Belgium Warnings of Imminent Terror Attacks

Posted on June 15, 2016June 15, 2016 by Denise Simon

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By AFP Belgium, France face ‘imminent’ terror attacks — report

A Belgian soldier patrols the shopping centre City2 in central Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday (Reuters photo)

JordanTimes: BRUSSELS — A fresh wave of Daesh terror group’s militants has left Syria and could commit attacks imminently in France and Belgium, Belgian police have been warned, according to media reports on Wednesday.

“Fighters traveling without passports left Syria about a week and a half ago in order to reach Europe by boat via Turkey and Greece,” a memo sent to police and security services across Belgium said, according to La Derniere Heure newspaper.

The militants were traveling armed and plan to carry out attacks in groups of two the memo is reported to have said.

Their action is imminent,” the memo added, without giving the total of suspected attackers.

Belgium’s OCAM national crisis centre in a statement did not deny the report, but said the information needed to be looked at further.

The information reported by the media “is non-contextualised and, as such, has not made a direct impact on the current level of threat” in Belgium.

Belgium’s terror alert is currently at the second-highest level of three, which means a threat is possible and likely.

Belgium is still reeling from Daesh suicide bombings at Brussels airport and on the city’s metro on March 22 which killed 32 people and wounded hundreds more.

They came five months after militants, many of them from Brussels, carried out gun and bombing attacks in Paris on November 13, killing 130 people and wounding hundreds more.

France, which is hosting the Euro 2016 football championships, is on maximum alert after an assailant previously convicted for jihadism killed a police officer and his partner on Monday.

The attacker told police negotiators before being gunned down that he had sworn loyalty to Daesh three weeks earlier.

It was not immediately clear how seriously French and Belgian authorities were treating the threat. French authorities told local newspapers that such warnings are relatively common.

“According to the information received, these people could already in be in possession of the necessary weapons and their action could be imminent,” the alert said, according to the Belgian Dernière Heure newspaper.

The attackers were expected to split into two groups, one heading toward France and the other toward Belgium, and to conduct attacks in pairs, the alert said. It offered no details on the basis of the information.

Belgian counterterrorism police declined to comment. Belgium’s security threat coordination center has not raised its threat level, which is currently set at three out of four levels, with the fourth being the expectation of an imminent attack.

The group was planning to travel from Syria into Europe via boat from Turkey to Greece, without passports, according to the alert.

Possible Belgian targets include a Brussels shopping center, an American fast-food chain and a police station, the newspaper reported.

On Monday, an attacker claiming loyalty to the Islamic State killed a police captain and his partner, who worked at a police department outside Paris. The assailant was killed in a police raid.

Amid numerous public memorials for the slain couple, President François Hollande called for international unity to face a “long war” against terrorism.

This battle, he said in an address at the Elysee Palace, is “not just in a few countries but in the world. Everyone can be concerned.”

In an interview on France Inter radio, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls predicted the fight could take decades.

“Other innocent people will die,” Valls said. “It is very hard to say. People can accuse me — and I completely understand — of making the society even more fearful than it already is today with these events. But, unfortunately, this is the reality. It will take a generation.”

Officials added that it was unclear whether there was any link to the murder of a senior policeman and his partner on Monday by a man who pledged allegiance to IS.

For DHS, Terror Attacks are Really Just Violent Extremism

Posted on June 15, 2016June 15, 2016 by Denise Simon

Press Release

Statement By Secretary Johnson On The New NTAS Bulletin

June 15, 2016 — In December 2015, I announced the revision of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Terrorism Advisory System, or “NTAS,” to include an intermediate level NTAS “Bulletin.” We then issued a new NTAS Bulletin at the same time. The duration of the December Bulletin was six months, and expires tomorrow.

June 15, 2016

Statement By Secretary Johnson On The New NTAS Bulletin

National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin

Date Issued: Wednesday, June 15, 2016
View as PDF: National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin – June 15, 2016 (pdf, 1 page, 876.65KB)

Summary

In December, we described a new phase in the global threat environment, which has implications on the homeland. This basic assessment has not changed. In this environment, we are particularly concerned about homegrown violent extremists who could strike with little or no notice. The tragic events of Orlando several days ago reinforce this. Accordingly, increased public vigilance and awareness continue to be of utmost importance. This bulletin has a five-month duration and will expire just before the holiday season. We will reassess the threats of terrorism at that time.

