The lastest threats

Mystery Continues As To The Fate of Adam Gadahn - American al Qaeda

Posted: 19 May 2008 02:01 AM CDT

As we reported earlier this year, it’s likely that American al Qaeda, Adam Gadahn is dead, or at the very least, seriously incapacitated.

Counterterrorism Blog has more.

This afternoon, Al-Qaida’s As-Sahab Media Foundation has released the second audio recording of Usama Bin Laden in the space of only three days–this time, openly addressed “to the Islamic nation.” But, perhaps what is most interesting about Bin Laden’s latest set of audio recordings is not what they contain–but rather, what they inexplicably lack: the English-language subtitles and matching transcript that have, until recently, been a customary feature of professional-quality As-Sahab videos.

An analysis of the history of As-Sahab recordings and their evolution over time would seem to indicate that the responsibility for creating these English-language products fell largely on the shoulders of one man alone: Adam Gadahn (a.k.a. “Azzam al-Amriki”), the California native who was recruited by Al-Qaida computer specialists living in Garden Grove in the late 1990s, and who later traveled on to Pakistan seeking to join his new hero Usama Bin Laden. Gadahn’s voice and, more recently, his face have been an integral part of As-Sahab releases since their first video production in 2001, “The Destruction of the U.S.S. Cole” (a.k.a. “State of the Ummah”). He has frequently appeared as a freely identified commentator in As-Sahab videos, with clips of him speaking in English juxtaposed amid footage of Usama Bin Laden and Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri.

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FBI Warns Against Careless Use of Wi-Fi Hotspots

Posted: 19 May 2008 02:07 AM CDT


Computer users should be careful while using Wi-Fi hotspots at airports and other public places, to prevent hackers lurking around from having access to sensitive information, US Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned.

As a matter routine, the FBI says people “kill” time at airports connecting to airport’s Wi-Fi to check their office e-mail, do personal banking or shop for a gift.

But they should first consider the odds, for there could be a hacker nearby, with his own laptop, attempting to “eavesdrop” on their computer to obtain personal data.

In the United States, there are 68,000 Wi-Fi “hot spots” at airports, coffee shops, hotels, bookstores, schools and other locations.

While many of these hot spots have secure networks, some do not, according to Supervisory Special Agent Donna Peterson of FBI’s Cyber Division. And connecting to an insecure network can leave one vulnerable to attacks from hackers.

Agent Peterson said one of the most common types of attack is this: a bogus but legitimate-looking Wi-Fi network with a strong signal is strategically set up in a known hot spot…and the hacker waits for nearby laptops to connect to it.

At that point, your computer and all your sensitive information, including user ID, passwords, credit card numbers, basically belongs to the hacker, Peterson said.

The intruder can mine your computer for valuable data, direct you to phony webpages that look like ones you frequent, and record your every keystroke.

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Asia’s Most Wanted Terror Suspect ‘Noordin Top’ May Have Fled Indonesia

Posted: 19 May 2008 02:01 AM CDT

Southeast Asia’s most wanted terror suspect, Noordin Top, may have evaded a massive manhunt and fled Indonesia, according to police documents.

A militant who was arrested and extradited to Indonesia told police that an Algerian who helped him escape from the country also said that Top had managed to flee, according to the police interrogation documents.

A senior anti-terror officer said Monday that police were still “crosschecking” the information with other sources. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the nature of his job.

Top is accused of directing the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings and three other attacks on Western targets in Indonesia that have together killed more than 240 people, most of them foreign tourists.

If confirmed, Top’s escape would be a blow to Indonesia, which has been praised for its successes in the fight against terrorism. It would also raise worrying questions about Top’s current location and future plans.

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Britains Most Dangerous al Qaeda Terrorists Moving To Special Prison Wing

Posted: 19 May 2008 02:01 AM CDT

Britain’s most dangerous al-Qaeda extremists are being moved to a special terror wing to boost security.

The move follows a rise in violence involving Islamic extremists behind bars.

The new terror wing at Wakefield jail, West Yorks, will be similar to those once used to segregate IRA supporters and loyalist paramilitary inmates.

Some convicts in Belmarsh, South East London, have been moved to the section.
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It is designed to reduce attacks on terrorists by other inmates and cut the spiralling cost of securing their safety.

Up to 20 convicted extremists and terror suspects will be held on the wing at first but that could rise to 40.

A prison service source said last night: “This will no doubt be compared to Guantanamo Bay. But such is the rapid growth of extremist Muslim terrorists in our prisons, that something must be done quickly.”

