheridan were rigged to explode. In each case, a plastic bottle was used to mix substances that can become volatile and cause the container to explode shortly after the cap is tightened, explained a police captain. ‘‘These are homemade and it isn’t an exact science,’’ he said. ‘‘The chemical reaction takes place over time, and if someone touches the container, it can trigger the explosion.’’ Because of the unpredictability of the mixture, he said that if someone finds a strange container in their mailbox or on their property, they should keep distance and call the Sheriff’s Department. Although all reported incidents happened in the town of Sheridan, all county residents are advised to be aware and report anything that looks suspicious to the Sheriff’s Department.
Source: http://post-journal.com/page/content.detail/id/517471.html?nav=5004

[Adlerian Thinker]

Gates Mills: Post office evacuated after bomb threat. The Gates Mills Post Office and several nearby homes and businesses were evacuated for about two hours on November 25 after someone called in a fake bomb threat. A man called the post office at 9:50 a.m. and told post office employees there was a bomb inside and it was going to go off in 30 minutes. Gates Mills police, the Hillcrest Bomb Unit and RTA police responded immediately to the scene. Nearby homes and businesses were evacuated and a bomb-sniffing dog inspected the building. Nothing was found and the area was re-opened to the public at 12:40 p.m. Gates Mills police, U.S. Postal Inspectors and the Cleveland office of the FBI are investigating. No one has been arrested.
Source: http://blog.cleveland.com/chagrinheraldsun/2008/11/gates_mills_post_office_evacua.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Federal buildings go unwatched. Within two weeks of the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building 13 years ago, in Oklahoma City, one building just four blocks away - occupied by the Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and other agencies - installed X-ray machines, magnetometers and glass security walls, and posted security guards in the lobby. Every person entering the building was scanned and their credentials verified. Tightened security soon became a familiar sight at federal buildings throughout the nation, with policies quickly implemented to prevent similar attacks. Now, that post-bombing ramp-up has been almost completely rolled back, says the president of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 45 and an employee in that Oklahoma City building. And security faded even more after the Federal Protective Service's post-September 11 transition to the Homeland Security Department's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, the president says. The 10-story, 400,000-square-foot building where the president works houses hundreds of federal employees. Nonetheless, it has almost no security. There are no guards in the lobby, no one patrols the vacant floors and the cameras work intermittently. The presidents concern is echoed by federal employees across the country and by the Government Accountability Office.
Source: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41522&dcn=todaysnews

[Adlerian Thinker]

Police investigate a pipe bomb in Rehoboth. Investigators are working to determine who left a pipe bomb at the intersection of Hornbine Road and Spring Street in Rehoboth. The Providence Journal reported that the bomb was spotted by a motorist who ran over it without detonating it while traveling on Hornbine Road early Saturday. The Rehoboth chief of police told the newspaper that the driver called emergency officials, who closed the road. Residents of two nearby houses were advised of the situation but were not evacuated. The State police bomb squad confirmed that the pipe bomb was genuine and they detonated it at the scene. The chief said investigators have collected remnants of the bomb and are studying the pieces in an effort to nab those responsible. No one was injured during the incident.
Source: http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2008/11/30/police_investigate_a_pipe_bomb_in_rehoboth/

[Adlerian Thinker]

Cyber attack has Pentagon worried. Senior military leaders took the exceptional step of briefing the U.S. President last week on a severe and widespread electronic attack on Defense Department computers that may have originated in Russia. Defense officials would not describe the extent of damage inflicted on military networks. But they said the attack struck hard at networks within U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and affected computers in combat zones. The attack also penetrated at least one highly protected classified network. Military computers are regularly beset by hackers, viruses, and worms. But Defense Department officials said the most recent attack involves an intrusive piece of malicious software, or “malware,” apparently designed specifically to target military networks. U.S. News and World Report learned that the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan was hit by a computer virus in November that affected nearly three quarters of the computers on the base. This was not the first such cyberattack, and officials said that earlier incarnations of the virus had exported information such as convoy and troop movements in Afghanistan. It was not clear precisely what information, if any, was being pulled from Defense Department computers by this latest virus, they said. Officials familiar with the computer attack characterized it as extremely aggressive and said that it originated in China. U.S. military officials on the base took the step of prohibiting the use of portable flash memory, or “thumb drives,” as they learned more about the virus. The move reflects the concern that the portable drives can inadvertently spread viruses through separate computer networks in the field. In November, Pentagon officials also banned the use of thumb drives because of concerns that they were spreading a virus through Defense Department computer networks.
Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-cyberattack_bdnov30,0,633998.story See also: http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/iraq/2008/11/28/computer-virus-hits-us-military-base-in-afghanistan.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Pentagon to detail troops to bolster domestic security. The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials. The Pentagon’s plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces to be ready for emergency response by September 2011. The first 4,700-person unit, built around an active-duty combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Georgia, was available as of October 1, said the commander of the U.S. Northern Command. If funding continues, two additional teams will join nearly 80 smaller National Guard and reserve units made up of about 6,000 troops in supporting local and state officials nationwide. All would be trained to respond to a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive attack. Last month, the assistant defense secretary for homeland defense said, authorities agreed to begin a $1.8 million pilot project funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through which civilian authorities in five states could tap military planners to develop disaster response plans. Hawaii, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Washington, and West Virginia will each focus on a particular threat — pandemic flu, a terrorist attack, hurricane, earthquake, and catastrophic chemical release, respectively — speeding up federal and state emergency planning begun in 2003. Last Monday, the U.S. Defense Secretary ordered defense officials to review whether the military, Guard, and reserves can respond adequately to domestic disasters. He gave commanders 25 days to propose changes and cost estimates.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/30/AR2008113002217.html?hpid=topnews

[Adlerian Thinker]

Smoke bomb forces Phoenix hotel evacuation. A smoke bomb detonated inside a Phoenix hotel Sunday night forced the evacuation of 60 guests and employees at the Hilton Garden Inn. A Phoenix Fire Dept. deputy chief of public affairs said officials found other weapons in the room where the bomb detonated, including guns and bullets. Officials were still investigating who if anyone was in the room. The hotel evacuated about 35 rooms.
Source: http://www.kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=9434732&nav=menu216_14_3

[Adlerian Thinker]

Black Friday bomb threat clears Wal-Mart. Police toting shotguns, submachine guns, and assault rifles patrolled Wal-Mart’s entrance in East Stroudsburg on Black Friday while bomb-sniffing dogs searched inside. The store was evacuated around 5:30 p.m. after an alarming phone call came into the Monroe County Control Center at 5:22. The call came from a man on a pay phone at the Gulf gas station on Route 209 next to the Shannon Inn in Smithfield Township. The caller said there was a bomb in Wal-Mart and it would detonate in 30 minutes. He warned that at time of the detonation, a gunman in the parking lot would open fire on shoppers fleeing the blast. Pocono Township Police brought in a bomb-sniffing dog. Later, because of the size of the store, a second dog from Pocono Township Police arrived to assist. While dogs sniffed the scene, Pennsylvania State Police at Swiftwater verified that the phone call came from the Gulf gas station. A steady stream of customers continued to arrive while police blocked the entrances to the store. The bomb-threat caller has not yet been identified. Police do not know what his motive may have been. When found, he could be charged with risking a catastrophe and possibly terrorism-related charges.
Source: http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081129/NEWS/811290339/-1/rss01

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspicious package found at Woodbury Common. Police, armed with a bomb-sniffing dog and equipment to handle potential explosives, converged on Woodbury Common Friday morning, as shoppers participated in the Black Friday ritual. A suitcase was found abandoned in a parking lot at the shopping center resulting in the State Police and Orange County Sheriff’s Office dispatching bomb detecting equipment and a K-9 to the scene. The dog did signal a positive response, which turned out to be from chemical reaction hand warmers, said a Woodbury Town Police sergeant. “There were no threats received on the package, but because of the world events lately, we need to take everything seriously and precautionary only, we did establish a large hot zone until a bomb tech unit could come in from New York State Police and assist the Sheriff’s Department in deeming that it was no threat,” he said. Woodbury Common, like other malls, was crowded with holiday shoppers all day long.
Source: http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/November08/28/WdbryCom_package-28Nov08.htm

[Adlerian Thinker]

Darke Co. authorities respond to 2 bomb threats. The dispatch center at the Darke County Sheriff’s Office received two telephone bomb threats minutes apart late Sunday night. The first call came in at about 10:50 p.m. stating that the caller placed four bombs at the Anderson-Marathon Ethanol Plant at the east edge of Greenville. The plant began production of corn-based ethanol in February of this year. It is located in the new Greenville Industrial Park off State Route East 571. Minutes later the caller, believed to be the same caller, made a second phone call to Darke County 911 Center claiming to have also placed bombs at the Wal-Mart Superstore at 1501 Wagner Avenue in Greenville.
Source: http://www.whiotv.com/news/18176152/detail.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

White powder discovered in Peoria City Hall mailroom. A white, powdery substance found in a letter at Peoria City Hall was being tested Monday afternoon. Two mail clerks at the facility discovered the substance in an envelope just before noon. The mail room area was cordoned off and the substance was sent to a state lab for testing said a spokesman for the Peoria Police and Fire departments. He said test results should be in sometime Tuesday. A letter of some kind was included with the substance, he said, but because it could not be handled, he did not know exactly what it said.
Source: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/12/01/20081201gl-peopowder1201-ON.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Hurlburt discovers bomb after anonymous tip. The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and Hurlburt Office of Special Investigation discovered an explosive device in the back of a truck that had base access after receiving an anonymous tip Tuesday morning. At about 6 a.m., deputies received an untraceable call and alerted Hurlburt Security personnel of the potential danger. The male voice had warned that a man working at Hurlburt Field had explosives on his truck. Hurlburt Field security levels were raised at 10 a.m. when morning searches for the truck came up empty. The caller’s partial description eventually led investigators to a man with access to the base through his employers who had a construction contract. By 10:40 a.m., deputies spotted the truck in the Consul Apartments parking lot on Monahan Drive. The owner of the truck denied any knowledge of an item investigators found in the back of his vehicle. A military working dog searched the truck but did not detect the explosives. As a precaution, deputies evacuated the buildings, established a 1,000-foot-perimeter with road blocks on Monahan Drive, and told residents across the street to stay inside. The evacuation remained in effect until the bomb was diffused. The incident is under investigation by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Source: http://www.thedestinlog.com/news/hurlburt_7205___article.html/truck_link.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb squad explodes package at Marion County Jail. The Marion County, Florida, Jail was on lockdown Tuesday night due to a suspicious package that was thrown against the west side of jail by an unidentified man. Deputies said that around 7:30 p.m. a small blue car pulled up to the gate to the jail complex and a man said that he was going to visit an inmate. He was allowed to drive toward the jail. Then officials noticed that he threw a rectangular shaped package on the west side of the fence. The man sped off, and deputies immediately called for Ocala Fire Rescue and the Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad. The Bomb Squad robot was deployed to the gate to the jail complex. It exploded the package in place at 9:05 p.m. Sheriff’s officials said the box contained a small battery, wires, and clothing.
Source: http://www.ocala.com/article/20081202/ARTICLES/812020276/-1/SPORTS02?Title=Bomb_Squad_explodes_package_at_Mari on_County_Jail

[Adlerian Thinker]

McCracken County Jail lobby evacuated because of suspicious package. The McCracken County Jail’s lobby was evacuated Tuesday because of some suspicious packages dropped off. Around 11 o’clock, a man dropped off packages wrapped with Christmas paper and put together with purple duct tape. The packages were addressed to two area judges. The lobby was evacuated as a precaution. The packages were suspicious enough to lock down the jail and bring in the Paducah Bomb Squad. It turns out they did not contain explosives or anything dangerous, but when the bomb squad arrived and took x-rays of the packages, they were not able to determine what was inside. Uncertain of the packages content, they decided to remote detonate. They used a water cannon to blow apart the packages inside the lobby.
Source: http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=db9aa0ca-18fb-47f0-89f5-662ddb368ea2

[Adlerian Thinker]

