Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Latest from National Terror Alert Response Center






The Latest from National Terror
Alert Response Center

Link to Homeland Security News















Pakistans Next Fight – Taliban Leader Baitullah Mehsud


Posted: 17 Jun 2009 11:55 PM PDT


pakista_terror


No one has contributed to Pakistan’s slide into chaos over
recent years more than Baitullah Mehsud. From his base in the wilds of
South Waziristan, the leader of the Pakistan Taliban has overseen the
killing of more than 1,200 civilians and several hundred soldiers through
brutal means, including suicide bombings, kidnappings and beheadings. He
has been accused of masterminding the assassination of former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto in late December 2007.


In late March, Washington announced a $5 million reward for
information leading to his capture, describing Mehsud as a “key al-Qaeda
facilitator.” And over the past week alone, he claimed responsibility for
five separate terrorist attacks, including the bombing of a luxury hotel
in Peshawar and the killing of a vocal anti-Taliban cleric in Lahore. (See
pictures of the hotel blast in Peshawar.)


Now Pakistan is taking the fight to Mehsud’s mountainous
stronghold, ordering an expansion of its current offensive against Taliban
fighters in the Swat valley.


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Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for
homeland security news and information.






Mexico Seizes 1 Ton of Cocaine Hidden In Frozen Sharks


Posted: 17 Jun 2009 11:50 PM PDT


cocaine_sharks


Mexico’s navy has seized more than a ton of cocaine stuffed
inside frozen sharks, as drug gangs under military pressure go to greater
lengths to conceal narcotics bound for the United States.


Armed and masked navy officers cut open more than 20 shark
carcasses filled with slabs of cocaine after checking a container ship in
a container port in the southern Mexico state of Yucatan, the navy and
Mexican media said Tuesday.


“We are talking about more than a ton of cocaine that was
inside the ship,” Navy Cmdr. Eduardo Villa told reporters after X-ray
machines and sniffer dogs helped uncover the drugs.


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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.






North Korea May Launch Missile Toward Hawaii in July


Posted: 17 Jun 2009 11:45 PM PDT


hawaii


North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile toward
the U.S. state of Hawaii in early July, Japan’s Yomiuri daily said on
Thursday, citing Defense Ministry analysis and U.S. intelligence.


The paper said the Defense Ministry believes the launch is most
likely to take place between July 4 and July 8. The ministry has declined
to comment on the report.


The paper also said that the missile was likely to fly over
Japan’s Aomori Prefecture toward Hawaii, but would not be able to reach
the main islands.


The missile, thought to be a long-range Taepodong-2, would be
launched from the country’s Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast,
said Japan’s best-selling newspaper.


North Korea tested a nuclear weapon on May 25, accusing the
U.S. and South Korea of aggressive intentions. Pyongyang said on Wednesday
that it would meet any attack with “one thousand-fold retaliation.”


Following the underground test, the United Nations widened an
arms embargo and authorized ship searches in an attempt to disrupt the
communist state’s nuclear and missile programs.


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.






Fort Detrick Finds More Than 9,220 Unaccounted Vials


Posted: 17 Jun 2009 11:31 PM PDT


fort_detrick_2


An inventory of potentially deadly pathogens at Fort Detrick’s
infectious disease laboratory found more than 9,000 vials that had not
been accounted for, Army officials said yesterday, raising concerns that
officials wouldn’t know whether dangerous toxins were missing.


After four months of searching about 335 freezers and
refrigerators at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious
Diseases in Frederick, investigators found 9,220 samples that hadn’t been
included in a database of about 66,000 items listed as of February, said
Col. Mark Kortepeter, the institute’s deputy commander.


The vials contained some dangerous pathogens, among them the
Ebola virus, anthrax bacteria and botulinum toxin, and less lethal agents
such as Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus and the bacterium that causes
tularemia. Most of them, forgotten inside freezer drawers, hadn’t been
used in years or even decades. Officials said some serum samples from
hemorrhagic fever patients dated to the Korean War.


Source – read Full Article


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Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for
homeland security news and information.














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