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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/art...

Top 1605. Apr 18, 2002 9:19 PM

» Steven_Russell - Canadians question their role

In memorium:

Sgt. Marc Leger
Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer
Pvt. Richard Green
Pvt. Nathan Smith

Any military deaths are tragic, and friendly fire casualties are the most tragic of all. Canadians have every right to question, to demand answers, and even to be angry.

But Canadians also need to understand that they are a vital part of this effort. And the incredible total lack of Canadian deaths in any combat zone battle since the Korean War, until today, has more than a little to do with the fact that Canada is securely situated alongside the borders of the military-prepared United States.

The United States has largely almost entirely carried the burden of military defense for North America as a whole, over the past half century. Canada has thus enjoyed the rich rewards of being our close neighbor trading partner, in an unprecedented degree of safe comfort for a nation of such vast territory.

So go ahead Canadians, grieve for your dead and wounded, be angry at our seeming clumsiness in battle, hold us accountable for our faults - but don't think for a minute that you are not partners along with us in this struggle for security and freedom in greater America, and in the world.

--------------------------------------------------

Canadians Question Afghan Role

By Barry Brown
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, April 18, 2002; 9:11 PM

TORONTO –– Many Canadians questioned their military involvement in Afghanistan Thursday after four Canadian soldiers were killed accidentally by a U.S. bomb. Prime Minister Jean Chretien pledged an investigation but said the deaths were the cost of defending freedom.

The story of how the four were killed – and eight of their colleagues were wounded – by a 500-pound bomb during a Wednesday night training exercise in a clearly marked area has dominated newscasts here and sparked both sympathy and anger.

"Canadians are never attacked by terrorists so Canadians shouldn't be there," said Richard Sella, manager at Toronto's 97 Bistro. "Why are we sending our own people over there to be killed? There is no reason (for us) to be in Afghanistan."

Vyphi Vyphilin, owner of Nick's bar in Toronto, said, "Four Canadians died for no reason."

Some Canadians are rethinking their country's role in the U.S.-led war on terrorism prompted by the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. Canadian forces are fighting alongside U.S. and European troops seeking to hunt down remnants of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization and holdouts from Afghanistan's former ruling Taliban militia.

"I initially supported sending our troops over there," Toronto real estate agent Carolyn Curren said. "I still support some involvement in terms of peacekeeping and helping to organize a new regime. But I don't support the ongoing war as it exists at the moment."

But Chretien said during a Thursday speech to the national Parliament in Ottawa that the deaths reminded Canadians of the "precious cost that comes with the standing up for the rights and freedoms that we hold so dear."

Nonetheless, he pledged to investigate the deaths near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar during a live-fire training exercise.

"We have so many questions," he said. "Extensive training for combat is meant to save lives. How does this happen? In this awful case it took so many lives, and I want to assure the families and the people of Canada that these questions will be answered."

Flags on Parliament Hill flew at half mast.

The bodies of the four victims likely would be flown to Ramstein Air base in Germany on Friday, said Airman 1st Class Julie Weckerlein, spokeswoman for the 86th Airlift Wing based there.

Canadian Defense Minister Art Eggleton said Thursday that one of the wounded had life-threatening wounds and the seven others were in stable condition. Six of the injured soldiers were flown to Ramstein Thursday night for treatment.

Chretien spoke with President Bush Wednesday night, and Bush said the two nations will investigate how the accident occurred. He also praised Canada's participation in the Afghan war.

"Canada is a vital member of a mighty coalition against terrorism and hatred," Bush said Thursday in a written statement. "It is shouldering great burdens and making tremendous sacrifices to make the world a safer place for all people. It is doing so in defense of the values that define the Canadian nation and that unite our two peoples.

U.S. officials in Washington said Thursday an American F-16 pilot apparently mistook Canadian soldiers for enemy forces and thought he was acting in self-defense when he dropped the 500-pound, laser-guided bomb.

A key, unanswered question was why the Americans didn't know the Canadians were training in the area.

"Given today's technology, I just don't understand how that could have happened," said Walter A. Blunt, a veteran of both the British and Canadian armies.

The victims were identified as Sgt. Marc Leger, Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, Pvt. Richard Green and Pvt. Nathan Smith. The soldiers were members of the 3rd Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, which is based near Edmonton, Alberta.

The Canadian Press news agency reported that Smith, 27, was from the small community of Ostrea Lake in eastern Nova Scotia. He had been in Afghanistan for six weeks.

Jana Bayer-Smith, who is married to Smith's cousin, said the family is devastated by his death and angry.

"Extreme sadness and devastation at the loss of a very close friend, a brother, a son, a nephew and a cousin," she told the regional ATV television network when asked what emotions the family was feeling. "And also anger at the incident that has happened."

Chretien said Canada owed the troops a "debt of gratitude that is beyond mortal computation."

The deaths were the Canadian military's first in a combat zone since the Korean War, though some Canadians serving with the U.S. military died during the Vietnam War. The United Nations says 106 Canadian troops have died during U.N. peacekeeping missions since 1948.

Deborah Wandal, a Toronto bookstore clerk, said the effect of the deaths might be to "harden people's resolve or it might make people think twice about what we're doing there."

-- posted by Steven_Russell

http://news.scotsman.com/international.c...

