From Other Sites on the Line: 24 Jul 08

Terror Warnings, Threats, and Denials

Cross posted from Deb Hamilton's Right Truth
http://righttruth.typepad.com/right_truth/2008/07/terror-warnings-threats-and-denials.html?cid=123554496#comments

Terror Warnings continue to increase in both number and urgency

From National Terror Alert:
The following information has been communicated to National Terror Alert. There has been no confirmation from U.S. Intelligence, Law Enforcement or Dept. of Homeland Security sources regarding the credibility or seriousness of this threat at this time.
An increased state of alertness is urged. Please report any and all suspicious behavior to local law enforcement or the FBI.

From: The Institute of Terrorism Research and Response
Date: 16 July 2008; 1530
Targeted Actionable Monitoring Center (TAM-C) of the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response:

Intent: To advise of an increased likelihood of large scale terror attack based on credible intercepted communications.

Threat Classification
SEVERE (Level 2) - Available intelligence and recent events indicate that terrorists have an established capability and current intent to mount an attack on the target and there is some additional information on the nature of the threat. It is assessed that an attack on the target is a priority for the terrorists and is likely to be mounted.

Justifications:
Arab language researchers of the Targeted Actionable Monitoring Center have intercepted communications from an organization closely associated with international terrorists, to include al Qaeda.
Previously intercepted communications from this organization has been proven over time to be reliable.

The communications indicated:
• Jihadist terror cells have been dispatched to an undisclosed location to execute a large scale attack.• The report calls on everyone to pray for the operation’s success.• For the reason of OpSec, the terrorist organization was not releasing this location of the attack
An analysis of this threat leads the TAM-C to believe that the large attack may include the Perisan Gulf states or Turkey.
Such an analysis is based on earlier communications isolating these regions and the need to target westerners or governments that support the United States in these regions.

Conclusion: This is a clear threat on an imminent attack, and all ITRR clients should take this threat seriously.
Security management professionals are encouraged to immediately assess their preparedness to detect, deter, mitigate, and respond to an act of terror.
Clients of the Targeted Actionable Monitoring Center have received detailed information and the relevant client case workers will receive information as intelligence unfolds.Timeline: Through 06 August 2008

The Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR) is an American and Israeli nonprofit corporation created to help organizations succeed and prosper in a world influenced by terrorism.

ITRR’s Israeli and American experts provide counter-terrorism training, seminars, and security specialization in dealing with threats such as Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), suicide bombers, and other forms of international terror striking both the public and private sector.ITRR’s US-based terror experts provide training seminars and expertise in dealing with domestic terrorism and eco-terror groups, including the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF).
The Institute of Terrorism Research and Response established the Targeted Actionable Monitoring Center (TAM-C) to provide accurate and actionable intelligence about potential security threats throughout the world. With a multilingual team of researchers and analysts, TAM-C gathers and provides intelligence on terrorist activities and plans, information on international hot-spots, historical “red-flag” dates, and real-time security alerts.

Operating under the auspices and with the resources of TAM-C, the Ground Truth Network leverages the ITRR’s international contacts and sources to provide real-time intelligence from the field. In this way, the Ground Truth Network keeps international corporations apprised of threats to their assets and personnel throughout the world.
ITRR Website

Karachi Airport

Terrorists Threaten To Attack Commercial Flights In Karachi:

With terrorists already posing a threat to Karachi for the past few weeks, threatening to attack commercial flights at the airport, provincial ministers as well as diplomats and agencies’ personnel have also been warned of attacks. Investigators had recently revealed that a foreign intelligence agency had become active in the city to stir ethnic riots in the metropolis.
A major potential threat recently conveyed to the Sindh Home Department is the Waziristan-based militants’ plan to attack aircraft operating to and from the Karachi airport.

FBI: No Credible Terrorist Threat Ahead of DNC:

The head of the FBI in Denver says his office has received no credible terrorist threats against the Democratic National Convention, but he says he is aware of anarchist groups and protesters who intend on disrupting the convention.
“I think there is some possibility of large scale protests, people who may have it in their mind to disrupt this convention,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Jim Davis.
Davis, who took over the top job at the Denver Field Office in March, is playing one of the lead roles in protecting the DNC from terrorism.
“There is clearly enough activity for us to be very busy in addressing potential threats,” Davis said, noting his agents have been busy preparing for the DNC for months. (continue reading)

D.C. Homeland Security Chief Predicts Chaos in Event of Nuke Attack: (Debbie's suggestion: Perhaps Homeland Security needs to push the idea of Ham (Amateur) Radio. When all other forms of communication are down, individual citizens taking personal responsibility, using their own Ham radio stations, equipment, antennas, are usually the ONLY form of communication available. )

Darrell Darnell, director of the District of Columbia’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, says there would be “a lot of panic, a lot of chaos” if a small nuclear bomb detonated near the White House, which would most likely prevent an evacuation of the city as radiation spread.
In an hour long interview, Darnell also said the major lesson from June 13, when a power substation failure shut off traffic lights, a fire broke out in a Metro station and massive gridlock stymied D.C. police and emergency crews, is that “we need to do a better job coordinating agencies.”

“We didn’t do a very good job of getting MPD (Metropolitan Police Department) and DDOT (District Department of Transportation) there,” he said.
“We’ve also got to communicate better.”
Darnell, however, could not name a single alternative his office has come up with to prevent a repeat of the chaos that enveloped downtown for several hours on June 13.

A note from Radarsite: How many credible terror alerts have we been advised of since 9/11? How many intended terrorist plots were foiled that we know nothing about? How many terrorist plots, about which we have heard nothing, are being monitored right this minute? How many supposed dates of impending attacks have come and gone? These questions are of course what make us so damn vulnerable to false information and purposeful manipulation, and also so vulnerable to cynicism and complacency. And we know that our enemy knows this. How many times must they have they laughed amongst themselves at our obvious vulnerabilities?

But this is the nature of the war we are in. A war like no other war we have ever experienced. Living with threats and rumors of threats is part of this war, an inevitable and unavoidable part. When the possibility of a threat emerges, when the source of this information is known and reliable, we must take it seriously. We must never lose our patience with our protectors. We must never discount their warnings because their previous warnings have gone by uneventfully. Who knows why? Were they just wrong about it? Or were the plots nipped in the bud? Most of these questions will remain unanswered. This is the nature of the war we are in. We must learn to live with unanswered questions and rumors. But we must never ignore them.

When the information is important, and when the sources are legitimate and known to us, Radarsite will pass this information along to our readers. In this case, there could be no more reliable source of good information than Deb Hamilton of Right Truth. So we pass the info along. This is all we can do. We can trust those who have proven trustworthy in the past and hope for the best. But that's not all there is to it.

I have great confidence in the people whose job it is to protect us. This confidence is not just some exercise in wishful thinking, but rather born out of some positive first hand experience. We are doing a much better job of protecting ourselves than we are led to believe by those ever-present legions of nay-sayers. The problem is, of course, that those good people who defend us can't celebrate their victories, they can't respond to their vociferous critics. All they can do is keep doing their job to the very best of their ability. And they do just that.

And all we can do is to keep our resolve. The enemy wants to scare us, to wear us down. We must not let them. This is how we fight this new kind of war. - rg