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Chertoff: Hezbollah Makes Al Qaeda Look Minor League - Greatest Risk To National Security

Posted: 30 May 2008 02:01 AM CDT

Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff warned Thursday that the radical Islamic group Hezbollah “makes Al Qaeda look like a minor league team,” and poses the greatest threat to national security.

“Someone described Hezbollah like the A-team of terrorists in terms of capabilities, in terms of range of weapons they have, in terms of internal discipline,” Chertoff told FOX News. “To be honest, they make Al Qaeda look like a minor league team.

“They have been more disciplined, and they’ve been in some senses more restrained in the kinds of attacks they carry out … in recent years, but that’s not something we can take for granted,” he warned.

Chertoff, speaking before the opening of a two-day terrorism forum in Jerusalem, also warned of the threat of a terrorist smuggling a bomb aboard a passenger airplane.

“I don’t think we’re really worried about hijacking because we’ve put a lot of measures in place like a locked cockpit door, flight deck officers who have weapons and the air marshals,” Chertoff told FOX News. “So the next threat becomes the bomb. Something that either a person takes on board themselves or smuggles into the cargo.”

“One way we’ve addressed smuggling a bomb is by reducing the size of liquids you can bring on board,” Chertoff said. “That was a direct result of learning terrorists had developed a way to disguise liquid explosives.

“The second thing we’re in the process of doing is intensifying the degree of screening we use for baggage that goes into the cargo. Whether it comes from the passenger or is shipped from company. All of this is raising the level of defense,” he said.

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Did Chinese Officials Copy U.S. Government Laptop Data To Hack Into Computers

Posted: 30 May 2008 02:01 AM CDT

The U.S. government is looking into allegations that Chinese officials snagged a laptop left unattended by a top U.S. official there, copied the data and then used it to try to hack into U.S. government computers.

The incident is alleged to have happened during Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez’s trip to Beijing in December. Gutierrez told the AP wire service he couldn’t comment on an ongoing investigation.

Since then, the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, known as US-CERT, responded to computer network break-ins at least three times, the report says.

“The Pentagon, State Department and Commerce Department all have been victimized by widespread computer intrusions blamed on China since July 2006,” with the Commerce Department even having to unplug itself from the Internet, as a result, the article says.

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Truck Rigged To Steal Large Quantity of Diesel Fuel - Ohio

Posted: 30 May 2008 02:01 AM CDT

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Police have linked the large-scale theft of diesel fuel from a western Pennsylvania convenience store to a specially equipped pickup truck trailer with a trap door and a vacuum hose.

No one has been charged, but the truck and trailer were found on the property of a man who owns a small asphalt and trucking company in Ohio, police said.

“It’s a very ingenious way of doing things and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Hermitage Deputy Police Chief Edward Holiga.

Holiga said his department is investigating whether the truck is linked to at least three thefts since 2005. In the latest, about $4,500 worth of diesel fuel was reported stolen April 28 from the underground tanks of the Tic Toc Food Mart in Hermitage.

Police issued a surveillance photo of the pickup and trailer believed to be involved in the thefts and received a tip that led them to a property in North Bloomfield, Ohio, about 30 miles northwest of Hermitage.

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Search Is Urged for Additional Syrian Nuclear Sites

Posted: 30 May 2008 02:01 AM CDT

The Bush administration is pressing U.N. inspectors to broaden their search for possible secret nuclear facilities in Syria, hinting that Damascus’s nuclear program might be bigger than the single alleged reactor destroyed by Israeli warplanes last year.

At least three sites have been identified by U.S. officials and passed along to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is negotiating with Syria for permission to conduct inspections in the country, according to U.S. government officials and Western diplomats. U.S. officials want to know if the suspect sites may have been support facilities for the alleged Al Kibar reactor destroyed in an Israeli air raid Sept. 6, the sources said.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog, which has been seeking access to the Al Kibar site since shortly after the bombing, has acknowledged receiving requests to expand the scope of its inspections, but provided no details.

U.S. government officials declined to describe the specific sites that have drawn interest, or to discuss how they were identified. However, the United States and other Western governments have long been interested in identifying possible locations for a facility in Syria that might have supplied nuclear fuel rods for a Syrian reactor. Although the Al Kibar site was described as nearly operational at the time of the Sept. 6 bombing, it had no clear source of the uranium fuel necessary for operation, according to U.S. intelligence officials and diplomats familiar with the site.

Syria, which has denied having a nuclear weapons program, has not yet responded to IAEA requests for a firm date for inspections.

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Report: Iran, al Qaeda in Secret Talks

Posted: 30 May 2008 12:18 AM CDT

ABC News reports that senior U.S. officials are stating that in recent months there have been secret contacts between the Iranian government and the leadership of al Qaeda. It’s a development that has caught the attention of top officials in the White House, the Pentagon and the intelligence community.

There are several theories floating about as to why Iran would engage al Qaeda. Most of the theories point to Iran using several high-level operatives loosely detained in Iran, as pawns or bargaining chips. Those al Qaeda operatives include two of bin Ladens sons.

According to U.S. officials familiar with highly sensitive intelligence, the contacts are on the status of the al Qaeda operatives who have been under house arrest in Iran since 2003. The officials don’t believe Iran will allow these operatives to go free, but said they don’t know Iran’s motivation for initiating the talks.

“The Iranians know there would be hell to pay if these guys were set free,” a U.S. official told ABC News.

