Al-Qaeda: Weakened, Continues to Target U.S.: Officials

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Al-Qaeda still hopes to carry out attacks against the United States, even as the structure of the terrorist network has become more dispersed, the White House pick to oversee unified U.S. counterterrorism operations said at his Tuesday confirmation hearing (see GSN, July 18).

"That threat is not so much from the senior (al-Qaeda) leadership in Pakistan with one unified goal, it is now diffused in various regional locations under various leaders and with various goals," said Matthew Olsen, who is awaiting Senate approval to become the new director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Olsen said the May shooting death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. Navy SEALs was a "significant milestone" that that there has been "substantial progress" in the fight against the terror group.

Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch "has shown a willingness and a level of capability to strike in the United States," Olsen told members of the Senate intelligence committee. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been linked in recent years to failed efforts to detonate a bomb on a passenger aircraft heading to Detroit and to mail explosives to the United States.   

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TERRORISM 9/11: Bin Laden Plotted New Attack

By SIOBHAN GORMAN

Osama bin Laden was working to assemble a team of militants to attack the U.S. on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, according to communications Navy SEALs seized from his Pakistani hideout when they killed the al Qaeda leader this spring.

Bin Laden and his operations chief, Attiyah Abd al-Rahman, swapped views about the composition of the attack team, with bin Laden repeatedly rejecting names that Mr. Rahman suggested, according to U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence taken from the bin Laden compound.

The News Hub covers documents indicating al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden planned a U.S. attack on Sept. 11, 2011. Also, Rebekah Brooks resigns from News Corp (parent company of The Wall Street Journal) as it UK newspapers chief. Getty Images photo.

The plans were only in the discussion phase, U.S. officials said. They haven't seen any signs the nascent plot ever went beyond the early planning, the officials said.

Still, earlier this month in his first meeting with senior staff at the Central Intelligence Agency, acting Director Michael Morell told his staff that one of their top priorities would be to make sure that neither that plan nor any others were carried out.

Plans for an anniversary attack were one of the few specific potential threats to emerge from the trove of documents and other materials taken from bin Laden's residence in Abottabad, Pakistan, in the May 2 raid. An initial analysis of the evidence said al Qaeda hoped to attack trains in the U.S., possibly on the anniversary of Sept. 11.   For more

OBL ID > How Osama bin Laden was identified

The complete article is below
Osama bin LadenCross Match's SEEK II may have identified bin Laden

SEEK II from Florida-based Cross Match is a 4-pound computer that captures photographs, complete fingerprints, and iris scans; its memory holds the images and biometrics of up to 60,000 people; unconfirmed reports suggest that the Navy SEALs who killed bin Laden used a SEEK II to identify him; there are about 5,000 SEEK II devices in the field, being used by the U.S. military, border patrol, and law enforcement agencies, and also by other militaries

The SEEK II combines three technologies in one unit // Source: crossmatch.com

It appears that the Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden used a device from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida-based Cross Match to identify the al Qaeda’s founder, allowing President Obama to declare in his speech to the nation last week that bin laden was dead.

The Palm Beach Post reports that Cross Match representatives would not confirm whether their product was used in the identification of bin Laden, partly because they are not sure. Still, the Post says that company representatives “offer tantalizing hints, such as that the Department of Defense is one of their biggest clients and that their mobile device is the only one approved by the FBI to take rolled fingerprints, which provide more data and better matches than flat prints.”

The paper quotes Michael Oehler, vice president of mobile biometrics, to say that it appears that a Cross Match product was used to identify bin Laden “really is a good feeling, I must say. We have a very strong sense of patriotism in the company.”

The device likely used to identify bin Laden is the SEEK II — a 4-pound computer that captures photographs, complete fingerprints, and iris scans. Its memory holds the images and biometrics of “60,000 of your favorite bad guys,” Oehler said. With 3G technology or a satellite connection, the SEEK also can link to databases all over the world. This means that SEEK can identify a match within seconds – and helpful feature when the identification has to be doe under fire.

Oehler would not specify to the Post which data points the SEEK registers, but he said the technology generally measures things such as space between the eyes or the nostrils. It looks for features that do not degrade (measuring skin, which sags with age or can be transformed by plastic surgery, would not be useful).

