The Latest from National Terror Alert Response Center

---

• NJ Alert – A Homeland Security Preparedness Role
  Model
  
  
• 30 Quarantined In Possible Anthrax Attack –
  Pomona
  
  
• Osama bin Laden To Provide A ‘Present’ to
  Muslims
  
  
• Christian Poveda, Documentary Filmmaker Shot
  Dead
  
  
• Los Angeles Station Fire Caused By Arson – Fire
  Officials

NJ Alert – A Homeland Security Preparedness Role Model Posted: 03 Sep 2009 11:24 PM PDT New Jersey continues to lead the way in Homeland Security preparedness. Last month we featured a story on legislation that will mandate all public and nonpublic schools in the state to conduct monthly homeland security drills. Today, The New Jersey Office of Emergency Management, the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness and the Regional Operations Intelligence Center introduced NJ Alert, the State’s new mass text and email emergency notification system. NJ Alert is a free, voluntary and confidential emergency alerting system that allows State Emergency Management officials to send E-mail or text messages to cell phones, and other email enabled devices during an emergency event. The public can sign up for NJ Alert by logging on to: http://www.njalert.gov/ or by visiting the NJOEM website at http://www.ready.nj.gov/ and clicking on the NJ Alert icon. “During an emergency, timely dissemination of accurate information is the cornerstone of public safety. NJ Alert enables us to deliver emergency messages to the public through the convenience of their handheld devices or PCs in addition to our traditional emergency notification systems such as the Emergency Alert System and Amber Alert,” said Colonel Rick Fuentes Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police and Director of the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management. “NJ Alert will help direct public action in the event of a large scale emergency whether we are dealing with a hurricane or act of terrorism. Our goal is to utilize latest technology to protect lives and property,” added Fuentes. Additionally, NJ Alert can receive homeland security and crime related tips and leads via the http://www.njalert.gov/ site or via text messaging. “Ensuring our residents have accurate and real-time information before, during and after any type of emergency is a fundamental responsibility – one that we don’t take lightly,” said New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness Director Richard L. Cañas. “I encourage all residents to sign up for the NJ Alert system; because a well-informed and well-prepared citizenry is critical to the success of our state’s emergency management efforts.” “The capacity of the NJ Alert system allows the state’s ‘all crimes – all hazards’ fusion center, the Regional Operations Intelligence Center, to communicate instantly to our private sector and critical infrastructure partners in order to provide timely situational awareness messages. This will further enhance our goal of communicating with law enforcement and homeland security organizations, other government agencies, and the private sector,” added Richard Kelly, Director of the New Jersey Regional Operations and Intelligence Center. Another unique feature of NJ Alert is the opportunity for members to participate in the Human Emergency Grid (HEG™), a collaborative effort in which the general public can volunteer their professional expertise to assist responders, if needed, in the event of an emergency. The service can also be used as a social networking tool. For example many groups have already been created to promote a collaborative environment between the government, private sectors and general public. “Our service is not limited to public security information, but was uniquely designed as a group communication system for anyone – government, schools, corporations and even personal users can utilize the service for disaster recovery, family preparedness or any notification needs”, said NJ Alert creator Robert Statica, PhD, Founder of United Alert, LLC, a group of volunteer homeland security, information security and development professionals dedicated to improving preparedness and emergency communication. 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. NJ Alert – A Homeland Security Preparedness Role Model

30 Quarantined In Possible Anthrax Attack – Pomona Posted: 03 Sep 2009 10:47 PM PDT 30 quarantined due to suspicious powder A suspicious package, containing an unidentified, yellow powder, opened Thursday at a college in Pomona left one student exposed and 30 other people quarantined for their protection as hazardous materials teams and the FBI investigated the possible attack. A “possible anthrax in an envelope” call was reported at 2:07 p.m. to the Student Services office at Western University of Health Sciences, 309 E. Second St., said Inspector Mathew Levesque of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. “One student was exposed but is showing no symptoms at this time,” Levesque said. “And 30 other people have been quarantined to defend them from an exposure.” 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. 30 Quarantined In Possible Anthrax Attack – Pomona

Osama bin Laden To Provide A ‘Present’ to Muslims Posted: 03 Sep 2009 07:38 PM PDT A website often used by al Qaeda supporters said on Thursday it would soon carry a “present” to Muslims from Osama bin Laden on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan. The Islamist website gave no further details, but messages by the al Qaeda leader have usually appeared within about 48 hours of being announced on the Internet. In his latest message in June, bin Laden said U.S. President Barack Obama had planted the seeds of “revenge and hatred” toward the United States in the Muslim world. Bin Laden’s remarks were issued just before a major speech by Obama who said he sought a “new beginning” between the United States and the Muslim world. 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. Osama bin Laden To Provide A ‘Present’ to Muslims

