The Latest from National Terror Alert Response Center

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• Plane Delayed In Lynchburg After Suspicious
  Comments
  
  
• Pilots Leaving Houston Report Near Miss With
  Mystery Object
  
  
• Security Tight For Obama Visit To Cairo
  
  
  
• Homeland Security - A Complete Guide to
  Understanding, Preventing and Surviving Terrorism
  
  
• Terror Trial Nears For Former Georgia Tech
  Student
  
  
• Passports Become Mandatory at Mexico, Canada
  Borders

Plane Delayed In Lynchburg After Suspicious Comments Posted: 31 May 2009 08:25 PM PDT A flight heading to Charlotte from Lynchburg had to be delayed because of comments made by a passenger. The 23-year-old man was in the lobby of the airport around 2:30 Sunday afternoon when he was overheard talking on his cell phone. Witnesses say he told whomever he was speaking with that the plane wouldn’t make it to Charlotte and that it would fall out of the sky. He broke his phone in half when he was approached by Transportation Security Administration officials. He told them he had he was God, but he was injured so he couldn’t show them his powers. He then told deputies with the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office that he had been treated at a mental hospital in West Virginia. The man was taken to Lynchburg General Hospital on an emergency custody order for a mental evaluation. He was not charged with anything. Explosives trained dogs searched his luggage, his car, and the airplane, but they didn’t find anything suspicious. 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.

Pilots Leaving Houston Report Near Miss With Mystery Object Posted: 31 May 2009 05:38 PM PDT A strange object was spotted Friday night by pilots of a plane that just had just taken off from Bush Intercontinental Airport. And now, federal investigators are trying to pinpoint what the flying object was. Eyewitnesses say the object, possibly a rocket, came close to hitting the plane. The Continental Express plane, operated by Express Jet, was flying from Houston to South Carolina last night when it happened. The plane had just left Bush Airport around 8:20pm Friday when the captain reported seeing the object about 150 feet away. According to the FAA, the incident occurred about 11,000 feet into the air above Liberty County. On Saturday, sheriff’s officials interviewed two Hardin High School students who reported seeing the object come close to the plane. What’s strange is that the FAA says they have no reports of any scheduled hobby rocket launches in the area. “All we’ve been told it was bigger than a bottle rocket. It was enough of a light or big enough of an object the pilot had to call it in,” said Corporal Hugh Bishop with the Liberty County sheriff’s office. “But again, we haven’t found anything to substantiate it yet.” The sheriff’s department is scouring a large area from the Harris County line east to Liberty between Mont Belviu and Moss Hill for any sign of what might have come close to the plane. It’s about a 24 by 12 mile area. Officers were also on the radio today asking for witnesses. If you have any information about this, you’re being asked to call the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office at 936-336-4500 See Video 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.

Security Tight For Obama Visit To Cairo Posted: 31 May 2009 05:06 PM PDT US president Barack Obama has not yet decided whether his historic speech reaching out to the Muslim world will be delivered on June 4 from a lecture hall at Al Azhar University in Cairo or its main mosque. If the second, his address will take place in the presence of Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, the Sunni Muslim world’s greatest religious authority. In any event, Al Azhar is the most eminent school of Islamic learning in the world and the US president therefore expects its impact to far outweigh his first address to Muslims from Istanbul. His arrival from a meeting with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh on June 3 is planned to add extra weight to Obama’s dramatic outreach to Muslims, since the king officiates as Custodian of the Holy Places to Islam. [...] Giant transports have been landing at Cairo airport, unloading a fleet of armored vehicles, White House helicopters, counter-terror weapons and the vanguard of the 3,000 Secret Service officers backed by CIA and FBI personnel who will secure the US president during his stay in Egypt. Cairo will soon be in turmoil as forces are deployed from a command center at the American Embassy to control sections of downtown Cairo, with guard posts on the Nile River’s banks, the international airport, main railway terminals and approaches to the city. Some 30,000 Egyptian security personnel including army units stationed in Cairo have been placed on special duty until the American president leaves. Their names and those of the welcoming party at Al Azhar University were submitted to the US presidential security center. Obama is due to land in Cairo Thursday at 10 a.m., drive to the Abidin Palace to meet President Hosni Mubarak and proceed from there to Azhar University. His convoy will be escorted by vehicles equipped with sensors for detecting firearms and explosives and covered by Marine helicopters overhead. Until the last minute, the president’s routes to the university have been withheld from Egyptian security authorities as a safeguard against leaks to hostile elements. 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.