Residents evacuated as crews search subdivision for bombs. Crews are again searching for bombs near Odyssey Middle School and dozens of residents could not go home all day. The new search for old bombs forced a dozen families out of their homes early Tuesday morning. The Army Corps of Engineers searched behind their houses in the Lee Vista Square subdivision for more explosives. The Corps revealed late Tuesday afternoon that it found one 75-millimeter practice projectile and they will be searching again on Wednesday. A bullet, about 3 inches around, found two weeks ago near a retention pond sparked the search and evacuation. It was reportedly harmless. Eyewitness News has been following the story since July 2007. Surveyors have found more than 220 bombs and 14 tons of munitions on the old Pine Castle Jeep Military Range. The Army Corps of Engineers plans to continue searching in the same area Wednesday. Homeowners will have to be out by 8:00 a.m. They have made arrangements for people to stay in a common area at the Springhill Suites on Hazeltine National Drive near the airport. They said the entire process, so far, including the investigation, has cost them more than $12 million.
Source: http://www.wftv.com/news/18186922/detail.html#-

[Adlerian Thinker]

Police: 2 homemade bombs dismantled in Ohio town. A homemade bomb was found Tuesday at a gas station a block away from a school, and authorities arresting a suspect found a second bomb on the man’s body, police said. The 18 year old man arrested had been convicted in 2006 of taking explosives to a different school where he said he had been the subject of ridicule. Someone left a backpack near pumps at a gas station in St. Marys, and a customer took it to employees, the manager said. After about 45 minutes, employees looked inside, found a bomb, and called police, the manager said. The explosive device was made of fluid-filled bottles and a detonator, the police chief said. Nearby residents were evacuated. Police later arrested the man at his apartment, where they dismantled a second, smaller homemade bomb discovered under his shirt. Both bombs were dismantled, and no one was injured, police said. Authorities would not say whether the bombs were part of a larger plot or whether the school was an intended target. Police did not know how much damage the device left at the Marathon gas station could have caused or whether it was close to being detonated.
Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/nationworld/ci_11122215

[Adlerian Thinker]

Chemical explosion in Santee snarls traffic. Traffic along Santee’s busiest street, Mission Gorge Road, came to a standstill following a chemical explosion behind a building Tuesday afternoon. Mission Gorge was closed in both directions between Cottonwood and Magnolia avenues following the 12:35 p.m. incident. The Santee Deputy Fire Chief said a mixture of swimming pool chemicals including liquid and powder chlorine caused an explosion behind a building, sending the chemicals into the air. About a dozen businesses had to be evacuated in the area, and residents in a nearby mobile home park were asked to stay indoors. Four sheriff’s deputies and one firefighter were taken to a hospital after they experienced respiratory irritation and a burning sensation in their eyes. A four-block stretch of Mission Gorge Road was expected to be closed well into rush hour while hazardous materials crews cleaned up the mess.
Source: http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/news/breaking/2008/12/chemical_explosion_in_santee_s.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Man charged with planting ‘hoax bomb’ at jail. At 9:05 a.m. Wednesday, exactly 12 hours after the Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad exploded a suspicious outside the Marion County Jail, the unit had to do the same thing all over again. Meanwhile, deputies arrested a 31-year-old man in connection with the first incident and charged him with planting a hoax bomb. Sheriff’s officials said the second package, a brown box, was discovered Wednesday morning by a trash can at the entrance of the agency’s Operations Center. The Bomb Squad deployed Remo-Tech to the package, and the robot picked it up and moved it to a safe location at a retention pond. The robot then blew up the package at 9:05 a.m. It contained mostly paper. Deputies believe this package may be connected to the other suspicious package that was thrown against a jail fence Tuesday night. Deputies released video images of a man, who looks like the defendant, leaving the second package by the front door of the Sheriff’s Office.
Source: http://www.ocala.com/article/20081203/ARTICLES/812030287?Title=Bomb_Squad_blows_up_second_box__ma n_arrested

[Calibabe]

In the AAW Forum, we have often spoken of our wonderful troops, and the job they are doing in defending us from terror.

Yet I have seen very little talk of what we can do. Yes, us home folk who aren't wearing cammo, or toting military issue weaponry. (If you are, please don't tell me about it! LOL)

What can regular citizens do?

I wanted to start a thread to discuss it.

Here are some ideas:
1) InfraGard - a private, not-for-profit group sponsored by the FBI that is tasked with protecting 17 sectors of critical infrastructure as indentified in the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP)
2) LEPC Committees - Local Emergency Planning Committees are under the aegis of the state DHS. They have to do with hazardous materials safety.
3) School Safety Commissions/Committees - Some states mandate such committees to help schools develop school safety plans

Info will be given on each. What are some things you can do in your neck of the woods?

We all have a vested interest in protecting our homeland.

Hey, I went on with my husband and son to complete C.E.R.T. training for 7 weeks from our county and city fire departments/rescue here in CA. In the even that there is a natural disaster that stikes here in CA, we are trained to go out and help those in our community. If we get "the big one" that everyone says we are going to get, then we will be well prepared. We already have plenty of food, a generator and some, ah hem, well lets not go there what we have to protect ourselves with, but we have it. Needless to say I feel like having a sign posted that the dogs don't bite but the owner will shoot if threatened or the atleast will bite back hard.

I don't mind being well prepared and think really that everyone who lives in area where disasters can happen should be prepared and should be able to teach everyone around them. We are pretty well prepared to survive up to three weeks out here. If we do have a "big quake" we may be that long before any help gets to us. We don't ever have the ability to know when a huge quake will happen. My job being I work from home is to know how to shut down the gas, get my mother-in-law from the second story to the first in time before a tremor strikes, leaving her and the dogs upstairs where they won't be able to get down from, and getting a land line for the telephone established because the cell phones will most likely be out. I have also established an out of state contact (my cousin) that would be on the lookout for our call or email telling them we are alright, and they could then relay our location to her and she could call the county and tell them we are alright and tending to those in the neighborhood that need help.

That is what we as a family (and are the only family member, I might ad where all three family members have taken and passed with flying colors the course. I hope that we never have to use it, but thankfully with my medical background and with my husbands background we can assist those in need should we have to. We will have to go back in a year to renew the certification but that is fine. It keeps us on our toes and it will also be a new course because they are always changing things in the course, so we will be back in it around September again. It is something that is available to those who live in the southern states as well. So if you live in Florida, Lousiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, etc., you can go and take the course, just check with you county OEM office for when they offer it. If you live in CA, just call your local fire department and they should have the info or can give you the number on where to get in touch with the agency that offers the course for your area. It is well worth it. My daughter who lives about 40 miles to the north of me is going to take it as well as she is the asst mgr of an apartment community.

That is what we did. :D

[Adlerian Thinker]

Hey, I went on with my husband and son to complete C.E.R.T. training for 7 weeks from our county and city fire departments/rescue here in CA. In the even that there is a natural disaster that stikes here in CA, we are trained to go out and help those in our community. If we get "the big one" that everyone says we are going to get, then we will be well prepared. We already have plenty of food, a generator and some, ah hem, well lets not go there what we have to protect ourselves with, but we have it. Needless to say I feel like having a sign posted that the dogs don't bite but the owner will shoot if threatened or the atleast will bite back hard.

I don't mind being well prepared and think really that everyone who lives in area where disasters can happen should be prepared and should be able to teach everyone around them. We are pretty well prepared to survive up to three weeks out here. If we do have a "big quake" we may be that long before any help gets to us. We don't ever have the ability to know when a huge quake will happen. My job being I work from home is to know how to shut down the gas, get my mother-in-law from the second story to the first in time before a tremor strikes, leaving her and the dogs upstairs where they won't be able to get down from, and getting a land line for the telephone established because the cell phones will most likely be out. I have also established an out of state contact (my cousin) that would be on the lookout for our call or email telling them we are alright, and they could then relay our location to her and she could call the county and tell them we are alright and tending to those in the neighborhood that need help.

That is what we as a family (and are the only family member, I might ad where all three family members have taken and passed with flying colors the course. I hope that we never have to use it, but thankfully with my medical background and with my husbands background we can assist those in need should we have to. We will have to go back in a year to renew the certification but that is fine. It keeps us on our toes and it will also be a new course because they are always changing things in the course, so we will be back in it around September again. It is something that is available to those who live in the southern states as well. So if you live in Florida, Lousiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, etc., you can go and take the course, just check with you county OEM office for when they offer it. If you live in CA, just call your local fire department and they should have the info or can give you the number on where to get in touch with the agency that offers the course for your area. It is well worth it. My daughter who lives about 40 miles to the north of me is going to take it as well as she is the asst mgr of an apartment community.

That is what we did. :D

:clap:

That is awesome. If nothing else, you have improved your confidence, and that of your family.

Not everyone can do it, but everyone can look into it.

Well done!

[Adlerian Thinker]

Three decontaminated after exposure to hazardous substance. A powder delivered in an envelope to an El Jobean community Friday tested positive by Charlotte County Fire and EMS for hazardous materials. A hazmat team was dispatched to the clubhouse at Riverwood after a call came in at 12:40 p.m. to report the suspicious substance. “We did have a positive result for a hazardous material,” a fire and EMS spokeswoman said. “We don’t know what it is, but it’s tested positive and that’s cause for concern.” The substance has been sent to the Florida Department of Health in Tampa where it will undergo testing to determine its makeup. Three people were exposed to the powder and were decontaminated. None of them demonstrated any ill effects after their exposure, and they were released.
Source: http://www.sunnewspapers.net/articles/pnnews.aspx?NewsID=427769&a=newsarchive2/120608/ch1.htm&pnpg=0

[Adlerian Thinker]

2 threatening letters sent to judges. Two Harford County Circuit Court judges received letters Friday threatening the U.S. President and containing a white powdery substance, the Harford County sheriff’s office said. The powder appears to be sugar, according to preliminary tests, according to a spokesman for the sheriff’s office. After one letter was opened by one judge’s secretary about 12:30 p.m., sheriff’s investigators and the county hazmat team responded to the courthouse. Another letter, sent to a second judge, was also discovered. Sources said the letters appeared to have been sent by one inmate at the Maryland Correctional Institution in Hagerstown. No one has been charged in this incident, police said.
Source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/harford/bal-md.ha.anthrax06dec06,0,5995125.story

[Adlerian Thinker]

Hwy. 378 temporarily closed down due to bomb threat at chicken plant. Authorities shut down part of Highway 378 in West Columbia on Sunday afternoon after a bomb threat was made to a chicken processing plant there. The highway has since been re-opened. West Columbia police tell WIS News 10 the call was made from a convenience store near the Columbia Farms chicken plant. Workers were evacuated, and Highway 378 around the area of the farm was shut down by West Columbia police. No one was hurt. The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad was called, and investigated the area. Police say they did not find anything in the plant. As of Monday morning, the plant is up and running again.
Source: http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9473671&nav=0RaP

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb threat forces evacuation of county health building. Substance abuse patients were evacuated from the Utah County Health and Justice building Friday morning after a bomb threat. A Provo police sergeant said police received a call just after 9 a.m. from a person at the Allen’s supermarket in Provo. The man told police they had one hour to respond to the health building before it would explode. The sergeant said Provo police and the Utah County Sheriff’s Office brought bomb-sniffing dogs to the building while security personnel on scene checked common areas for anything suspicious. An hour went by and officers found nothing at the building. The sergeant said there were no witnesses or video camera footage of the suspect at the supermarket and police have few leads from that location.
Source: http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/291259/

[Adlerian Thinker]

Man arrested at Shasta College following gun threat. Redding police arrested a man who reportedly walked into the Shasta College bookstore and told those inside that he had a gun and had made several bombs, officers said. He was charged with making terrorist threats, attempted robbery, possessing ammunition on a school campus, and resisting arrest. The bookstore remained closed while officers searched for explosives inside. The rest of the building was lifted from lock down status around an hour after the incident was first reported, police said. The 911 call made at around 10:15 a.m. drew a rapid response from local law enforcement, and a SWAT team was sent to the campus, according to preliminary dispatch reports. The man was arrested by police after leaving the store.
Source: http://www.redding.com/news/2008/dec/05/man-arrested-shasta-college-following-gun-threat/

[Adlerian Thinker]

Emergency services law ignored. 44 cities and towns in central Massachusetts have yet to produce state-approved plans for providing emergency medical services, a requirement that has been on the books for nearly two years. A 2000 state law, dubbed “EMS 2000,” that was intended to improve the quality of emergency medical care in Massachusetts directed municipalities to draft ambulance “service zone plans” and have them approved by the state no later than December 31, 2006. Less than 40 percent of the cities and towns in the region had done so as of last month, according to a Telegram and Gazette analysis of a state report. Meanwhile, the State agency charged with approving and overseeing the service zone plans says it is powerless to do anything about the continued widespread failure to comply with the law throughout Massachusetts.
Source: http://www.telegram.com/article/20081207/NEWS/812070400/1116

