Feds : New Pictures of Prudential Building Taken in January
7Online.Com

(Elizabeth-AP, August 6, 2004) — Authorities have evidence that new surveillance photographs were taken of Prudential Financial's headquarters in Newark in January, Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary James Loy said Friday.

"Both inside and out," Loy told The Associated Press following a ceremony to confer badges on officers of the department's U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office.

Officials have said that Prudential, like financial institutions in New York and Washington, had been under surveillance as possible terror targets since before the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

But in response to repeated questions, Loy said new photographs were taken in January of the building's interior and exterior, and were not simply old photographs that had been altered or otherwise updated.

"New pictures," Loy stressed. It was not immediately clear where the photos were found.

Iraq Evidence Led Feds to Albany Mosque
FOX News

ALBANY, N.Y. — Information found in Iraq led federal investigators to become suspicious of an Albany, N.Y., mosque leader, FOX News has learned.

Last summer, U.S. troops discovered Yassin Muhhiddin Aref's (search) name, telephone number and address in a book left behind in a vacated terrorist training camp, a U.S. official told FOX News. The book also revealed that Ansar al-Islam, the group running the camp, had given Aref a title: "the commander."

Aref, 34, is the Imam of the Masjid As-Salam mosque in Albany, N.Y. He and one other mosque leader were arrested Thursday and charged with helping an undercover informant posing as a weapons dealer who was plotting to buy a shoulder-launched missile that would be used to kill the Pakistani ambassador in New York City.

Aref and Mohammed Mosharref Hossain (search), the 49-year-old founder of the mosque and owner of the local Little Italy Pizzeria, were allegedly collaborating with someone who was not a terrorist but an informant participating in a sting operation; no missile ever was exchanged.

Saudi Forces Arrest Top Terror Suspect
FOX News

CAIRO, Egypt — Saudi police arrested a top Saudi terror suspect, officials said Friday, weeks after the Al Qaeda (search)-linked cleric reassured followers he was "taking all necessary precautions" to evade a government sweep.

Faris Ahmed Jamaan al-Showeel al-Zahrani (search) was No. 12 on the kingdom's list of 26 most-wanted terror suspects. More than half the others on the list have been either killed or captured in a crackdown that followed a series of bombings in Riyadh (search) in May, 2003.

Police captured al-Zahrani and a second suspect on Thursday night, an unidentified Interior Ministry official told the Saudi Press Agency. The second suspect's name was not released.

The official described al-Zahrani as "a preacher of denouncing people as infidels." Islamic militants often label their enemies as infidels before they attack them. Al-Zahrani and the second suspect were detained "swiftly and efficiently," and were not able to use the weapons they were carrying, the official said.

"The Interior Ministry wishes to emphasize to all people that the security forces are determined to pursue the terrorists, get them out of their holes, and apply God's law to them," the official added.

Four weeks ago, al-Zahrani wrote an article in which he said he was evading the Saudi crackdown.

Terror suspect 'had Navy plans'
CNN

LONDON, England (CNN) -- A British man facing extradition to the United States on terrorism-related charges was found in possession of a U.S. Navy battle group plan, U.S. officials have alleged.

The charges against Babar Ahmad also link him to a Chechen group that seized a Moscow movie theater and hundreds of hostages in October 2002.

Ahmad is accused of using U.S.-based Web sites in connection with "acts of terrorism in Chechnya and Afghanistan."

Ahmad was denied bail when he appeared before a London judge on Friday. He told Bow Street Magistrates' Court he did not want to voluntarily go to the United States, and he was remanded to jail until his next hearing on August 13.

Later Friday, the U.S. Attorney's office in New Haven, Connecticut, unsealed the 31-page indictment against Ahmad detailing the charges against him.

U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said investigators found a floppy disk at Ahmad's home that contained plans for a U.S. Navy battle group from April 2001.

Time is Not on the World's Side : The Iranian Threat
Arutz Sheva

On August 4, 2004, the New York Times published a lead editorial on the Iran question in which it rightly understood that a nuclear Iran presents a danger to the world. It also understood that European negotiations with Iran will probably not move Iran at all. And so it recommended that the US move to have the question taken up by the Security Council.

What the Times does not understand is that that action is another form of delay, too, another waste of time, another act of Western self-delusion. The Security Council, in which Iran's allies and fellow opponents to the United States, Russia and China sit, will impose a veto on any sanctions imposed on Iran. And to go one step beyond that, and this a very remote possibility indeed, should sanctions be voted at the UN, Iran will simply ignore them and continue with its nuclear program. And this is the sad and painful news for the world.

Iran will not be stopped by peaceful means. No dialogue, no sanctions, no blah-blah-blah. Iran is working assiduously to further develop its nuclear weapons programs and will continue doing so.

Thus, the only option for stopping Iran is a military option. However, it may already be the case that there is truly no such option, that the Iranian nuclear weapons facilities are so scattered, and so well-protected, and so hidden that no one can reach them. This is a real possibility. But in contradiction to this, there are major Iranian facilities whose location is well-known - the huge one-thousand megawatt plant the Russians are now completing at Bushehr, the uranium enrichment-by-centrifuge pilot plant and main plant in Natanz, the heavy-water plant in Arak, the facilities at Esfahan. These plants cannot be hidden and are legitimate targets. An attack on them and destruction of them would be a major blow not only to the Iranian nuclear programs, but to the whole Revolutionary Islamic Terror regime in Iran.

Pakistan chasing fresh leads on al-Qaeda hideouts
Financial Times

Pakistan has uncovered fresh evidence as to where al-Qaeda leaders may be hiding along its border with Afghanistan, senior Pakistani officials said on Friday.
The information comes in part from the computer files of Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, alias Abu Talha, a young Pakistani computer engineer allegedly involved with running an email communication system for al-Qaeda leaders. It has led investigators to focus on at least three previously undetected sites. Initial Pakistani reconnaissance suggests that 50-70 heavily armed guards are at each location, indicating the likely presence of senior al-Qaeda figures.

Other sources of information used by Pakistani security have included Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian wanted for the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in East Africa; a second African for whom the US has offered a reward of $5m; and at least 20 other members of al-Qaeda.

The boost in the hunt for senior al-Qaeda figures comes only days after the US warned of a terror threat to Washington and New York's financial centres. But it also came as the UK, which has in the past few days detained 13 men over terrorism allegations, warned against unnecessary alerts in a coded sideswipe at the US.