Top 1606. Apr 19, 2002 9:06 PM

» Steven_Russell - east coast bank terror alert

Alert status remains at YELLOW....

Banks at risk from al-Qaeda attack, warns FBI

John Innes

THE FBI has been given information that terrorists are considering attacks against US banks, it said last night. US government officials said the threat came from the al-Qaeda terror network.

Authorities stressed that they had no information about a specific plot or threats to any specific financial institution, but a US law enforcement source said authorities feared a suicide attack.

"It’s important to note that there is no specific threat to any specific institution," Attorney General John Ashcroft said. "We are not changing our national threat level. We are not asking the banks to close, nor urging people to stay away from banks."

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the warning was the result of information the intelligence community received from interviews with captured al-Qaeda suspects from Afghanistan.

The information was given to the FBI which, along with the Homeland Security Office at the White House, decided to remind financial institutions of the need to be vigilant.

Mr Ashcroft acknowledged the information "may or may not be reliable".

The FBI warning went to banks and law enforcement agencies in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and the District of Columbia.

The decision to issue the warning follows a bomb threat earlier in the week against an unspecified national bank in Washington. Many bank branches shut down but there was no explosion. Police later said the threat was a prank by a 13-year-old Dutch boy.

The FBI announcement came a few hours after the US Treasury blocked financial assets belonging to a Pakistan-based group and nine people believed to have provided financial support to al-Qaeda.

--------------------------------------------------

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20020419...

The FBI warning went to more than 1,200 banks and savings institutions and to law enforcement in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and the District of Columbia.

The FBI said the nation's threat status remained at "yellow," using the new system of color codes assigned by the Justice Department and Office of Homeland Security. The threat status for the Northeast similarly was unchanged at yellow, the FBI said. Yellow represents the midrange of threat status.

To qualify for the next-higher orange alert, the threats would have had to include a specific time and date and been corroborated and credible, one official said.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said there were 613 FDIC-insured savings and loans in the Northeast and 650 FDIC-insured banks. The savings institutions in the region account for roughly one-third, or $433 billion, of the total $1.3 trillion in assets of all FDIC-insured S&Ls. Banks in the region have assets of $2.3 trillion out of $6.6 trillion held by all FDIC commercial banks.

FDIC's definition of the Northeast region includes all the states in the FBI warning except for Virginia. The FDIC region also includes the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico which were not part of the FBI warning.

-- posted by Steven_Russell

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/200...

Top 1607. Apr 19, 2002 9:18 PM

» Steven_Russell - bin Laden is history

4 1/2 months since, he is no more.

Posted on Fri, Apr. 19, 2002

RANAN R. LURIE

Bin Laden is gone

Osama bin Laden is dead, or deformed badly by shrapnel, or so ill that he can't talk or show himself.

No, I have not administered him his last rites or seen him buried nor has a CIA agent whisper this information into my ear.

However, because common sense is permitted in the court of public opinion, allow me to plead my case: When I saw the excerpts from the ''new'' bin Laden tape broadcast Monday, I knew that he didn't exist anymore. This was a desperate move to fuel the hope of his disciples that their leader is still alive.

One portion of the tape likely shows a pre-December bin Laden. His beard in the latest tape is darker than it was in a December tape, and his skin looks healthier. The grass is too green to represent a post-icy winter growth.

The fact that no one tried to hide the background indicates that whoever sent the tape to the Al Jazeera TV station knew that the rocks and mountains could disclose the location -- but it did not matter anymore.

If bin Laden were alive and well, we would have seen an up-to-date video that included a current publication to confirm the date. So why did bin Laden's friends create this charade?

On Sept. 11, when the first World Trade Center tower was struck, bin Laden became the closest thing to an Islamic god to fundamentalist Muslims worldwide. He understood the instant leadership options that were created for him through his murderous success. The world saw the video in which bin Laden admitted with glee to a close-knit circle that even he had not realized how big the disaster would be.

THE NEW SALADIN?

Bin Laden then paraded around Afghanistan and its training camps, accumulating more and more disciples. He felt safe among the Taliban, and he felt admired, loved and protected by his followers.

Bin Laden had all the reasons to believe that he was the new Saladin, the 12th Century Arab hero (who was really a Kurd) who won the decisive victory against the Crusaders.

There is a tradition in the Middle East in which the leader impresses the masses with constant public appearances, sword-waving and colorful oratory. The leader impresses his audience, gains its admiration for his showmanship and in return is told that he's indeed the chosen one.

Bin Laden has not shown his face to the world for the last 4 ½ months. No Arab leader can be absent that long without raising suspicions.

Not making an appearance in person or at least sending another tape to a friendly TV station is tantamount to nonexistence, especially when you have to compete with dramatic personalities such as Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein.

Bin Laden, indeed, no longer exists.

Cartoonist Ranan R. Lurie is a senior adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

-- posted by Steven_Russell

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/ne...

Top 1608. Apr 19, 2002 9:24 PM

» Steven_Russell - Darren John George, first Brit KIA April 9, western Kabul

Dead British soldier named

A British peacekeeper who died after he was shot in the head while serving in Afghanistan has been named by the Ministry of Defence.

Darren John George, 22, a member of the 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment, was on patrol in the capital Kabul when the accident happened on April 9.

