The Latest from National Terror Alert Response Center

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• WHO Declaration of Swine Flu Pandemic Looks
  Imminent
  
  
• 2 Japanese Carrying $134 Billion In U.S. Bonds
  Detained In Italy
  
  
• NYC Tests Ability To Detect Dirty Bomb
  
  
• Holocaust Museum Washington DC - 2 Shot
  
  
  
• Terror Names Linked To Air France Flight 447
  

WHO Declaration of Swine Flu Pandemic Looks Imminent Posted: 11 Jun 2009 01:06 AM PDT H1N1’s swift spread in Australia may meet criteria for full alert, agency says. A surge in cases of H1N1 swine flu in Australia may tip the balance and cause the World Health Organization to soon declare the first flu pandemic since 1968, agency officials said Tuesday. Cases in Australia rose by more than 1,000 on Monday, with most occurring in the southern state of Victoria. Rapid spread of the virus in a region beyond North America has been considered a key factor in labeling the outbreak a pandemic. WHO calls emergency meeting, H1N1 outbreak now affects 74 countries. “We are getting really very close to knowing that we are in a pandemic situation,” WHO influenza chief Keiji Fukuda said in Geneva. He said the agency was concerned about the possible “adverse effects” of moving the alert from its current status of phase 5 to the highest level, phase 6, indicating a full pandemic, the Associated Press reported. Fukuda cited concerns over possible panic among the public or inappropriate steps taken by governments. However, “on the surface of it, I think we are in phase 6,” said Margaret Chan, the WHO’s director-general. According to Chan, it is crucial to verify that H1N1 has become established beyond North America before a pandemic is declared. “Once I get indisputable evidence, I will make the announcement,” she said Tuesday. 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.

2 Japanese Carrying $134 Billion In U.S. Bonds Detained In Italy Posted: 11 Jun 2009 12:57 AM PDT This story has not been confirmed by U.S. officials. Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday. The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm with Italian authorities whether the two were indeed Japanese nationals and their identities. According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, in a suitcase with a false bottom that was searched by the Italian authorities June 3 when they were in Chiasso, at the border with Switzerland, about 50 kilometers north of Milan. The daily did not say on what charges they have been detained, but the two may have been detained on suspicion of attempting to take a large amount of securities out of Italy without declaring it because the paper said they had not declared the bonds. The treasure was in the hands of two Japanese from Italy were trying to enter Switzerland. In a suitcase were 249 bonds of the ‘Federal Reserve‘ American in the nominal value of 500 million each, and 10 ‘ bond Kennedy ‘ of the nominal value of $ 1 billion each, in addition to whta is described as very original banking documentation. Everything has been reported to have been seized and authorities are investigating the 2 as well as the authenticity of the bonds. 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.

NYC Tests Ability To Detect Dirty Bomb Posted: 11 Jun 2009 12:46 AM PDT A New York City test of its response to a so-called dirty bomb involved 700 FBI agents and city police officers and a radiation device created for the drill. The radiation device, while safe, had the same radioactive signature as a dirty bomb, WPIX-TV reported. Dirty bombs add nuclear material to explosives to spread radiation over a wide area. The drill tested the ability to detect a radioactive device concealed in a vehicle on the Clearview Expressway in Queens. Other drivers participated in the test without knowing it. But communities in the area were notified a drill would be conducted between 9 p.m. Tuesday and 2 a.m. Wednesday so they would not be caught off-guard. A recent low-altitude flight by a presidential jet over lower Manhattan sparked panic, including hundreds of phone calls to 911 from witnesses who thought they were seeing another attack like the one on Sept. 11, 2001. 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.

Holocaust Museum Washington DC - 2 Shot Posted: 10 Jun 2009 10:44 AM PDT UPDATE: The Holocaust Museum guard who was shot earlier today has died. UPDATE: The man police say was injured in a shootout with guards at the National Holocaust Museum has a long history with anti-semitic and anti-government violence, according to websites and documents. James Von Brunn, 88, is the author of “Kill the Best Gentiles: A new, hard-hitting expose of the Jew conspiracy to destroy the white gene-pool,” according to the Web site holywesternempire.org. Von Brunn uses the website to praise war veterans and to issue treatises rife with stereotypes blaming Jewish people for the bulk of the world’s problems. Von Brunn was charged with armed burglary, according to a 1981 article in the Associated Press, for entering the Federal Reserve Board building with a sawed-off shot gun. A bio on the “Holy Western Empire” Web site says von Brunn lives on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Original Story ————– Authorities say at least two people have been shot at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. D.C. police spokeswoman Traci Hughes says a person walked into the museum with a rifle and shot a guard. Hughes says the shooter was also shot. Reports said the suspect first shot a security guard, and that another guard returned fire, wounding the alleged shooter. There are conflicting reports about how many people were wounded. Another law enforcement official said three people were shot, but that there are no fatalities. “The scene is secure,” the source said. Police and other law enforcement, including the FBI’s Terrorism Task Force, are surrounding the museum site. 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 Names Linked To Air France Flight 447 Posted: 10 Jun 2009 07:13 AM PDT Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged. French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 31 May. Flight AF447 crashed in the mid-Atlantic en route to Paris during a violent storm. While it is certain that there were computer malfunctions, terrorism has not been ruled out. Soon after news of the fatal crash broke, agents working for the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure), the French equivalent of MI6, were dispatched to Brazil. It was there that they established that two names on the passenger list are also on highly-classified documents listing the names of radical Muslims considered a threat to the French Republic. A source working for the French security services told Paris weekly L’Express that the link was “highly significant”. Agents are now trying to establish dates of birth for the two dead passengers, and family connections. There is a possibility the name similarities are simply a “macabre coincidence”, the source added, but the revelation is still being “taken very seriously”. 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.

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