Australian terrorist threat to airports

A group of Australians who are believed to be at terrorist training camps in Yemen pose a threat to airport security, a security expert has warned. 22 Australians have gone missing in Yemen and are believed to be at al-Qaeda training camps. Heading up the al-Qaeda regime in Yemen is an American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki who the ABC reported has been dubbed the Osama bin Laden of the internet. Al-Awlaki has been allegedly involved in a number of terrorist attacks and in his internet sermons - delivered in perfect English - he preaches contempt for non-believers.

The 22 Australians are believed to be receiving training at these camps where their value is their Australian passports and the access they can gain with them. "The authorities know who these people are," Homeland Security Asia Pacific director Roger Hennings told AAP. "The government of Australia is aware of the identity of 22 Australians who went missing about four months ago, in other words they just got to Yemen and disappeared," he said. "This constitutes a national security risk because all of these people left through Australian airports and when they return they will return through Australian airports."

Mr Hennings said these Australians were believed to be in al-Qaeda training camps in Yemen and there was nothing to stop them communicating with sympathisers in Australia. According to Mr Hennings, 66 Australian citizens and residents have already been trained by al-Qaeda or in Pakistan by other terrorist organisations.Major airports are areas of mass gathering which Mr Hennings says are critical to the security of the country. Yet the majority of people working in airports don't understand how security threat levels work and Mr Hennings says there is a daily threat level to Australia's airports.

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Crime bankrolls terrorism: official

Narcotics trafficking and compromised charities are key domestic bankrollers of suspected international terrorist activities, says the head of the federal financial intelligence agency. Speaking at a British economic crime symposium Wednesday, Jeanne Flemming, director of the secretive Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, or FINTRAC, said one-third of suspected terrorist-financing cases in Canada involve money from drug trafficking, fraud and other criminal enterprises.

Another one-quarter involve charities and non-profit organizations, she told the Cambridge University conference. Terror networks often use compromised or complicit charities and businesses as a veil of legitimacy to support their objectives. "These cases involve transactions that course through the mainstream financial system as part of the routine traffic of domestic and international transactions," she said.

FINTRAC was created a decade ago to help police investigate organized crime, but after 9/11, its mandate expanded to include terrorist financing. FINTRAC, along with Australia's financial intelligence unit are the only major western agencies that have the power to collect and analyse international electronic funds transfer reports involving transactions of $10,000 or more.

Seventy-seven per cent of the suspected terrorist-financing cases forwarded to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service by FINTRAC have resulted from the agency's ability to monitor wire transfers. "Not only were wire transfers a prominent feature in a large portion of our cases, in many instances without the wire transfer data we would not have reached a threshold of suspicion of terrorist-financing activity," said Flemming, who urged other nations to adopt the practice as well. "Money can leave a very useful trail when looking at a criminal enterprise or a terrorist network that is engaged in financing acts of violence in another country."

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Turkey's tourist resorts threatened with terrorist campaign

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist group, has said it plans a wave of violence following the breakdown of a year-long ceasefire. The PKK strategy will target major Turkish cities, rather than just army patrols and bases in the Kurdish heartlands. These are likely to include the metropolises of western Turkey, including those popular with tourists and businessmen, which have occasionally been hit by bombings in the last decade.

A triple-bombing struck the resort of Marmaris in 2006, while a year later a suicide bomber struck a popular shopping street in the capital, Ankara. Around 2.5 million British tourists visit Turkey each year. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office last night said they advised "against all but essential travel" to the south east of Turkey due to the "high threat from terrorism".

Murat Karayilan, the top commander of the PKK, said he had been left with no choice but to act following Turkish bombing raids on PKK bases in Iraq. He said the PKK would soon declare "democratic autonomy" in Kurdish regions of south-east Turkey. "If Turkey does not accept this, it is their problem," he said. The war between the Turkish government and the PKK, which has lasted 26 years and claimed 40,000 lives, has already moved into a new phase after the collapse of a ceasefire.

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US senator warns of terrorist threat to oil rigs

While the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has put accidental spills squarely in the national spotlight, one U.S. senator is warning of another possible threat: deliberate sabotage. Democrat Jim Webb of Virginia is calling on the Obama administration to develop plans to safeguard offshore platforms from attack by terrorists. The senator, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, made his case in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

"While Congress will continue to scrutinize BP and regulatory agencies, I write to urge you to also be vigilant against deliberate acts, such as an attack or sabotage, that could similarly devastate the region," Webb said in the letter, referring to the Gulf Coast. But he wants the security plans adopted for all U.S. coastal areas. While there are no oil derricks off Virginia's coast, Webb, the state's senior senator, favors oil and gas exploration in Virginia waters. He also backs a controversial moratorium in deepwater drilling ordered by the Interior Department, until risks and safeguards can be better assessed.