The soldier, the first British fatality of the Afghan conflict, had been treated at a French military hospital and was being flown out of the country when he died.

It is not known whether any colleagues were involved in the incident, which is being investigated by Royal Military Police.

The soldier, whose battalion is based at Pirbright, Surrey, was part of the 2,000-strong UK contribution to the International Security and Assistance Force helping to police Kabul.

It is believed Mr George's inquest will take place in Essex, where he has family links.

Between eight and 12 troops were patrolling a dangerous area in the west of the capital when the shooting happened.

The incident came as other members of the Royal Anglian Regiment held a sombre ceremony at their Kabul base to mark the Queen Mother's funeral.

Some 300 soldiers said prayers and listened as bagpipes and bugles were played during the ceremony. The Queen Mother was honorary colonel-in-chief of the regiment from its formation in 1964.

-- posted by Steven_Russell

Top 1609. Apr 19, 2002 9:55 PM

» JenL_2 - al-Qaida Computers

More on al Qaida use of computers from 4/18 MSNBC.com:

Al-Qaida’s secret weapon: computers

Communication by terrorists relies on laptops
and broadband

Al-Qaida’s apparent use of computers and inexpensive editing software to put together videotapes that emerged this week came as no surprise to U.S. intelligence officials, who told NBC News that laptops and high-speed Internet access had become terrorists’ primary tools for communicating over the past several years.

“YOU DON’T NEED a production studio to make a video like this,” a senior U.S. official said. “All you need is the mind of a 15-year-old kid. The software is all out there, ready to buy.”

Al-Qaida has used a variety of methods to communicate, most of them relying on easy access provided by combining new technologies like Internet-based e-mail with satellite telephones.

U.S. officials said there were indications that al-Qaida was still able to communicate, through most of those methods, not just for planning attacks but also for tactical communications during the most heated battles.

Some officials see an irony in al-Qaida’s exploitation of Internet and security technology developed by U.S. and other Western companies, all of it relying on laptop computers.

For example, al-Qaida couriers deliver floppy disks or Zip disks with encrypted data to third parties, who in turn take it to a cell planning a attack. The data are scrambled by common commercial encryption programs like PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), which can be downloaded for free, and then transferred to the disks.

Operatives also use free Internet-based e-mail services to communicate anywhere there is a connection to the World Wide Web, often using Internet cafes and public libraries to log in.

U.S. officials confirmed that the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States used both Yahoo! Mail and MSN’s Hotmail to communicate with one another and with higher-level commanders. The only suspect in custody, Zacarias Moussaoui, used a Hotmail account —pilotz123@hotmail.com — to set up his flight school training, U.S. officials said.

Internet-based e-mail is particularly useful for groups that wish to remain clandestine:
Accounts are free and easy to set up, requiring users to divulge little personal information.
Storage of materials on the Web means messages do not even have to be sent — one person can simply store a draft of the message to be read by a second person using the same password.
Most providers of Internet-based e-mail do not keep extensive backups, dumping archived messages within weeks.

Al-Qaida has also used Internet-based instant messaging programs, which permit real-time text communications as well as file transfers. Yahoo!, MSN and other services, both domestic and foreign, provide such service, which was pioneered by ICQ — an Israeli company.

Al-Qaida has even used chat rooms — specifically sports chat rooms — to communicate with people who were told in advance to watch for coded messages. Members would then talk back and forth in code.

SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS

Especially helpful to al-Qaida are encrypted satellite telephones, which it uses for both voice and data traffic, according to testimony in the trial of four men who were convicted of conspiracy in the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden’s own telephone, a Compact M model, was bought from O’Gara Satellite Networks in Deer Park, N.Y., according to testimony in the trial. At one point, al-Qaida added encryption.

Al-Qaida commanders used Internet-based e-mail like Hotmail to communicate with one other during Operation Anaconda, the U.S.-led coalition’s assault last month on Taliban and al-Qaida forces in eastern Afghanistan. They simply hooked up their laptops to their satellite phones and sent messages back and forth.

In addition, both the embassy bombers and the Sept. 11 hijackers used a “terrorist switchboard” in Yemen to relay satellite phone messages to and from al-Qaida commanders.

Another Al-Qaida tool is steganography, the science of hiding messages inside audio, video and picture files. Using software that costs as little as $40, a person can encrypt a message and hide it in unused or insignificant areas of data in another file. A simple password is all that is needed to unlock the hidden file at the other end.

U.S. HAD INDICATIONS

Much of what the United States knew about al-Qaida’s operations before Sept. 11 came from laptop computers seized by law enforcement and intelligence agencies overseas. Little of those efforts have become public, but NBC News has obtained a transcript of an e-mail message sent a year before the August 1998 embassy bombings.

In the message, Fazul Mohammed, believed to be the communications chief of the al-Qaida cell in Nairobi, Kenya, and possibly the mastermind of the bombings, describes security problems.

At one point, Mohammed apologizes for printing out documents and sending hard copies. “I know we had agreed to correspond with each other by discs,” he writes.

At another point, Mohammed asks that his contact use either e-mail or fax to communicate and notes how critical electronic communications are to decision-making.

“We ask you to keep in touch with us through the Internet from Pakistan, as we get a lot of information now about the Shayk [bin Laden] from that network. ... Or you can follow Abd al-Sabburk’s example such as when he faxed his family from the border village next to you.