Duration

Issued: June 15, 2016
Expires: November 15, 2016

Details

Since issuing the first Bulletin in December, our concerns that violent extremists could be inspired to conduct attacks inside the U.S. have not diminished.
Though we know of no intelligence that is both specific and credible at this time of a plot by terrorist organizations to attack the homeland, the reality is terrorist-inspired individuals have conducted, or attempted to conduct, attacks in the United States.
DHS is especially concerned that terrorist-inspired individuals and homegrown violent extremists may be encouraged or inspired to target public events or places.
As we saw in the attacks in San Bernardino, Paris, Brussels, and, most recently, Orlando, terrorists will consider a diverse and wide selection of targets for attacks.
Terrorist use of the Internet to inspire individuals to violence or join their ranks remains a major source of concern.
In the current environment, DHS is also concerned about threats and violence directed at particular communities and individuals across the country, based on perceived religion, ethnicity, nationality or sexual orientation.

U.S. Government Counterterrorism Efforts

DHS and the FBI continue to provide guidance to state and local partners on increased security measures. The public may observe an increased law enforcement and security presence across communities, in public places and at events in the months ahead. This may include additional restrictions and searches on bags, more K-9 teams, and the use of screening technologies.
The FBI is investigating potential terrorism-related activities associated with this broad threat throughout the United States. Federal, state, and local authorities are coordinating numerous law enforcement actions and conducting community outreach to address this evolving threat.

Types of Advisories

Bulletin

Describes current developments or general trends regarding threats of terrorism.

Elevated Alert

Warns of a credible terrorism threat against the United States.

Imminent Alert

Warns of a credible, specific and impending terrorism threat against the United States.

How You Can Help

Report suspicious activity to local law enforcement or public safety officials who are best positioned to respond and offer specific details on terroristic indicators.
Suspicious activity or information about a threat may also be reported to Fusion Centers and the FBI’s Field Offices – part of the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative.
Learn how to recognize signs of pre-operational planning associated with terrorism or other criminal activity.

Be Prepared

Be prepared for increased security and plan ahead to anticipate delays and restricted/prohibited items.
In populated places, be responsible for your personal safety. Make a mental note of emergency exits and locations of the nearest security personnel. Keep cell phones in your pockets instead of bags or on tables so you don’t lose them during an incident. Carry emergency contact details and any special needs information with you at all times. For more visit Ready.

Stay Informed

The U.S. Government will provide additional information about any emerging threat as additional information is identified. The public is encouraged to listen to local law enforcement and public safety officials.
We urge Americans to continue to travel, attend public events, and freely associate with others but remain vigilant and aware of surroundings.
The Department of State issues international travel alerts and warnings.

If You See Something, Say Something™. Report suspicious activity to local law enforcement or call 911.

Orlando Jihadi was Known to FBI, Kill List

Posted on June 12, 2016June 12, 2016 by Denise Simon

West LA Arrest just made in Los Angeles. Why? ****

The shooter worked for G4S, a corrupt company this site wrote about last week.

Caliphate kill list was distributed via the app called Telegram and that is an encrypted platform. More data is here.

The ex-wife said she met Omar Mateen online about eight years ago and decided to move to Florida and marry him.

At first, the marriage was normal, she said, but then he became abusive. He has a 3 year old son.

“He was not a stable person,” said the ex-wife, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety in the wake of the mass shooting. “He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn’t finished or something like that.” More here from WaPo.

TCPalm: Mateen has multiple ties to the Treasure Coast. Here are the local connections:

Mateen, born in New York, lived in an apartment complex in the 2500 block of South 19^th Street in Fort Pierce. Law enforcement was at the complex Sunday.

He also received mail at his parents’ home in the 900 block of Southwest Bayshore Boulevard in Port St. Lucie. Law enforcement remained at the home Sunday with his family.

