FOXNews.com - Report: N. Korea Helping Iran Plan Nuclear Test

FOXNews.com - Report: N. Korea Helping Iran Plan Nuclear Test

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

As part of their ongoing nuclear program, Iran may have entered into an agreement with North Korea in an attempt to tap into the renegade state's nuclear weapons capability, a senior European defense official told the Telegraph.

In the understanding, North Korea said it would divulge to Iranian scientists information garnered from its successful secret test back in October.

The senior official, whose name was not disclosed, said Iranian scientists were invited to study the results of North Korea’s underground test to aid Tehran’s own preparations.

The United States and some of its allies have long accused Tehran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies this, saying his country's program is only to produce electricity from nuclear sources.

Last month, the U.N. Security Council imposed limited trade sanctions on Iran because of its refusal to cease uranium enrichment, a process that produces the material for nuclear reactors or bombs.


But the report said Iran may be planning to carry out a nuclear weapons test by year’s end.

“The Iranians are working closely with the North Koreans to study the results of last year's North Korean nuclear bomb test," the European defense official told the Telegraph.

Iranian military advisers regularly visit North Korea to participate in missile tests, the Telegraph reported.

"All the indications are that the Iranians are working hard to prepare for their own underground nuclear test," the official said.

No action was taken against North Korea following its test, an occurrence that may have encouraged the Iranians in their nuclear test planning.

But this latest supposed nuclear cooperation comes as the United States has sent a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, reportedly as a warning to Iran, which continues to defy Western pressure to halt its nuke pursuits amid the U.N.-imposed sanctions.

The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis and accompanying warships have been sent to the Gulf as part of a buildup of forces that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said is aimed to impress on Iran that American power in the Middle East has not been weakened by the war in Iraq.

Official: Terror at major event is inevitable - Other Sports - MSNBC.com

Official: Terror at major event is inevitable - MSNBC.com

'We have . . . been extremely lucky,' says 2000 Games security expert

The Associated Press
Updated: 10:44 a.m. ET Jan 25, 2007

LONDON - A leading Olympic security expert believes it is “just a matter of time” before terrorists target a major sports event.

Peter Ryan, who was in charge of security at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, said the threat was not just to stadiums but also to public areas and electricity stations.

“We have, in my view, been extremely lucky that the first division, as I call the top level of terrorist groups, have not targeted a large, major event for many years,” Ryan said Thursday at a sports security conference. “It’s probably just a matter of time.”

Ryan was also the principal security adviser for the 2004 Athens Olympics. He is a security consultant for the International Olympic Committee on the 2008 Beijing Games.

Ryan said open-air venues where fans watch events on big screens were “extremely vulnerable” to attack. Critical infrastructure — such as electricity and water supplies — could also be a target.

“If they go wrong or break down or get attacked, it really will have an incredible effect on the major event,” Ryan said. “If an electricity substation goes down, for example, or the water’s contaminated, it can have an enormous impact right across many, many areas, not just the event itself.”

Ryan said terrorist groups were growing increasingly sophisticated, and the methods of attack would change.

“It’s very fortunate that some of them can’t put two wires together in the same place properly because the foot soldiers aren’t the ones who are necessarily the designers of these weapons or bombs or whatever,” Ryan said. “It’s just really a matter of time until they get it right.”

Ryan also said organizers of major events should consider screening spectators before they get on mass transportation.

“How do we actually screen those people? We’ve already had attacks on the London Underground system and it could happen again at any time,” he said, referring to the July 2005 suicide attacks that killed 52 commuters on three subway trains and a bus.

“Quite often in planning, where I think we’ve got it wrong is to where we actually put pedestrian screening,” Ryan said. “They’re too close to the venue.”

On Wednesday, the security chief for the 2012 London Olympics, Tarique Ghaffur, said the al-Qaida terrorist group is the top security threat to those games.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16806681/

Al-Qaida deputy issues new warning - International Terrorism - MSNBC.com

Al-Qaida deputy issues new warning - International Terrorism - MSNBC.com

Al-Qaida deputy issues new warning

Al-Zawahri threatens ‘far worse’ reprisals if U.S. policy remains unchanged

Reuters
Updated: 4:38 p.m. ET Jan 24, 2007

DUBAI - Al-Qaida second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri warned Americans of a reprisal "far worse than anything they have seen" if Washington did not change its policies toward Muslim states.