Webb notes in the letter that the BP oil spill is the worst environmental disaster in the country's history. He said that, "With dozens of wells operating in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere, we must employ policies that mitigate all types of risk." The senator said that a lack of vigilance on security issues "could leave the marine ecosystem, as well as certain areas of our national security, at great risk."

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Terrorist recruiting in prison

You’ve heard their names: alQaida, Hamas, Hezbollah, Taliban and Islamic Jihad. What most haven’t heard is that these terrorist organizations are setting up shop in U.S. and Latin American prisons under the guise of ministry. Counterfeit chaplains are converting prisoners to an extreme form of Islam with an eye to cultivate terroristic saboteurs and martyrs willing to wrap themselves in explosives and detonate on Main Street U.S.A. The Jihadist endgame is even more diabolical, which is to cause death and disease of biblical proportions to usher in the end of the world and their Messiah, the Al-Imam al-Mahdi, better known as the anti-Christ. Does that sound any more far-fetched than Jihadist hijackers flying into the World Trade Center on their way to an eternal date with 72 virgins?

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Predictive Analysis and Death From Above

The way predictive analysis works is quite simple. With more data (from the vidcams, electronic eavesdropping and informants on the ground) it's possible to create a model (or simulation) of what terrorist activity on the ground looks like. Thus, if the CIA analysts see certain patterns of actions on the ground, they can accurately predict where the Islamic terrorists are, what they doing and, often, exactly who (like a key Taliban or al Qaeda operative) is down there. At that point, the Hellfire missiles are applied. The track record of the accuracy of these predictions has been striking. Few civilians have been attacked, nearly all the targets have been, as the predictive analysis indicated, terrorists.

A key factor in making all this work was the U.S. government changing its policy, in the last two years, of only attacking terrorists on a list (of up to 500) of named individuals. Predictive analysis cannot always guarantee that a target will be a specific individual, but it can, with near certainty, indicate that the target is an Islamic terrorist. It all began back in the 1970s, when some CIA analysts discovered a new way to analyze the mountains of information they were receiving. The new tool was predictive analysis. What does this do for intelligence analysts? Predictive analysis was the result of a fortuitous combination of OR (Operations Research), large amounts of data and more powerful computers. OR is one the major (and generally unheralded) scientific developments of the early 20th century.

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3 nations warn of terror attacks planned in India

The U.S., Australia and Canada warned Saturday that terror groups were likely planning "imminent attacks" in India's capital and foreigners there should be vigilant. The U.S. Embassy's alert, adding the word "imminent," appeared to be more urgent than an advisory last month that cited increased indications of attacks in New Delhi. The warnings noted that markets and other areas frequented by Westerners in New Delhi have been targeted in past attacks. Militants linked to Pakistan-based Islamic groups have been blamed for previous attacks in the Indian capital.

The U.S. alert said Americans in India should maintain "a high level of vigilance," remain aware of their surroundings and watch out for unattended packages. The Canadian travel warning said that "credible and specific reporting indicates that a terrorist attack could be carried out in the following days or weeks, in market areas of Delhi frequented by foreigners." It echoed a warning for Australian travelers to "exercise a high degree of caution" in India in general and to avoid crowded shopping areas in the capital. Local police said they were aware of the warnings of possible attacks. "The Delhi Police is taking appropriate measures in this regard," police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said, according to Press Trust of India news agency. He did not elaborate.

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Dirty bomb attack 'pretty likely' despite nuclear deal

A landmark summit of world leaders in Washington has agreed to secure vulnerable nuclear materials around the globe within four years. The pledge came in a final communique issued after summit host US president Barack Obama warned that nuclear material the "size of an apple" would be enough to kill thousands of people if it fell into the hands of terrorists. Tilman Ruff, Associate Professor at Melbourne University and chair of the International Campaign to Demolish Nuclear Weapons, says the possibility of terrorists getting hold of radioactive material and attaching it to a conventional explosive is highly likely. "Detonating it in a major city is the simplest and most likely form of nuclear terrorism. I think ... it's pretty likely that somewhere we'll see such an episode."