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‘Join Us or Die’ - Drug Cartels Threaten Mexican Police - Mexico Violence Out Of Control

Posted: 19 May 2008 02:01 AM CDT

Violence is spinning out of control is areas along the U.S. Mexico border and now drug cartels are sending a chilling message to police and soldiers in cities across Mexico: Join us or die.

The threat appears in recruiting banners that are hung across roadsides and in publicly posted death lists. Cops are receiving additional threats over their two-way radios. At least four high-ranking police officials were gunned down this month, including Mexico’s acting federal police chief.

Mexico has battled for years to clean up its security forces and win them the publics respect. But Mexicans generally assume police and even soldiers are corrupt until proven otherwise, and the honest ones lack resources, training and the assurance that their colleagues are watching their backs. Here, the taboo on cop-killing familiar to Americans seems hardly to apply.

Police who take on the cartels feel isolated and vulnerable when they become targets, as did 22 commanders in Ciudad Juarez when drug traffickers named them on a handwritten death list left at a monument to fallen police this year. It was addressed to “those who still don’t believe” in the power of the cartels.

Of the 22, seven have been killed and three wounded in assassination attempts. Of the others, all but one have quit, and city officials said he didn’t want to be interviewed.

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Ciudad Juarez Police Cheif Resigns Amid Violence

The police chief of the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez has submitted his resignation following a string of killings that included some of his top officers, officials said on Sunday.

City spokesman Sergio Belmonte said Public Safety Director Guillermo Prieto would be replaced by a military officer on leave from the armed forces, but declined to release the name of the new police chief.

Murder rates have spiked this year in this city across from El Paso, Texas, and at least seven city police commanders were killed by hit men believed to be linked to drug cartels.

On Saturday, the bodies of a federal consumer-protection official and two other men were found in a car just hours after they were kidnapped by armed, masked men in Ciudad Juarez. The official had been strangled to death; the other two men have not yet been identified.

State spokesmen in Chihuahua state, where Ciudad Juarez is located, did not offer any information on a possible motive in the killing.

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Mexican Drug Gang Executes Eight

A heavily armed gang dragged eight men, including three local police officers, out of their homes in northern Mexico overnight and executed them with automatic weapons, officials said.

The murders in Villa Ahumada added to five recent killings in Ciudad Juarez, on the US border, and three others elsewhere in the state, are part of a rising wave of violence gripping Mexico, mostly related to the Government’s stepped up fight against drug trafficking.

In a brazen attack on Sunday (local time), heavily armed thugs in camouflage uniforms drove into Villa Ahumada in several pickup trucks and broke into several homes.

“The attackers were all dressed in camouflage, military-style uniforms,” the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

“They threatened the families (of the eight men) to keep them from talking.

“Then they murdered (the eight) with bursts of AK-47 rifles and handguns and fled to unknown whereabouts.”

It said the eight victims had not been identified although three of the men were local police officers.
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Time Magazine - Can Mexicos Drug Terror Be Stopped

Mexicans are accustomed to tales of crooked cops abetting drug-related killings. So this week’s announcement that a federal officer is among those charged with conspiracy in a drug-mafia hit on the nation’s acting police chief Edgar Millan caused little surprise south of the border. Mexican officials say the May 8 assassination was ordered by the Sinaloa drug cartel, and if convicted, the accused officer, Jose Montes, will join a long and infamous line of cops — including one of Mexico’s former anti-drug czars — who have moonlighted for the cartels.

Still, last week’s murder of Millan, one of the the highest-ranking police officials ever to be gunned down in Mexico, set a new benchmark in the Colombia-style drug carnage that continues to rage from Tijuana to Cancun. Mexico has already logged almost 1,200 drug-related killings this year — putting it well on track to break last year’s record of almost 2,500 — as an increasingly chaotic array of drug gangs fight one another for trafficking turf, and against any officials who dare to confront them.

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Bin Laden To Deliver ‘Strong Message’ to Muslims

Posted: 18 May 2008 09:45 AM CDT

Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden will shortly deliver a “very strong” message to Muslims, a website used by Islamist militants announced on Sunday.

“To the Islamic ummah (nation), soon, God willing, a very strong address from the lion of Islam, Sheikh Osama bin Laden,” the Internet site said.

The announcement comes two days after an audio message posted on the Internet in which bin Laden slammed Western leaders for taking part in Israel’s 60th birthday celebrations.

“The participation of Western leaders with the Jews in this celebration confirms that the West supports this ugly Jewish occupation of our lands and that they stand in the Israelis’ trench against us,” he said on Friday.

Bin Laden vowed that Muslims would battle on for Palestine.

“We will continue the fight against the Israelis and their allies… and we will not give up one inch of Palestine, God willing, as long as there is one sincere Muslim on this earth.”

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