Category: terrorism

WTF: People linked to al-Qaeda in Spotsylvania County and a (probably unrelated) attempt to bring down Dominion Power lines?

The Jawa Report linked to a copy of a report from the Virginia Fusion Center (PDF) which was posted on the Canadian Free Press‘ website which has these gems in it:

Enclaves of Salafist ideology adherents have been identified in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads areas.10

[…]

According to 2009 public safety survey data, the counties of Fairfax and Spotsylvania reported awareness of individuals potentially linked to al-Qa’ida living, working, or otherwise linked to their jurisdictions.13

[…]

10 (LES) 2009 VFC Threat Assessment Survey: Fairfax County, City of Falls Church, , Spotsylvania County, VSP Division 1)

[…]

13 (LES) 2009 VFC Threat Assessment Survey:

And those aren’t the only interesting parts. Further in the report, it documents incidents regarding threats to critical infrastructure and includes this incident:

Suspicious activity reports concerning Virginia’s Energy Sector include:

[…]

  • In February 2009, two camp propane tanks at the base of two high voltage Dominion Power tower legs were set on fire in Spotsylvania. The tanks had duct tape over the propane  cylinders, and a separate container had been placed at the base of one of the tower legs and ignited. Numerous wooden matches, a cigarette butt, gasoline, and a light oil substance were also found. According to officials at the scene, if the propane tanks had been approximately 12″ higher and fully engulfed and ignited, the resulting fire could have caused a tower collapse.450

[…]

450 (LES) Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office Situational Awareness Bulletin dated February 12, 2009

Pictures of the devices used and the damage caused can be seen on p. 164 of the report as well.

I haven’t read through the whole report but I’ll post anything else interesting I find.

How does someone get a sentence of “four years and nine minutes”?

(This post doubles as: “POS terrorist ends hunger strike”)

Yes, minutes, not months. AP:

A former professor who pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid a Palestinian terrorist group but has refused to testify before a grand jury in a related investigation has ended a nearly two-month hunger strike in a southeast Virginia jail, his supporters said Wednesday.

[…]

Prosecutors decided to retry him, and he entered a plea bargain on lesser charges. He was sentenced to four years and nine minutes in prison with credit for time served.

POS terrorist back in prison.

And that makes today a good day: LA Times:

California authorities rearrested Sara Jane Olson at noon Saturday, just hours after she was prevented from flying home to Minnesota from Los Angeles, and said she must serve one more year in prison because they miscalculated her release date.

The former member of the radical Symbionese Liberation Army had been paroled Monday from a California women’s prison after serving about six years for her role in a 1975 plot to kill Los Angeles police officers by blowing up their patrol cars.

Officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said at a news conference that they had made a mistake in computing the amount of time Olson should serve in a separate case in which she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for participating in a Sacramento-area bank robbery in which another SLA member killed a customer.

She should be joining Tookie Williams but I guess we have to settle for another year in prison:

But [Los Angeles Police Protective League President Tim] Sands said the organization was “far from satisfied. Parole shouldn’t even be an option for terrorists who are convicted of murdering innocent bystanders and attempting to murder police officers. Anyone who tries to kill police officers should get significant jail time and serve their full sentence.”

H/t: Patterico’s Pontifications

Police Dog Who Helped in 9-11 Recovery Dies

From WUSA 9 in Washington, D.C. [photo credit: Ibid]: Police Dog Who Helped in 9-11 Recovery Dies:

Stryker Stryker [pictured right] worked some of the most high-profile cases in our area.

After the terrorist plane crash into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 the German Shephard–along with his handler, Park Police Officer Alice Hanan, searched the building for survivors and the dead. The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) says Stryker made 108 finds in the disaster’s aftermath.

Stryker helped search for missing persons Michelle Dorr, Susan Stottmeister and Chandra Levy. He was also brought in after the water taxi accident in Baltimore Harbor in 2004.

The dog also helped in 113 drug arrests that resulted in $152,923 worth of drugs being taken off the streets.

In all, Stryker worked close to 900 crime-fighting and rescue missions during his service with the M-NCPPC Park Police, Montgomery County Division. He was with the department from 1997 to 2004.

M-NCPPC tell 9NEWS NOW that on July 30th Stryker had to be euthanized. He was suffering from muscular problems that resulted in him not being able to use his hind legs. Stryker was 11-and-a-half years old.

The Park Police adopted Stryker when he was one years old. He was born in Czechoslovakia.

In a news release, M-NCPPC Park Police describe Stryker as “one of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission’s most beloved K9 workers.”

