Sleeper Cells and Airport Security!
Interesting Article: Man Sought After Bullet Hit Window at the White House By BRIAN KNOWLTON and MARK LANDLER / Washington published Wednesday, November 16, 2011
According to the New York Times, Federal and local authorities are investigating a shooting that struck the White House on Friday. The Secret Service said that one bullet had been stopped by the reinforced windows installed inside the historic exterior glass used at the White House. One additional round was found outside. Secret Service agents heard multiple shots fired on Friday and witnessed a car speeding away, westbound, on Constitution Avenue, according to a law enforcement official. The car and a weapon were found, abandoned, at a corner of Constitution Avenue and 23rd Street within a couple of minutes, this official said. The authorities had said earlier that an AK-47 assault rifle was found in the abandoned car, and that the evidence at the scene led the authorities to seek Oscar Ramiro Ortega. Late on Friday, the police searched the Occupy DC protest camp, on McPherson Square just blocks from the White House, after reports that Ortega might have spent time there. A tip from someone who identified Mr Ortega led to his arrest in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie told the Associated Press. Details about this individual will come out sooner or later, but this led me to ask a question, are there terrorist camps in the U.S that can train potential jihadists? If so, what else is going on that could make it easier for a terrorist to operate in the U.S?
You might not think it, but yes there is-a group calling itself “Muslims In America” whose leader is a Pakistani cleric, and an avowed Islamic Radical that openly hates America- has established thirty five militant training camps throughout the U.S. These Camps are protected under the Constitution-even though their members have been videotaped training in combat tactics, using explosives, mock-killing of guards, attacking vehicles-much like the Al Qaida training videos. Islamic groups such as Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) , Islamic Society of North America, as well as the hundreds of University Islamic Societies operating in American universities exist today. Most of them are peaceful, but there should be some investigation into these groups so that they can catalog, and expose every financial transaction, every leader of the group, and investigate the membership population-until their activities can be deemed peaceful. Last year, the CAIR issued a “travel advisory” noting that women who are patted down “should remind the TSA officer that they are only supposed to pat down the area in question, in this scenario, your head and neck." It’s unclear why CAIR believes TSA frisking must be Shariah-compliant. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano refused to deny that such exemptions existed when CNS News asked her about them, saying instead that “adjustments will be made where they need to be made” and that “there will be more to come” on this issue. A fatwa issued in February by Islamic scholars at the Fiqh Council of North America forbad observant Muslims from going through full-body scanners. Exemptions for Muslim women wearing traditional garb may be the brainchild of Mohamed Elibiary. In December 2004, Elibiary spoke at a conference honoring the life and works of the “great Islamic visionary,” Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In 2008, Mr. Elibiary denounced the conviction of Hamas-connected members of the Holy Land Foundation for material support of terrorism. Most alarmingly, Mr. Elibiary is an admirer of the work of Sayyid Qutb, the intellectual and spiritual godfather of modern jihadism. Mr. Elibiary argues that Qutb is "greatly misunderstood". Qutb - who lived in the United States as a student in the late 1940s - developed a comprehensive anti-American ideology that’s widely cited as the basis for the contemporary violent Islamic extremism we see in the Middle East and South Asia. In July, the government warned airlines that terrorists are considering surgically hiding bombs inside humans to evade airport security. Bombs-in-the body is not a brand new idea, but recent intelligence indicates a fresh interest in using this method, as people-scanning machines in airports aren't able to detect explosives hidden inside humans. As airport security has increased since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, so has the terrorists' creativity in developing methods to get around it. Aviation continues to be a special target, and evidence