The Latest from National Terror Alert Response Center

Hezbollah Uses Mexican Drug Routes Into U.S. Posted: 28 Mar 2009 12:01 AM PDT Hezbollah is using the same southern narcotics routes that Mexican drug kingpins do to smuggle drugs and people into the United States, reaping money to finance its operations and threatening U.S. national security, current and former U.S. law enforcement, defense and counterterrorism officials say. The Iran-backed Lebanese group has long been involved in narcotics and human trafficking in South America’s tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Increasingly, however, it is relying on Mexican narcotics syndicates that control access to transit routes into the U.S. Hezbollah relies on “the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels,” said Michael Braun, who just retired as assistant administrator and chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). “They work together,” said Mr. Braun. “They rely on the same shadow facilitators. One way or another, they are all connected. [...] His comments were confirmed by six U.S. officials, including law enforcement, defense and counterterrorism specialists. They spoke on the condition that they not be named because of the sensitivity of the topic. Washington Times - Read Full Article This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information. Share this post

Police Identify 200 Children As Potential Terrorists - UK Posted: 27 Mar 2009 11:29 PM PDT Two hundred schoolchildren in Britain, some as young as 13, have been identified as potential terrorists by a police scheme that aims to spot youngsters who are “vulnerable” to Islamic radicalisation. The number was revealed to The Independent by Sir Norman Bettison, the chief constable of West Yorkshire Police and Britain’s most senior officer in charge of terror prevention. He said the “Channel project” had intervened in the cases of at least 200 children who were thought to be at risk of extremism, since it began 18 months ago. The number has leapt from 10 children identified by June 2008. The programme, run by the Association of Chief Police Officers, asks teachers, parents and other community figures to be vigilant for signs that may indicate an attraction to extreme views or susceptibility to being “groomed” by radicalisers. Sir Norman, whose force covers the area in which all four 7 July 2005 bombers grew up, said: “What will often manifest itself is what might be regarded as racism and the adoption of bad attitudes towards ‘the West’. “One of the four bombers of 7 July was, on the face of it, a model student. He had never been in trouble with the police, was the son of a well-established family and was employed and integrated into society. “But when we went back to his teachers they remarked on the things he used to write. In his exercise books he had written comments praising al-Qa’ida. That was not seen at the time as being substantive. Now we would hope that teachers might intervene, speak to the child’s family or perhaps the local imam who could then speak to the young man.” The Channel project was originally piloted in Lancashire and the Metropolitan Police borough of Lambeth in 2007, but in February last year it was extended to West Yorkshire, the Midlands, Bedfordshire and South Wales. Due to its success there are now plans to roll it out to the rest of London, Thames Valley, South Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and West Sussex. Source This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information. Share this post

Radioactive Material Lost In China Posted: 27 Mar 2009 11:21 PM PDT Authorities in China have ordered an all-out search for a missing nuclear scale that contained a dangerous radioactive component, state press said Friday. The scale, used to make precision measurements, was found to be missing on Monday after workers began dismantling a cement factory where it was used in Tongchuan city in northwest China’s Shaanxi province, Xinhua news agency said. A lead ball containing extremely dangerous Caesium-137 was a major component of the scale, it said. Local government offices in Shaanxi could not be immediately reached for comment on the issue. The report did not say how much Caesium-137 was missing but warned that only a tiny amount could damage the human nervous system and even lead to death. The material could also explode if it comes in contact with water, it added. The provincial environmental protection agency and police have issued urgent orders to find the radioactive material which may have been buried in up to 5,000 tonnes of scrap waste from the factory, the report said. In a later report, Xinhua said environmental officials had found Caesium-137 radioactivity at a steel refinery in Shaanxi’s Fuping county, but it was not immediately known whether it was from the missing material. “Although radioactivity was detected at a steel refinery in Fuping county, it is not necessarily linked to the missing radioactive material,” the report quoted an environmental protection official as saying. via Radioactive material lost in China: state media. This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information. Share this post

Osama bin Laden Plotting New Attacks Posted: 27 Mar 2009 11:12 PM PDT Osama bin Laden and the core al-Qaida leadership are plotting new attacks against the United States and its allies from safe havensin Pakistan, a senior US official warned Thursday. Officials have said President Barack Obama’s new Afghan- Pakistan strategy will focus on destroying safe havens for terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. As part of the strategy, the United States will deploy 4,000 military trainers to Afghanistan by this autumn to build up Afghan armed forces to the point they are able to take the lead in military operations. The officials have also said the cost of US military operations in Afghanistan was expected to rise 60 percent from the current $2 billion a month. The move to deploy an extra brigade follows Obama’s decision last month to send in 17,000 reinforcements to take on insurgents challenging the Kabul government in the south and east of the country. The strategy is expected to rely on more US boots on the ground, expanding Kabul’s security forces, wooing “moderate” insurgents, stepping up civilian aid efforts and a diplomatic push focused on Pakistan’s role. Source This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information. Share this post

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