Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The Latest from National Terror Alert Response Center












Spy Agencies Believe North Korea Has Nuke Warheads


Posted: 31 Mar 2009 12:32 AM PDT



Intelligence agencies have information that North Korea has
assembled several nuclear warheads for its medium-range Rodong

missiles capable of targeting Japan, an analyst said Tuesday.


Daniel Pinkston, senior analyst with the Brussels-based

International Crisis Group, said the agencies believe that probably

five to eight warheads have been assembled.


“Intelligence agencies believe the North Koreans have assembled
nuclear warheads for Rodong missiles, which are stored at underground

facilities near the Rodong missile bases,” Pinkston told AFP.


“It might be right, it might be wrong — but if others believe
it is true, it has implications for the psychological aspects of

deterrence,” he said, describing the assessment as “quite
significant.”


Pinkston declined to identify his sources and said they had not
shared their own sources with him.

Source



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EMP Threat - A Single Nuke Could Destroy America


Posted: 30 Mar 2009 10:34 PM PDT



A sword of Damocles hangs over our heads. It is a real threat
that has been all but ignored.


On Feb. 3, Iran launched a “communications satellite” into orbit.

At this very moment, North Korea is threatening to do the same.

The ability to launch an alleged communications satellite belies a

far more frightening truth. A rocket that can carry a satellite into

orbit also can drop a nuclear warhead over any location on the planet

in less than 45 minutes.


Far too many timid or uninformed sources maintain that a single
launch of a missile poses no true threat to the United States, given

our retaliatory power.


A reality check is in order and must be discussed in response
to such an absurd claim: In fact, one small nuclear weapon, delivered

by an ICBM can destroy the United States by maximizing the

effect of the resultant electromagnetic pulse upon detonation.


An electromagnetic pulse EMP is a byproduct of detonating an
atomic bomb above the Earth’s atmosphere. When a nuclear weapon

is detonated in space, the gamma rays emitted trigger a massive

electrical disturbance in the upper atmosphere. Moving at the speed

of light, this overload will short out all electrical equipment, power grids

and delicate electronics on the Earth’s surface. In fact, it would
take only one to three weapons exploding above the continental United
States to wipe out our entire grid and transportation network. It might

take years to recover from, if ever.


This is not science fiction. If you doubt this, spend a short amount of time

skimming the Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United

States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack from April 2008. You will come
away sobered.


Even as the new administration plans to spend trillions on economic bailouts,

it has announced plans to reduce funding and downgrade efforts for missile

defense. Furthermore, the United States’ reluctance to invest in a modern

and credible traditional nuclear deterrent is a serious concern. What

good will a bailout be if there is no longer a nation to bail out?


Fifty years ago, it was not Sputnik itself that sent a dire chill of warning

around the world; it was the capability of the rocket that launched Sputnik.

The rocket that lofted Sputnik into orbit also could have served as an
ICBM.


Yet for all its rhetoric, the Soviet Union was essentially a rational power

that recognized the threat of mutual destruction and thus never stepped

to the edge.


The world is different today. Intercontinental range missiles tipped with

nuclear weapons in the hands of leaders driven by fanaticism, leaders

that support global terrorism, leaders that have made repeated

threats that they will seek our annihilation . . . can now at last achieve that

dream in a matter of minutes.


Read Full Article



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TSA Warns Truckers Of Violence In Mexico


Posted: 30 Mar 2009 11:03 AM PDT



Drivers in cross-border operations to Mexico and along the U.S. Southwest

border are being advised to take precautions to avoid being caught in the

drug violence in the region, a Transportation Security Administration
contractor said.


According to Total Security Services, Inc., which operates TSA’s Highway

Information Sharing and Analysis Center, the violence among Mexican drug

cartels has killed more than 200 Americans since 2004, and truckers
may be victims of crimes ranging from hijacking and kidnapping to
murder.


The Highway ISAC is recommending that drivers with deliveries in Mexico keep

in scheduled contact with dispatchers and report in at every scheduled and

non-scheduled stop. Drivers also should avoid unsafe highways, and establish a

verbal “duress code” to use on the phone when they in the presence of people

who may have criminal intent.


Interested parties may receive a copy of the report “Border Violence” by

calling the ISAC at 1-703-563-3275

via Source



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Terrorists Attack Police Academy in Lahore Pakistan


Posted: 30 Mar 2009 10:45 AM PDT



Unidentified gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenades made a violent

attack on a police training school in eastern Pakistan city of Lahore on Monday,

leaving the city overshadowed with terrorism threats.