[Adlerian Thinker]

Apartment receives bomb threat. Fire and police crews were investigating a bomb threat late Sunday night at a high-rise apartment complex in central Topeka. The bomb threat was reported around 8:45 p.m. when authorities received a 911 call that an explosive device was set to go off at 9 p.m. at the Polk Plaza apartments, the police captain said at the scene. He said that a person of interest had been taken into custody. By 9:45 p.m. Sunday, police were continuing to block off a perimeter around the nine-story apartment building. Several Topeka Fire Department trucks were in the immediate area. Topeka police canine units were searching an area outside the building late Sunday. No evacuations from the building had taken place by 9:45 p.m. The incident remained under investigation.
Source: http://cjonline.com/stories/120808/loc_364955737.shtml

[Adlerian Thinker]

Molotov cocktails thrown at 2 law enforcement vehicles parked at homes. In Port St. Lucie, Florida, Molotov cocktails reportedly were thrown at or near law enforcement vehicles parked at investigators’ homes Saturday night, and federal authorities are offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible, according to a police spokesman Wednesday. The incidents happened Saturday between 10:25 p.m. and 10:55 p.m. at residences about 3 miles apart in the city’s southwest section. The first involved a Molotov cocktail discovered about 100 feet from a marked Martin County Sheriff’s Office patrol car. The second involved a Molotov cocktail thrown at an unmarked Port St. Lucie police vehicle. The cocktail appears to have landed a couple of feet away from the white vehicle before bursting into flames. “It’s obviously a concern of ours that someone could be possibly targeting law enforcement,” said a police spokesman. The vehicles were unoccupied at the time, and no one was injured. Police are investigating several leads. The spokesman said the same type of bottles was used in the incidents. The bottle did not break in the first incident. Two witnesses gave similar descriptions of a suspect vehicle, a light colored sport utility vehicle, possibly a Jeep Cherokee.
Source: http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/dec/11/molotov-cocktails-thrown-law-enforcement-vehicles-/

[Adlerian Thinker]

State police probe bomb scare at Mansfield mall. State police are investigating a bomb scare at a Mansfield, Connecticut, shopping mall. State police say that a suspicious, threatening note was found outside of the rear of Kohl’s Department Store in the Eastbrook Shopping Mall Wednesday afternoon. State police say a note was written on a box with the words “BOMB IN MALL.” The mall was evacuated, and state police bomb sniffing dogs were brought in to conduct a complete search. The state police major crime squad is continuing to investigate the incident, and police are looking for anybody who might have information about the threatening note.
Source: http://www.newstimes.com/ci_11194020

[Adlerian Thinker]

9 more states, USVI get suspicious envelopes. Nine more states and the U.S. Virgin Islands have intercepted envelopes sent to government offices containing suspicious powder. On Thursday the letters arrived in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming. Letters in several of the states led to office shutdowns or evacuations. Tests indicate the powder found in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, North Dakota, and Utah is not harmful. Virgin Islands officials determined the powder there was corn starch. Tests were pending in the other states. Envelopes containing suspicious powder have already been received in a dozen other state capitals this week. Officials in some of those states say the powder was flour, corn starch or some other harmless food substance.
Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5giqzbHkY5aUtwYUxwihgAvCtsZLwD950SO600

[Adlerian Thinker]

Woman arrested for making college bomb threat. The Genesee County Sheriff’s Office has charged a 20-year-old woman with falsely reporting an incident in connection with a bomb threat yesterday on the campus of Genesee Community College. The defendant allegedly sent a text message to a GCC student while he was on campus stating, “I planted a bomb in the library last night, make sure you are out of the building by one.” The student receiving the text message reported it to GCC Security resulting in the evacuation of the campus and search for a device.
Source: http://www.whec.com/article/stories/s702441.shtml?cat=565

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb squad called to Renown. A suspicious package was found addressed to Renown Regional Medical Center’s security department Sunday morning, Reno Police said. A police lieutenant said the package was found near an entrance to a building near Kirman and East 2nd. He described the package as a one-foot by one-foot cardboard box with black electrical tape on it. Police condoned off part of a parking lot. However, he said the area is primarily only used by hospital employees so there was little or no disruption to the general public. He said an employee cafeteria was evacuated. The package also had a return address of a former hospital employee who was “disgruntled” about being fired. He said the former employee was contacted by phone, and the man said the box contained items related to his employment he wanted to return. However, officers followed protocol for a suspicious object and called in the Consolidated Bomb Squad. The Bomb Squad said the box was blasted apart with a water cannon and determined to have contained keys. The area sealed off was opened shortly after noon.
Source: http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/36144484.html#

[Adlerian Thinker]

Southington: Suspicious letter found in mail. The FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and other local, state, and federal authorities were investigating a suspicious letter and substance a North Summit Street woman received in the mail Saturday evening. The woman told police that she and her husband found a suspicious letter and substance inside one envelope after she got the mail from their mailbox. A Southington police sergeant said the letter was threatening. The Southington Fire Department quarantined the couple and a neighbor in a vehicle, and police, fire, and emergency responders were on scene for much of the night. The FBI, the state Department of Environmental Protection, the state Department of Public Health, the state police emergency services unit, the postal inspector, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force were also on scene. Southington police and the FBI were still investigating, he said. Officials shut down a portion of North Summit Street between Mill Street and West Center Street. The street was later reopened.
Source: http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-copdigbrf1214.art1dec14,0,5955854.story

[Adlerian Thinker]

Police: Bombs built to destroy Phoenix union hall. The homemade bombs and weapons that police found stockpiled at a northeast Phoenix home were built with the intent to destroy a local union hall, court records show. Police originally went to the man’s house Thursday to seize identifying information in the 2001 disappearance of his stepdaughter, who detectives believe was a victim of foul play. What they found was unrelated to the cold case. Investigators uncovered 32 improvised explosive devices, loaded guns, and homemade silencers at the house — a cache that will likely lead to felony weapons-misconduct charges, officials said. The discovery led to the rapid evacuation of more than 100 residents in dozens of surrounding homes. Phoenix police worked with federal investigators in the wake of the bomb scare to dig in the backyard, seize a van, and collect other evidence. The man told authorities he planned to use the bombs to target a local union with which he had an ongoing dispute, according to the probable-cause statement released Friday. Police did not specify which organization was targeted, though neighbors said the man was an electrician who often boasted about a brief stint as a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office employee.
Source:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2008/12/13/20081213turney1213.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Mailed white powder triggers quarantine at Carson City office. Five employees at a Carson City accounting firm were quarantined Monday by health officials after a suspicious white powder arrived in an envelope in the mail. Officials determined it was harmless and released the employees. The Bullis & Company office reopened for business. “The FBI’s handling it now,” according to a Carson City Sheriff lieutenant. “But a team tested it at the scene and it didn’t appear to be dangerous.” The building houses the accounting office and several law offices.
Source: http://www.rgj.com/article/20081216/NEWS15/812160355/1321/NEWS

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspicious package investigated at NC Air National Guard. Investigators are checking out a suspicious package found at the North Carolina Air National Guard facility near the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. The package matches the description of 11 other suspicious packages found at military installations around the country since Friday. In all of those incidents, no explosives were found, but some information was discovered inside the packages. Three buildings near the airport were evacuated as a precaution. Military police and the Charlotte Fire Department have now determined the package does not contain explosives and does not appear to be a threat. A mailroom worker first noticed the package and called for help. “It wasn’t properly addressed, the amount of postage, it had excessive postage on it,” said a North Carolina Air National Guard lieutenant. “There are several signs our mail personnel are trained to look at to make sure.” The FBI is now looking into the package and will try to find the person who sent it.
Source: http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/wcnc-1215-8-al-suspicious_package.6734cb7e.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb threat empties capitol. Employees were ordered out of the Louisiana State Capitol on Monday afternoon because of an anonymous bomb threat, officials said. A spokesman for the State Police said that about 15 minutes after the threat was made, authorities concluded that it was not credible. Baton Rouge police passed on the information to state authorities. Officials of the hazardous materials division of State Police searched the building. The spokesman said that at about 6 p.m. workers would have been allowed back in the building if it was during normal business hours.
Source: http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/36213049.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Fourth man charged in plot against U.S. targets in Germany. German federal prosecutors charged a fourth man in a major plot to attack U.S. citizens in Germany uncovered in 2007. The 23-year-old German was extradited from Turkey last month after being arrested there in November 2007 on charges of membership of a terrorist organization and preparation of a bombing. Investigators believe he procured 26 detonators recovered in September 2007 with drums of hydrogen peroxide, the substance used in the deadly 2005 attacks on London’s transport system, the statement said. Three men arrested at the time and charged three months ago are suspected of planning to use the chemicals to attack installations such as U.S. military bases in Germany and sites popular with U.S. citizens.
Source: http://www.expatica.com/de/news/local_news/Fourth-man-charged-in-plot-against-US-targets-in-Germany--.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Lamar student accused of terror threat. A Lamar University doctoral student was charged with making a terroristic threat after allegedly sending an e-mail threatening to violently disrupt Saturday’s commencement ceremony because he was upset about not graduating. The student was arraigned Thursday on the third-degree felony charge, a Beaumont Police officer said. Investigators said the student denied any involvement in the anonymous e-mail sent to the school’s president and said secretaries in the graduate office were trying to victimize him. The e-mail threatened to place people “in fear of serious bodily injury,” according to the state’s probable cause affidavit. U.S. Marshals on Thursday took the student to a federal courthouse where he now faces arraignment on federal charges that the threat was made using a communication system that crossed state lines. The student was denied graduation because he missed a deadline on his dissertation, said Lamar’s senior associate provost for academic affairs.
Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6171104.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspicious package causes evacuation of north Phoenix bank. Phoenix police and firefighters are investigating a suspicious package that caused the evacuation of a north Phoenix bank Wednesday evening. The packaged box was found at about 6 p.m. at the Chase bank located at Tatum Boulevard and Cactus Road. The Phoenix Fire Department Bomb Squad used a bomb detecting robot to investigate the package after the bank was evacuated and the surrounding area was sealed off.
Source: http://www.abc15.com/content/news/phoenixmetro/story/Suspicious-package-causes-evacuation-of-north/gmAoGQyQ4keUb4ZkQ-J5lA.cspx

[Adlerian Thinker]

Maybe we should take those found guilty in these investigations, and apply the death penalty.