"You are facing the Islamic rage ... what awaits you, should you press on (with current policies), is far worse than anything you have seen," Zawahri said in a video posted on the Internet on Wednesday.

Leaders of the militant group which carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 aircraft attacks against U.S. cities often argue that its "terrorism" is justified as a way to change pro-Israel U.S. policies and to punish Washington for its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"I will talk to you in a language you understand; If you want to live safely you have to accept reality and reject the illusions that (U.S. President George W.) Bush is trying to deceive you with," he said in the video.

Part of the video was posted earlier this week on the Web site of the U.S.-based SITE institute.

"You have to try your utmost to reach an understanding with the Muslims, only then you will enjoy security. But if you continue with the policy of Bush and his gang then you won't dream of it," he said.

Zawahri also vowed retaliation against Ethiopian troops for helping the Somalia's interim government rout rival Islamist.

"The Mujahideen will break their backs with God's power and help," Zawahri said.

Ethiopia said on Tuesday its forces began leaving the Somali capital. It has said it does not plan to stay after it completes its mission.

The Egyptian militant also urged Palestinians to abandon President Mahmoud Abbas as a "traitor" and said he had sold his religion and Palestinian land.

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16792232/

Military to beam in nonlethal ray guns - Los Angeles Times

Military to beam in nonlethal ray guns - Los Angeles Times

From the Associated Press

January 25, 2007

MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, GA. — The military calls its new weapon an "active denial system," but that's an understatement. It's a ray gun that shoots a beam that makes people feel as if they are about to catch fire.

The technology is supposed to be harmless — a nonlethal way to get enemies to drop their weapons. Military officials say it could save the lives of civilians and service members in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

The weapon is not expected to go into production until at least 2010, but all branches of the military have expressed interest in it, officials said.

During the first media demonstration of the weapon Wednesday, airmen fired beams from a large dish antenna mounted atop a Humvee at people pretending to be rioters and acting out other scenarios that U.S. troops might encounter in war zones.

The device's two-man crew located their targets through powerful lenses and fired beams from more than 500 yards away. That is nearly 17 times the range of existing nonlethal weapons, such as rubber bullets. Anyone hit by the beam immediately jumped out of its path because of the blast of heat. Though the 130-degree heat wasn't painful, it was intense enough to make participants think their clothes were about to ignite.

"This is one of the key technologies for the future," said Marine Col. Kirk Hymes, director of the nonlethal weapons program at Quantico, Va., which helped develop the weapon. "Nonlethal weapons are important for the escalation of force, especially in the environments our forces are operating in."

The system uses electromagnetic millimeter waves, which can penetrate only 1/64 of an inch of skin, just enough to cause discomfort. By comparison, microwaves used in the common kitchen appliance penetrate several inches of flesh. The millimeter waves cannot go through walls, but they can penetrate most clothing, officials said. They refused to comment on whether the waves can go through glass.

The weapon could be mounted aboard ships, airplanes and helicopters, and routinely used for security or anti-terrorism operations. "There should be no collateral damage to this," said Senior Airman Adam Navin, 22, of Green Bay, Wis., who has served several tours in Iraq.

Navin and two other airmen were role players in Wednesday's demonstration. They and 10 reporters who volunteered were shot with the beams. The beams easily penetrated various layers of winter clothing.

The system was developed by the military, but the two devices being evaluated were built by defense contractor Raytheon.

Airman Blaine Pernell, 22, of suburban New Orleans, said he could have used the system in Iraq, where he manned watchtowers around a base near Kirkuk. He said Iraqis would pull up and fake car problems so they could scout out U.S. forces.

"All we could do is watch them," he said. But if they had the ray gun, troops "could have dispersed them."