“We need to hear your good words and we are afraid to be in the dark and from taking any unapproved plans domestically since we do not have the necessary expertise regarding such difficult decisions; decisions which only you can undertake.”

MAJOR NETWORK IN AFRICA

Bin Laden had a more robust infrastructure before the embassy bombings in East Africa. Kenyan authorities found a communications center at a villa rented by Mohammed in a wealthy Nairobi suburb called Runda. There, officials said, was a satellite telephone hook-up.

A few days after the embassy bombings, U.S. officials heard bin Laden lieutenants talking about the success of their efforts over satellite phones from Pakistan, a discovery later reported by The Washington Post. That apparently spooked bin Laden. Bin Laden has been quoted as saying he no longer used his phone out of fear that the National Security Agency would be able to track the signal and target him.

However, much of the gear was taken out of Kenya in the days before the bombing and moved to Afghanistan, according to Kenyan authorities quoted in the Nairobi Daily Nation.

The United States first learned the value of the laptop to al-Qaida in 1995, when a Toshiba Tecra belonging to Ramzi Yousef, convicted in the first World Trade Center bombing, in 1993, was seized in Manila after a fire alerted police to a bomb factory.

In little-noticed congressional testimony in 1998, Dale Watson, chief of the FBI’s international terrorism section at the time, described just how important Yousef’s laptop was to uncovering a planned attack that, if successful, would have killed as many people as were killed Sept. 11.

“By decrypting Yousef’s computer files, investigators uncovered the details of a plot to destroy numerous U.S. air carriers in a simultaneous operation,” Watson said.

“Code-named ‘BOJINKA,’ the plot involved using a timing device made from an altered Databank watch. Flight schedules and a decrypted letter found on the computer indicated that five participants were to simultaneously plant devices on flights to the United States. After the bombings, four of the participants were to return to Karachi, Pakistan. The fifth was to return to Doha, Qatar.”

Robert Windrem is an NBC News investigative producer based in New York.

.....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Series of Reports; USA Tries to Protect Embassies and Dismantle bin Laden's al-Qaida Terror Network - 17 Sept 98 to 24 Sept 98

Top 1610. Apr 19, 2002 10:40 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: Fazul Mohammed

The article above mentions Fazul Mohammed...still on FBI's most wanted list.....

Excerpted from: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-ERRI Risk Assessment Services-Thursday, September 17, 1998-Vol. 4 - 260

ERRI MORNING NEWS SUMMARY

WASHINGTON (EmergencyNet News) - The Washington Post was reporting on Thursday that a suspect in the 7 August bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, has fled the tiny African archipelago of Comoros, eluding FBI investigators who were hot on his trail. The newspaper said Abdallah Mohammed Fazul apparently left the Indian Ocean nation on 22 August, two days after U.S. officials asked Comoran authorities to trace a telephone number discovered during a search of a Nairobi hotel. According to the report, Fazul boarded a flight to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and then disappeared.

***

TERRORISM/POLITICAL VIOLENCE

UNITED STATES

WASHINGTON (EmergencyNet News) - The Washington Post was reporting on Thursday that a suspect in the 7 August bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, has fled the tiny African archipelago of Comoros, eluding FBI investigators who were hot on his trail. The newspaper said Abdallah Mohammed Fazul apparently left the Indian Ocean nation on 22 August two days after U.S. officials asked Comoran authorities to trace a telephone number discovered during a search of a Nairobi hotel.

According to the report, Fazul boarded a flight to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and then disappeared. U.S. federal investigators swarmed Comoros shortly after Fazul disappeared and discovered interesting material, including computer disks, in searches of the suspect's family homes. The Post said FBI technicians are now analyzing the disks.

Investigators reportedly discovered letters in which Fazul boasted of his involvement in al-Qaida, the terrorist network that U.S. prosecutors say organized the Nairobi bombing and the simultaneous explosion at the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Fazul reportedly told relatives he started "military service" while in Sudan, and made later visits to Yemen and Afghanistan, where Saudi exile Osama bin Laden has his headquarters.

The newspaper also cited airline records, which showed that during the last year Fazul paid cash to travel repeatedly between Khartoum, Sudan; Karachi, Pakistan; and Nairobi. The Post quoted officials as saying Fazul had lived in Nairobi for some time before the bombings. In the course of their searches, the FBI also recovered a passport or other travel documents in the name of the suspected driver of the truck that carried the Nairobi bomb. The driver was believed killed in the blast.

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

U.S. Technology Aids al-Qaida Hunt

Top 1611. Apr 19, 2002 11:28 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: al-Qaida Computers

We know that al-Qaida use computer technology but the U.S. is also using computer technology against the al-Qaida....this from 4/19 Newsday.com:

By DAFNA LINZER
Associated Press Writer

In the tiny towns that dot the Pakistani mountains east of the Afghan border, small shops that seemingly offer residents little more than dusty packs of cigarettes and canned goods are stocked with one more essential -- computers with Internet access.

It is from this area, in northwest Pakistan, that U.S. intelligence in recent weeks has picked up on increased communications among al-Qaida members, according to U.S. officials.

Shortly after Sept. 11, intelligence experts argued that America should have been infiltrating groups such as al-Qaida instead of sinking its budget into satellite imagery, communications interception and reconnaissance equipment. But as the war on terrorism enters its seventh month, America's technological expertise may be paying off as it tries to root out a computer-savvy foe.