“Iran likely sees these individuals, as major bargaining chips,” says another official. “How and when they’re going to use those chips or whether they are going to keep them in the bank is part of an ongoing strategic discussion they are having internally.”

[…]

The fate of these al Qaeda operatives has been one of the most intriguing mysteries in the war on terror. Shortly after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, al Qaeda’s central leadership broke into two groups. U.S. intelligence believes that one group, headed by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, fled to the east to find safe haven in Pakistan’s tribal areas. The second group, headed by an Egyptian named Saif al Adel, went west to Iran. This second group, which intelligence analysts say includes al Qaeda’s management council, or “shura,” includes about two dozen militants, including Adel, al Qaeda spokesman Suliman abu Ghaith and some of bin Laden’s relatives, including two of his sons, Saad and

Although U.S. officials rarely talk publicly about them, these militants are considered to be among the most dangerous terrorists in the world.

[…]

So, why would Iran now be reaching out to al Qaeda? U.S. intelligence analysts have several theories. Under one theory, the talks are a reaction to al Qaeda’s recent anti-Iranian rhetoric. The Iranians are using the al Qaeda detainees as, the theory goes, leverage “hostages” in the words of one official to get al Qaeda to cut its recent anti-Iranian rhetoric and to deter any potential al Qaeda operations against Iran. By detaining them, Iran makes an unspoken threat to al Qaeda’s leadership: If al Qaeda attempts to attack Iran, these people will suffer.

Others believe Iran may have initiated the talks as a threat to the United States, that if the U.S. takes hostile action against Iran, these captives could be released, set free to plot attacks against the West.

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Copter Crash Kills 8 Returning From UN Terrorism Conference - Chile Chief of Police Among Dead

Posted: 29 May 2008 11:52 PM CDT

At least eight people including Chile’s chief of police were killed Thursday when a helicopter crashed into a building in a busy neighborhood of Panama City, officials said.

Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro said that visiting Chilean officials were aboard the helicopter when it crashed, causing “a considerable number of mortal victims.”

In Santiago, Chile’s Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma confirmed that the the fatalities included the head of Chile’s national police, Jose Alejandro Bernales, and his wife, as well as four other Chileans.

Panamanian police confirmed the death of two Panama nationals.

But officials had not yet released an official death toll amid an investigation into the cause of the crash.

Civil aviation sources said that at least 12 people including three crew members were aboard the aircraft, belonging to Panama’s National Air Service.

Bodies covered in blue blankets were visible at the scene of the accident, and several people were rushed to hospital, authorities said.

Eyewitnesses told local media that the helicopter pitched wildly before plunging and starting a fire in the building it hit.

Police cordoned off the area and the mayor urged people to stay away from the area to “avoid more deaths.”

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Radioactive Cargo Rejected By Greece Returned To Macedonia

Posted: 29 May 2008 11:45 PM CDT

A radioactive waste shipment, rejected by Greece, has returned back to Macedonia.

Greek Ethnos daily said the cargo entered Greece at Evzoni crossing point. The cargo was uncovered in Thessaloniki, shortly before melting.

Greek Atomic Energy Commission has not yet confirmed the initial news reports indicated that the shipment contained radioactive waste from Kosovo. The Commission hinted at old iron - parts of kitchen appliances and industrial equipment.

Macedonian truck that carried the cargo crossed the Macedonian-Greek border on 22 May. The vehicle was subjected to security checkup and later it was allowed to cross the border despite the high radiation levels.

Five customs officers have been dismissed. The head of Greek customs office assumed the responsibility for the event and demanded replacement.

Ethnos daily says Greek authorities remained tightlipped over the incident.

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No Bomb Found After Threat at Kansas City Airport

Posted: 29 May 2008 11:41 PM CDT

A spokesman for Kansas City International Airport said operations were back to normal after a bomb threat Thursday night.

Spokesman Joe McBride said all 134 passengers and crews members were safely removed from a plane after a bomb threat had been called in.

The Kansas City Fire Department inspected the plane with bomb-sniffing dogs and found nothing dangerous, McBride said.

According to Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Ashley Rogers, the threat was specific to Flight 46, headed to Chicago, set to depart at 9:40 p.m.

The phone call was received about 9:35 p.m McBride said.

The plane had come from Dallas after making several other stops during the day. It was unclear if any passengers had gotten off or boarded since the plane arrived in Kansas City.

The plane was isolated from the terminal before passengers began exiting the plane, McBride said.

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Venezuela Says Suspect Under Arrest is U.S. Drug Agent

Posted: 29 May 2008 11:29 PM CDT

There has been no confirmation of this story from U.S. sources.

Venezuela said on Thursday it arrested a man who identified himself as a U.S. anti-drugs agent, which if confirmed could inflame tensions between the United States and one of its biggest oil suppliers.

President Hugo Chavez in 2005 ended cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), saying the agency was spying on him. The United States denied the charge and says Chavez does too little to stop trafficking from neighboring Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine exporter.

Gen. Gabriel Oviedo said the man was acting suspicious when he was detained close to the border with Colombia while bearing Canadian and French passports and a Venezuelan identity card.

“The official at the scene proceeded to interrogate him and he said he was a DEA agent,” Oviedo told state television.

The U.S. Embassy in Caracas said it had no knowledge of the arrest.

Relations have deteriorated since a failed 2002 coup against Chavez that Washington initially welcomed.

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