Current Events and Links

See also:
Emergency Preparedness
How Will Barack Obama Deal With Terrorism?
War In America
Wars and Rumors of War
Mid-East Conflict
New Cold War
The War of Gog and Magog
Islam
CyberWar
Emergency Preparedness

Why Pakistanis have been detained for Al Shabab's Uganda bombings

July 19, 2010 - Two explosions in Uganda on July 11 killed 76 people while they watched the soccer World Cup final game on TV.

Sheikh Mukhtar Abdirahman Abu-Zubeyr, spiritual leader of Somalia's Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group, Al Shabab, reportedly claimed responsibility for the blasts in a recorded message.

Ugandan authorities report “more than 20” people, including several Pakistanis have been detained in connection with the investigations.

Source: Christian Science Monitor

Pakistan's main spy agency still arms, trains Taliban despite US pressure, research says

June 14, 2010 - A report just issued by the London School of Economics claims that Pakistan's main spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, continues to arm and train the Taliban and is even represented on the group's leadership council. Pakistan has recently fought against Pakistani Taliban who have launched attacks within the country, but not against the Afghan Taliban who are hiding in Pakistan but fighting NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Officially, Pakistan decided to denounce the group in 2001 under U.S. pressure, but the new report indicates that assistance to the group even extends to the highest levels of the Pakistani government.

"Pakistan's apparent involvement in a double-game of this scale could have major geopolitical implications and could even provoke U.S. countermeasures," said the report, which was based on interviews with Taliban commanders, former Taliban officials, Western diplomats and many others.

Source: Fox

Pakistani Wanted in NYC Bomb Plot, 2 Others Pulled From Plane

May 4, 2010 -

A Pakistani-born U.S. citizen accused of trying to detonate a bomb-laden SUV in Times Square was minutes away from fleeing the U.S. when his Dubai-bound flight was returned to its gate at New York's Kennedy Airport and U.S. officials escorted him from the plane, along with two other men.

Faisal Shahzad, 30, was identified by FBI agents and New York Police Department detectives as the suspect in Sunday's attempted car-bombing in New York. Before the arrest, his home in Bridgeport, Connecticut was raided by law enforcement agents.

Source: Fox

Update May 10, 1010 - Feds Link Failed Times Square Bombing To Pakistani TalibanConfessions by Faisal Shahzad lead to Pakistan. - NY1

Surviving Mumbai gunman convicted over attacks

May 3, 2010 - Pakistani national Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, the sole surviving gunman of the terror attacks in Mumbai (Bombay, India), on charges of murder, waging war on India and possessing explosives.

The attacks left 174 people - including nine gunmen - dead, and soured ties between India and Pakistan.

India's home minister said the verdict was a message to Pakistan that it should not "export terrorism to India".

Source: BBC

Car Bomb In Times Square

May 5, 2010

Law enforcement officials offered a more detailed description of the makeup of the failed car bomb found in Times Square on Saturday night.

A white man in his 40s was seen on surveillance footage walking away from the area.

Source: N Y Times

Obama Calls Nuke Terrorism the Top Threat to U.S.

Apr. 7, 2010 - The Obama administration has announced a new strategy on the use of nuclear weapons.

President Barack Obama said his administration would narrow the circumstances in which the U.S. might launch a nuclear strike, that it would forgo the development of new nuclear warheads and would seek even deeper reductions in American and Russian arsenals.

The new defensive strategy will focus on the spread of atomic weapons to rogue states or terrorists, downplaying the old Cold War fear of a nuclear exchange with Russia.

Source: NewsMax

Homicide Bombers Kill 37 on Moscow Subway

Mar. 29, 2010 - Two Moscow subway stations were bombed by separate female homicide bombers during Monday's rush-hour. At least 37 people were killed and 102 were wounded.

The head of Russia's main security agency said preliminary investigation places the blame on rebels from the restive Caucasus region that includes Chechnya, where separatists have fought Russian forces since the mid-1990s.

One of the bombers, wearing a belt packed with plastic explosives, detonated the bomb as the train's doors opened, causing casualties on the train and on the platform.

Source: Fox

US to engage in 'hit and run' war in Somalia

Mar. 7, 2010 - According to a US newspaper, Somali military chief General Mohamed Gelle said that Americans will help the Somalia government launch a major assault on what US government dubs the 'al-Qaeda' branch in Somalia within 'a few' weeks.