from Osama bin Laden's compound showed that the al-Qaida leader retained his fascination with attacking airplanes until his death in May. The al-Qaida offshoot in Yemen has emerged as the most inventive terror organization these days and has been behind two plots that nearly brought down planes over the U.S. The group, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, was behind the Christmas Day attack in 2009 when a Nigerian hid a bomb in his underpants and nearly brought down an airliner over Detroit. AQAP operatives also concealed bombs in printer cartridges last October, shipping them to Chicago addresses. That attack was thwarted because of specific intelligence about the plot. And in late December, the U.S. received intelligence that the Yemen group was considering hiding explosives in the insulated lining of beverage containers and carrying them aboard airplanes. There was no information pointing to a specific plot with insulated beverage containers, but, like the recent intelligence about the implanted bomb tactic, the Transportation Security Administration warned domestic and foreign carriers to be on the lookout. White House spokesman Jay Carney said U.S. counterterrorism efforts must evolve as terror groups publicly indicate their interest in finding ways to conceal explosives. "The idea that terrorists have been looking for other ways to circumvent security measures to target aircraft is not at all surprising," Carney said. The increase in airport security meanwhile makes it less likely that a terrorist will again be successful in hijacking a jet and using it as a missile. More likely, the US will be targeted by terrorists hiding explosives on their bodies. A single suicide bomber can carry enough explosive on his body to kill or gravely wound everyone on a bus or train car. 74% of suicide bombers in Israel are Arab men aged 18 to 22 years old, but the terrorists have adopted practices that make it easier for them to blend into Israeli crowds. Women and older people are now being used as bomb-carriers, and the bombers have appeared in commonplace Israeli attire (including earrings on men, short haircuts, military uniforms). In the US, it will be difficult to identify a bomber by his sex, age or fashion of clothing. Authorities have already been on high alert since the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in May, ramping up security at airports, government buildings and other facilities in case of a retaliatory strike. And security will now be boosted further at airports after Homeland Security officials warned air carriers and other world leaders about the possibility of the ‘body bomber’ attacks on commercial flights, but if organizations such as CAIR continue to press for special arrangements at the Airports, it will not be too long before that area is exploited by terrorist sleeper cells in the U.S.
References:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15759566
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/06/tsa-terrorism-warning-t_n_891206.html
http://www.manhattaninstitute.org/html/be_prepared.htm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2011851/Terrorists-planning-blow-planes-bombs-INSIDE-bodies-U-S-authorities-warn.html#ixzz1duijDWSb
According to the New York Times, Federal and local authorities are investigating a shooting that struck the White House on Friday. The Secret Service said that one bullet had been stopped by the reinforced windows installed inside the historic exterior glass used at the White House. One additional round was found outside. Secret Service agents heard multiple shots fired on Friday and witnessed a car speeding away, westbound, on Constitution Avenue, according to a law enforcement official. The car and a weapon were found, abandoned, at a corner of Constitution Avenue and 23rd Street within a couple of minutes, this official said. The authorities had said earlier that an AK-47 assault rifle was found in the abandoned car, and that the evidence at the scene led the authorities to seek Oscar Ramiro Ortega. Late on Friday, the police searched the Occupy DC protest camp, on McPherson Square just blocks from the White House, after reports that Ortega might have spent time there. A tip from someone who identified Mr Ortega led to his arrest in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie told the Associated Press. Details about this individual will come out sooner or later, but this led me to ask a question, are there terrorist camps in the U.S that can train potential jihadists? If so, what else is going on that could make it easier for a terrorist to operate in the U.S?