FBI uses triage to shift from terror to Madoff, subprime probes. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has engaged in “triage,” taking agents off terror and other crimes to respond to a cascade of financial frauds, the head of the bureau’s New York criminal division said. The FBI was forced to reallocate its manpower in New York to deal with recent frauds involving subprime mortgages, auction-rate securities, and a well-known stock broker, who prosecutors said confessed this month to bilking investors out of $50 billion. “We have to work those cases which we think pose the greatest threat,” he said. “In this case, it is a threat to the financial system and Wall Street.”
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aVHDu98R3s6s&refer=home

[Adlerian Thinker]

Survey: Workers facing layoffs could be security threat. Fifty-eight percent of Wall Street office workers surveyed say they would take valuable company data with them if faced with a layoff, if they knew they could get away with it. The survey on the recession and its effects on work ethics were conducted among 226 office workers on New York City’s Wall Street by IT security firm Cyber-Ark. The survey found that many office workers are downloading sensitive company secrets right now under their bosses’ noses in anticipation they could lose their jobs. Among the survey’s findings were more than half the workers surveyed who admitted to already downloading competitive corporate data said they would use it as a negotiating tool to secure their next post because they know the information will be useful to future employers. The top-of-list of desirable information being extracted from employers is customer and contact databases. Plans and proposals, product information, and access and password codes are also popular choices. HR records and legal documents were the least favored data employees were interested in taking. Finally, 62 percent of workers admitted it was easy to sneak company information out of the office.
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2008/12/22/daily3.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb threat in Tallahassee. A passenger on an arriving bus reported hearing a fellow passenger make comments about the bus blowing up and planting a bomb on the bus. Portions of the bus terminal were evacuated, and incoming buses were diverted while Tallahassee police officers located the man’s luggage. It was determined there were no bombs or explosives on the bus or at the terminal. The man was arrested and charged with making a false report of a bomb or hoax device.
Source: http://www.wctv.tv/news/headlines/36530294.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Pipe bomb found in mailbox. Kentucky State Police (KSP) are investigating after a pipe bomb was found in a Campbellsburg mailbox. When troopers arrived, the PVC pipe bomb was located on the floor of the property owner’s vehicle. The Hazardous Devices Unit removed the bomb from the car with a robot and it was handled remotely with a 357 pan disrupter. Investigators found the pipe contained black powder and a fuse, which had been ignited, but not detonated. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms was notified, and KSP will be assisting with the investigation.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28326931/

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspect arrested in Prineville bomb threat. Prineville, Oregon, police have made an arrest in the bomb threat of the Crook County Mental Health Building. A 24-year old has been charged with disorderly conduct and ten counts of menacing. He has been lodged in the Crook County Jail in lieu of bail. The threat was telephoned into the former offices of the Mental Health Building, which is just a block away from their new quarters. Police then evacuated a citywide block and cordoned off traffic for four blocks. During the daylong investigation, police uncovered evidence that lead them to the accused. He was arrested on a traffic stop at 5:58 p.m. and volunteered to go to the police station for an interview. In the meantime, technicians from the Portland Police Bureau examined items they thought were suspicious in the Crook County Mental Health Building, but it was determined the items were harmless.
Source: http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081220/NEWS0107/812200402/1001/FRONTPAGE

[Adlerian Thinker]

U.S. not ready for cyber attack. The United States is unprepared for a major hostile attack against vital computer networks, government and industry officials said on December 18 after participating in a two-day “cyberwar” simulation. The game involved 230 representatives of government defense and security agencies, private companies, and civil groups. It revealed flaws in leadership, planning, communications, and other issues, participants said. “There isn’t a response or a game plan,” said senior vice president of the Booz Allen Hamilton consulting service, which ran the simulation. “There isn’t really anybody in charge,” he told reporters afterward. Officials cited attacks by Russia sympathizers on Estonia and Georgia as examples of modern cyberwarfare, and said U.S. businesses and government offices have faced intrusions and attacks.
Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNewsMolt/idUKTRE4BI00520081219?sp=true

[Adlerian Thinker]

White powder sent to U.S. embassy in S Korea: police. An envelope containing white powder was mailed to the U.S. embassy in Seoul last week and is being tested for possible toxins, South Korean police said December 25. Eighteen other U.S. embassies have received white powder this month, as well as more than 40 governors’ offices in the United States. Initial tests showed the substance was harmless, but the deliveries sparked security alerts. South Korea’s National Police Agency said an envelope postmarked Texas was delivered to the embassy Wednesday morning and has been taken away for testing. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said most tests showed no harmful substance but details would be revealed after further examination. The embassy in Seoul is the second U.S. mission in Asia to have received the substance, after Tokyo.
Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j4IJ5ogBKzP-OkQsDyYjM84-2Khw

U.S. embassy in Turkmenistan gets white powder mail. The U.S. embassy in Turkmenistan was on high alert on December 25 after receiving a package containing suspicious white powder. U.S. embassies in up to 20 countries have received envelopes containing suspicious white powder since December 8. In most missions the packages were found to be harmless.
Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/US_Embassy_In_Turkmenistan_Gets_White_Powder_Mail/1363663.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Southern Okla. casino evacuated after bomb threat. Authorities say they did not find any explosives in the WinStar World Casino near the Oklahoma-Texas state line after someone called in a bomb threat. A spokesman of the Chickasaw Nation Lighthorse Police says employees and patrons were allowed back inside early Friday morning. The casino is again operating as usual. Bomb dogs were brought in to scour the premises. No other buildings were evacuated. The casino employs more than 2,400 full- and part-time workers and was working on an expansion to become Oklahoma’s largest casino, according to its Web site.
Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6182089.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Underground explosion rocks Savannah’s downtown. An explosion in underground electrical cables blew off manhole covers and started several fires in downtown Savannah, Georgia, Monday morning, prompting police to evacuate several stores and restaurants, many of which were without power. No injuries were immediately reported, police said. Police received calls around 8:49 a.m. reporting that manhole covers had been blown off at an intersection in the heart of the downtown district, said a police spokesman. About an hour later, firefighters had put out three separate fires where the covers blew off. It would likely be evening before the utility’s crews could get underground to begin investigating what happened, said a Georgia Power spokeswoman. Power was out in a large section of downtown. The George Power spokeswoman said some customers would not have power until morning.
Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gEG5pWb55PO69fGeKMGgDFWFB6ogD95CGJV84

[Adlerian Thinker]

Corps moves to replace M249. The Corps has awarded four contracts to three companies to produce prototypes of the 5.56mm Infantry Automatic Rifle, which is slated to supplant the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. The three firms will compete for a contract that could be worth up to $27 million. The firm selected will manufacture between 4,476 and 6,500 rifles. The three companies are FN Herstal of Herstal, Belgium; Heckler and Koch Defense of Ashburn, Virginia; and Colt Defense of West Hartford, Connecticut. “Each [company] will produce and deliver a minimum of 10 weapons. The Marine Corps will next evaluate these weapons and then intends to select one weapon system from one company to meet the IAR requirement,” Marine officials said in a news release. The IAR is a lightweight, magazine-fed weapon. It will provide a one-for-one replacement of the M249 in Marine rifle squads within infantry battalions and in the scout teams in light armored reconnaissance battalions.
Source: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/12/marine_rifle_122908/

[Adlerian Thinker]

U.S. military uses Nintendo to defuse bombs. Reports from the United States have said the U.S. military has adapted the motion-sensitive Nintendo Wii controllers (or Wiimotes) to operate bomb disposal robots. And according to metro.co.uk, scientists have created the Packbot, a machine-gun-toting robot which uses Wii technology to clear mines and bombs. Nintendo first launched the Wiimotes in 2006. Its controllers detect the motion of players’ hands and beam their hand motions to the console which are then converted to gameplay. However, this is the first time they have been adapted for actual war purposes, where the use of standard remote controls is common. But Packbot is not the first weapon to use gaming technology. America’s seven-ton attack robot ‘Crusher’ is operated by a Microsoft Xbox 360 controller.
Source: http://www.channelnews.com.au/Gaming/Console/L6X3G5V5

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bus station evacuated after bomb threat. Orlando police are investigating a bomb threat at a Greyhound bus station in Orlando. Officers said the bomb squad was dispatched to the bus station on John Young Parkway after a man walked in the building and told a woman at the ticket counter that he planned to kill himself. He said he had a device in his bag that would do it, WESH 2 News reported. Officers evacuated the building while the bomb squad handled the suspicious bag. Police did not say what was in the bag but said it was taken care of.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28398518/

[Adlerian Thinker]

Minister finds fake bomb on his car. A prominent Springfield, Missouri, pastor and former NAACP president found what appeared to be a pipe bomb on his car Sunday morning. The suspicious device on the reverend’s car turned out to be a fake, said the fire marshal. After determining it was a fake bomb at the pastor’s residence, investigators brought a bomb dog to New Growth Ministries, where the reverend has been founding pastor for eight years. The fire marshal said it was too early in the investigation to determine a motive.
Source: http://www.news-leader.com/article/20081229/NEWS01/812290358/1007/NEWS01

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb squad dispatches suspicious box at mall. A suspicious box believed to be a bomb temporarily disrupted shopping Saturday at the Rogue Valley Mall in Medford, Oregon. A concerned caller phoned Medford police around noon to report that a large box, which was wrapped in duct tape, was leaning against an outer wall near JC Penney beside a cargo door facing Interstate 5. Officers, along with mall security, quickly cleared the parking lot and roped off the area to wait for Oregon State Police (OSP) bomb squad technicians, the Medford master police officer said. OSP bomb squad troopers arrived from Central Point with their bomb robot. The robot approached the box and destroyed it with a blast from a powerful water cannon. It turns out the box was full of more cardboard boxes and nothing more. Officers on the scene Saturday determined it would not be necessary to evacuate the mall as they dealt with the suspicious box. Shoppers were allowed to reach their cars after the robot destroyed the box. “Had we found a strange box like that inside, we would have evacuated the mall,” the officer said. The incident lasted close to two hours. The officer was thankful the bomb robot was available in Central Point to defuse the situation within a couple of hours. Being one of the few OSP bomb robots in the state means the robot is often hours away and must be transported to a scene.
Source:http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081228/NEWS/812280332

[Adlerian Thinker]

1000 Plus Arrested in Gangs & Guns Operation

After 3 weeks, Fresno Police Department's crime suppression effort, "Operation Gangs and Guns" has resulted in more than 1000 arrests.
Multimedia

Sunday night, during a routine traffic stop in Northwest Fresno, officers said they encountered 2 validated gang members in possession of a loaded gun.

Lt. Mike Doyle who oversees the operation said," There's no doubt we stopped a drive-by because 2 guys, both ex-felons, both serious, violent gang members with a loaded stolen .22 riffle in the back and all it takes is them to point that out the window."

The two men were arrested and charged with a number of felonies which, if convicted, could land them in prison.

Lt. Doyle said these arrests alone make Operation Gangs and Guns a success, "Everyday they're inside the jail, they're not out committing crimes."
Source: http://www.ksee24.com/news/local/36870134.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Aurora murders at lowest level since 1987
Authorities credit drop to police and change in federal anti-gang policies

By Russell Working

When FBI supervisor Paul Bock came to the western suburbs in the 1990s, Aurora had a murder rate three times the national average.

Detectives were overwhelmed and a former police chief told Bock, "The only problem with Aurora is there's about 50 or 60 people who shoot people for fun."

Things got so bad that in 1996 the city of 100,000 had 26 murders, including that of a 6-year-old boy who was shot in his bed.

This year, Aurora is on course to end the year with only two killings, even with the population now at 171,000.

The number of murders and non-negligent homicides is the lowest since 1987, when there was a single slaying, and police say major crimes have dropped to levels not seen since 1985.

snip

Because the homicide rate has zigzagged over the years, officials caution against complacency. Yet they say factors ranging from dogged police work to a change in federal anti-gang priorities have helped reduce the killings.

Working on a theory that a limited number of bad guys were responsible for most of the deaths, police, prosecutors and their partners in agencies like the FBI have knocked down the crime rate by locking up those suspected of ordering or carrying out most of the violence. That includes arresting the reputed leadership of the Latin Kings and Insane Deuces gangs in Illinois' second-largest city.

"Without a formal hierarchy, the orders to shoot people just dropped," said Bock, supervisor of the FBI's West Suburban Gang Task Force. "We're now in a position where the murder rate is similar to Naperville."

Furthermore, major crimes such as rape, murder, robbery and aggravated battery were down for the first 11 months of this year compared with the same period in 2007, Aurora police reported. Violent crime fell 10 percent. And although the city had 357 shootings in 1996, this year there have been 108 as of Dec. 19.

snip

In 1994, Rev. David Engbarth, a Roman Catholic priest, co-founded the anti-gang Prayer Coalition for Reconciliation after one of his parishioners lost the second of two sons to gun violence.

"I just thank God and know that it is a miracle," Engbarth recently said of the city's clampdown on crime. "Miracles happen with our cooperation and with our working hand-in-hand with God."

In 2002, a 16-year-old football player was shot to death as he stood on a front porch several blocks from his family's home in a middle-class neighborhood on Aurora's near west side.

"Here's a kid who's doing the right thing," said Sgt. Robb Wallers, a former detective who now leads the investigations division. "He's not involved in gangs. He's going to school. It just epitomized how society was starting to get, and how things were getting in Aurora. It was just a completely and utterly senseless murder."

That year Aurora saw 26 murders, tying the number from six years earlier, but the city also got a boost. In response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the FBI realigned its priorities and allowed Bock to work on local crimes and not just those that involved drug trafficking.

Before the change, if Bock were to take on local gangs, he would need to tie arrests to drug trafficking.

Other federal agencies have joined the effort since 2002, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-aurora-murders-27dec30,0,1422453.story

[Adlerian Thinker]

Police identify larger number of gang members in Southcentral

CONFIRMED: Official number is 237; the high might be 1,000.