"These materials are still unfortunately widely available in thousands of locations. [But] the possibility of terrorists building a nuclear weapon will no doubt be diminished by the kind of work that this summit has accelerated." Professor Ruff says the damage such an attack could cause would be severe. "It wouldn't be a nuclear explosion, so it might kill immediately hundreds or thousands of people in a crowded city, rather than tens or hundreds of thousands even a relatively small nuclear weapon would," he said. "But it would contaminate potentially several square kilometres, for example, of a major city centre.

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New Nuclear Threat Tops Summit's Agenda

President Obama spent last week at home and in Prague concentrating on nuclear strategy, and nearly 50 world leaders will gather in Washington this week for a nuclear summit. The focus of these events shows that the global nuclear threat has shifted — from fears of an attack by a nuclear-armed superpower, to concerns about a nuclear-armed terrorist. In Prague on Thursday, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed an arms reduction treaty in an effort to resolve a problem that emerged in the last century. "The United States and Russia are prepared to once again take leadership in moving in the direction of reducing reliance on nuclear weapons," Obama said.

"I think it is much more difficult to deal with a nuclear terrorist than with a nuclear-armed state," says Frank Miller, who oversaw U.S. nuclear weapons policy at the Pentagon. The knowledge that everyone would lose in traditional nuclear war has historically prevented countries from firing on each other, Miller says. That calculus doesn't apply with suicide bombers. "At the very minimum, they're probably not living in their own country. They're living on somebody else's soil. And how are you going to attack that host country's soil with nuclear weapons? It doesn't compute."

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Russian-style train bombings could happen in the West

Since 2007, Russia has been subjected to a number of terrorist bombing attacks on railroad lines and trains designed to both kill Russians and spread fear among the population. Most of these attacks have taken place in and near to the capital city, Moscow or St. Petersburg, the second largest city. Specific attacks against targets in Russia have been:

• 3/29/10. Two female suicide bombers attacked two trains on the Moscow metro on 29 March 2010 by detonating improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that were worn on their bodies. Initial reporting indicated that 38 people may have been killed and 102 injured.3 Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov has claimed responsibility for the attack.
• 11/27/09. Chechen extremists attacked the high-speed Russian luxury train, Nevsky Express, by detonating an improvised explosive device (IED) placed under the tracks on a rural segment of the line between Moscow and St. Petersburg.16 hours later a secondary device exploded. The Caucasian Mujahedeen later claimed responsibility for the blast.
• 8/13/07. The Nevsky Express was blown up by a homemade bomb in the Novgorod area en-route from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Four pounds of explosives derailed the train, wiping out 800 meters of track. Sixty people were reported injured, about half-dozen in critical condition.

Several lessons are there to be learned from the Russian attacks. Analysis of these events has shown that:

• The Improvised Explosive Device still remains the weapon of choice and is very effective. IEDs are easy to assemble and can be made from everyday materials.
• Each attack has been claimed by Islamic extremist/terror group from the North Caucasus Region. Similar groups could be operating in western countries, such as the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany and France.
• With terrorists across the world copying successful tactics from one location to another, a railroad attack by terrorists in any western country, especially those that have committed resources to combating global terrorism, is a possibility that cannot be ignored.
• Many Western countries have large, open, and sparsely populated regions, similar to Russia; these areas would seem ideal for rural attacks.
• City attacks, such as those that took place in Madrid and London, show that any platform or station can be a target; however, a location is more likely to be attacked if there are clusters of targets in the one area. For example, the suicide bombing at the Lubyanka station was symbolic as it was very close to the headquarters of the Federal Security Service, formerly the KGB. These locations then, need the closest security.
• Suicide attacks are difficult to detect, especially when women are used as the attackers, however close observation of their movements and actions can give them away if interrupted early enough. Signs should be taken seriously and immediate action taken to determine the nature of any possible threat.

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Terrorists change target, modus: Police chief

Indonesian National Police chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri said today that the terrorist network in Indonesia has changed its target and modus operandi. “They are aiming at particular parties such as the National Police, the Indonesian Military and other law enforcement personnel,” Bambang said as quoted by Antara news agency. Previously, terrorists mainly attacked Westerners or parties with opposing ideologies. Meanwhile in terms of their modus, terrorists have been said to be changing from their previous bombing methods to using firing weapons, he added. The paramilitary training activities also show that terrorists have further developed their violent patterns. This just goes to prove how adaptive the terrorists are as individuals and how their organizations are learning organizations and this helps them to adjust to law enforcement and counter terror operations.