Ohler noted that although an iris scan is 100 times more accurate than fingerprints, it is unlikely the military used the iris scan feature on bin Laden because that would require a previous iris scan to make a match. Moreover, even if bin Laden’s iris had been in the system, the SEALs would have had to move quickly to compare it with the real thing because an iris is “valid” for only five to ten minutes after death.

The company notes that there are fewer than 5,000 SEEKs currently in the field. The device is used by the U.S. military and other armies, and also by border patrol and other law enforcement agencies.   to see full article by HSNW

First Bin Laden Revenge Strike Hits Pakistan; 80 Dead

The first terrorist revenge attack for the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was claimed on Friday after two individuals detonated suicide bomb vests at a paramilitary training facility in Pakistan. The strike resulted in 80 deaths, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 12).

(May. 13) - Security officials examine wrecked vehicles outside a training center for Pakistan's Frontier Constabulary, where two people detonated suicide bomb vests on Friday. The Pakistani Taliban said the attack was carried out in retaliation to the U.S. raid last week that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (A. Majeed/Getty Images).

The attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban was intended to "avenge the Abbottabad incident," spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said, referring to the May 1 U.S. commando raid that resulted in bin Laden's death at a compound in the town of Abbottabad.

The two suicide attackers detonated their explosives at the primary entrance to a military training center for the Frontier Constabulary, which has been financially supported by the United States and has sent troops to fight al-Qaeda and other extremists near the Pakistan/Afghanistan border. Police officer Liaqat Ali Khan said 66 of those killed were recruits.

Ehsan said the Friday attack in Shabqadar would be followed by strikes targeting U.S. citizens residing in Pakistan.

An explosion at a parking lot in northwest Pakistan also caused the destruction of about 24 vehicles, including 15 tanker trucks transporting fuel for NATO into Afghanistan (Riaz Khan, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, May 13).

Even as bin Laden for years evaded a massive manhunt, he pondered ways to mount another terrorist assault in the United States as a follow-up to the September 11 attacks. His thoughts, recorded in a diary, show he focused on maximizing U.S. casualties by attacking large population centers such as Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The journal, other documents, data storage devices and computers were captured by U.S. Navy SEALs during their raid on the Abbottabad compound. U.S. intelligence analysts are now racing to analyze the large information cache.  Read more

Terrorism > Al Qaeda's plans for 9/11 anniversary: attack U.S. rail

Excellent article by Homeland Security Newswire  4 min read.

A result under consideration by al Qaeda // Source: newsinferno.com

The treasure trove of documents, multimedia, and computers seized in the raid on bin Laden's hideout is being exploited by intelligence experts for information on the terror network and future plots; on Thursday the FBI and DHS circulated to law enforcement units around the United States the first piece of information from the bin Laden raid: in February 2010 al Qaeda operatives discussed attacks on U.S. trains as a way to commemorate the 9/11 attacks; the discussions show that the planners, in order to achieve a maximum-casualty attack, were thinking of derailing a train so that it plunged into a ravine or fell off a bridge; the FBI-DHS Thursday warning urged local la enforcement to be circulated for clips or spikes missing from train tracks, packages left on or near the tracks, and other indications that a train could be vulnerable  Read more

Pakistan > Relations with US on Delicate Footing Following Bin Laden Raid

Great indepth article by Elaine M. Grossman, Global Security Newswire describing 'the dancing' that is currently going on post OBL raid.  8 mins read Read more

Aamir Qureshi/Getty Images

Pakistan > Duplicitous and Impotent

Excellent article by Ben Frankel , Homeland Security Newswire on Pakistan's role since 9/11, and the billions we have wasted throwing it their way... Read more

image courtesy of:  altiusdirectory.com

OBL Death > Al-Qaida vows revenge for Osama bin Laden's death

Good article from Osama henchmen.



CAIRO (AP) -- Al-Qaida confirmed the killing of Osama bin Laden Friday and vowed revenge, saying Americans' "happiness will turn to sadness" in the first statement by the terror network since its leader was slain in a U.S. commando raid against his Pakistani hideout. Read more

The killing of OBL > From enhanced interrogations to presidential speech writing

Really good article on OBL, written by Ben Frankel, Homeland Security Newswire, 5 mins read, -Read more

image courtesy of oldsaltblog.com