Handler, Alice Hanan, says “Stryker was an incredible K9 partner and I am honored and thankful for our time together….He had the best life possible for a dog and I am pretty sure he knew that. Thanks to everyone who helped us along the way.”

Stryker and Hanan were named the Park Police K9 team of the year 4 years in a row from 1999 to 2002.

This is satire, right?

From the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR): Action: Contact the Giuliani Presidential Committee [emphasis mine]:

GIULIANI TO DEMS: USE THE WORDS ‘ISLAMIC TERRORISTS’

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani took Democratic White House hopefuls to task Monday for being soft on terrorists and hard on capitalism.

Speaking to an invited audience of about 100 local GOP members, the former New York mayor said he was concerned that if a Democrat wins the White House the nation would take a defensive stance in “the war on terror” and become more vulnerable to a domestic attack.

“At no time during their three debates have they used the words ‘Islamic terrorists,'” Giuliani said of the Democratic contenders who as he spoke were debating at The Citadel military college in South Carolina. “If they do tonight, I will take credit for it.”

ACTION: CONTACT THE GIULIANI PRESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE

CONTACT the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee to express your concerns about his promotion of linking the faith of Islam to terrorism.

CONTACT: (As always, be POLITE.)

Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee
295 Greenwich St, #371, New York, NY 10007
Tel: 212-835-9449, 646-943-7890
E-mail: webteam@joinrudy2008.com

Right…because the terrorists on 9-11 weren’t Muslims, right? The terrorists that bombed the USS Cole weren’t Muslims either, right? The terrorists that planned the millennium attacks weren’t Muslims either, right? The terrorists responsible for the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania weren’t Muslims either, right? And John Allen Muhammad (the beltway sniper) wasn’t Muslim either, right? The suicide bombers in Hamas and Hezbollah aren’t Muslims either, right?

And yes, this is the same CAIR that were unindicted co-conspirators in the funding of Hamas.

Contact for CAIR: (As always, be POLITE.)

The Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Ave SE
Washington, DC 20003-4034
Tel. 202.488.8787
Fax. 202.488.0833
Email: info@cair.com

Hat tip: The Jawa Report

U.S. Announces Major al-Qaida Arrest

From the AP via Breitbart.com: U.S. Announces Major al-Qaida Arrest:

The U.S. command announced on Wednesday the arrest of an al-Qaida leader it said served as the link between the organization’s command in Iraq and Osama bin Laden’s inner circle, enabling it to wield considerable influence over the Iraqi group.

[…]

Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani was the highest- ranking Iraqi in the al-Qaida in Iraq leadership when he was captured July 4 in Mosul, U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said.

Bergner told reporters that al-Mashhadani carried messages from bin Laden, and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, to the Egyptian-born head of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

“There is a clear connection between al-Qaida in Iraq and al-Qaida senior leadership outside Iraq,” Bergner said.

Really, al-Qaida in Iraq linked to al-Qaida, who would have thunk it?

Hat tip: Matt “threat to democracy” Drudge

Slavery is Freedom?

From The Guardian:

“Big Brother” plans to automatically hand the police details of the daily journeys of millions of motorists tracked by road pricing cameras across the country were inadvertently disclosed by the Home Office last night.

Leaked Whitehall background papers reveal that Home Office and transport ministers have clashed over plans for legislation this autumn enabling the police to get automatic “real-time” access to the bulk data from the traffic cameras now going into operation. The Home Office says the police need the data from the cameras, which can read and store every passing numberplate, “for all crime fighting purposes”.

But transport ministers warn of concerns about privacy and “the potential for adverse publicity relating to plans for local road pricing” also due to be unveiled this autumn. There are already nearly 2,000 automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras in place and they are due to double as road pricing schemes are expanded across the country.

[…]

The leaked Home Office note emerged yesterday as it was announced that the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, had waived Data Protection Act safeguards to allow the bulk transfer of data from London’s congestion charge and traffic cameras to the Metropolitan police for the specific purpose of tracking potential terrorists in and around the capital. Transport for London was very reluctant to hand over the data without the home secretary issuing a special certificate exempting it from legal action from motorists worried about breach of their privacy.

[…]

“Civil rights groups and privacy campaigners may condemn this as further evidence of an encroaching ‘big brother’ approach to policing and security, particularly in light of the recent e-petition on roads pricing,” says a Home Office note on its ‘handling strategy’ for the issue in reference to the runaway success of a petition on the Downing Street website against road charging. “Conversely, there may be surprise that the data collected by the congestion charge cameras is not already used for national security purposes and may lead to criticism that the matter is yet to be resolved.”

