The Latest from National Terror Alert Response Center

---

• Six Arrested In Plot To Attack G8
  
• CIA Chief Says bin Laden in Pakistan
  
• Massive, Elaborate Tunnel Found At Mexican Border
  
• Level 6 / Phase 6 Flu Pandemic Declared By WHO
  

Six Arrested In Plot To Attack G8 Posted: 11 Jun 2009 09:29 PM PDT Six Italians were arrested Thursday on suspicion of plotting to attack Group of Eight summit facilities. The Rome-based group was trying to revive the Red Brigades terrorist organization that plagued Italy in the 1970s and ’80s, officials said. Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni congratulated Italian Police Chief Antonio Manganelli, saying: ”The operation conducted by security police this morning is of exceptional importance because the reorganisation of armed struggle in Italy has been prevented”. The group had plotted to attack the original venue of next month’s G8 summit, a former US Navy base on the Sardinian island of La Maddalena, police said. The venue was recently moved to the Abruzzo capital L’Aquila to help it recover from a devastating earthquake in April. The six, including two men from Genoa, one from Milan, a Sardinian pro-independence militant and an old-guard Red Brigades terrorist, have been taken into custody on terrorism charges. Five have been taken to prison and one, reportedly found with a bomb, was placed under house arrest because of his age. The arrests were the result of a two-year probe using wiretaps and other surveillance techniques, police said. As well as the G8 plot, the six were planning a string of other attacks, police said. 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.

CIA Chief Says bin Laden in Pakistan Posted: 11 Jun 2009 08:27 PM PDT CIA Director Leon Panetta said on Thursday the U.S. intelligence agency believes al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan and hopes joint operations with Pakistani forces will find him. Asked whether he was sure that bin Laden was in Pakistan, Panetta told reporters: “The last information we had, that’s still the case.” Bin Laden, who has eluded a U.S. manhunt since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has issued audio and videotapes over the years demonstrating that he is still alive. Finding bin Laden is “one of our major priorities,” Panetta said. “One of our hopes is that the Pakistanis move in militarily, combined with our operations, we may be able to have a better chance” to find the al Qaeda leader, he said. Panetta said al Qaeda “remains the most serious security threat” to the United States and its leaders, particularly in Pakistan, continue to plot against America. There are “a number of people” on the ground in Pakistan providing intelligence on al Qaeda targets to the United States, he said. 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.

Massive, Elaborate Tunnel Found At Mexican Border Posted: 11 Jun 2009 07:56 PM PDT Adam Housley reports live from the site in Nogales Mexico where a massive tunnel has been discovered. We got tipped off late Wednesday evening and within a few hours we were on a plane and then on the road arriving in Nogales just as the sun peaked over the Sonoran Desert. Our contacts had told us of an elaborate tunnel, one of the best they’ve ever found, running 45 feet or so on the Mexican side of the border, then extending another 38 feet into the United States. [...] The Mexican Federal Police tell me in Spanish that the tunnel started in an abandoned white house just a few feet from where we are standing. The tunnel then stretches under the border fence about six feet under ground, headed towards a building that had recently lost its tenant on the U.S. side. It is about three feet high and wide with bricks and boards fortifying the sides and metal bars holding the roof. They tell me I could easily crawl through the tunnel with a back back (I am 6′3″) and the tunnel was likely being financed and built by the Gulf Cartel, a dangerous gang of thugs who have been terrorizing much of this area. Full Article - Video- Images 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.

Level 6 / Phase 6 Flu Pandemic Declared By WHO Posted: 11 Jun 2009 07:25 PM PDT World Health Organization (WHO) officials declared a pandemic of H1N1 influenza on Thursday, two months after the first cases of the new flu virus were reported in Mexico. It is the first flu pandemic in 41 years, since the 1968 Hong Kong flu. The WHO’s decision to raise the pandemic alert to Phase 6, the highest level, was based on specific criteria, most significantly that the disease is now widespread, sustaining transmission in more than two regions around the world — including the Americas (Mexico and the U.S., which have so far borne the greatest brunt of the new flu) and Australia, where cases have risen sharply. The latest data show there are nearly 30,000 cases in 74 countries, with 144 confirmed deaths. Read Full Article Washington Post 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.

	Email delivery powered by Google