He received degrees in science in 2006 and 2007 from Indian River State College. However, further details about how long he attended the school were unavailable.

He attended his freshman year of high school at Martin County High School. It’s unclear whether he attended MCHS after that.

Mateen married Sitora Yusufiy of Port St. Lucie in 2009, according to court documents. They divorced two years later in 2011, St. Lucie County court records show.

Mateen has no state criminal record, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records.

Omar Mateen’s freshman year high school yearbook photo at Martin County High School.

Omar Mateen’s father was an activist for the Taliban. Note the radio network that gave him airtime, Payem e Afghan, a radio show in California called Durand Jirga. (video link) Much more on the father being a full supporter of the Taliban here.

Omar worked security at a juvenile facility.

Islamic State (ISIS) has put out an official statement;

Pulse

Omar was investigated twice. He was a state licensed security guard and owned the weapon legally. Born in New York of Afghan parents. He was married to a woman from Uzbekistan.

Governor Scott declared a state of emergency.

Rep Schiff, top Dem on House Intel, says on CNN he was told shooter made pledge of allegiance to ISIL,cautions still early in investigation.

Omar Mateen Terrorist was 29-Year-Old Islamic Radical (PHOTO)

The killer in the Orlando nightclub slaughter is 29-year-old Omar Mateen. TMZ has done a records search and found he held a Florida security officer license and a state firearms license.

He’s an American citizen and he has family that are not — his parents are Afghan. Authorities say he was a terrorist and was targeting gays. They say in addition to terrorism this is a hate crime.

Authorities also believe he is part of the radical Islam movement, although they do not know if it was an organized attack or if he was a lone wolf. Authorities also believe Mateen specifically targeted a gay club.

Mateen’s father told NBC News, “This has nothing to do with religion.” He says his son became angry after seeing 2 men kissing a few months ago in Miami, and he speculates that could have triggered his decision to kill.

Law enforcement says Mateen was well prepared, with an assault weapon, a handgun and 2 suspicious devices.

The NYPD tells TMZ, Mateen has no association with the department, and that the shirts he was photographed in were unofficial garments that could be purchased at any store.

50 people were murdered and another 53 injured inside Pulse nightclub in Orlando. It’s the biggest slaughter at the hands of a gunman in American history.

Take a look at the pic below … it’s a police helmet with a bullet hole. The helmet saved the officer’s life, although he suffered facial injuries.

Police descended on Mateen’s home to search shortly after the massacre. More here from TMZ

The gunman entered the crowded Pulse nightclub, a popular gay club, on Sunday night and opened fire before dying in a gunfight with SWAT officers. Orlando Police Chief John Mina said the suspect took hostages before law enforcement officials took out the shooter.

******

We were warned but who heard those warnings?

ISIS ‘kill list’ targets Palm Beach, Treasure Coast residents: Ex-FBI agent

WWMT: A pro-Isis group has released a hit list with the names of more than 8,000 peoplemostly Americans.

More than 600-people live in Florida, and one security expert believes that many of those targeted live in Palm Beach County and on the Treasure Coast.

The “United Cyber Caliphate” that hacked U.S. Central Command, 54,000 Twitter accounts and threatened President Barack Obama is the same pro-Isis group that’s reportedly created a “kill list” with the names, addresses and emails of thousands of civilian Americans.

Reports of the list came to light online when Vocativ reported the list was shared via the encrypted app, Telegram, and called on supporters to kill.

Former FBI agent-turned lawyer Stuart Kaplan says the threat is especially alarming, because the people on this list are civilians who don’t have the security necessary to protect themselves.

“It’s going to create some hysteria,” he said.

Kaplan believes civilians from our community are on the list.

“I would suspect a head of a hospital or, perhaps, a local community leader. Those are the individuals that may appear on the list–or just a local banker or local school teacher–someone who, for some reason, was in the public eye.”

Kaplan is concerned the list will inspire “lone wolf” style attacks.

“If in fact a sympathizer gets ahold of this list and is readily able to identify you as being his neighbor and, then, decides (because they’re a sympathizer) to go out and do something horrific to you, there is no way to calculate the potential or to prevent that.”

