Threats Against Italy & Europe Mount

This message is directed to the European governments...

Today we declare a bloody war on you, and we will not stop the attacks on you until you return to the right, after the end of the deadline that our sheikh Osama Ben Ladin (who Allah keeps) defined, and afterwards if you do not return to your senses, then we will declare them a fierce war in your face and in the face of your silent nations that does not move a quiet and that fasted it that it showed a thing then shows the support and the support of you. And we have started with the promise of the Italian government and on its mean head, Berlusconi, and our start by it to its disgraceful attitudes and the mean ones and their submission behind the hamlet head America ... Then he waited for us O Berlusconi and other than from your allies and your supporters, he waited for our threat that shot it for you in the beginning and shoot it now in Europe face... We will make the blood flow so that they sweep you away in their depths, you who judged on your nation by that, and Europe the unbeliever with her submission behind America judged on its nations by that also..

We will level Europe's cities and will start with you O Berlusconi, and we will make it a bloody till that you return to your right O leaders and Europe nations, draw your killing missions from Iraq, and you behave a way who from before you, before you taste the bitterness of the blood...

al Qaida Suspect Arrested in Texas

A South African woman picked up in Texas almost 10 days ago may turn out to be a key, high-level al-Qaida operative.

Her name is Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed. She was stopped at McAllen Miller International Airport on July 19 headed to New York.

Eddie Flores of the U.S. Border Patrol office in McAllen, Texas tells FederalNewsRadio.com that a review of her papers raised some concerns.

Greek Security Keeping Tabs on Muslims

As the opening of the Olympic Games draws closer, the Greek police and foreign intelligence agencies have increased their activities in a predominately Muslim area of Athens, Greek officials say.

Residents of the district, whose narrow streets are lined with open-air shops selling such items as cement, clothes and onions, next to international call centers and places to wire money abroad, say they are incensed that they being treated as terrorism suspects.

Greek, American and British intelligence agencies have all tried to infiltrate the Muslim and Arab communities here, Greek officials said. But the Greeks asked for, and received, assistance from counterterrorism teams and intelligence operatives from Jordan and Egypt, the officials said. The Israelis have helped keep an eye on Arab embassies, they said.

About 100,000 people of Arab or Muslim background live in Athens, and they have generally not been militant, Greek officials said. But the officials' fear, heightened after the bombings in Madrid in March, is that al-Qaeda or some affiliated terrorist organization has planted a sleeper cell in this part of the city.

"If one were looking for a sleeper cell, this is where it would be," Alex Rondos, a former ambassador at large and coordinator for Olympic activities, said of the area, near Omonia Square in central Athens.

Rondos, who left office in March when the Socialist government was unseated, said his concerns arose more than a year ago, when he was working on various counterterrorism projects.

Russia to Sell Iran Nuke “Booster”

Iranian agents are negotiating with a Russian company to buy a substance that can boost nuclear explosions in atomic weapons, Reuters reported, citing an intelligence agency report being circulated by diplomats.

“Iranian middlemen ... are in the advanced stages of negotiations in Russia to buy deuterium gas,” Reuters quoted the report as saying. Iran has denied wanting atomic arms and says its nuclear programmed is for peaceful purposes. Deuterium is used as a tracer molecule in medicine and biochemistry and is used in heavy water reactors of the type Iran is building.

The two-page report cited “knowledgeable Russian sources” for the information, which Washington will likely point to as more proof that Tehran wants to acquire nuclear weaponry.

But it can also be combined with tritium and used as a “booster” in nuclear fusion bombs of the implosion type.

Envoys linked to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said buying deuterium alone was not evidence of intent to acquire a weapons capability.

They cautioned that the report appeared designed to persuade nations who are not convinced Iran wants the bomb.

Driver Tells Troopers of Terror Plans

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - A driver stopped on an Iowa highway this month was found with flight-training manuals, Arabic documents and night-vision goggles, and he told troopers he knew of terrorist plans to shoot up trains in San Diego, according to court papers.

Michael Wagner, 44, of San Diego, said he had knowledge of terrorist activities and people and groups tied to al-Qaida and the Taliban. Wagner also said that he knew about things in the Muslim communities in San Diego that would interest federal authorities.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on the case, and it was not immediately known whether they were able to corroborate his claims or determine his motivation for carrying the manuals and documents.

Wagner pleaded innocent Tuesday in U.S. District Court to being a felon in possession of body armor and weapons.

Terrorists spread their messages online

WASHINGTON – One Al Qaeda website offers chilling details on how to conduct private and public kidnappings. It points out the number of cells essential to target and and hide victims. It details how to handle hostages - force them to taste the food first, for instance. It gives advice on negotiating tactics (gradually kill the hostages if "the enemy" stalls) and on releasing captives (be alert to tracking devices planted in the ransom money).

The Al Qaeda site, called Al Battar, which means The Sword, is posted on the Internet twice a month. It's one of several websites that the terrorist group and its supporters built after the US successfully routed them from Afghanistan in late 2001.

And it is one of some 4,000 websites that, experts say, now exist to carry on a "virtual" terror war - and plan actual attacks.

"When I began tracking terrorist websites seven years ago, there were 12 sites in my database," says Gabriel Weimann, an Israeli communications professor who researches terrorist websites at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington. "After [Al Qaeda members] were chased from the camps, they went to the Internet. They began adding two a day, going up to 50, then a hundred, to thousands."

The rapid proliferation of the terror sites provides a dilemma for intelligence officials and terror experts alike.

Summer meteor showers descend

(SPACE.com) -- Summer is the season for shooting stars, and this year could be among the best as the annual Perseid meteor shower promises to be better than usual.

Anyone gazing at the summer night sky for even a short length of time now through the end of August is likely to spot a few streaks of otherworldly light. In general, the Earth encounters richer meteoric activity during the second half of the year.

The best meteor display of the summer comes during the second week of August, during the Perseid event. At its peak around the nights of Aug. 11 and 12, the shower can produce 50 to 100 fast, bright meteors per hour for any observer with a wide-open view of a dark sky.