Christian Poveda, Documentary Filmmaker Shot Dead Posted: 03 Sep 2009 06:52 PM PDT A French filmmaker who recently finished a documentary about a violent street gang in El Salvador was found shot dead in the town of Tonacatepeque, about 10 miles northeast of the capital city of San Salvador, authorities said. Christian Poveda, 52, was shot at least four times in the face, according to local reports. Poveda’s documentary, “La Vida Loca,” which follows the lives of members of the Mara 18 street gang, had been screened at a handful of film festivals and is slated for wider release later this month. His body was found in an area controlled by that same gang, local reports said. A motive of Poveda’s murder Wednesday was being investigated, National Civil Police Director Carlos Ascencio Giron said in a statement. Citing the pending investigation, police did not immediately give any details, but Ascencio Giron said that the homicide and organized crime divisions of his department were handling the case jointly with the attorney general’s office. Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes said he was “very shocked” by the news of the murder. According to a statement by the president’s office, Poveda first arrived in El Salvador in the 1980s to cover the civil war as a photojournalist. He left to report from other war zones, but returned to research and film the gangs in El Salvador. Poveda on Wednesday was traveling in his car on after filming in a town called Soyapango when unknown assailants intercepted him and then shot him, according to the statement. Read Full Article La Vida Loca (Crazy Life), Poveda’s latest film, focused on the hopeless and brutal lives of various fantastically tattooed members of Mara 18. Several of the gangsters were killed or jailed during filming and the documentary records disturbing scenes of gang members gunned down in the streets, relatives crying over coffins and young female gangsters with tattooed faces. The film is critical of the heavy police crackdown on gang members, which Poveda felt failed to take account of the hopeless poverty and personal tragedy that drive young Salvadorans to turn to crime. “We have to understand why a 12- or 13-year-old child joins a gang and gives his life to it,” Poveda said in a recent interview with El Faro, a Salvadoran online newspaper. “Children who have terrible family problems, or come from poor families who don’t have time to take care of their children.” The film concedes that gangs spread terror, but also describes the young gang members as captivating and as representative of the breakdown of family life in El Salvador. The Mara 18 and rival Mara Salvatrucha gangs form part of a huge criminal network that runs down through Central America from Los Angeles, where there is a large community of Salvadoran expats. 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. Christian Poveda, Documentary Filmmaker Shot Dead

Los Angeles Station Fire Caused By Arson – Fire Officials Posted: 03 Sep 2009 06:01 PM PDT Fire officials now say the massive Station Fire in the Angeles National Forest is the result of arson. The Station fire has been classified as an arson fire, and authorities have launched a homicide investigation. The massive blaze, which killed two firefighters, has been under investigation for days, with the focus being on a road turnout along Angeles Crest Highway north of La Cañada Flintridge. “Forensic examination has led this team effort to conclude …that it was an act of arson,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Whitmore. The Station fire, which has burned about 144,000 acres of the Angeles National Forest, is the largest fire in L.A. County history. Two firefighters died Sunday during a rescue effort, when their vehicle plunged down a mountain. On Wednesday, investigators hunched under a scorched, 20-foot-tall oak tree off Angeles Crest Highway, using wire mesh sifters to search through the ash in an attempt to determine whether the Station fire was deliberately set. Near Mile Marker 29, authorities were treating the fire’s suspected ignition site as a crime scene. Source – Read Full Article Forest Fire Jihad We are in no way suggesting that the Station Fire is an act of terrorism, however you might recall our previous posts in 2007 & 2008 that dealt with this possibility. In November 2008, an extremist Web site called on Muslims to launch a “forest jihad” in Australia, Europe, Russia and the United States. The posting, which quoted imprisoned Al Qaeda terrorist Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, said setting forest fires was legal under “eye-for-an-eye” Islamic law. “Scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels’ forests when they do the same to our lands,” the posting read. The author of the posting indicated that Nasar also known as Abu Musab Al-Suri was urging terrorists to use sulfuric acid or gasoline to start the fires. “Forest fires track well with the latest discussion trends seen in the Al Qaeda forums easy to do, big impact, low security risk, high media coverage,” said Al Qaeda expert Jarret Brachman. “We’ve seen these kinds of appeals for action, be it setting fire to forests in Australia, to creating oil slicks on mountain roads in Europe, to poisoning water supplies and driving buses off bridges in the United States. “The fact is that the Al Qaeda ideology is starting to branch out to more of an ‘anyone, anywhere, anytime, anyhow’ approach.” Brachman, author of “Global Jihadism: Theory and Practice,” said “forest jihad” fits well in the growing interest among terrorists to establish “Al Qaeda armies of one.” You can read the additional posts here: 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. Los Angeles Station Fire Caused By Arson – Fire Officials

	Email delivery powered by Google