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Terrorists 'plan attack on Britain with bombs inside their bodies' to foil new airport scanners

Britain is facing a new Al Qaeda terror threat from suicide ‘body bombers’ with explosives surgically inserted inside them. Until now, terrorists have attacked airlines, Underground trains and buses by secreting bombs in bags, shoes or underwear to avoid detection. But an operation by MI5 has uncovered evidence that Al Qaeda is planning a new stage in its terror campaign by inserting ‘surgical bombs’ inside people for the first time. Security services believe the move has been prompted by the recent introduction at airports of body scanners, which are designed to catch terrorists before they board flights. It is understood MI5 became aware of the threat after observing increasingly vocal internet ‘chatter’ on Arab websites this year.

The warning comes in the wake of the failed attempt by London-educated Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an airliner approaching Detroit on Christmas Day. One security source said: ‘If the terrorists are talking about this, we need to be ready and do all we can to counter the threat.’ A leading source added that male bombers would have the explosive secreted near their appendix or in their buttocks, while females would have the material placed inside their breasts in the same way as figure-enhancing implants.

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U.S. is unprepared for major bioterrorism attack

More than eight years after the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, the United States is still unprepared to respond to the threat of large-scale bioterrorism, a congressionally appointed commission said Tuesday in a report that gave the government mixed grades overall for how it has protected Americans from weapons of mass destruction. The report, which measured the government's performance in 17 key areas, gave the White House and Congress "F" grades for not building a rapid-response capability for dealing with disease outbreaks from bioterrorism, or providing adequate oversight of security and intelligence agencies.

Within hours of the report's release, the Obama administration revealed plans to fill gaps in the nation's public health defenses with a series of initiatives to be announced in Wednesday's State of the Union address. The proposals, which administration officials said had been in the works well before the report's findings were known, will seek to speed up delivery of drugs in the event of a major attack, addressing one of the principal shortcomings identified by the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.

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FBI says no terrorism link for Reston man found with weapons

A Virginia man arrested in New Jersey with a cache of weapons, a map of a U.S. military installation and a traditional Middle Eastern headdress has no apparent terrorist ties, the FBI said Tuesday. Lloyd R. Woodson, 43, of Reston, is charged with multiple weapons offenses after being arrested Monday in Branchburg, N.J. Detectives searching his hotel room found the map, the red-and-white headdress, a grenade launcher, a semiautomatic assault rifle with a defaced serial number, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, prosecutors said.

The federal Joint Terrorism Task Force was called in to investigate, but FBI Special Agent Brian Travers, a spokesman for the Newark field office, said the "preliminary assessment is that there is no terrorist link." Travers said agents based that tentative conclusion on "the fact that he has no connection to a known terrorist group and there doesn't seem to be any specific terrorist plot." Investigators said that Woodson's intentions remain unclear and that the investigation is continuing.

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What To Do If You Spot Suspicious Terrorist Activity

If you see suspicious behavior, do not confront the individuals involved!

Take note of the following details:

• S – Size (Jot down the number of people, gender, ages, and physical descriptions)
• A – Activity (Describe exactly what they are doing)
• L – Location (Provide exact location)
• U – Uniform (Describe what they are wearing, including shoes)
• T – Time (Provide date, time, and duration of activity)
• E – Equipment (Describe vehicle, make, color etc., license plate, camera, guns, etc)

Then immediately report the activity to your local or federal police.

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SWAT options for multiple shooter terrorist attacks

The threat of an international terrorist attack against our country is not to be taken lightly by law enforcement professionals. In fact, I see it being taken very seriously in the New York Metropolitan area; agencies are meeting, communicating and taking proactive steps to counter potential terrorist efforts.

As professional police officers we are all aware of the threat. The training is out there to provide information and resources on how to deal with terrorism, whether it is domestic or foreign. In this article I would like to address one area that I feel we in law enforcement need to take action on immediately. The immediate employment of police officers to a terrorist attack as first responders is inevitable; I believe that the one thing that is not being addressed is what is going to happen to those first responding officers.

We train our police officers in rapid deployment tactics which will serve them well against a violent act by a lone gunman, or even the likes of Harris and Klebold (Columbine shooters). But let’s face it, police officers employing rapid deployment tactics against a hardened target defended by a determined enemy with automatic weapons, interlocking fields of fire and hand grenades will not fare well. There is a high likelihood that the assault will be turned away, and at a bloody cost.