"Abu Zubaydah used the Internet from Faisalabad in Pakistan when he was captured," said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief. Abu Zubaydah, the no. 3 in Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization, is the highest ranking al-Qaida member in U.S. custody.

He was caught by Pakistani and U.S. authorities in a joint raid on a hide-out in Pakistan on March 28. Pakistani intelligence officials have said quietly that a mobile phone call Abu Zubaydah made to al-Qaida leaders in Yemen led to his arrest.

When the suspected kidnappers and killers of Wall Street Journal Reporter Daniel Pearl sent e-mails that included his photographs in January, U.S. investigators traced the communication to an Internet service provider in Karachi whose computer logs led them to a key suspect.

Fahad Naseem denied sending any e-mails on Jan. 27 and Jan. 30, the same dates that the Pearl photographs were sent. But the records showed otherwise and when police confiscated his computer they found the e-mails on his hard drive. He was arrested Feb. 3, three days after the second e-mail was sent.

During interrogation, Naseem gave police the names of three other suspects, including Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the British-born militant thought to have orchestrated the kidnapping.

Knowing where Pearl was abducted helped narrow the search. But with al-Qaida cells allegedly operating around the globe, the search can be much harder, especially when the Internet offers so many ways to hide.

Providers of free e-mail, such as Yahoo and Hotmail, require no real information from a user. Messages can be kept secret with encryption, a digital technology that encodes the information on one end and reads at another using a special algorithm.

Even messages that seem meaningless to terrorism trackers can be treacherous. Experts have said that al-Qaida may be using steganography, a process that hides one message within another or somewhere in a picture file.

"You need some kind of intelligence, such as in the Pearl case," said Chris Aaron, the editor of Jane's Intelligence Review. "In the past, the focus was on identifiable targets such as Iraq or Russia, whereas when dealing with a target such as al-Qaida, it's harder to know what to target. You still need the human intelligence in order to know what to target," Aaron said.

Electronic mission aircraft being used in Afghanistan can detect, pinpoint to a certain area and jam satellite uplinks. But unless the call is intercepted, there is no way to know if the satphone user is an al-Qaida member in a cave or a journalist calling in a story from a valley nearby.

The transmissions coming from Northwest Pakistan, where many of bin Laden's foot soldiers are believed to have fled, may be more definitive.

"There is a concentration of al-Qaida in Pakistan along the border areas and if Internet use there is up, it's only because of the large numbers of al-Qaida there," Cannistraro said.

And the signs that supporters are trying to keep the organization alive are growing

The FBI's cybersecurity unit posted a bulletin on its Web site in January warning that "a computer that belonged to an individual with indirect links to Osama Bin Laden contained structural architecture computer programs that suggested the individual was interested in .... dams and other water-retaining structures."

The National Infrastructure Protection Center's site also said that "al-Qaida members have sought information on water supply and wastewater management practices in the U.S. and abroad. There has also been interest in insecticides and pest control products at several web sites."

In early February, the London-based Al-Quds newspaper published excerpts from an Arabic-language Web site that claimed to represent al-Qaida. An article on the site, hosted by Geocities, which is owned by Yahoo! Inc, bragged that the group carried out the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, warned of further violence and outlined an ideological future for the organization.

The author of the article had not been previously identified, but intelligence experts say that the writer may be less important than the message.

"This a blueprint for the future of al-Qaida, and it indicates that there are a lot of people out there still ready to support its aims," said Yigal Carmon, the former head of Israeli counterterrorism and the president of MEMRI, a research institute which translates, disseminates and analyzes Arab media.

Al-Qaida operatives were computer savvy before PCs were household fixtures in the United States -- something which has helped them and helped the United States.

In 1995, authorities in the Philippines seized a computer from Ramzi Yousef -- the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing -- and found a treasure trove of information and plans, including one to attack a nuclear facility in the United States.

A computer purchased by a Wall Street Journal reporter in Afghanistan included the movements of an al-Qaida operative which were similar to those of Richard Reid -- accused of trying to ignite explosives in his shoes during a trans-Atlantic flight in December.

Ahmed Ressam, convicted of plotting to bomb the Los Angeles airport in 1999, said during court testimony that the one thing a colleague needed to pack when heading off to Afghan training camps was a computer.

"Internet communications have become the main communications system among al-Qaida around the world because its safer, easier and more anonymous if they take the right precautions and I think they're doing that," Cannistraro said.

EDITORS: Associated Press Writer Brian Bergstein contributed to this report.

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Al-Qaida called extremely Internet savvy

Top 1612. Apr 19, 2002 11:41 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: east coast bank terror alert

In response to message posted by Steven_Russell:

Steven - this alert seems to be concerning a physical attack on bank buildings in the NE...but what if the real threat is a cyber attack on the U.S. banking system? This article from 10/10/01 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution explores that scenario plus it relates to the al-Qaida computer use articles posted above:

By CHUCK LINDELL
Cox News Service

The al-Qaida terrorist network has developed skills in encryption and covert communication to enlist the Internet and computers in support of its attacks.

Some of the Sept. 11 hijackers were extremely comfortable at the computer keyboard. They used the Internet to pass messages, research crop-dusters and book their airline tickets -- all without raising the suspicion of law enforcement.

