Credible Terror Threat Causes Congestion & Headaches All Around New York & Causes U.S. Citizens To Be On High Alert.

Feds: Zawahiri Launched Al Qaeda Terror Plot for 9/11 Anniversary

Federal officials say they have a specific, credible -- although still unconfirmed -- threat involving a possible al Qaeda plot aimed for the anniversary of September llth. (Mark Lennihan/AP Photo)

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/feds-threat-al-qaeda-terror-attack-911/story?id=14477592

Vice President Biden talks terror on network morning shows

Posted by:

CNN White House Producer Adam Aigner-Treworgy

Vice President Biden made a tour of the network morning shows this morning and addressed reports of a “credible” terrorist threat to New York City and Washington D.C. on the 10^th anniversary of 9/11. While he reiterated that he could not “confirm” the reports, Biden said that the threat was “real” and that this was “the first credible piece of information we’ve gotten” since Osama bin Laden was killed four months ago.

On what the administration is most concerned about this weekend, Biden told NBC:

The thing we're all most worried about is what they call the lone ranger, a lone actor, not some extremely complicated plan like it took to take down the World Trade Towers or the plane in Shanksville or the Pentagon. It doesn't mean they couldn't happen but it's much less likely. The lone actor is the more worrisome thing because there are fewer trails to follow, there are fewer leads to move on. But this is information from a credible source that indicated this was an intent. We have not been able to confirm, nor does that source confirm or do they know who the individuals may be who are trying to find access to the United States. But we're taking it seriously.

On reports that the threat includes a possible car bomb, Biden told ABC:

We have been told that was an intention to get people into the United States to do that, from a credible source, but we do not have confirmation of that.

On what this means for average Americans, Biden told NBC:

Continue your life as normal. Be vigilant. Be vigilant. Continue life as normal. But be vigilant. Report. Report anything that looks suspicious to you. And you know, we went through this before in a different circumstance with the car bomb in Times Square. There are people who are likely to try over the next period of months and years, but the point is that we are using every single asset we can, including local law enforcement, to help thwart the possibility it could happen.

Switching topics to the president’s new jobs plan, Biden told CBS that the White House is hopeful that some portions of the plan could gain bipartisan support:

Well, I think the first point to gain bipartisan support is the tax cuts for people who get a payroll stub. That is, they would get an extra $1,500 – right now, you pay 6.2% out of every paycheck that gets taken out before you're paid. That would go down to 3.1%, the result of that for the average person out there working is an additional $1,500 a year. That's a difference between being able to pay your auto insurance, being able to do a lot of things that really matter to people hanging on the edge.

And finally Biden told CBS that the White House would be willing to compromise:

We are willing to compromise on any ideas that will help the middle class. If they have a better idea how to put more money in the pockets of middle class people who are hanging on by a thread, if they're willing to come up with a better idea how to keep people – let them refinance their mortgages to 4% and the average person would save $2,000 a year, if they have a better idea on how to go and make sure that employers get a boost for hiring people, if they're willing to go out there and tell us how they can help the unemployed while training them in jobs that they may be able to get later, after their unemployment runs out, if they have better ideas, then we are totally prepared to compromise. But we are not prepared to compromise in terms of doing nothing.

http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/09/vice-president-biden-does-network-morning-shows/

Another 9/11

"An Afghan immigrant wanted to carry out a New York City terror attack involving hydrogen peroxide bombs to coincide with the Sept. 11 anniversary before federal authorities foiled the plan, a U.S. prosecutor said Friday.

Tim Neff told a federal judge that Najibullah Zazi "was in the throes of making a bomb and attempting to perfect his formulation."



"The evidence suggests a chilling, disturbing sequence of events showing the defendant was intent on making a bomb and being in New York on 9/11, for purposes of perhaps using such items," Neff declared in arguing for Zazi's transfer to New York.

Ken Deal, the chief deputy U.S. marshal in Denver, said Zazi was put on a U.S. government plane and flown out of southern Denver's Centennial Airport at 12:15 p.m. MDT — little more than an hour after U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer ordered Zazi transferred to New York City to face charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

Deal said it was possible Zazi could appear in federal court in Brooklyn late Friday. The charge against Zazi carries a possible life sentence upon conviction." -- Associated Press

Internal Terror Warnings.

"WASHINGTON – Counterterrorism officials have issued security bulletins to police around the nation about terrorists' desire to attack stadiums, entertainment complexes and hotels — the latest in a flurry of such internal warnings as investigators chase a possible bomb plot in Denver and New York.