Paramilitary Assault Teams Terrorizing America

Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan highlights disturbing use and abuse of SWAT teams that carry out over 40,000 raids a year on largely innocent and non-threatening people
prisonplanet
Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration Paul Craig Roberts joined Alex Jones yesterday to talk about his latest article which highlights the militarization of American police and how SWAT teams are being used to terrorize recreational drug users and innocent people.

Roberts' article, The Empire Turns Its Guns on the Citizenry, cites a 2006 CATO report that warns against the out of control use and abuse of paramilitary police raids.

"There are now 17,000 local America police forces that are armed with rocket launchers, bazookas, heavy machine guns, all kinds of chemical sprays - in fact some of them have tanks, you have now local police departments that are equipped beyond the standard of American heavy infantry," said Roberts.

"In recent years there have been 40,000 or more callouts of SWAT teams annually - that would be 110 times a day - have you read about 110 hostage or terrorist events every day last year?"

Roberts said that SWAT teams are so prevalent yet expensive to maintain, that they are increasingly being used to handle benign situations that wouldn't cause one village cop any headaches, such as targeting recreational drug users who purchase small quantities of marijuana.

"They are serving routine warrants to people who pose no danger to the police or to the public," said Roberts.

"They break into homes and apartments in the middle of the night when people are asleep, they use stun grenades, cause all kinds of chaos and confusion and the result is a tremendous number of innocent people are murdered in their beds, brutalized, traumatized because the very high percentage of these cases the SWAT teams have wrong addresses, they get the wrong people."



Roberts said that SWAT teams were responsible for terrorizing the American people a hundred fold more than Muslim terrorists because they are being used so often.

Roberts said the source of information that most SWAT team raids were based on came from snitches, who are often drug dealers making a living as police informants in order to eliminate competition while avoiding arrest.

The State also doles out money based on the number of drug arrests made so in the majority of cases, the police are simply conducting unnecessary raids to meet funding targets.

"Then you get the police forces out hiring drug dealers to sell drugs to people and tell the police - and the drug dealers of course use this role to keep themselves from being arrested but they turn in all their competitors," said Roberts.

Roberts highlighted the fact that SWAT teams receive military hardware and training and because there are not enough hostage or other dangerous situations to keep them occupied they are being used to serve warrants on non-threatening individuals.

The ultimate goal of the paramilitary assault teams, many of whose numbers across the country will be boosted when troops arrive back from Iraq, is mass gun confiscation on the scale that we saw during Hurricane Katrina, where everyone from 80-year-old grandmothers to rich mansion owners in the dry areas had their weapons seized. Soldiers in Iraq have been trained to carry out door to door raids and have been utilized for this function thousands of times.

Alex Jones has attended numerous military urban warfare training drills across the U.S. where role players were used to simulate arresting American citizens, confiscating their weapons, and taking them to internment camps. Actors scream out that they have constitutional rights as they are handcuffed and hauled off to the detainment facility.

Election staff convicted in recount rig

AP
CLEVELAND — Two election workers were convicted Wednesday of rigging a recount of the 2004 presidential election to avoid a more thorough review in Ohio's most populous county.

Jacqueline Maiden, elections coordinator of the Cuyahoga County Elections Board, and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer each were convicted of a felony count of negligent misconduct of an elections employee. They also were convicted of one misdemeanor count each of failure of elections employees to perform their duty.

Prosecutors accused Maiden and Dreamer of secretly reviewing preselected ballots before a public recount on Dec. 16, 2004. They worked behind closed doors for three days to pick ballots they knew would not cause discrepancies when checked by hand, prosecutors said.

Defense attorney Roger Synenberg has said the workers were following procedures as they understood them.

Ohio gave President Bush the electoral votes he needed to defeat Democratic Sen. John Kerry in the close election and hold on to the White House in 2004.

Special prosecutor Kevin Baxter did not claim the workers' actions affected the outcome of the election — Kerry gained 17 votes and Bush lost six in the county's recount.

Maiden and Dreamer, who still work for the elections board, face a possible sentence of six to 18 months for the felony conviction. Sentencing is on Feb. 26.

A message left for Elections Board Director Michael Vu was not immediately returned Wednesday. The board released a statement that said its goal is to restore confidence in the county's election progress and pursue reforms in addition to those made since 2004.