Other al-Qaida operatives have used encryption to hide computer files and e-mail. Agents are investigating whether Osama bin Laden communicates with followers through messages hidden on Web sites and inside electronic photos.

Such proficiency makes detection of terrorist activity extremely difficult, security professionals say.

More ominously, that mastery can be used to turn the Internet into a weapons platform with international reach, Michael Vatis said. Vatis is founder of the National Infrastructure Protection Center, which operates from the FBI's Washington headquarters to protect against cyberattacks.

"It's a logical next step that they use information technology as a weapon," Vatis said. "Certainly, the vulnerabilities are there."

For several years, Vatis and other security professionals have cautioned that computer-savvy terrorists could use hackers, viruses, worms and other techniques to attack U.S. computer networks. Billion-dollar losses are possible, they say, as is loss of life, if hackers are able to breach an air traffic control computer, for example.

As with other terrorism warnings, their message has gained a new audience since Sept. 11, particularly on Capitol Hill and in the White House, where the new Office of Homeland Security includes a department of cybersecurity and critical infrastructure.

On the positive side, businesses and government have spent years fighting incursions from young hackers, corporate spies and foreign intelligence services, said Vatis, now director of the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College.

"The same security is necessary to protect against all of them," he said.

Unfortunately, many computers don't have up-to-date protection against ever-mutating strains of malicious software, Marc Enger said. Enger is former operations director for the Air Force Intelligence Agency and now is vice president of Digital Defense, a San Antonio computer security company.

"If you have your system well-patched, you are not vulnerable to them, but most people don't," Enger said. "We're quite vulnerable."

He estimated that it would take al-Qaida a year to locate and train computer experts, finance their setup, plan an attack and carry it out.

"The real question is whether or not they thought about that a couple of years ago," he said. "Probably not. They were still into heavy weaponry then. That's my hope, anyway."

Bin Laden is a natural suspect for cyberterror because of his appetite for targets with high casualties and grave economic impact. Included are an unsuccessful attack against Los Angeles International Airport in 2000 and the explosion at the World Trade Center in 1993, as well as the attacks this year.

"We know Osama has at his disposal a nearly limitless budget to spend on the latest technology," said David Endler, head of risk management for DEFENSE, a cybersecurity consulting firm in Fairfax, Va. "I guess it would surprise me if they had not at least investigated the potential for doing so."

Technology-poor Afghanistan, under U.S. attack for harboring bin Laden, probably would not be the source of computer warfare should it occur, Endler said. But bin Laden's network stretches globally.

"We have more to worry about from hacker groups and from countries sympathetic to Osama and the Taliban," Endler said.

Islamic extremist groups are not short on computer skills, particularly al-Qaida, said Ely Karmon, senior research scholar with Israel's International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism, an independent think tank.

"They have many Muslim computer students and technicians working for them," Karmon said, "as their very numerous Web sites, some very sophisticated, can testify."

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles...

Top 1613. Apr 20, 2002 12:23 PM

» Steven_Russell - Boulder Dam

Jen, I think a cyber-attack on the banks might be thwarted by the redundancies and backups in the system. Certainly this has been an ongoing battle against cyber-thieves already.

So I have been thinking about the most likely scenario, the path of least resistance for a devastating terror attack. Would a suitcase nuke in a car on the roadway across Hoover Dam be enough to bring down the west, and consequently the country?

What I am thinking is that massive public works projects like this are near-impossible to re-build today. Too much bureaucracy, too much cost, too much time required. The Dam was first built in only five years, in the 1930's. Today, it takes five years just to get EIR and EIS done.

from Encarta:

Hoover Dam, dam on the border of the states of Nevada and Arizona, situated in Black Canyon on the Colorado River, near Las Vegas, Nevada. A major engineering achievement, the massive dam is 221 m (726 ft) high and 379 m (1244 ft) long at the crest. The reservoir formed behind the dam, Lake Mead, is one of the largest artificially created bodies of water in the world; it covers an area of 603 sq km (233 sq mi), and its shoreline measures 885 km (550 mi). The hydroelectric generators of Hoover Dam, which are capable of supplying nearly 1.5 million kilowatts of power, provide electricity to Arizona, Nevada, and southern California.
Construction of the dam began in 1931 as part of the Boulder Canyon project and was completed in 1936. Originally named after President Herbert Hoover, the dam was later called Boulder Dam, but in 1947 its initial name was restored.

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The Lucom Plan: Use the Neutron Bomb

Wilson C. Lucom
Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2001

The United States will not survive unless President Bush and Congress take action now before there is another terrorist strike. This could be one of the last strikes against the U.S.

How could the terrorists accomplish this final tall order? They could strike Boulder Dam, causing a huge power shortage.

Part 1 of Lucom Plan

Psychologically, the threat of an action is almost as effective as the action itself. Bush should at least threaten to use the neutron bomb to isolate the nations that protect terrorism from the nations that support the United States.

Wilson C. Lucom is a former assistant to U.S. Secretary of State Stentenius.

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http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Oct-1...