[…]

The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Nick Clegg, said the “unintended act of open government” had revealed the disingenuous attitude of ministers towards public fears about a creeping surveillance state: “No wonder Douglas Alexander was keen to tone down these proposals, since he must know that public resistance to a road charging scheme will go through the roof if it is based on technology which poses a threat to personal privacy. Bit by bit, vast computer databases are being made inter-operable and yet the government seems to running scared of a full and public debate.”

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said: “It is one thing to ask the public for special measures to fight the grave threat of terrorism, but when that becomes a Trojan horse for mass snooping for more petty matters it only leads to a loss of trust in government.”

Nope, nothing Orwellian about that…

Hat tip: Matt “threat to democracy” Drudge

Doing the illegal entering Americans won’t do…

Apparently, from ABC News: FBI: Iraqis Being Smuggled Across the Rio Grande:

The FBI is investigating an alleged human smuggling operation based in Chaparral, N.M., that agents say is bringing “Iraqis and other Middle Eastern” individuals across the Rio Grande from Mexico.

An FBI intelligence report distributed by the Washington, D.C. Joint Terrorism Task Force, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, says the illegal ring has been bringing Iraqis across the border illegally for more than a year.

Border Patrol officials in the area said they were unaware of the specifics of the FBI’s report, and federal prosecutors in New Mexico told ABCNews.com they had no current cases involving the illegal smuggling of Iraqis.

The FBI report, issued last week, says the smuggling organization “used to smuggle Mexicans, but decided to smuggle Iraqi or other Middle Eastern individuals because it was more lucrative.” Each individual would be charged a fee of $20,000 to $25,000, according to the report.

“Border security!? We ain’t got no border security. We don’t need no border security! I don’t have to show you any stinking border security!!”

Hat tip: Matt “threat to democracy” Drudge

Terrorists? What terrorists?

From The Dallas Morning News: Women arrested after police standoff:

It started with a routine domestic disturbance, except that the pair involved has recently been under investigation by federal terrorism officials.

Before the day ended, Arlington police had negotiated a six-hour standoff, their robot had been shot at with a paintball gun, and they had called in a bomb squad over four potentially explosive devices.

Kimberly Al-Homsi called 911 about 12:40 a.m. Monday. She said her friend, Aisha Hamad, had threatened her with a knife. The two are noteworthy because a few months ago, they were seen at Dallas Love Field, both dressed in camouflage pants under traditional Muslim robes, conducting what appeared to be surveillance, officials said.

Police say that Monday morning, when an officer came to the door, Ms. Hamad threatened to shoot him. She told him the only way she would leave was in a body bag.

So began the standoff, during which she fired a paintball gun at a tactical robot and missed, police say, and at the end of which a negotiator persuaded her to come out peacefully. Once outside, Ms. Hamad, 50, fought with them while they tried to handcuff her, police say, so they used a Taser on her.

[…]

Meanwhile, police searched the home on Wembley Road and found four explosive devices, one of which was sitting on a bedroom table.

Citing an ongoing investigation, Arlington Assistant Fire Marshal Stephen Lea would not say what the devices were.

“We do not know whether they would function as [explosive] devices until we have time to study them and look at them and test the materials,” Mr. Lea said. “I can tell you this; there wasn’t anything in there that would have blown her house to pieces.”

[…]

The terrorism angle stems from Feb. 25, when the two women were spotted at Love Field acting in a way authorities found suspicious. Surveillance video showed one of them walking back and forth, apparently pacing off distances.

When confronted, the women told officials they were looking for the Frontiers of Flight museum.

Two days later, the pair was spotted at the airport again. This time Ms. Al-Homsi, 42, was sitting on the hood of a car looking through binoculars at airplanes. Dallas officers stopped the car nearby, but the women refused to let police search it, authorities say.

The women also came under scrutiny after they were reported driving near the runways at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on July 4.

Dallas police and federal terrorism officials have acknowledged investigating the pair, but police officials have said they had no direct evidence the women have ties to terrorism. The women have accused authorities of violating their rights and of religious and racial profiling.

In 2005, Ms. Al-Homsi was accused of waving a fake grenade at a motorist on Central Expressway during a spasm of road rage. Officials charged her with a bomb hoax, and she was placed on probation. She is said to have long-range assault rifle and explosives training, according to a Dallas police intelligence bulletin issued March 5.

Such evil racial profiling, they just had paintball guns (Virginia Jihad Network anyone?), explosives, and were casing a airport in camouflage gear. Nice to see the feds are on top of things, ever heard of something called a search warrant?

Hat tip: Little Green Footballs