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Yemen the new training ground for terrorists

US President Barack Obama warned in his speech about Afghanistan this week that the world would face new threats as Al Qaeda established a foothold in other parts of the world. One of the countries he singled out was Yemen. It is the poorest state in the Arab world and is rapidly running out of oil and water. There are now growing fears that the impoverished nation could become an increasingly attractive Al Qaeda base.

During his speech, Mr Obama singled out Yemen and Somalia as two nations where Al Qaeda's influence was increasing "We'll have to be nimble and precise in our use of military power," he said. Where Al Qaeda and its allies attempt to establish a foothold, whether in Somalia or Yemen or elsewhere, they must be confronted by growing pressure and strong partnerships." For many years, Yemen has faced political and economic crises. With a population of 23 million people, it is the poorest Arabic nation and security is a growing concern.

Dr Sarah Phillips works at the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney. She has just written a paper on Al Qaeda in Yemen for the Lowy Institute and says the country is an increasingly attractive base for the terrorist group. "Yemen is quite a desirable operating environment in a number of ways," she said. "For one, there is a strong tribal structure there, which if approached sensitively by people affiliated with Al Qaeda can afford some opportunity, particularly with regard to refuge, being able to hide while they plan operations both within Yemen but also abroad.

• "Yemen Funds Jihaddist Trainign Camps to Target Foes", Jawa Report, 3/1/09.
  
• "Terrorist Havens: Yemen", Council on Foreign Relations, 12/1/05.
• Yemen: Coping With Terrorism and Violence in a Fragile State", International Crisis Group, 1/8/03.
  

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Ranking Terrorist Threats By Degree Of Separation

This past year has been one of the FBI's busiest — at least when it comes to terrorism cases. In the first 10 months of 2009, there have been possible plots exposed in Denver; Springfield, Ill.; Dallas; Boston; and, just this week, Chicago. With so many alleged plots, it's difficult to know how seriously to take any particular threat. So the intelligence community has an informal system for ranking them. The basic idea: The closer the link to al-Qaida, the more serious the plot.

Consider the case of Najibullah Zazi, the Denver-area shuttle bus driver who stands accused of plotting to blow up targets in New York City. Intelligence officials claim that the Zazi case is the most serious this country has faced since Sept. 11, 2001, because they believe Zazi had a direct link to senior al-Qaida leaders. Officials say that in addition to allegedly training in an al-Qaida camp, Zazi apparently called someone in Pakistan for instructions just before he was arrested. That's seen as a red flag, because it suggests that al-Qaida was behind the plot in some way. And al-Qaida, as a general matter, likes its attacks to be big.

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The threat of homegrown terrorism

The apprehension last week of Sudbury native Tarek Mehanna is the fifth terrorism-related arrest in the United States in as many months, putting homegrown radicalism back on the radar screen. But many question whether individuals like Mehanna are the “real deal.’’ Do they really pose a significant terrorist threat or are they acting out but lack the capability to inflict any real damage? How dangerous are homegrown radicals? Will the United States, like Europe, become more susceptible to native radicals rather than terrorist plots hatched abroad from organized groups like Al Qaeda?

Terrorism specialist Marc Sageman claims that we are facing a “leaderless jihad.’’ Al Qaeda central is not the driving force of terrorism as an operational machine but rather its ideology serves as an inspiration for self-organizing local groups to carry out their own attacks. But other experts, including Bruce Hoffman, maintain that it is established organizations like Al Qaeda that remain the dominant threat and that we must focus more on the organization and its capabilities rather than random, radicalized individuals.

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Terror group planning attacks on Israelis in India

Israel's Counter Terrorism Bureau issued a severe travel warning on Thursday over fears that terrorist groups may try to attack Israelis across India. The warning comes just as the Chabad houses across India plan numerous events for the celebration of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year. Last year, a large scale terror attack in Mumbai targeted a Chabad house, among other targets.

According to the Counter Terrorist Bureau, the same organization that orchestrated last year's Mumbai attacks was planning to carry out several attacks across India, including areas frequented by Western and particularly Israeli tourists.

The travel warning is based on a concrete and very serious threat to Israelis. The Counter Terrorism Bureau has recommended to Israelis currently in India to avoid crowded areas, especially tourist areas, which have no apparent armed security.

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