The intense fighting between Pakistan military and police and the gunmen

started from 7:30 a.m. local time in the second largest city in Pakistan and

lasted about eight hours.


Advisor on Prime Minister’s Interior Rehman Malik confirmed that four

terrorists have been killed and the others have been arrested, but he did not

give exact figure of the gunmen as well as the figure of casualties in the attack.


There is still conflicting reports on the casualties. Earlier reports said at least 25

people were killed and 90 others injured when the masked gunmen attacked

the police.


A group of armed men huddled next to a minaret on a mosque rooftop leapt to

their feet and shouted "Allahu Akbar”. For once it was Pakistani security

forces celebrating rather than militants. Across a main road in the

water-buffalo market town of Manawan, outside Lahore, police commandos

fired triumphal “aerial” rounds. They had recaptured a police-training centre

which militants had stormed eight hours earlier on Monday March 30th.


Lax security at the ramshackle academy allowed a dozen militants to

rampage among 800 or more mostly unarmed police recruits. “The

operation is over,” said the interior minister, Rehman Malik. He said that if

security forces had not been on high alert, the toll would have been higher.

“The attack was to dishearten, to demoralise the civilian security services,”

said a local administrator. Terrorist attacks in Pakistan have become such
frequent occurrences that people have grown used to asking when and where
the next assault would come.


Cadets said that the militants burst onto the parade ground at 7.30am through

the main gate and from the rear, spraying rounds from Kalashnikovs and hurling grenades. The terrorists’ faces were obscured by black cloth. Several were

reported to have donned police uniforms. Policemen jumped from second-floor

windows and stampeded over walls to escape. An armoured personnel carrier

advanced then beat a retreat. A lull in the firefight ensued.


Just before 4pm commandos fought back, launching an assault amid intense

gunfire. Spectators watching from the bazaar scuttled for cover during several

minutes of crackle and blasts. It was a rare success and a joint operation by the
army, paramilitary rangers and Punjab’s “elite” police squad. Even the
smart, cravat-wearing highway police played a role.



Read Full Article



Gunmen Made Stand in Pakistan Barracks’ Top Floor


Blood-soaked bedding was strewn with blackened body parts in a police barracks

in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday after the last of the gunmen who

stormed the building blew themselves up.

The attackers, armed with grenades and rifles, launched an assault on the police

training center during a morning drill session, shooting down recruits on their

dusty parade ground.


They held off police and soldiers for about eight hours before the last three

gunmen made a stand on the top floor of the three-storey building. They

blew themselves up as security forces launched a final assault, police said.

At least eight recruits were killed and 89 wounded. Four gunmen were killed

and three were captured, the government said. Rehman Malik, the Interior

Ministry head, said the Pakistani Taliban were suspected of carrying out

the attack.


“I can’t tell you what I saw and what kind of terror I went through,”

19-year-old recruit Zahid Usman told his mother by mobile phone shortly

after the violence ended.

“They were not human beings. They were not Muslims, they were evil,”

a sobbing Usman said.


Read Full Article



Fighters Loyal to Pakistani Taliban Leader Baitullah Mehsud
Suspected



Fighters loyal to Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud were suspected of

carrying out an attack on a police academy in Lahore on Monday, Interior

Ministry head Rehman Malik said.


The militants killed eight cadets before being overwhelmed by a commando

assault. Four militants died during the assault, while three suspects have

been captured, officials said.

Malik told a news conference that one of the suspects was an Afghan.


Source



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Five Held Under Terror Laws Ahead of G20 Summit


Posted: 30 Mar 2009 10:20 AM PDT



Police arrested five people under anti-terror legislation in Devon, but they

insisted on Monday there was no immediate link to the Group of 20 summit

this week in London.


The five were detained and held over the last three days after police raids in

Plymouth, while officers uncovered a number of weapons, suspicious devices

and extremist materials, said Devon and Cornwall Police.


The Guardian newspaper said on its website that the five were arrested in

connection with a suspected plot to use explosives to disrupt the G20 summit

on Thursday.



“I think it was more designed to disrupt than injure or kill,” a source told the

paper, adding that the quantity and type of material found at the addresses

indicates a small-scale stunt.


Local police were coordinating with the Metropolitan Police in London, which

takes the lead in terror-related crime fighting. A Scotland Yard spokesman said:

“We would stress that the investigation is at a very early stage and that

speculation regarding the capability, intention or motivation of those arrested is
unhelpful.


“At the current time we have no information to suggest a change to the threat

picture facing either the demonstrations or G20,” he said, referring to protests

planned in London for Wednesday and the day of the summit.


Source



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