You might not think it, but yes there is-a group calling itself “Muslims In America” whose leader is a Pakistani cleric, and an avowed Islamic Radical that openly hates America- has established thirty five militant training camps throughout the U.S. These Camps are protected under the Constitution-even though their members have been videotaped training in combat tactics, using explosives, mock-killing of guards, attacking vehicles-much like the Al Qaida training videos. Islamic groups such as Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) , Islamic Society of North America, as well as the hundreds of University Islamic Societies operating in American universities exist today. Most of them are peaceful, but there should be some investigation into these groups so that they can catalog, and expose every financial transaction, every leader of the group, and investigate the membership population-until their activities can be deemed peaceful. Last year, the CAIR issued a “travel advisory” noting that women who are patted down “should remind the TSA officer that they are only supposed to pat down the area in question, in this scenario, your head and neck." It’s unclear why CAIR believes TSA frisking must be Shariah-compliant. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano refused to deny that such exemptions existed when CNS News asked her about them, saying instead that “adjustments will be made where they need to be made” and that “there will be more to come” on this issue. A fatwa issued in February by Islamic scholars at the Fiqh Council of North America forbad observant Muslims from going through full-body scanners. Exemptions for Muslim women wearing traditional garb may be the brainchild of Mohamed Elibiary. In December 2004, Elibiary spoke at a conference honoring the life and works of the “great Islamic visionary,” Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In 2008, Mr. Elibiary denounced the conviction of Hamas-connected members of the Holy Land Foundation for material support of terrorism. Most alarmingly, Mr. Elibiary is an admirer of the work of Sayyid Qutb, the intellectual and spiritual godfather of modern jihadism. Mr. Elibiary argues that Qutb is "greatly misunderstood". Qutb - who lived in the United States as a student in the late 1940s - developed a comprehensive anti-American ideology that’s widely cited as the basis for the contemporary violent Islamic extremism we see in the Middle East and South Asia. In July, the government warned airlines that terrorists are considering surgically hiding bombs inside humans to evade airport security. Bombs-in-the body is not a brand new idea, but recent intelligence indicates a fresh interest in using this method, as people-scanning machines in airports aren't able to detect explosives hidden inside humans. As airport security has increased since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, so has the terrorists' creativity in developing methods to get around it. Aviation continues to be a special target, and evidence from Osama bin Laden's compound showed that the al-Qaida leader retained his fascination with attacking airplanes until his death in May. The al-Qaida offshoot in Yemen has emerged as the most inventive terror organization these days and has been behind two plots that nearly brought down planes over the U.S. The group, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, was behind the Christmas Day attack in 2009 when a Nigerian hid a bomb in his underpants and nearly brought down an airliner over Detroit. AQAP operatives also concealed bombs in printer cartridges last October, shipping them to Chicago addresses. That attack was thwarted because of specific intelligence about the plot. And in late December, the U.S. received intelligence that the Yemen group was considering hiding explosives in the insulated lining of beverage containers and carrying them aboard airplanes. There was no information pointing to a specific plot with insulated beverage containers, but, like the recent intelligence about the implanted bomb tactic, the Transportation Security Administration warned domestic and foreign carriers to be on the lookout. White House spokesman Jay Carney said U.S. counterterrorism efforts must evolve as terror groups publicly indicate their interest in finding ways to conceal explosives. "The idea that terrorists have been looking for other ways to circumvent security measures to target aircraft is not at all surprising," Carney said. The increase in airport security meanwhile makes it less likely that a terrorist will again be successful in hijacking a jet and using it as a missile. More likely, the US will be targeted by terrorists hiding explosives on their bodies. A single suicide bomber can carry enough explosive on his body to kill or gravely wound everyone on a bus or train car. 74% of suicide bombers in Israel are Arab men aged 18 to 22 years old, but the terrorists have adopted practices that make it easier for them to blend into Israeli crowds. Women and older people are now being used as bomb-carriers, and the bombers have appeared in commonplace Israeli attire (including earrings on men, short haircuts, military uniforms). In the US, it will be difficult to identify a bomber by his sex, age or fashion of clothing. Authorities have already been on high alert since the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in May, ramping up security at airports, government buildings and other facilities in case of a retaliatory strike. And security will now be boosted further at airports after Homeland Security officials warned air carriers and other world leaders about the possibility of the ‘body bomber’ attacks on commercial flights, but if organizations such as CAIR continue to press for special arrangements at the Airports, it will not be too long before that area is exploited by terrorist sleeper cells in the U.S.
References:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15759566
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/06/tsa-terrorism-warning-t_n_891206.html
http://www.manhattaninstitute.org/html/be_prepared.htm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2011851/Terrorists-planning-blow-planes-bombs-INSIDE-bodies-U-S-authorities-warn.html#ixzz1duijDWSb
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