Pakistan claims Bin Laden trail still cold
Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Despite a surge in arrests of Al Qaeda suspects, investigators still had not found the trail of their main target, Osama Bin Laden, Los Angeles Times quoted a senior Pakistani anti-terrorism official as saying on Monday.

The paper reported that Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema, head of the National Crisis Management Cell at the Interior Ministry, said during an interview last week, “You can only be sure you’re closing in on someone when you at least have a hint of his whereabouts. With regard to Osama Bin Laden, I would say that we are not getting any substantial leads as yet.”

According to the report, Cheema said Pakistan was “working hand in glove with the US government” in a search that had captured more than a dozen suspects in the last two weeks. Moreover, Pakistani intelligence sources say FBI agents are playing a crucial role in tracking suspects by intercepting cell phone calls and other actions, the paper said.

One source familiar with the investigation said Washington had stepped up pressure on Pakistani authorities to turn their latest leads into the capture of more high-level targets before the US presidential election in November.

Another source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “The next month and a half is absolutely crucial. The way the Americans are pressuring Pakistan, they want Osama Bin Laden”, the report states.

Bush administration officials have denied US media reports that the United States was pressuring Pakistan to capture or kill Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda fugitives before the election.

Hurricane Charley Response Reaffirms Amateur Radio's Value
National Association for Amateur Radio

NEWINGTON, CT, Aug 16, 2004--An as-yet unknown number of Amateur Radio operators remain in emergency mode today as Florida recovers from the devastating blow landed August 13 by Hurricane Charley. Authorities ordered the evacuation of an estimated two million people ahead of the storm. Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) teams have been supporting relief agencies and--with phone systems overloaded or out of service--also bridging the telecommunications gap. The storm--which blasted into the Charlotte County community of Punta Gorda on Florida's Gulf Coast and killed at least 17--is being called the worst in more than a decade. Damage is expected to be in the billions of dollars. ARRL West Central Florida Section Manager Dave Armbrust, AE4MR, has been coordinating communication for the recovery effort from a supermarket parking lot staging area in Charlotte County (Exit 170 off Interstate 75, then west on King's Highway or look for AE4MR-7 on APRS). Armbrust reports he needs additional volunteers.

"Currently Amateur Radio is the primary means of communication, and we have just about maxed out our local WCF Amateur Radio capabilities after almost three days of activity," he said late Sunday afternoon. With some three dozen cellular towers in Charlotte County reportedly down, Armbrust's cellphone is out of service, and he has no other telephone or e-mail capability. Charlotte, Hardee and DeSoto counties in the West Central Florida Section were hard hit. Florida Power and Light estimates that more than 350,000 people are without power, and some may have to wait until the end of the week or longer before it's restored.

Iran Warns Israel on Nuclear Facilities
VOA News

A senior Iranian military commander says Iran would destroy Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor, if the Jewish state were to attack Iranian nuclear facilities.

Iran's first nuclear power station, at Bushehr on the Persian Gulf coast, is scheduled to begin operating next year.

Israel has not directly threatened to attack the facility. But the United States says it suspects Iran is secretly building nuclear weapons, and Israel says it will not allow Tehran to have a nuclear bomb.

Iran insists its nuclear program is for generating electricity and other peaceful uses.

Israel has never confirmed or denied having a nuclear arsenal. But its reactor at Dimona is widely believed to be the source of plutonium used to build as many as 200 nuclear warheads.

England : Suspects 'Plotted Attack'
Sky News

Eight men arrested in an anti-terrorism swoop have been charged with attempting to launch a radioactive or chemical attack.

The suspects were also charged with conspiracy to commit murder and some accused of plotting a terror campaign against major financial landmarks in the USA.

The men were among those seized in a series of raids in London, the Home Counties and in Lancashire two weeks ago.

Dhiren Bharot, from Willesden, north-west London, is charged with possession of plans for the stock exchange and Citigroup bank building in New York, IMF headquarters in Washington DC.

