Posts Byadmin - 7/856 - Terrorism.com
Bush’s new antiterror database plan
January 31, 2003 | adminA forthcoming government database will compile information from all federal agencies and the private sector on people deemed possible terrorist threats, President Bush said Tuesday evening. Bush used his State of the Union address to announce the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC), a mammoth data-collection project intended to fuse information collected domestically by police and internationally by spy agencies. “OUR GOVERNMENT MUST have the very best information possible, and we will use it to make sure the right people are in the right places to protect all our citizens,” Bush said to applause from the joint houses of Congress. Full Story
Terrorism police arrest fourth man
January 30, 2003 | adminA fourth man has been arrested under anti-terrorism laws, following a series of raids in Manchester and Bury. The 31-year-old, who is believed to be of north African origin, was arrested at an address in Stretford, Greater Manchester, police said. He was detained at around 1100 GMT under the Terrorism Act 2000. Three other men, aged 30, 32, and 35, were arrested under the same act following separate raids by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) at 0500 GMT on Wednesday. Full Story
FBI target Iraqi exiles in search for terror suspects
January 30, 2003 | adminFBI supervisors have been ordered to count the number of Muslims and mosques in their areas and interview up to 5,000 Iraqi-Americans and immigrants in order to assess how vulnerable they are to terrorist attack. The information would help gauge how many terrorism investigations and intelligence warrants field offices across the United States could reasonably be expected to produce, the FBI’s executive assis tant director told a closed briefing of Congress last week. “If the numbers don’t compute, that will trigger an automatic inspection from headquarters to figure out why they aren’t living up to that,” a senior Congressional aide told the New York Times. Full Story
Shoe bomber steadfast in his holy war beliefs
January 30, 2003 | adminDefiant Reid is ‘expendable’ foot soldier, one of many in al-Qaeda, terrorism experts say. Richard Reid, who found his life’s purpose in the rhetoric of the terrorist group al-Qaeda, remains a true believer as he heads to prison. The British petty crook is as committed to a holy war against the West as he was on Dec. 22, 2001, when he tried to ignite explosives hidden in his shoe during a trans-Atlantic flight. Reid, 29, has pleaded guilty to eight counts in connection with the foiled bombing. On Thursday, he is expected to be sentenced to life in a federal prison. And given a chance to speak, Reid is likely to echo jailhouse writings in which he described himself as a soldier in a war that considers civilians targets. Full Story
Terrorism Agency Planned
January 30, 2003 | adminPresident Bush announced plans last night for a new center to integrate intelligence on terrorism collected at home and abroad, saying it was necessary to create the most comprehensive picture of possible threats to the United States and its citizens. A senior administration official said the new Terrorist Threat Integration Center will assess intelligence gathered by the CIA, Justice Department, Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security and provide “seamless” analysis of the information to the president and other senior policymakers. The new center is expected to take over compilation of the integrated threat matrix — a day-by-day accounting of potential threats — given to President Bush and other senior national security officials each morning. Full Story
Fairfax to Confine Students In Case of Terrorist Attack
January 30, 2003 | adminIf the Washington area were hit by a chemical or biological attack, Fairfax County students would be kept in locked-down schools, inaccessible to parents, while teachers helped undress and shower any who needed decontamination, according to a plan adopted by school authorities. In a throwback to the “duck-and-cover” exercises of the 1950s and ’60s, schools will begin drills — minus the shower scenario — as early as this fall to prepare for potential attacks, Fairfax school security officials said. While the county is the first in the Washington region to develop school procedures for dealing with chemical attacks, the U.S. Department of Education plans to recommend this spring that school systems across the nation do likewise, federal officials said. Full Story
Troops Search Afghan Caves After Clash
January 30, 2003 | adminAmerican forces were carefully combing through a vast cave network on a steep mountain slope Wednesday after the fiercest battle in Afghanistan in nearly a year, the U.S. military said. Two men detained in the fighting were being questioned. King said the military believes the men were followers of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a renegade warlord who has allegedly linked his forces with remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida. “The man who was detained talked about a link to Hezb-e-Islami, which is Hekmatyar’s military group. We had other intelligence that I cannot go into that also indicated the involvement of this group,” King said. Full Story
China Detains U.S. Sect Member, Frees Australian
January 30, 2003 | adminChina has detained an American follower of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, accusing him of sabotaging television and radio broadcasting systems on the mainland, the U.S. embassy said Thursday. But an Australian member of the sect detained a week ago in southwestern China had been freed and was on her way home, an Australian embassy spokesman said. U.S. citizen Chuck Lee was taken into police custody in the southern city of Guangzhou on January 22 and transferred two days later to the eastern city of Yangzhou, where he was accused of sabotaging broadcasting systems, an embassy spokeswoman said. A U.S. consular official visited Lee, who appeared to be healthy, she said. No other details were available. Full Story
Homeland Security 2004 Budget $41.3 Billion
January 30, 2003 | adminPresident Bush will request $41.3 billion in the fiscal 2004 budget, which he will submit next week, to fund domestic homeland security efforts, a U.S. official said on Thursday. The budget figures include $36.2 billion for the newly created Department of Homeland Security. This compares to an overall homeland security budget of $37.7 billion in 2003, $33 billion of which was earmarked for the department, spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. Full Story
U.S. Consulate in Berlin Closes After Warning
January 30, 2003 | adminThe consular section of the U.S. embassy in Berlin was closed on Thursday after police reported receiving a warning of possible terrorist attacks on both the Israeli and the U.S. embassies in the German capital. “We had to take some security-related precautionary measures,” a spokeswoman for the embassy said, confirming the consular section of the embassy would be closed. It would remain closed on Thursday and Friday, the embassy’s Web site stated. A German security source told Reuters earlier the threat stemmed from a letter sent to the U.S. embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus. U.S. diplomats passed the information to Israel’s Berlin embassy, the source said. Full Story