Terrorism Watch

New York Times Square Deadly Blast Averted - Updated

Source: Thai indian New York, May 3 (ANI): In the 1998 Baruch College yearbook, Wesam (Khaled) El-Hanafi was a young man on his way to the top, but 12 years later, he is an Al Qaeda suspect along with his friend Sabirhan (Tareq) Hasanoff. Both aged 33 and 34 respectively, are accused of pledging allegiance and technical help to terrorists in Yemen, the New York Daily News reports. The pair was busted in Dubai and hauled to Virginia for arraignment. They are accused of trying to modernize an Al Qaeda cell in Yemen, giving 50,000 dollars to the group and supplying them with modern equipment. According to experts, the emergence of educated and well-paid professionals allegedly turning to homegrown terrorism may mark a shift from disenfranchised, low-income radicals to a new class of criminal. “Other countries have seen a similar pattern. First the fringe joins. When it gets dicier is when college-educated, ordinary, white-collar people start taking up the cause,” a law

Source: Rightsidenews 03 May 2010 05:52 Terrorism doesn't go away when you ignore it. Much like a massive oil spill, it doesn't go away just because you want to play golf or bask in the attention of a worshipful press at a Correspondents Dinner that seems to have more celebrities, both Hollywood and Big Media, than honest hardworking reporters. Terrorism doesn't take a day off or take holidays off. Not even Muslim holidays. Not even for Ramadan. Terrorism doesn't go away until you defeat it. It's that simple. Islamic terrorism is one of those things that isn't supposed to exist anymore in the realm of human affairs. The zero sum game. The struggle to which there can only be two outcomes. An unambiguous victory by one side or the other. No amount of negotiations, outreach programs, speeches, concessions, scholarships and books will change that. And that is a shame because for the last century our culture has embraced the idea that every problem in hum

Source: idsa May 3, 2010 The detection of the presence of Naxalites of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) in New Delhi persuades one to wonder if it is turning into an established safe-home. Also, because the rebels have not committed any ‘action’ in Delhi, the police may not have, possibly, paid adequate attention to understanding the rebels, their motives and modus operandi. The arrest of a few Maoist leaders and activists since September 2009 is, perhaps, the tip of the ice berg of the Maoist presence and activities in Delhi, and, therefore, the police would have to prepare themselves urgently in facing and defeating the Maoist challenge. Polit Bureau member Kobad Ghandy was the highest ranking leader arrested in Delhi, on September 20, 2009. He was arrested following a tip-off by the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB), the elite anti-Naxal intelligence-wing of Andhra Pradesh Police, which has turned into a role model for the other affected States. Investigations following

Source: Reuters By Orathai Sriring BANGKOK, May 3 (Reuters) - Many countries have issued travel advisories for the Thai capital since Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency in April to quell unrest that has killed 27 people and wounded nearly 1,000. The United States, Britain and Australia have recently advised against travel to anywhere in Thailand, not just Bangkok. Arrivals at Bangkok's main Suvarnabhumi airport dropped by a third in April, putting a government target of 15.5 million tourists this year in doubt and dealing a blow to an industry that supports 6 percent of the economy. Following are some advisories from foreign governments: BRITAIN - On April 27, the British government advised against all travel to the country because "violent incidents of an unpredictable nature are occurring in many parts of Thailand", citing protests and incidents in tourist destinations such as Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Ayuthaya

Source: bendbulletin May 03. 2010 4:00AM PST For years it has been a weapon of choice in hot spots across the globe, from Iraq to Sri Lanka to Colombia: cars or trucks loaded with explosives, detonated in busy markets, public squares and government buildings. Since 9/11, both law enforcement officials and average New Yorkers have worried and wondered — why not here? They were simpler propositions than hijacked planes, and they could, as a result, have an even more destabilizing effect on the city and its residents. Saturday night, however crudely imagined and ultimately botched, the threat of a car bomb hit New York. It was brought home on a busy street off Times Square in the form of a smoking Nissan Pathfinder loaded with propane, gasoline, fireworks and bags of what the authorities described as nonexplosive fertilizer. ‘You know it’s coming’ The roughly fashioned device — wired with clocks and designed to, in the words of the police, “cause mayhem” — was dism

Source: AJC A combination of luck and well-trained public safety officers saved New York City from a potentially devastating terrorist attack on Saturday night. In a scene straight out of the movies, tourists were evacuated from their hotels, Broadway shows were interrupted and blocks around busy Times Square were cordoned off. Police say the crudely-made bomb could nevertheless have made the area a “fireball”: Raymond W. Kelly, the New York City police commissioner, said on Sunday that the materials found in the Nissan Pathfinder — gasoline, propane, firecrackers and simple alarm clocks — also included eight bags of a granular substance, later determined to be nonexplosive grade of fertilizer, inside a 55-inch-tall metal gun locker. The bomb, Mr. Kelly said, “would have caused casualties, a significant fireball.” Had it exploded, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, “It would have been, in all likelihood, a good possibility of people being killed,

Source: Timesonline Police investigating the failed car bomb attack on Times Square in New York are focussing their attention on surveillance footage of a white man seen shedding his shirt near the SUV where the bomb was found. The unidientified man, who appears to be in his 40s, is seen on the footage looking furtively over his shoulder and removing a dark shirt, revealing a red one underneath. The man then stuffs the dark shirt into a bag, officials said. Investigators are also examining eight bags of a non-explosive grade of fertiliser which was found in a metal rifle cabinet amongst the other materials in the Nissan Pathfinder, including gasoline, propane, firecracks and alarm clocks. Raymond Kelly, the New York City police commissioner, said the fertiliser alone would not have exploded but could have set the other materials alight. The bomb, he said, “would have caused casualties, a significant fireball.” Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, sai

Source: TOI NEW DELHI: The mystery of the missing cobalt-60 pencils further deepened with investigators claiming that the lead cover of the gamma irradiator -- in which the radioactive metal was kept -- was melted at a furnace at Rewari in Haryana by one of the scrap dealers. This shocking revelation has led to a team of experts from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and Atomic Energy Regulation Board rushing to Rewari, where a combing operation was carried out on Saturday for radiation sources. The agencies have so far have failed to find any radioactive source in the Haryana town. BARC officials told TOI the search would continue. They said cobalt-60 does not lose its radioactive properties despite being heated at high temperature in a furnace. Since the lead was melted and sold to various people, experts did not rule out the possibility of the cobalt-60 being distributed across a wide area. Police said, after buying the irradiator in an auction from Delhi Universit

Source: NDTV Residents of Faridkot, home to the alleged surviving gunman of the Mumbai massacre, deny any connection with their wayward son but believe India should release him in the interests of peace. The remote town in the Pakistani farming belt of Punjab province has earned notoriety as the home of Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, accused of taking part in the 72-hour bloodbath in November 2008 that killed 166 people in Mumbai. On Monday, as the 22-year-old Pakistani prepared to learn his fate in court, some people in Faridkot, about 26 kilometres from the Indian border, sat in groups watching TV waiting to hear the verdict, said an AFP reporter. The day before the sentencing, a hawker distributed a weekly newspaper published by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which Indian and US officials believe is a front for the Lashkar-e-Toiba militant group blamed for the Mumbai attacks. With Faridkot's wheat harvest in full swing, workers loading grain into vehicles to a din of folk music s