LETTER: The dam and terror

Recent attacks highlight folly of Hoover Dam bridge bypass plan

To the editor:

The Southern Nevada Group of the Sierra Club strongly applauds your Sept. 16 editorial recommending that truck traffic over the Hoover Dam be banned permanently. We have conferenced with Las Vegas FBI officials numerous times over the past three years asking for such a ban on heavy trucks on Hoover Dam. Unfortunately, it has taken a national tragedy to awaken federal officials to the fact that, "The dam has incalculable strategic value to our region" (Review-Journal, Sept. 16).

On Sept. 15, FBI terrorist and security specialist Cliff Van Zandt spoke on National Public Radio. Mr. Van Zandt warned that U.S. intelligence agencies already know that terrorists are accumulating nuclear and biological weapons. These are exactly the weapons that could be used to destroy or disable the Hoover Dam Historic Landmark, the watershed it holds, and the electricity it generates for the entire Southwest.

Because these weapons of mass destruction can be delivered even from a moderate distance, the big truck ban should extend many miles from Hoover Dam. A new close-by bridge would only make a convenient weapon-launching platform for more suicide terrorists. It should not be built next to Hoover Dam.

FRED DEXTER

BOULDER CITY

The writer is chair of the Hoover Dam Bypass Subcommittee of the Southern Nevada Group of the Sierra Club.

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http://www.disasternews.net/news/news.ph...

Bio-terror not only worry

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUSAN KIM

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BALTIMORE (October 17, 2001) —

The House Resources Committee expressed concern over the lack of security at dam or water facilities in 17 Western states. Only the Hoover Dam, overseen by the department's Bureau of Reclamation, is now protected by its own force of armed guards.

Posted October 25, 2001

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from the Sacramento Bee:

Folsom Dam to restrict trucks

Terror fears will keep vehicles larger than pickups off its road.

By Matthew Barrows -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 5:30 a.m. PST Thursday, January 24, 2002
Any truck larger than a pickup will be barred from Folsom Dam Road starting Feb. 2, a move designed to protect the dam -- and the nearly 1 million acre-feet of water behind it -- from a terrorist attack.

The new restrictions announced by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will prohibit trailers, buses, motor homes and campers from using the scenic, two-lane road, which connects fast-growing communities on both sides of Folsom Lake.

A longer, alternate route uses Folsom-Auburn Road and East Natoma Street.

Pickups with bed-mounted storage units -- such as those commonly used by construction or utility crews -- also will be banned under the new rules. Passenger vehicles, including sport utility vehicles, are permitted, as are boats towed by passenger vehicles and pickups.

The bureau's David Bishop said a grace period will begin Feb. 2. Drivers of restricted vehicles will be informed of the new rules and, in most cases, be asked to turn around. Signs will notify drivers of the restrictions.

"Our intent isn't to cite people," Bishop said. "The intent is to change how people use the road."

Bishop said the Folsom Police Department initially will enforce the road restrictions. The bureau also is looking for help from the State Parks and Recreation Department and possibly from the California Highway Patrol.

When Folsom Dam Road opened in the 1950s, it was intended to provide light recreational access to Folsom Lake. Today, however, 17,000 drivers use the road each day, many of them El Dorado County residents commuting to high-tech jobs in southern Placer County.

The reclamation bureau estimates that load will drop 10 percent with the new restrictions.

The road was closed following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and again later that month after threats were made against Bureau of Reclamation facilities. Since September, the road has been open only between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m.

David Lopez, chief of staff for Rep. John Doolittle, R-Rocklin, predicted the road restrictions would add momentum for a proposed new bridge over the American River. The two- to four-lane bridge, which Doolittle supports, would be built about 1,000 feet downstream of the dam, making Folsom Dam Road obsolete.

Doolittle has a bill pending in Congress that would authorize federal funding for the bridge construction.

"We've been saying for years that the road could be a security risk," Lopez said. "Now after 9-11, it's clearly a risk."

Bishop said only a handful of dams across the country have public roads on top. The most prominent, Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, has prohibited tractor-trailers, buses and large campers since September.

Trucks that normally use the Hoover Dam road must travel 60 miles south to cross the Colorado River.

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Arizonans urge funds for Hoover bypass
Lawmakers want construction on fast track

By ROBERT GEHRKE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- Members of Arizona's congressional delegation are pressing the Bush administration for emergency money to speed construction of the Hoover Dam bypass.

Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. Highway 93 crossing the dam was shut down for two days, and traffic across the dam has been restricted since.

"Because of the threat of terrorism against the dam, such restrictions are wholly appropriate," six members of Arizona's delegation wrote in a letter to the Bush administration's transportation and security officials. "This required detour, however, is both dangerous and costly."

As many as 2,100 trucks are diverted 23 miles up and down steep hills, the letter said. There have been several accidents and many more close calls. The detour is costing the trucking industry $30 million a year.

Most of the detoured traffic travels through Laughlin on U.S. Highway 95 and state Route 163, raising safety concerns among locals. Recent counts by the Nevada Department of Transportation showed a traffic increase on the route of about 40 percent, with large trucks accounting for almost all of the increase.

In the letter, Sen. Jon Kyl and Reps. Bob Stump, Jim Kolbe, Ed Pastor, J.D. Hayworth and John Shadegg are seeking $108 million in urgent funding as part of a homeland security-related package the administration is crafting. That would allow the bridge to be opened to traffic by 2005.

The Federal Highway Administration, which is overseeing the project, originally scheduled completion of the bridge in 2007.