By JAMES HALPIN

Published: December 29th, 2008 10:09 PM

Documented gangs in Anchorage continue to swell, even as anti-gang officials pledged Monday to continue their 2-year-old effort to combat youth violence in Southcentral Alaska.

To date, police have identified 112 suspected gangs in Anchorage operating with as many as 1,000 members. Of those, 49 gangs have been validated, including 237 confirmed members.

Those numbers are up significantly from past counts. For example, a report police released in late 2007 described 22 confirmed gangs with 150 validated members. In 2006, police counted roughly a dozen known gangs with about 115 validated members.

However, Anchorage police chief Rob Heun said Monday that the increase does not necessarily mean there are more gangs, only that police are better at identifying them.
snip

Also, the special assignment unit responded to 755 suspected gang-related incidents in the past year, but only about a quarter actually involved gang members, Heun said.

Stemming such numbers is the purpose of the Tri-Borough Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Policy Team, which pledged Monday to continue the fight in Anchorage and the Mat-Su and Kenai Peninsula boroughs in coming years using preventive measures like mentors, after-school programs and school resource officers.

Dean Williams, superintendent of McLaughlin Youth Center, said the agreement will help prevent high-risk youths, like those expelled from school, from falling through the cracks.

"Sometimes, problems exist on the fringes of several agencies," Williams said. "Alone, they don't have the jurisdiction or maybe they don't have the expertise to deal with those particular problems."

The mission also entails cracking down on youthful offenders. That has included naming two prosecutors to focus on youth crime and creating a state gang prosecutor position, Anchorage District Attorney Adrienne Bachman said.

Already, the team counts among its successes 81 federal indictments on gun and weapons charges that resulted in 48 convictions and sentences totaling more than 326 years.

Overall cost estimates were not immediately available, but some portions can be pricey. For example, the team responsible for the federal indictments cost about $380,000 split between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice.

"I think we would have seen more crime on the streets in regards to gangs, guns and drugs if we didn't have that strong prosecution," Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich said. "When they find out very quickly they're going away for a long time, that spreads on the street very quickly."

snip

Source: http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/crime/story/637217.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bus station evacuated after bomb threat. Orlando police are investigating a bomb threat at a Greyhound bus station in Orlando. Officers said the bomb squad was dispatched to the bus station on John Young Parkway after a man walked in the building and told a woman at the ticket counter that he planned to kill himself. He said he had a device in his bag that would do it, WESH 2 News reported. Officers evacuated the building while the bomb squad handled the suspicious bag. Police did not say what was in the bag but said it was taken care of.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28398518/

[Adlerian Thinker]

FORMER U.S. ARMY ARSENAL EMPLOYEE PLEADS GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY TO ACT AS UNREGISTERED AGENT OF ISRAEL

MANHATTAN — Lev L. Dassin, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Ben-Ami Kadish pleaded guilty earlier today to a one-count information charging him with participating in a conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of the Government of Israel.

In summary, according to statements at Kadish’s guilty plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz, the Information and other documents filed Manhattan federal court:

Kadish is a former employee of the U.S. Army’s Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center at the Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, New Jersey (“the Arsenal”). On numerous occasions from about 1980 through 1985, Kadish provided classified documents relating to the U.S. military – including some relating to U.S. missile defense systems – to an agent of the Government of Israel, Yossi Yagur, who photographed the documents at Kadish’s residence.

Kadish, 85, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.

Kadish is scheduled to be sentenced in Manhattan federal court by U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley on February 13, 2009.

Mr. Dassin praised the investigative work of the New York and Newark Field Divisions of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and thanked the U.S. Army for their support in this case.

This prosecution is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Iris Lan from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and Trial Attorney Kathleen Kedian from the Counterespionage Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
Source: http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel08/nyfo123008.htm

[Adlerian Thinker]

Airplane brawl investigation continues. The U.S. Attorney for Nebraska said Wednesday he is still waiting on reports from the FBI about an unstable passenger aboard a Continental Air Express commuter jet who attacked a flight attendant. The jet was heading from Houston to Omaha on December 26 when a middle-aged man left the plane’s lavatory after about 40 minutes covered in his own feces. The flight attendant asked the passenger to go back into the lavatory and clean up, which prompted the attack. The injured attendant, with help from the passengers, got the unruly passenger buckled in and calmed down for the landing at Eppley Airfield, which took place without incident an hour later. The airline will not comment on the attendant’s condition. Sources tell Channel 6 News the man resides at a care facility in Iowa and was returning from a Christmas holiday trip alone, completing a trip from Chicago to Houston and then Omaha. The U.S. Attorney says the man was not arrested, but detained at the airport by authorities until picked up by trained professionals from the care facility in Iowa.
Source: http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/36909299.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspicious powder found in Christmas card. Hazardous materials crews rushed to a Dougherty County home, and first responders shut down a road after a suspicious powder was found. Around 2:30 Wednesday, Dougherty County Police and the Albany Fire Department’s Hazmat Team responded to the 100 block of Honeysuckle Drive. A woman there opened a Christmas card that contained white powder and a note that said she had put herself in danger. Honeysuckle Drive was blocked for more than an hour as a precaution as the hazmat team investigated. The hazmat team secured the powder and will send it to the state health lab for tests.
Source: http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=9603880&nav=5kZQ

[Adlerian Thinker]

Man sought in Aspen threats kills himself. A one-time resident of Aspen, Colorado, who had been bitter over its transformation into a playground for the rich, left four gift-wrapped bombs downtown in a bank-robbery attempt, turning New Year’s Eve celebrations into a mass evacuation, police said Thursday. The dangerous bombs were made of gasoline and cell phone parts and came with notes warning of “mass death.” The 72-year-old man suspected of placing them in two banks and in an alleyway on Wednesday shot and killed himself a short time later, police said. The man had walked into two Aspen banks about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday and left packages wrapped in holiday paper along with notes saying the boxes contained bombs, police said. The notes threatened “mass death,” demanded $60,000 cash, and included criticisms of the current U.S. President, the assistant Aspen police chief said. The man’s notes said he was targeting four banks, police said, but only two — a Wells Fargo Bank and a nearby Vectra Bank — received the packages. Later, police found two similar packages atop a black sled in a downtown alley. The threats prompted police to clear nearly all of downtown Aspen — 16 blocks that otherwise would have been filled with tens of thousands of New Year’s revelers. Residents were allowed to return at 4 a.m. Police bomb squads detonated the bombs once the area was cleared; no one was injured. The Aspen Times reported that the man left a typewritten note at the newspaper’s offices Wednesday evening saying, “Aspen will pay a horrible price in blood” if his demands were not met. The note also said a fifth bomb was “hidden in a high end watering hole,” and Aspen bars had been searched but no additional bomb was discovered.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28458836/

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.infragard.net/

[Adlerian Thinker]

Passenger arrested for bomb threat at St. Louis airport. An airline passenger was arrested after authorities said he made a bomb threat when flight attendants asked him to close his laptop computer before takeoff. The man was on board a United Express flight to Washington Saturday afternoon at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. An airport spokesman said that when attendants asked him to close his laptop, “he mentioned a bomb or made a bomb threat.” Police were called, and the man was arrested. The flight was delayed more than two hours while police searched the plane for explosives, but nothing was found.
Source: http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/964170.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Man drops off suspicious package at post office. Orange County Sheriff’s deputies responding to a reckless driving call Friday found an individual acting suspicious at the Dana Point Post Office. The man, who dropped off an envelope, was wearing rubber gloves at the time and was acting strange, according to postal workers. Deputies followed him to a nearby restaurant where he was detained. According to a police lieutenant, the man said he was in a rush to get to the post office before it closed. He said he had been doing yard work earlier and forgot that he was wearing the gloves. The facility was evacuated while a bomb squad and the Orange County Fire Authority Hazmat were called to inspect the envelope. The envelope and a box left underneath the counter at the post office were cleared.
Source: http://cbs2.com/local/Dana.Point.post.2.899236.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Elizabeth courthouse evacuated after bomb threat. Authorities have reopened two buildings in the Union County Courthouse complex after an hour-long evacuation Monday because of a bomb threat. The undersheriff said the courthouse tower and annex buildings were evacuated around 8:10 a.m., before many people had arrived for work. The buildings were reopened after 9 a.m. after a search did not turn up any explosives. A state police sergeant says the threat was phoned in Monday morning.
Source: http://www.1010wins.com/Elizabeth-Courthouse-Evacuated-for-Bomb-Threat/3600143

[Adlerian Thinker]

U.S. Navy plans to use dolphins and sea lions to detect underwater terrorists. The U.S. Navy is considering a program that would deploy Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions to detect terrorists or other intruders swimming on the surface or underwater toward ships, submarines, and other critical assets located at sensitive naval bases. The dolphins and sea lions would be used, in conjunction with human security patrol teams, to detect, identify, and possibly “tag” the intruding swimmers, so they could be found and apprehended quickly by human personnel operating in small boats. For more than two decades, the Navy has been contemplating such a plan, to use dolphins and sea lions at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, a naval base in the Puget Sound, 20 miles west of Seattle, Washington, in a controversial effort now called the Swimmer Interdiction Security System, or SISS. A draft environmental impact statement describing a wide range of environmental aspects of the proposed SISS “Marine Mammal Program” was unveiled December 17, 2008, and public hearings will be held in two communities near the naval base on February 11 and 12.
Source: http://www.gsnmagazine.com/cms/market-segments/maritime-port-security/1301.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Letter threatens Capitol Hill bar patrons. An alarming letter was sent to nearly a dozen Seattle bars threatening to kill people with ricin. Seattle Police says it is taking the threat seriously and is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate. Officers have collected all 11 letters sent to the bars. “It had a typed label on the front of it, it was taped to the front, no return address on it or anything,” said a bartender. He got the letter Tuesday, in which the author writes: “I have in my possession approximately 67 grams of ricin.” The letter goes on to say people will die in “11 locations in the Capitol Hill vicinity. Each location will have at least five targets.” The content of the letter, which appears to target gay-friendly bars, is spreading quickly on Capitol Hill. KING 5 News has learned that the joint terrorism task force has not been called in at this point to investigate the ricin threats because at this point authorities consider this simply a threat and there is no indication actual ricin is involved.
Source: http://www.nwcn.com/statenews/washington/stories/NW_010609WAB_ricin_letter_KC.470ebef9.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

FBI: Man allegedly threatened to bomb LA-bound jet. A Kentucky man who claimed to have a bomb aboard a Los Angeles-bound jetliner and was then tackled and bound by other passengers will not face federal charges, the FBI said Wednesday. No bomb was found aboard the Delta Air Lines Flight 110 from Atlanta, and after questioning by the FBI and airport police, federal investigators had decided not to pursue charges against the 45-year-old, an FBI source said. She said investigators concluded he should undergo a psychological evaluation. The man was turned over to Los Angeles police and booked for making a false bomb threat. He was being held at a downtown jail, said an airport police sergeant. The plane was only minutes from landing at Los Angeles International Airport shortly before 10:30 a.m. Wednesday when the man “jumped up and started running ... (and) yelled ‘I’ve got a bomb,’” a passenger told Fox 11 News. After passengers restrained him, the man claimed to have a bomb, then later lunged for an exit door and assaulted a passenger. Passengers and flight crew members then restrained him a second time, binding him with plastic ties.
Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hTwX7Zari8f5Dwx8dNwwOqiNzMnAD95INAMG1

[Adlerian Thinker]

Mla post office staff in quarantine due to anthrax threat. A dozen employees of the Manila Post Office are currently placed under quarantine after possibly being exposed to a letter addressed to the U.S. Embassy in Manila suspected of containing anthrax. The twelve employees, who all work at the lock-box section of the post office, are presumed to have handled the letter. The U.S. Embassy is assigned PO Box 151 inside the lock-box section, which is now temporarily closed. The letter was first noticed when the U.S. Embassy’s messenger picked up mail.
The embassy was alarmed when they noticed the letter, which came from Houston, Texas. The letter was immediately brought by the embassy’s Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) Hazardous Materials section to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Alabang for testing. The BFP HazMat team also went to the lock-box area to decontaminate the room and to examine the employees. Despite not yet proving the mail actually contained anthrax, authorities said the precautionary measures were taken to ensure the safety of everyone involved.
Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/01/08/09/mla-post-office-staff-quarantine-due-anthrax-threat

[Adlerian Thinker]