Along with Nadeem Tarmohammed, again from Willesden, he was also accused of owning documents relating to an alleged attack on the Prudential Building in New Jersey.

Police charged Quaisar Shaffi, 25, also from Willesden, with owning part of the Terrorists' Handbook detailing the preparation of explosives.

Among those held is a man described as a senior al Qaeda agent in Britain

'Plot' to kill Tony Blair thwarted
news.au.com

BRITISH anti-terror authorities have foiled a suspected al-Qaeda plot to assassinate Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Police swooped on two Lithuanian asylum seekers believed to be spying on Mr Blair's home in his constituency in England's north.

The men were caught with hi-tech surveillance equipment less than a kilometre from Mr Blair's countryside home.

Sources said the pair raised alarm bells because they displayed the characteristics of al-Qaeda spying behaviour.

Using a stolen car fitted with false number plates, they filmed roads and traffic surrounding their alleged target and were carrying a highly-detailed map of the country area of Trimdon in County Durham.

"To dismiss these as nothing more than a couple of wandering foreigners out to see the British countryside is stretching it a bit," a security source told Britain's Daily Express newspaper.

Prosecutors Admit Possible Evidence Error in Terror Sting
7online.com

(Albany-AP, August 17, 2004) — Federal prosecutors have admitted a possible error in a key piece of evidence used to arrest and detain two Albany mosque leaders accused of supporting terrorism.

Defense attorneys say the translation error undermines the entire government case, and the men should get out on bail at another detention hearing scheduled Aug. 24.

"It's a travesty," lawyer Terence Kindlon said.

U.S. Attorney Glenn Suddaby said authorities are not sure which translation is correct, and it doesn't change the case.

"It doesn't change their behavior. It doesn't change the significance of where this notebook was found. We're going forward," he said Tuesday.

In a federal court affidavit, the FBI said it received information that U.S. soldiers found a notebook at "a terrorist camp" in northern Iraq last summer with an Arabic entry that called 34-year-old Yassin Muhiddin Aref "commander" and listed his former address and phone number in Albany

Tracking Terror In Tangled Web
CBS News

(CBS) If the pen is mightier than the sword, the keyboard has become the new weapon in the war of terror, promoting it and fighting it.

As CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips reports, sometimes, the intent is simply propaganda. Sometimes, deeper in the net, hidden within other sites, is something more sinister: sites advocating violence, perhaps even providing instructions and commands. One site, which pops up and then disappears regularly on servers around the world, shows Osama bin Laden and a map of Manhattan.

It contains "red sites (that) appear to be identifying targets for being attacked," says Neil Doyle, a new kind of private detective.

And what worries the freelance cyber-terrorist buster about the site, one of thousands he's discovered, are the numbers running across the page.

"The repeated sequence at the top there and it's thought that, well, that does match up to a known al Qaeda cryptography method," says Doyle.

Doyle believes the site's code could be a means of command and control.

The Terrorist Highway
Military.Com

Terror attacks were down last year, but attacks on US citizens increased dramatically, even excluding Iraq. Is the US mainland prepared? Hardly! Just ahead of me, in line for a security check, the stern middle-aged woman security guard required a short-haired, blonde teenager, dressed in scanty clothes so skin-tight it would have been impossible to conceal a stick of gum, to take off her floppy, paper-thin thong sandals and step through an additional security check. If those sandals had been made of C-4, they wouldn't have blown her nose.

Pathetic! Are these supposed to be real security measures, or are passengers being inconvenienced by a silly show, which provides no real security, but gives the false impression of a mighty effort to protect us from terrorists?

I was reminded of the last time SOF publisher Robert Brown and I had dinner with the late General Joe Foss, the legendary WWII combat pilot who went on to became Governor of South Dakota and President of the NRA. General Foss was a burly white-haired giant who overpowered anyone in his presence. He was the personification of that glorious era of great heroes who had gusto for anything American.