In the two bulletins — sent to police departments Monday and obtained by The Associated Press — officials said they know of no specific plots against such sites, but urged law enforcement and private companies to be vigilant. These two bulletins followed on the heels of a similar warning about the vulnerabilities of mass transit systems.

The bulletin on stadiums notes that an al-Qaida training manual specifically lists "blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality, and sin... and attacking vital economic centers" as desired targets of the global terror network." - Associated Press - To read more, please see Yahoo News.

U.S. Nuclear Locations and Activity Revealed.

Associated Press Writer Eileen Sullivan And H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press

Writer – 18 mins ago
WASHINGTON – The government accidentally posted on the Internet a list of government and civilian nuclear facilities and their activities in the United States, but U.S. officials said Wednesday the posting included no information that compromised national security.

However, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, questioned about the disclosure at a House hearing, expressed concern with respect to a uranium storage facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Y-12 facility in Tennessee. The facility holds large quantities of highly enriched uranium, which if obtained can be used to fashion a nuclear weapon.

"That's of great concern," said Chu, referring to the Y-12 site. "We will be looking hard and making sure physical security of those sites (at Y12) is sufficient to prevent eco-terrorists and others getting hold of that material."

The 266-page document was published on May 6 as a transmission from President Barack Obama to Congress. According to the document, the list was required by law and will be provided to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Some of the pages are marked "highly confidential safeguards sensitive."

Chu said he had no details as to how the document was released, beyond that it involved the government printing office. "Someone made a mistake," said Chu, appearing before a House Appropriations subcommittee .

Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, said the document had been reviewed by a number of U.S. agencies and that disclosure of the information did not jeopardize national security. He said the document is part of an agreement on nuclear material inspection under the IAEA's nuclear nonproliferation effort.

"While we would have preferred it not be released, the Departments of Energy, Defense, and Commerce and the NRC all thoroughly reviewed it to ensure that no information of direct national security significance would be compromised," LaVera said in a statement.

An Energy Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the situation publicly, said none of the sites on the list are directly part of the government's nuclear weapons infrastructure.

Included in the report, however, are details on a storage facility for highly enriched uranium at the Y-12 complex at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and some sites at the Energy Department's Hanford nuclear site in Washington state, this official acknowledged.

Beth Hayden, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the agency reviewed the document as it relates to civilian facilities with NRC licenses and "we are confident that information of direct national security significance was not compromised."

The NRC has jurisdiction over commercial nuclear power plants and civilian uranium processing and storage facilities.

The publication of the list was first reported in an online secrecy newsletter Monday. The document had been posted on the Government Printing Office Web site, but has since been removed from that site.

In a statement, the Government Printing Office said Wednesday: "Upon being informed about potential sensitive nature of the attachment in this document, the Public Printer of the United States removed it from GPO's Web site pending further review. After consulting with the White House and Congress, it was determined that the document, including sensitive attachment, should be permanently removed from the Web site."

The GPO said it processes and produces approximately 160 House documents during the two-year congressional cycle, and the list was received by the agency in the normal process and produced under routine operating procedures.

The document includes both government and civilian nuclear facilities, all of which have various levels of security, including details and location of nation's 103 commercial nuclear power reactors, information readily available from various sources.

The document details the location of the nuclear sites and what is being done there.

For instance, there are nuclear reactors at the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh, Pa. This facility is currently working on research into what happens when there are accidents with the nuclear reactors. The project started in 2006 and is expected to end in 2012, according to the document.

There are "zero" national security implications to the publication of this document, said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. Aftergood found the document on the GPO Web site and highlighted it in his online bulletin.

"I regret that some people are painting it as a roadmap for terrorists because that's not what it is," Aftergood said.

"This is not a disclosure of sensitive nuclear technologies or of facility security procedures. It is simply a listing of the numerous nuclear research sites and the programs that are under way," Aftergood said. "And so it poses no security threat whatsoever."

__

Associated Press reporter Pamela Hess contributed to this report from Washington.

Click HERE to view source

Weapons of Mass Destruction. Extreme Risk. Should we be surprised?

According to the report by the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, the United States is at a high risk of a major terror attack before 2013 in which the terrorists will utilize WMD.

"The Commission believes that unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013."

Should we really be surprised?

"The intent of this report is neither to frighten nor to reassure the American
people about the current state of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
It is to underscore that the U.S. government has yet to fully adapt to these circumstances, and to convey the sobering reality that the risks are growing faster than our multilayered defenses.

Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing." (bold and italics added)

Their findings included research in the "crossroads of terrorism and proliferation in the poorly governed parts of Pakistan". Thus, should there be any surprise if findings (as already speculated) in the Mumbai, India incident conclude that Pakistan is, in fact, behind those horrific terrorist attacks? Even if Pakistan is presently denying their participation?

"During the course of our fieldwork for this report, the members of the Commission had a near miss—and it served as a reminder of the urgency of our mission and message.

Asked by Congress to recommend ways of preventing weapons of mass destruction proliferation and terrorism, we were on our way to a place where these two concerns intersect—Pakistan. On September 20, 2008, we were in Kuwait City awaiting our connecting flight to Islamabad, where we would be staying at the Marriott Hotel. Suddenly our cell phones began buzzing with breaking news: the Islamabad Marriott had just been devastated by a bomb.

Minutes later, every television set in the airport was showing live footage of our destination. The Marriott was ablaze, a line of fire running its length. The hotel front was a mass of twisted iron and broken concrete. What once had been the lobby was now a huge black crater. More than fifty people lost their lives that day at the Islamabad Marriott, a gathering place for prominent visitors and influential locals.
Within hours, the attack came to be known as Pakistan’s 9/11—a frightening reminder that we live in an age of global terrorism."

It was an unfortunate incident. However, it could have been a statement from any number of terrorist factions that holdout within the Pakistani borders, and are allowed to do so. This is called harboring terrorists and Pakistan and its government are duly aware they are participating in such acts.

A statement in the Preface of the report that I call a "duh" statement reads as follows.

"...weapons will be poorly secured and thus may be stolen by terrorists or by others who intend to sell them."

In other words, "duh".

Those who want to harm will find ways to do harm. Regardless of regulations on any weapon, if someone wants it bad enough, they will find ways to get the weapon. Some may pay a high dollar amount to get the desired weapon. Some may steal the desired weapon. Some may create their own desired weapon. Throughout the ages, those who desired to do harm were able to find ways to do so. Unfortunately, technology has created forms of weapons that can create destruction on such a massive scale that it may be unfathomable for everyday citizens to envision that kind of mass terrorism. However, it is time to open our eyes to the facts that stare squarely at us. There are people who desire to do harm and they will eventually find a way to create the turmoil, fear and death they desire.

"We want to inform our fellow citizens, and thereby empower them to act."

"The Commission further believes that terrorists are more likely to be able to obtain and use a biological weapon than a nuclear weapon." Something that was not mentioned in the mainstream media regarding this detail is that someone could easily utilize a biological weapon in our nation's water supply. Have you ever been enticed or encouraged to gather an emergency supply of water? Perhaps this should be your wake-up call. Should we have an issue with our water supply, the only way to survive is to have a reserve that cannot be tainted by terrorists. This can only happen within our own homes, neighborhoods and cities. It is not something to be fearful of, but to be prepared for.

Another "duh" statement in the Executive Summary of the report states, “The risk of a
nuclear weapon being used today is growing, not receding.” Again, "duh". The technology has been around for a long time now and there are many who desire power, as well as those who desire to defend themselves. It was only a matter of time before this was going to be an issue. It has been an issue long before these public statements. There were probably no public statements prior to now because they were afraid of a mass panic.

"...we concluded early in our deliberations that this report should focus solely on the two types of WMD categories that have the greatest potential to kill in the most massive numbers: biological and nuclear weapons."

(bold added)

Since the 9/11 attacks, the 9/11 Commission reported that there is a shortage in human intelligence within the United States intelligence agencies. This creates only the ability to react to situations instead of always preventing them. Although our intelligence agencies do a great job at identifying many of the threats to our American soil prior to attack so that the attacks can be thwarted, we are unable to fully utilize the agencies to prevent attacks. This poses a great risk to our nation and its people. "Though U.S. policy and strategy have made progress, they have not kept pace with the growing risks." In other words, we need to bulk up the forces in our human intelligence. Sun Tzu said, “Knowledge of the enemy’s dispositions can only be obtained from other men…Hence it is only the enlightened and wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army...Spies are the most important asset.”, also stating the importance of human intelligence.

The best defense against the terrorist threats we now face is awareness. Not just awareness within the secret halls of governing agencies, but the awareness of the whole nation so that we can work together as a United States of America to combat this enemy.

WMDReport.pdf