Preparing for a chlorine gas disaster. A new study examining the lingering effects of the 2005 chlorine gas disaster in Graniteville, South Carolina, should serve as a blueprint for larger metropolitan areas looking to prepare for an accidental or terrorist release of the potentially deadly gas, the researchers said. “This is one of the largest community exposures to chlorine gas since World War I,” the study lead author said in a news release issued by the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, which published the report in its January issue. “It was a tragic disaster that shows us what a significant challenge a large-scale chlorine gas release poses to health-care facilities,” he said. Hospitals need to be able to quickly recognize the signs of chlorine exposure and have enough mechanical ventilators on hand, he added. He was part of a team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) that studied the accident’s resulting health effects. “Public health agencies and hospitals across the country can learn a lot from this disaster and be better prepared to help in the next emergency,” the state epidemiologist and director of the Bureau of Disease Control at the South Carolina DHEC and a co-author of the report said in the news release.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/07/AR2009010703321.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspicious package left at DSHS office. Police in Lacey are investigating after a suspicious package was found at a Department of Social and Health Services building in Lacey. Police say just after 7 a.m. they were notified of suspicious activity outside of a DSHS office. State employees said two suspicious men were near the front of the building, and one was observed looking at a paper box at the front entrance. The men told the state employees they were with Homeland Security and left. Police officers responded and found a small box on top of the Tacoma News Tribune paper box. The building was evacuated and a state bomb squad was called to the scene. They removed the package and blew it up. At this time it is unclear what was inside. There have been no injuries.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28543907/

[Adlerian Thinker]

Hazmat team investigates suspicious material in Marianna. Suspicious materials Thursday morning have closed the Jackson County Courthouse in Marianna. Police say a white power was found near the front door causing the building to be evacuated. County business and court activities were halted while the Hazmat team was called to the scene. The sheriff says a deputy first spotted an American flag with a Bible and when he went to pick it up some white power got onto his uniform. The lawman is believed to be the only one who was exposed, but at least four other people are being checked for possible exposure. The incident occurred around 8 a.m. One street has been closed off while the incident is being investigated to determine whatever the white powdery substance may be. Until then, the courthouse in Marianna remains closed.
Source: http://www.wjhg.com/news/headlines/37271664.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2009/01/10/homeland-security-has-plan-if-mexico-drug-violence-spreads-to-us/

Homeland Security Has Plan If Mexico Drug Violence Spreads To US

If Mexican drug violence spills across the U.S. border, Homeland Security officials say they have a contingency plan to assist border areas that includes bringing in the military.

“It’s a common sense extension of our continued work with our state, local, and tribal partners in securing the southwest border,” DHS spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said Friday.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who described the contingency plan in an interview with The New York Times this week, said he ordered specific plans to be drawn up this summer as violence in Mexico continued to mount.

The plan includes federal homeland security agents helping local authorities and maybe even military assistance from the Department of Defense, possibly including aircraft, armored vehicles and special teams to go to areas overwhelmed with violence, authorities said.

Kudwa would not give specifics on the so-called “surge” plan, but said it does not create any new authorities.

In the last year, more than 5,000 people have been killed and police and military officials have become common targets for violent drug cartels who are fighting with each other and the government for control of lucrative drug and human smuggling routes across Mexico.

More than one-fifth of the deaths have occurred in Ciudad Juarez, the hardscrabble border city just across the Rio Grande from El Paso.

Officials in Mexico reported about 1,600 homicides in Juarez in 2007 and at least 20 people have been killed in the first nine days of this year.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2009/01/10/ny-police-eye-disrupting-cell-phones-in-terrorist-threat/

NY Police Eye Disrupting Cell Phones in Terrorist Threat

The New York Police Department is looking for new methods to disrupt cell phone calls and other forms of electronic communication among potential terrorists — part of what the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies say are the “lessons learned” after the deadly November terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India.

NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly told federal anti-terror officials that the NYPD must have the ability to disrupt cell phone calls in the event of another planned attack on New York City.

Fox News reports that a draft copy of Kelly’s statement to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security says the NYPD believes the Mumbai attacks could be a model for other low-tech attacks. It was not clear whether the NYPD has the means to disrupt electronic communications for a small group of terrorists without shutting down cell phone service to a large part of New York City.

Kelly said that in the India attacks, the terrorists had handlers who used cell phones and other portable communication devices to order the killing of hostages and adjust tactics during the siege of Mumbai.

The 10 attackers, who Indian authorities say came from Pakistan, fanned out to locations such as hotels and buildings, taking and executing hostages and holding off Indian security forces for several days. The attacks left more than 170 people dead and some 300 wounded.

[tomahawk]

I would like to add to this if you dont mind. One of the things, or changes I have noticed in todays America, is the complete and almost total lack of the younger generations to get involved in their communities. It seems to me that the 18 to 35 year old group that should be involved in the various community functions and orginizations, are mysteriously absent. That sets a horrid example for the kids comming up. Sad.
PEOPLE GET INVOLVED IN YOUR HOME COMMUNITY, THEY NEED YOU!
Cav Scout,
If you are still out there, how prophetic was your note from a year and a half ago? Getting the 18-35 yr old crowed involved with Homeland security is exactly what our newly elected President intends to do. Unfortunately, Obama's version of Homeland security means keeping an eye on the conservatives since we believe in the Constitution, that an enemy is an enemy, you have to be a legal citizen and that there is a God who is kind of upset with the way things are going right now.... After all he is going to iron things out with Iran then all will be right with the world.
Janet Reno had her list of "people to watch" . Remember? Folks like the Christian Business Men, Promise Keepers, the Assemblies Of God... She used the IRS back then. But, since it is a Government run agency, it wasn't very effective.
Fast forward... What better way to keep those Bible thump'n, gun tot'n Patriots in line but with a bunch of lazy, hormone race'n, party haze'n, anti-god, anti-country, anti-authority pimple poppers who have been promised a few bucks to sit on their butts and intrude into our lives from the comfort of a computer screen. To them it will be like playing Sims.
Tomahawk

[Adlerian Thinker]

12 PhilPost employees pass first test for anthrax. The 12 employees of the Philippine Postal Corp. (PhilPost) who were quarantined on suspicion of anthrax infection tested negative for the disease on first swabbing, the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) said Friday. The spokesman for the ATC said the workers would remain quarantined for further tests. PhilPost placed 12 (not 13 as earlier report) of its workers under seclusion after personnel from the U.S. Embassy on Thursday discovered white powder in an envelope in one of the office’s incoming mail.
Source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/143460/12-PhilPost-employees-pass-first-test-for-anthrax

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb threat at courthouse investigated. The Cherokee County Courthouse was evacuated January 7 after the sixth bomb threat since 2005. The Columbus police chief said a caller to a dispatcher at the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department, which is not housed in the courthouse, said there was a bomb in the courthouse. The call came in about 2 p.m. The courthouse was evacuated, and the courthouse square was closed to traffic. The courthouse was closed for the rest of the day January 7. The Kansas Highway Patrol was transporting bomb-sniffing dogs from Topeka to go through the building to determine if any explosives were present. After the most recent bomb threat, which came on Sept. 29, a protocol was presented for employees to follow when a bomb threat is phoned in to the courthouse. The protocol included training employees to use a feature called customer-originated trace. It was not clear January 7 whether the Sheriff’s Department was able to trace the call.
Source: http://www.joplinglobe.com/neo_sek/local_story_008003630.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Latest problem import? Infected digital photo frames. Digital photo frames infected with computer viruses are the latest problem import from China. “Essentially, it’s a supply chain problem,” said the director of the Internet Storm Center at the SANS Institute. The culprit is believed to be poor quality-assurance testing procedures in which one of every 1,000 or so devices is plucked off an assembly line and tested on a computer that is infected with a virus, he said. Before Christmas, Samsung and Amazon issued alerts warning customers that some Photo Frame Driver CDs for Samsung’s SPF line of digital photo frames contained a virus in the frame manager software. Customer PCs running Windows XP are at risk of being infected by the virus, W32.Sality.AE, which drops a keylogger or backdoor onto the system. Element and Mercury brand frames sold at Circuit City and Wal-Mart, respectively, also were reported to be infected, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “Anything that has flash storage or bootable storage is exposed to this kind of threat,” said the director of security research for McAfee Avert Labs. “It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy them. You should just realize before you plug it in that you might want to disable the Windows auto-boot functionality and run an antivirus scan on it, just to be safe.”
Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10137032-83.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Security

[Adlerian Thinker]

Two UC Davis researchers receive bomb threats. Radical animal rights activists have threatened to send letter bombs to two University of California at Davis researchers, according to authorities. The group has reportedly carried out a bombing in the past. An online posting by a group calling itself the Revolutionary Cells Animal Liberation Brigade identified the two university researchers by name on Saturday night, saying that they had sent them a nasty surprise through the mail. The threat accuses the two researchers at the California National Primate Research Center of torturing primates. UC Davis security is on high alert. The group that made the threat is the same group that claimed responsibility for bombing an Emeryville building and a failed car bombing attempt on a UCLA professor. No suspicious packages have been found in either researcher’s mailbox, and one of the researchers said his mail is being screened at the post office. Other researchers at the Primate Center have been warned to be careful when opening their mail.
Source: http://cbs13.com/local/letter.bomb.threats.2.905783.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Teen pleads guilty for role in building explosives. A Rockville teen has pleaded guilty to charges for his role in building explosives in a case that involved a map of Camp David. The state’s attorney says the defendant issued the plea January 9 in Montgomery County Circuit Court on two counts of manufacturing or possession of destructive devices, one count of unauthorized use of a computer, and one count of theft less than $100. The defendant admitted helping a school mate build and detonate pipe bombs. The defendant also obtained letterhead from the police department to try to access police equipment.
Source: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1569340

[Adlerian Thinker]

Area of Cleveland Park reopened after bomb scare. District of Columbia police shut down several blocks of Connecticut Avenue NW and the Cleveland Park Metro station for about 2 1/2 hours early Tuesday morning to investigate two potentially suspicious vehicles, neither of which was ultimately deemed a threat, officials said. The Metro station and the road were reopened by 7:45 a.m. A police spokeswoman said police became concerned after finding a parked SUV that was blocking traffic on Connecticut Avenue shortly after 5 a.m. The car’s owner could not be located. Police summoned bomb technicians and dogs trained to detect explosives, and the dogs identified a second vehicle — a commercial van — that was nearby on Connecticut Avenue and apparently contained chemicals that smelled suspicious, the spokeswoman said. Neither vehicle was determined to be a threat.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011300604.html?wprss=rss_metro

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspicious powder in Mill Creek prompts investigation. Hazmat units Tuesday afternoon investigated suspicious powder found in an envelope. Police were called to a business in Mill Creek after an employee reportedly received an envelope in the mail containing a bill, a payment, and a suspicious, brown, flaky substance. Investigators evacuated the third floor of the commercial building where the business is located, a Mill Creek police spokeswoman said. Two employees came in contact with the substance but did not develop any symptoms. Snohomish County Fire District 7 and Lynnwood hazmat units assisted in the investigation. Hazmat investigators determined the substance was not dangerous, the spokeswoman said.
Source: http://heraldnet.com/article/20090114/NEWS01/701149730

[Adlerian Thinker]

White powder spurs evacuations in sheriff’s office. Authorities say a letter containing an unknown but harmless white powder prompted evacuations at the Eagle County sheriff’s administration office. The letter arrived at the office at about 1:20 p.m. Tuesday. The sheriff’s office says it followed protocol and immediately sealed off the affected area. Two employees came into contact with the substance and were quarantined until a hazardous materials team determined the substance was not toxic. The evacuation was lifted before 3 p.m.
Source: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/14/white-powder-spurs-evacuations-in-sheriffs/

[Adlerian Thinker]