Homeland Security - A Complete Guide to Understanding, Preventing and Surviving Terrorism Posted: 31 May 2009 04:59 PM PDT Homeland Security: A Complete Guide to Understanding, Preventing and Surviving Terrorism is the authoritative textbook on one of the most important topics facing our nation. From complex policy issues to common terrorist tactics, Homeland Security provides a practical foundation for professionals, students, and concerned citizens alike. Designed for readers who need to understand both the “big picture” and their own roles in the war against terror, the book provides a clear, comprehensive and fascinating overview of an increasingly complex and misunderstood topic. This indispensable reference, filled with fascinating real-life examples and tips, covers the basics of homeland security such as: national strategies and principles; federal, state and local roles; terrorist history and tactics; cyber-terrorism; business preparedness; critical infrastructure protection; weapons of mass destruction; and key policy issues. Perfect for academic and training classrooms, each chapter includes an overview, learning objectives, source document, discussion topic, summary, and quiz. Media Reviews: “Homeland Security is much more than a textbook. It is an indispensable reference resource for those seeking to understand how terrorists operate and the structures and mechanisms that have been developed to respond to the magnitude of the terrorist threats confronting us” Read Online Via Google 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.

Terror Trial Nears For Former Georgia Tech Student Posted: 31 May 2009 04:50 PM PDT Syed Haris Ahmed was a terrorist wannabe. He’s already admitted to that. The former Georgia Tech student contemplated an attack on Dobbins Air Reserve Base, but didn’t carry it out. He traveled to Pakistan hoping to die a martyr fighting alongside brother jihadists — but changed his mind and returned home. He took almost laughably bad “casing videos” of Washington landmarks, taping surreptitiously through his pickup truck window in a city where tourists overtly take pictures of everything. Syed Haris Ahmed agreed to a nonjury trial so he can deliver what he calls ‘the message of Islam’ during closing arguments. Was he all talk? Or was he, as federal prosecutors suspect, a time bomb that simply hadn’t gone off yet? On Monday, after three years in solitary confinement at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, Ahmed will stand trial for conspiracy to provide support for acts of terrorism in the United States and abroad. There will be no jury, and there seems little doubt about the verdict because during interviews with federal agents Ahmed helped outline the case against him. Ahmed, 24, evinces scant concern about the judgment of a temporal court, saying the only laws that matter are the laws of Allah. He agreed to a bench trial so he can deliver what he calls “the message of Islam” during closing arguments. “It is the duty of every Muslim to deliver the message of God to mankind,” he said in a neatly handwritten motion filed recently. “I hope that Allah will be pleased with this act of mine and forgive me on the Day of Judgment when only He will be the Judge of all mankind.” In his motion, which quotes from the Quran, Ahmed said he cannot be a “true and loyal servant of God” by arguing for his acquittal because that would be tantamount to accepting the legitimacy of man-made laws. 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.

Passports Become Mandatory at Mexico, Canada Borders Posted: 31 May 2009 04:42 PM PDT New rules requiring passports or new high-tech documents to cross the United States’ northern and southern borders are taking effect Monday, as some rue the tightening of security and others hail it as long overdue. The rules are being implemented nearly eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks and long after the 9/11 Commission recommended the changes. They were delayed by complaints from state officials who worried the restrictions would hinder the flow of people and commerce and affect border towns dependent on international crossings. In 2001 a driver’s license and an oral declaration of citizenship were enough to cross the Canadian and Mexican borders; Monday’s changes are the last step in a gradual ratcheting up of the rules. Now thousands of Americans are preparing by applying for passports or obtaining special driver’s licenses that can also be used to cross the border. 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.

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