"While we wholeheartedly agree with the decision to protect Hoover Dam," the letter reads, "these restrictions are imposing great hardships on the region."

It was addressed to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge, Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels.

Nevada officials began a push to accelerate construction of the bridge less than a month after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Nevada Department of Transportation Director Tom Stephens advocates a schedule that would have the bridge open to traffic in 2005. And in a joint letter to Mineta dated Sept. 26, Gov. Kenny Guinn and Arizona Gov. Jane Hull argued that the project had taken on "a new security dimension" since the terror strikes.

"The new bridge and bypass of the dam will help protect the Hoover Dam from future terrorism and the potential impact to millions of people," the governors wrote.

Review-Journal staff writer Michael Squires contributed to this report.

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http://news.theolympian.com/specialsecti...

Terror in America Sunday, February 24, 2002

Woman arrested with stolen data on Hoover Dam

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Originally published Sunday, February 24, 2002

LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- Authorities arrested a 24-year-old woman Saturday after a burglary at a Federal Highway Administration office that houses sensitive information about Hoover Dam.

A federal ID badge and computer hard drives were among the more than $100,000 in items stolen. The hard drives were not believed to have contained sensitive information, said Raul Carballido of the FBI.

Carballido said investigators did not believe the break-in involved a terrorist threat.

The federal building where the burglary occurred has no security cameras or security guards.

Hoover Dam, about 30 miles east of Las Vegas, Nev., forms the largest man-made reservoir in the nation. It provides water to 23 million people and hydroelectric power for 1.3 million people in Arizona, Nevada and California.

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http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/new...

Spring 2002
Vol. 17, No. 1

Floodgates of Terror
Terrorism and Dams
by David Orr

In the wake of the tragic attacks of September 11, emergency security measures were put in place at major dams in the Colorado River system, but the federal government's initial security plans were flawed.

The Bureau of Reclamation's (BuRec) security measures are weakest at two of the system's most vulnerable structures, Glen Canyon and Flaming Gorge Dams. The failure of either could set the stage for a series of catastrophic events with massive human and economic impacts extending from Utah to Mexico.

While federal resources are currently focused on protecting the 726-foot Hoover Dam near Las Vegas from terrorist attack, comparatively little is being done to safeguard Glen Canyon Dam upstream on the Colorado River or Flaming Gorge Dam upstream on the Green River. After Hoover, these two dams represent the second- and third-largest dams, respectively, in the Colorado River Basin.

Dam failure would cause catastrophic damage to the reservoir and immediate downstream areas. A possible "domino effect" could cause major damage to the water supply systems of more than 25 million people in the lower Colorado River Basin, triggering economic disruptions throughout Nevada, Arizona, California and northwestern Mexico.

While around-the-clock patrols at Hoover prevented boaters from approaching the dam within a mile upstream and a half-mile downstream, no such controls were in place at either Glen Canyon or Flaming Gorge.

While trucks and trailers were prohibited from crossing Hoover Dam and passenger vehicles were subject to search by state highway patrol officers at checkpoints on either side, truck traffic still moved freely over the crest of Flaming Gorge Dam and across the Glen Canyon Dam Bridge. No security checkpoints were erected at either site.

Hoover is by far the best-constructed component of the Colorado River plumbing system. Anchored into massive granite canyon walls and designed with enough mass for gravity to hold its reservoir - the nation's largest - in check, a major attack is unlikely to cause structural failure. The real problems are further upriver.

The 710-foot Glen Canyon Dam sits tucked into porous Navajo sandstone that constantly leaks water around the structure. Large pieces of canyon wall adjacent to the dam routinely break away. BuRec must install increasingly longer "rock bolts" in an attempt to ensure stability of the dam's abutment and to protect the dam's powerplant from falling rock.

In 1983, high water caused portions of the dam's sandstone spillway tunnels to crumble, posing a threat to the abutment.

Any rupture of the dam's crumbling abutments would release two years' annual flow of the Colorado River to blast its way around the dam, scouring the Grand Canyon before surging across Lake Mead on its way to Hoover Dam. In the best-case scenario, this water would flow over the top of Hoover, creating a downstream flood similar to a Hoover Dam collapse. At worst, the collapse of Glen Canyon could damage Hoover Dam, sending four years' annual flow of the Colorado River heading toward Mexico all at once.

Glen Canyon Dam is an accident waiting to happen. Serious plans must be put in place for the dam's controlled decommissioning, as the dam very likely could fail on its own.

A failure at Flaming Gorge Dam, with a full pool of 3.7 million acre-feet of water, would threaten Glen Canyon Dam downstream.

Below Hoover Dam, where the smaller Davis, Parker and Imperial dams constitute critical elements of the Colorado River plumbing system. Damage to the Central Arizona Project Canal, California Aqueduct and All-American Canal - the region's major water delivery systems - would jeopardize municipal water supplies from Las Vegas to San Diego.

Riverside communities in Nevada, California and Arizona as well as the reservations of the Fort Mojave, Colorado River Indian Tribes, Chemehuevi, Cocopah and Quechan nations are all at risk in the event of a major lower-basin flood. Three interstate highways and numerous oil and gas pipelines cross the river below Laughlin, Nevada.

David Orr is on the staff of Living Rivers

-- posted by Steven_Russell