3 taken to hospital after opening envelope. Three people were hospitalized on Tuesday after coming in contact with a suspicious substance that was found after opening an envelope, the Sacramento Fire Department said. The substance was determined to be harmless. A fire department captain said it was thought to be wax used to seal envelopes. The envelope contained an application for insurance that had been sent from a broker in India. There was no indication that the document was sent in a threatening manner, officials said. A worker at the California Department of Insurance was taken to a local hospital by her supervisor after opening the envelope. She had complained of weakness, fire officials said. Two California Highway Patrol officers who were exposed to the substance became ill and were also taken to a local hospital. A crew that specializes in handling hazardous materials was sent to the Insurance Annex Building at 320 Capitol Mall, the captain said. Part of the building was evacuated. Fire officials said all three people are fine.
Source: http://www.my58.com/news/18471200/detail.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Man arrested after bomb scare at courthouse. A Cincinnati man is facing charges for allegedly calling in a bomb threat to the Hamilton County Courthouse Wednesday morning. The sheriff’s department says an unknown caller stated there was a bomb inside the courthouse around 9:30 a.m. During a search of the building, it was determined the caller was caught on video making the call from a pay phone on the first floor of the courthouse. Just before 10 a.m. sheriff’s deputies located a person on the second floor matching the description of the man seen in the video. Deputies arrested him. Authorities say he later admitted to making the false phone call. He has been charged with one count of inducing panic.
Source: http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story/Man-Arrested-After-Bomb-Scare-At-Courthouse/oZQcYoLPi0C0Pq-LGOL_wg.cspx

[Adlerian Thinker]

FBI: Fresno man held in bomb hoax at Nellis AFB. The FBI says a 30-year-old man from Fresno, California, could face federal charges after allegedly driving onto Nellis Air Force base in Nevada in a rental truck that he said had a bomb. An FBI agent said the man was being held January 16 in federal custody in North Las Vegas pending an appearance in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. The FBI agent says the man could face charges, including making a threat to injure, intimidate, or destroy property. No bomb was found and no motive was immediately disclosed after the man was arrested by Air Force and federal authorities about 2:45 p.m. January 15. Base officials say the man drove past guards at a gate about 1:40 p.m. and turned toward aircraft hangars before he was stopped and surrounded by security officers.
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/01/16/state/n084811S18.DTL

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspect arrested, charged in bomb threat at courthouse. Authorities arrested a 29-year-old man January 19 in connection with a bomb threat on the New Hanover County courthouse. The suspect, of Wilmington, has been charged with making a false bomb report to a public building. The device found on the courthouse steps January 19 morning was a laser-level, a type of construction tool, an officer said. The threat was called in at 5:16 a.m. to New Hanover County Dispatch, according to the dispatch supervisor. About three hours later, a bomb team had removed a device from the steps of the judicial building, and the area was declared safe. The caller advised there was a bomb on the steps of the building and then hung up.
Source: http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20090119/ARTICLES/

[Adlerian Thinker]

FBI: Pentagon bomb threat traced to Gulf Coast. The FBI is trying to track down a man on the Gulf Coast, who called in a bomb threat to the Pentagon Tuesday. The threat was made from Destin, Florida. Okaloosa County, Florida authorities say a man made the call around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, from a pay phone at a convenience store on the Emerald Coast Parkway. The FBI is taking the threat seriously.
Source: http://www.nbc15online.com/news/local/story/FBI-Pentagon-Bomb-Threat-Traced-To-Gulf-Coast/79V3a0ieY0mv-uQLSoLX_g.cspx?rss=217

[Adlerian Thinker]

Possible threat by extremists monitored. Law-enforcement and intelligence officials received information that people associated with a Somalia-based group, al-Shabaab, might try to travel to the United States with plans to disrupt the inauguration, according to a joint FBI/Department of Homeland Security bulletin issued January 19. The information had limited specificity and uncertain credibility, a Homeland Security spokesman said. U.S. counterterror officials have grown concerned in recent months about the threat posed by the al-Shabaab group and a cell of U.S.-based Somalian sympathizers who have traveled to their homeland to “fight alongside Islamic insurgents,” the bulletin reported. A senior law-enforcement official said authorities had been monitoring suspicious chatter referring to the inauguration in recent days, but as of early January 20, they felt comfortable with security preparations. Law enforcement also responded to several suspicious packages and vehicles January 20, according to an FBI spokesman. Many of the packages were found in trash bins near check-in points. People who were prohibited from carrying certain items onto the Capitol grounds had to throw away the items before entering.
Source: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/elections/20090121_Possible_threat_by_extremists_monitored.h tml

[Adlerian Thinker]

Warning issued about threats against local Jewish centers. The FBI is issuing a warning about threats against several local Jewish community buildings. What the threats are or when they were made is not known, but Cleveland police, after consulting with the FBI, issued a divisional notice to keep extra attention on at least four Cleveland Jewish institutions, reported NewsChannel5. Included in the warning are the Jewish Community Federation at East 17th Street and Euclid Avenue, West Temple at West 143rd Street and Trisket, the Temple at University Circle and the Cleveland Hillel Foundation at Case. The local head of the FBI said, “We regularly receive threats and evaluate threat information. As these leads are run to ground, we reach out to community leaders to share information. “Given the major events unfolding this week, out of an abundance of caution, we have worked with local authorities to increase patrols at some locations.”
Source: http://www.newsnet5.com/news/18524460/detail.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Police destroy fake bombs. Around 1:40 p.m. on January 20, a manager at the Summit Ridge Apartments in Fort Wayne, Indiana found a one pound propane tank with a cell phone and wires attached to it. It was sitting inside a utility closet. The commander of the Fort Wayne Police Department Bomb Squad said, “Whoever made it, intended it very much to look like an explosive bomb.” Police destroyed the device with a pan disruptor — a canon that shoots out a blank charge. The unit opted to use water and confirmed it was a hoax. A few minutes later, a second device was found in the same apartment. This time, the bomb squad used air to destroy it and it too turned out to be fake. Two buildings were evacuated. Police believe that had the first device been real and detonated, it would have blown out the windows and doors of that particular apartment. There was no one living in the apartment. The manager was making a round through the apartment when the first device was discovered.
Source: http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/news/national/midwest/nat_wane_ind_Police_destroy_suspicious_devices_200 901202170138

[Adlerian Thinker]

Oklahoma fed building area to reopen after bomb threat. One suspect was arrested on Wednesday after the federal building in Oklahoma City was evacuated because of a bomb threat, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said. Several city blocks had also been closed off, but local media reported that the area was to be reopened to the public late on Wednesday night. The FBI said in a statement the suspect, of Oklahoma City, entered the federal building and was told he could not proceed further without going through a security check. He then left two notes with security personnel along with the backpack he was carrying, and left the building. “The notes stated there was a bomb in the backpack and in a car parked next to the building,” the FBI said. Experts had checked the bag and car for explosives, and the local KOCO TV news reported that a car believed to belong to the suspect had been towed away late Wednesday evening.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE50K6CR20090122

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bomb squad removes suspicious package from Federal Building. Several streets near the U.S. Federal Building in Greensboro, North Carolina were closed Friday as crews worked to remove a suspicious package that had been discovered. Police said the package was tested and showed positive signs that it contained explosive residue. The Greensboro Hazardous Devices Team was called in to remove the package. There were no injuries, and police said roads that had been closed during the investigation were reopened around noon.
Source: http://www.wxii12.com/news/18549313/detail.html#-

[Adlerian Thinker]

Suspicious duffel bag leads to street closure, evacuation of Chico Police Department. Chico police headquarters were evacuated about 3:30 p.m. Thursday when a black duffel bag left in the visitors’ lobby couldn’t be matched to an owner. Workers in nearby office buildings were also advised to evacuate. Humboldt Road was closed for several blocks east of Highway 32 until 6 p.m., when bomb technicians, still unsure of its contents, loaded the bag in a special trailer and hauled it to a remote spot where they intended to explode it open with a water cannon. On Thursday night officials said they knew the bag contained a laptop computer, but had not identified other items.
Source: http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_11535276

[Adlerian Thinker]

No explosives found after downtown bomb threat. No explosive device was found after a downtown Atlanta building was evacuated and two Interstate ramps were shut down for about two hours because of a bomb threat on Thursday. An Atlanta police spokesman said a search of the Atlanta Housing Authority offices turned up no suspicious package or device. Police closed the nearby ramps from the Downtown Connector northbound and southbound to Freedom Parkway. Those ramps remained closed until the “all-clear” was sounded about 11:45 a.m. Police also investigated a bomb threat Thursday morning at a Bank of America branch in northeast Atlanta. Nothing suspicious was found at that location either, an Atlanta police spokesman said.
Source: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2009/01/22/atlanta_bomb_threats.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Bridge shut down after hoax bomb. A U.S.-Mexico border bridge was shut down for about two hours after authorities responded to a report of a suspicious package and later discovered it was a “hoax device.” Authorities said a transient spotted the package near a trash bin under the bridge on Saturday morning and notified Border Patrol agents. The device could have been planted to make people believe it was a bomb, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) told the Associated Press. “Or it could be that it was some kind of training device,” she said. “It could have been some law-enforcement entity used it as a training device and threw it away. We have to treat it as a threat and investigate it to its fullest.” Laredo police used a robot to examine the package. The bomb-defusing robot shot the package with a high-powered water cannon, blowing it to pieces and exposing the device inside, said a police spokesman. It did not detonate. “When we got up close, we realized it was a hoax device,” the ATF spokeswoman told the Laredo Morning Times. “In other words, it did not contain explosives. It was basically road flares.”
Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6229798.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

‘Behavior Detection’ experts to boost Super Bowl security. For the first time, the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) “Behavior Detection Officers” are enhancing security at the championship event by watching people for combinations of suspicious behavior. These officers do not have the power to arrest but are uniformed behavioral experts, federal security director for the TSA’s Tampa office said. The TSA and the U.S. Secret Service trained about 70 Tampa police officers and Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies working the event in their techniques. The federal security director described them as “telltale signs of people about to engage in wrongdoing” based on the Israeli security system. Each behavior, such as profuse sweating, could be innocent on its own but raises eyebrows when coupled with other behaviors, he said. The officers evaluate the behaviors on a point system and approach a person for a chat to determine whether there’s a need for concern, said a Tampa police representative. He added that he had visited previous Super Bowls looking for ways to mirror or improve upon security.
Source: http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jan/23/behavior-detection-brigade-boost-super-bowl-securi/

[Adlerian Thinker]

U.S. Army details found on second hand MP3 player. A New Zealand man has found personal details of U.S. soldiers on an MP3 player he bought second-hand in Oklahoma. About 60 files on the MP3 player contained lists of soldiers based in Afghanistan, the names of some who have fought in Iraq, and mobile numbers for soldiers based overseas. Most of the files found are dated 2005, but some are still active and could have put individual soldiers at risk, according to a New Zealand television news report. The MP3 player also contained details of equipment deployed to the bases and private information about soldiers, such as social security numbers. The U.S. Army and the American embassy in New Zealand have refused to comment, the television news report said.
Source: http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/01/27/234445/us-army-details-found-on-second-hand-mp3-player.htm

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2009/01/27/sources-say-domestic-terrorist-arrested-in-mobile-alabama/
Sources Say Domestic Terrorist Arrested in Mobile Alabama

Mobile police sources say they’ve arrested a man believed to be a domestic terrorist. The investigation began January 5, when a local synagogue was spray painted with Nazi markings. Mobile Police are not making an official comment yet, but sources within the department say they got a very dangerous man off the streets, just in time.

Words of hate were spray-painted all over the Congregation Tree of Life synagogue three weeks ago. They are markings that shocked its congregation. Member Barbara Morgan couldn’t believe it.

“When we first came up to the building, it was ‘Oh my goodness, who could do this?’” Morgan said. “Who hates us so much that they would want to deface the building?”

Sources within the Mobile Police Department say the culprit was a domestic terrorist. They say the markings were not a joke.

Police sources tell us they when investigators arrested their man, they found bombs inside his home, and during questioning, he refused to talk.

Sources say his motives extended way beyond spray-painting Nazi markings.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2009/01/27/inauguration-day-terror-threat-a-ruse/
Inauguration Day Terror Threat A Ruse?
Submitted by national on Tuesday, 27 January 2009

Somali Man Arrested Crossing Canadian Border

So was there a threat or not? According to one report, the inauguration day terror threat was a ruse.
Inauguration Terror Threat Debunked

A potential terror threat just before last week’s presidential inauguration turned out to be a ruse, a top military commander said Tuesday.

However, Gen. Gene Renuart, chief of U.S. Northern Command, warned that ongoing security concerns still face the Obama administration during its early days.

Renuart, the military commander in charge of domestic defense, said reports pointing to a possible threat from an East Africa terrorist group were the result of claims by another faction and turned out to be untrue.

“It was more a function of two factions who didn’t like each other setting the other up,” Renuart said. He did not identify the other faction.
But Was It A Ruse?

