Obama vows to keep pressure on crippled Al-Qaeda

US President Barack Obama vowed to keep
pressure on the Al-Qaeda terror group
following the death of Osama bin Laden
© AFP Saul Loeb

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama on Wednesday vowed to keep pressure on the Al-Qaeda terror group following the death of Osama bin Laden in last month's daring US raid in Pakistan.

US military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan have served to "severely cripple Al-Qaeda's capacities," Obama said at a White House press conference.

"Osama bin Laden got the most attention, but before that we decimated some of the upper ranks of Al-Qaeda," he said.

Al-Qaeda weighed train attack to mark Sept 11

Editor's Note: ...And they've got a cargo load of Chertoff approved naked body scanners ready to keep us safe from the terrorists.

An Amtrak train pulls into Newark Penn Station
© AFP/Getty Images/File Spencer Platt

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Intelligence seized from Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan showed his Al-Qaeda network pondered strikes on US trains on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, US officials said Thursday.

As of February 2010, Al-Qaeda "was allegedly contemplating conducting an operation against trains at an unspecified location in the United States on the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001," the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advised law enforcement agencies in a bulletin obtained by AFP.

A source said the warning arose from intelligence seized in a daring raid on bin Laden's fortified compound in which elite US commandos shot dead the terrorist mastermind and gathered computer hardware and other material.

Egypt uprising 'repudiates' Al-Qaeda: McCain

John McCain and Joseph Lieberman
visit Cairo's Tahrir Square © AFP

AFP

CAIRO (AFP) - Two senior US lawmakers said Sunday during a visit to Cairo that the Egyptian revolt that toppled president Hosni Mubarak showed change in the region was possible without extremism.

"This revolution is a repudiation of Al-Qaeda," Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said after talks with Arab League chief Amr Mussa.

"This revolution has shown the people of the world, not just in the Arab world, that peaceful change can come about and violence and extremism is not required in order to achieve democracy and freedom," he told reporters.


McCain and Connecticut Independent counterpart Joe Lieberman are the first members of the US congress to visit Egypt after Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising.

Before the revolution, it was thought "there were only two choices: on the one hand a secular dictatorship, on the other hand a fear of a religious extremist dictatorship," Lieberman said.

"There is a third way that Egypt has shown the world and that is a peaceful democratic future that is inclusive of the widest range of people," he said.

Before resigning, Mubarak handed power to a military council that has vowed to pave the way for a free democratic system.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has set up a panel to oversee constitutional amendments and pledged free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections after a transitional period.



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Al-Qaida group takes responsibility for mail bombs

Editor's Note: Ah, Hahahaha...Ah, Hahahha. Of course they did.

Brian Murphy and Lolita C. Baldor
Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A Yemen-based al-Qaida group on Friday claimed responsibility for the international mail bomb plot uncovered late last week as well as the crash of a United Parcel Service cargo plane in September.

A week after authorities intercepted packages in Dubai and Britain that were bound for the U.S., al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula issued a statement taking credit for the plot and saying it would continue to strike American and Western interests. The group specifically said it would target civilian and cargo aircraft.

"We have struck three blows at your airplanes in a single year. And God willing, we will continue to strike our blows against American interests and the interests of America's allies," the group said in a message posted on a militant website.


The authenticity of Friday's claim could not be immediately verified. A U.S. intelligence official said authorities are not surprised to see this claim now.

U.S. officials have said all week that there were strong indications the plot originated with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a terror group that has become al-Qaida's most active franchise and has increasingly carried out attacks on Western targets.

Authorities in the U.S. and the UAE have said the Sept. 3 crash of the UPS plane in Dubai shortly after takeoff was caused by an onboard fire, but investigators are taking another look at the incident following the parcel bomb plot.

A security official in the UAE familiar with the investigations into the UPS cargo plane crash in Dubai and the mail bombs plot told The Associated Press Friday that there is no change in earlier findings and that the UPS crash in September was likely caused by an onboard fire and not by an explosive device.

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Bombs Found On U.S.-Bound Flights Tied To Al Qaeda, More Could Be Sent, White House Adviser Says

Editor's Note:  This article should be titled "We saved your asses this time, but be very afraid because there's a lot more to come, and you'll know exactly who to blame when it happens -- Al-Qaida in Yemen."  The "U.S. said the plot bears the hallmarks of al-Qaida's offshoot in Yemen." Our radar should go up whenever evidence into crimes to commit mass murder amounts to "bearing hallmarks" of some shadowy group. 

Infowars image

Ahmed Al-Haj and Adam Schreck

Associated Press

SAN'A, Yemen — One of two powerful bombs mailed from Yemen to Chicago-area synagogues traveled on passenger flights within the Middle East, a Qatar Airways spokesman said Sunday. The U.S. said the plot bears the hallmarks of al-Qaida's offshoot in Yemen and has vowed to destroy the group.

The airline spokesman said a package containing explosives hidden in a printer cartridge arrived in Qatar Airways' hub in the capital Doha on a flights from Yemen – an Airbus A320 which can carry up to 144 passengers.

It was then shipped on a separate Qatar Airways plane to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where it was discovered by authorities late Thursday or early Friday. A second, similar package turned up in England on Friday.

The airline spokesman disclosed the information on condition of anonymity in line with the company's standing policies on conversations with the media.

The plot was the latest to expose persistent security gaps in international air travel and cargo shipping nearly a decade after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and showed extremists appear to be probing those vulnerabilities.

"The security gap is now for things leaving Yemen," said Riad Kahwaji, head of the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis. "On the Yemeni side, they'll have a lot to answer for to regain their credibility."

Yemeni authorities have taken several people into custody for questioning, including a young student whose telephone number was used to register the packages. She has since been conditionally released into her father's custody.

In Washington, President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser John Brennan said authorities "have to presume" there might be more potential mail bombs like the ones pulled from planes in England and the United Arab Emirates.

U.S. inspectors were heading to Yemen to monitor cargo security practices and pinpoint holes in the system. An internal report, obtained by The Associated Press, said the team of six inspectors from the Transportation Security Administration will give Yemeni officials recommendations and training to improve cargo security.

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The Cost of Lack of Trust

Dr. Tibor Machan
Daily Bell

Over the last couple of days a bunch of announcements came from our government, including warning about travel to Europe where terror plans are said to be afoot by Al-Qaeda. Another warning came from the man convicted of trying to blow up Times Square – he said after he was sentenced to life in prison that Americans will be victims of terror big time. And I could go on but my point can be made with just these cases. I do not trust the warnings from our government although neither do I know them to be unjustified.

The government of the United States of America is on a power crusade, taking every opportunity it can to deprive its citizens of their resources and control over their own lives and seem to be intent on imposing on them endless rules and regulations. These are, I am convinced, true believers in state fundamentalism: Every problems must be solved by means of expanded government, both in size and, especially, in scope. So how can I believe it when the government declares that there is increasing danger around us, all of which seems routinely to require that government gain greater and greater power over us?

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