Source: PressTV

Forum 'chatter' hyping imminent attack on U.S.

Feb. 6, 2010 - According to The Middle East Media Research Institute the Internet is abuzz with terrorists who are discussing another attack on the United States that could come within the next three to six months. They are discussing which American sites would make the best targets. The White House and CIA headquarters are high on their lists.

Steven Emerson, a counter-terrorism expert and founder of the Investigative Project of Terrorism, said the nation should be taking such "chatter" � comments on blogs and in e-mail � seriously.

Emerson believes attack are likely. He points out that we have had 19 attacks in just the past year, and each one was preceded by a written or verbal threat.

Source: WorldNetDaily

The Investigative Project on Terrorism

Intel chief: Al-Qaida likely to attempt attack

Feb. 3, 2010- Federal investigators say that Umar Farouk Abdulmutullab, the Christmas Day attack suspect, is giving investigators new information. According to senior U.S. intelligence officials the US can expect another attack in the country during the next three to six months.

The terrorist organization is deploying operatives to the United States to carry out new attacks from inside the country, including "clean" recruits with a negligible trail of terrorist contacts, CIA Director Leon Panetta said.

Source: AP News

MI5 hunting breast implants of death

Feb. 2, 2010 - British MI5 intelligence agents have discovered that Muslim doctors, trained in British hospitals have returned to their homelands to implant explosives in women's breasts or men's buttocks.

The discovery of these methods was made after the London-educated Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab came close to blowing up an airliner on Christmas Day with explosives he had stuffed inside his underpants.

It is thought that as little as five ounces of PETN when activated would blow "a considerable hole" in an airline's skin, causing it to crash.

Source: WorldNetDaily

Report: Al-Qaeda aims to hit U.S. with WMDs

Jan. 25, 2010 - A report from Congress' bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism claims that Al-Qaeda is extremely patient, waiting for the opportunity to unleash weapons of mass destruction on the U.S. The commission was also critical of the Obama administration's preparation for this threat.

Source: MSNBC

Obama Administration Earns an 'F' on Stopping WMD Attacks - NewsMax

U.K. on Alert as Terrorism Threat Level Is Raised to �Severe�

Jan. 25, 2010 - Conferences will be held in London next week about Yemen and the war in Afghanistan. As a precaution, the British government suspended direct flights between Yemen and the U.K. on Jan. 20. It has now raised the country's international terrorism threat level from "substantial" to "severe." Home Secretary Alan Johnson said that there is no specific intelligence that an attack is imminent.

The highest level of alert in the U.K.�s five-tier scale is �critical,� meaning an attack is �expected imminently,� followed by �severe,� �substantial,� indicating an attack is a �strong possibility,� and then moderate and low.

Source: BusinessWeek

Osama Bin Laden tells Obama that threats like Detroit terrorist attack on Christmas will continue

Jan. 24, 2010 - An audio tape from Osama Bin Laden was played on al-Jazeera television. In it, he praised the attempt to destroy the airliner over Detroit and said that another attack would be "highly likely." He addressed President Obama directly about US support of Israel.

"America will never dream of living in peace unless we live it in Palestine... It is unfair that you enjoy a safe life while our brothers in Gaza suffer greatly."

Source: Chicago Libertarian Examiner

Yemen Captures Al Qaeda Suspects Tied to Plot Against U.S.

Jan. 6, 2009 - Three suspected Al Qaeda militants Yemeni forces Wednesday.

The arrests were the latest move in Yemen's U.S.-backed crackdown on Al Qaeda's offshoot here, as Yemeni officials trumpet that they are taking on the militant group.

Source: Fox

PLUS! - Yemeni Forces Reportedly Surround Compound of Al Qaeda Leader - Fox

Obama to Meet With Security Officials, Unveil Reforms

Jan 5, 2010 - President Obama will meet today with 20 high-ranking government officials charged with carrying out two reviews he ordered after the failed attack on an airliner on Christmas day.

Obama will outline his findings for the public after the meeting to which 20 officials were invited, as well as a series of new steps to improve the watchlists and thwart future terrorist attacks, the White House said.

The meetings will include Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, CIA Director Leon Panetta and FBI Director Robert Mueller, Attorney General Eric Holder; Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence; Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center; national security adviser James Jones, and John Brennan, the president's counterterrorism adviser.

Source: Fox