Rusty at The Jawa Report highlights a few recent “coincidences“

A) Homeland Security announces an non-specific threat against President Obama from Somalia’s al Qaeda affiliate, the al-Shebaab. Possibly a threat conveyed through the internet?

B) The al Shebaab’s U.S. hosted website was ordered shut down by the federal government, after over a year of operating openly.

C) 15 Somalians, some of them reported as American citizens and the rest reported as living in the United States for some time, were recently arrested in Somaliland

U.S. Officials: Minnesota Somali Man a Possible Threat on Inauguration Day

With the inauguration of President Barack Obama in the past, U.S. officials are reporting information about possible threats on the day of the ceremony by a Minnesota Somali man.

U.S. intelligence was reportedly investigating a potential inauguration threat involving a Somali insurgent group. They believed one man to be connected with the missing Somali men from Minnesota.

48 hours before the inauguration, U.S. customs agents arrested the 32-year-old Bile Abdullahi, a resident alien from Minnesota, at the Canadian border near Detroit.

According to federal charges, Abdullahi was trying to sneak into Canada using his brother’s U.S. passport. Both Bile Abdullahi and his brother are from Minneapolis, and until recently lived in the Cedar Riverside apartment complex.

Abdullahi told officials he was going to Canada for a vacation, but intelligence officials fear it could’ve been some kind of dress rehearsal for leaving the country in a hurry.

Fox News has learned Abdullahi’s arrest was just part of the intelligence that led to a cryptic warning.

The FBI and Homeland Security were investigating information about a potential threat on inauguration day.The information was of limited specificity and uncertain credibility.

The threat reportedly involved Al Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda connected radical Muslim group, operating terror training camps in Somalia.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2009/01/28/report-massive-hezbollah-terror-attack-against-israeli-target-in-europe-thwarted/
Report: Massive Hezbollah Terror Attack Against Israeli Target In Europe Thwarted

A massive terror attack against an Israeli target in Europe has been thwarted in recent weeks, Channel 2 quoted security officials as saying Wednesday.

The attack, linked to the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, was foiled thanks to intelligence sharing between Israel and an undisclosed European country.

Israeli officials believe that as the one year anniversary of the February 14 assassination of Hezbollah second-in-command Imad Mughniyeh approaches, attempts to attack Israeli targets around the world will intensify.

Some two weeks ago, the Times of London reported that a Hezbollah plot to attack the Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan was foiled last year, after Azeri Intelligence discovered the plot.

Azeri intelligence authorities reportedly first caught wind of the plot weeks after Mughniyeh was killed by a car bomb in Damascus.

Hezbollah’s 1800 Unit is reportedly working on possible attacks inside Israel.

Hezbollah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, said: “The Zionists will discover that the war they had in July was a walk in the park if we compare it to what we’ve prepared for every new aggression,” the Times reported.

The report also stated that the Egyptian intelligence broke up a Sinai-based Hezbollah cell headed by Sami Shehab, a Lebanese citizen. The cell, which also included Palestinians members, had allegedly planned to attack Israeli targets.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Atlanta man arrested on bomb threat charges. Authorities have arrested an Atlanta man on charges of making a series of bomb threats against the Atlanta Housing Authority over four days. An FBI spokesman says the 46-year-old was taken into custody on January 27 by the agency’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. The FBI says the man is accused of making several telephone bomb threats between Monday and Thursday of last week. On January 22, the Housing Authority office was shut down for about three hours while authorities searched the building. No bomb was found.
Source: http://www.fortmilltimes.com/124/story/438276.html

[Adlerian Thinker]

Michigan man charged with threatening call in Iowa. A man who authorities say made a threatening phone call to a Red Robin restaurant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa has been arrested by police in Ohio. The 48-year-old man of Wyoming, Michigan is charged with making death threats and disruption of interstate commerce. Police say the call the man made to the Cedar Rapids restaurant on December 30 caused it to be closed for about an hour while officers checked the building and surrounding area. He is accused of telling an employee that he was in the parking lot and would shoot everyone inside. The man also allegedly placed as many as 60 threatening calls to tanning salons and restaurants in 10 states, warning female employees that he had a gun trained on them. The suspect is in custody in Ohio.
Source: http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/38478869.html See also: http://www.kwwl.com/Global/story.asp?S=9741254&nav=menu82_2_1

[irgun48]

we have to do it because this current government will do nothing but release terrorists and feel their pain. Typical liberal BS.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Rail lines, bus systems show security shortfalls. The first federal evaluation of mass-transit security shows that more than 75 percent of the nation’s major rail and bus systems are not meeting Homeland Security guidelines. By contrast, 96 percent of airlines are complying with security requirements, according to a new report by the Department. The report does not identify which rail and bus systems fell short. The assessment comes as the new Homeland Security Secretary says she plans to focus more on mass transit, possibly through “redeployment” of resources from other areas. The Department’s evaluation, published on its Web site January 15, found that 37 of the nation’s 48 largest transit systems are not complying with voluntary guidelines set in 2007. There is no sanction for non-compliance. Guidelines include training transit workers in security, running security drills regularly, and sharing intelligence with other agencies. Some Homeland Security recommendations involve planning and could be done at little or no cost, said the director of the National Transportation Security Center of Excellence at San Jose State University.
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-01-28-transit_N.htm

[Adlerian Thinker]

DDoS attack boots Kyrgyzstan from net. The Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan was effectively knocked offline recently by a Russian cybermilitia that continues to flood the country’s Internet providers with crippling data attacks, a security expert said. The attacks, which began on January 18, bear the signature of pro-Russian nationalists believed to have launched similar cyber assaults on the republic of Georgia in August, said a researcher with Atlanta-based security provider SecureWorks. The attacks on Kyrgyzstan were so potent that most net traffic in and out of the country was completely blocked during the first seven days.
Over the past 48 hours, ISP have managed to mitigate some of the damage by relocating the servers of their biggest customers to different IP address ranges and employing a technique known as source filtering, which is designed to block harmful traffic while still allowing friendly packets through. Some media organizations and government opposition groups in the country of 5.3 million have not been so fortunate.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/28/kyrgyzstan_knocked_offline/

[Adlerian Thinker]

Man accused of hate crimes arrested. Mobile police found anti-Semantic images scattered across a local synagogue and a downtown city park. “It appeared to be some type of neo-nazi threat of some type,” the Mobile police chief said. Investigators arrested a 22-year-old man. Police say he was found with drugs and explosive materials inside his home. “We think that these items are used to make some type of device to be thrown at a church of synagogue or something,” police said. The police say it is unclear if a terrorist act was actually in the works, but they do not believe the man was working alone. “We certainly believe that he has some affiliation with a group and yes we are looking for other people,” they said. The suspect arrested is charged with possession of explosives, drug possession and criminal mischief.
Source: http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/national/south/nat_wala_ala_man_accused_of_hate_crimes_arrested_2 00901272179612

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2009/01/29/cairs-hamas-ties-prompt-fbi-to-cut-off-communication/

CAIR’s Hamas Ties Prompt FBI To Cut Off Communication

The FBI has cut off communications with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the wake of damning court evidence that ties the group’s founders to a Hamas-support network in America, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned.

It is a stunning rebuke to the organization which promotes itself as “arguably the most visible and public American Muslim organization.” The decision to end contacts with CAIR was made quietly last summer as federal prosecutors prepared for a second trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), an Islamic charity convicted in November for illegally routing money to Hamas. CAIR was named as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the case.

Its name appears on a roster of “Palestine Committee” members. Evidence in the case shows the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas’s parent organization, created the Palestine Committee to help Hamas politically and financially. CAIR founders Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad, who remains the executive director, also appear on a telephone list of Palestine Committee members. The men also participated in a secret 1993 gathering of Hamas members and supporters called to discuss ways to “derail” U.S.-led peace efforts between Israelis and Palestinians.

The IPT obtained a letter from the FBI’s Oklahoma City field office, which explained that a meeting with local Muslim groups had to be postponed due to restrictions on CAIR’s access. For that to change, wrote James E. Finch, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Oklahoma City field office, “certain issues must be addressed to the satisfaction of the FBI. Unfortunately, these issues cannot be addressed at the local level and must be addressed by the CAIR National Office in Washington, D.C.”

FBI spokesman John Miller confirmed the letter’s existence. Sources indicate similar correspondence was issued by other field offices.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism is a non-profit research group founded by Steven Emerson in 1995. It is recognized as the world’s most comprehensive data center on radical Islamic terrorist groups. For more than a decade, the IPT has investigated the operations, funding, activities and front groups of Islamic terrorist and extremist groups in the United States and around the world.

[Adlerian Thinker]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2009/01/29/colorado-man-charged-in-threat-on-obama-mall-of-america/

Colorado Man Charged In Threat on Obama, Mall of America

A 20-year-old southwestern Colorado man has been indicted on charges of threatening to kill President Obama and blow up the Mall of America in Bloomington.

Timothy Ryan Gutierrez, of Cortez, was indicted Tuesday in federal court in Denver. A warrant has been issued for Gutierrez’s arrest, and authorities declined to discuss his whereabouts.

He faces one count each of transmission of threats and falsely threatening to use explosives.

Gutierrez sent an e-mail to the FBI eight days before Obama was inaugurated, the indictment alleges, and wrote: “I’m going to assassinate the new president of the United States of America. PS you have 48 hours to stop it from happening.”

Federal court records also say he e-mailed the FBI with a threat against the mall: “I have rigged 40 pounds of C4 [a moldable plastic explosive] … and my favorite TNT to 7 cars outside the Mall of America.”

Mall officials were “notified immediately” by the FBI and Bloomington police of the threat, said Maureen Bausch, the mall’s executive vice president of business development. The mall was given the all-clear after 16 to 18 hours, Bausch said, once it was determined “the threat wasn’t valid” and a search of the giant retail and entertainment complex turned up nothing suspicious.

[Adlerian Thinker]

Japanese researchers develop all-round flu vaccine. Researchers in Japan said Thursday they had developed a flu vaccine that works against multiple viruses and could prevent a deadly pandemic of bird flu mutations. The research team has tested the vaccine on mice implanted with human genes, confirming that it works even if flu viruses mutate, according to a researcher at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases. Currently flu vaccines use a protein covering the surface of viruses but the protein frequently mutates to make the vaccines ineffective. The newly developed vaccine is based on common types of protein inside the bodies of flu viruses as they rarely change. The viruses used are the Soviet-A and Hongkong-A along with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iUQA0nBgPhpPZakGxJQ05bU2JCwA

[Adlerian Thinker]

Airmen train for aftermath of terrorist attack at Vandenberg Air Force Base. A training drill at Vandenberg Air Force Base on January 29 challenged the airmen of the 30th Medical group to get 100 people the medical care they need after the base is attacked by terrorists. The scenario revolved around a car driving onto the base and the occupants inside conducting a terrorist attack utilizing a chemical substance in an aerosol can and explosives. Within seconds, 100 base personnel in the simulation were in need of emergency medical assistance. Thursday was the last day of a four-day exercise to see how the base medical team would handle a real-life chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attack. “This is really challenging us because we’re doing about 20 more patients than we normally do,” said an airman who participated in the exercise. Procedure dictated that before anyone could be treated, they were to be decontaminated first. Once they were scrubbed clean, the patients received treatment. Base officials will spend the next few weeks deconstructing this week’s exercise and apply the necessary modifications to the next training operation.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28924059/

[Adlerian Thinker]

‘Obama worm’ probably a student prank, experts say. A new Internet worm that displays an image of the U.S. President is likely a prank by a student, several security experts speculated on January 29. Walling Data, a distributor of AVG security software, said the worm it discovered on computers at an Illinois grade school spreads via external devices like USB drives and network shares. Once a week, on Mondays, it displays a photo of U.S. President’s face in the lower right corner of screens on infected computers, but otherwise appears to be more of a nuisance than a threat. The worm looks like a variant of MAL_OTORUN code that spreads using thumb drives and network shares, said a senior threat analyst and researcher at Trend Micro. “Someone played around with one of the many number of DIY malware kits and just added this small social engineering bait of the U.S. Presidents picture,” he wrote in an e-mail. Given that it lacks a malicious payload, “it is probably some prank by a student since today’s ‘serious’ malware, as you may have noticed, would have at least installed a keylogger to steal some information.”
Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10153017-83.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Security