The list has not yet been made public.

We reached out to the FBI, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Martin County Sheriff’s Office to see how credible they view the threat and what action they might be taking.

We are awaiting their response.

According to the Martin County Sheriffs office,the FBI is aware of this and the agency will work closely with the Joint-Terrorism Task Force to keep citizens safe.

Migrants linked to 69,000 would-be or actual crimes in Germany

Posted on June 8, 2016June 8, 2016 by Denise Simon

Inviting in people of unknown backgrounds under the banner of humanitarian objectives is a dangerous policy, when innocent citizens are victims. This is occurring in the United States with wild abandon, yet apathy reigns and there are no real grass-roots efforts to demand and restore order or security.

Even if cases go to court, the judicial systems in Europe and in the United States render feeble sentences which is worse and almost no one is deported. Discretionary application of the law for the sake of an alleged culture, humanity and for refugee/asylum conditions with grow instability, clog and corrupt processes and cause illness or death.

Below, in the case of Germany the publication of this condition translate to a situation that is likely worse than actually being reported especially when Merkel had control over a media blackout.

Migrants linked to 69,000 would-be or actual crimes in Germany in first three months of 2016: police

Reuters: Migrants in Germany committed or tried to commit some 69,000 crimes in the first quarter of 2016, according to a police report that could raise unease, especially among anti-immigrant groups, about Chancellor Angela Merkel’s liberal migrant policy.

Immigrants are escorted by German police to a registration centre, after crossing the Austrian-German border in Wegscheid near Passau, Germany, October 20, 2015.

There was a record influx of more than a million migrants into Germany last year and concerns are now widespread about how Europe’s largest economy will manage to integrate them and ensure security.

The report from the BKA federal police showed that migrants from northern Africa, Georgia and Serbia were disproportionately represented among the suspects.

Absolute numbers of crimes committed by Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis – the three biggest groups of asylum seekers in Germany – were high but given the proportion of migrants that they account for, their involvement in crimes was “clearly disproportionately low”, the report said.

It gave no breakdown of the number of actual crimes and of would-be crimes, nor did it state what percentage the 69,000 figure represented with respect to the total number of crimes and would-be crimes committed in the first three months of 2016.

The report stated that the vast majority of migrants did not commit any crimes.

It is the first time the BKA has published a report on crimes committed by migrants containing data from all of Germany’s 16 states, so there is no comparable data.

The report showed that 29.2 percent of the crimes migrants committed or tried to commit in the first quarter were thefts, 28.3 percent were property or forgery offences and 23 percent offences such as bodily harm, robbery and unlawful detention.

Drug-related offences accounted for 6.6 percent and sex crimes accounted for 1.1 percent.

In Cologne at New Year, hundreds of women said they were groped, assaulted and robbed, with police saying the suspects were mainly of North African and Arab appearance. Prosecutors said last week three Pakistani men seeking asylum in Germany were under investigation after dozens of women said they were sexually harassed at a music festival.

The number of crimes committed by migrants declined by more than 18 percent between January and March, however, according to the report.

At the DC Airport? I thought this was a Joke

Posted on June 1, 2016June 1, 2016 by Denise Simon

Hat tip to CNN… and it seems that airport security and TSA may have bigger issues than we know or they will admit.

CNN Finds Somali War Criminal Working Security at DC Area Airport

FreeBeacon: CNN has found an alleged war criminal from Somalia now working in the United States as an airport security guard.

Yusuf Abdi Ali was a commander during the Somali Civil War during the 1980s and has been accused of ordering the torture and executions of civilians in what has been called a genocide.

When CNN found out that he was living and working in the United States, they sent a crew to his workplace, Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia, just minutes from Washington, D.C. The film crew found a man matching Ali’s description working security and began asking him questions.

“What’s your name?” a CNN producer asked.

“Ali,” the guard responded.

“Yusuf Ali,” the producer said.

“Yeah,” Ali said.

“Where are you originally from?” the producer asked.

“Somalia,” Ali said.

CNN correspondent Kyra Phillips reported that Ali came to the United States from Canada with the assistance of his wife who helped him secure a visa into the United States. Ali was deported from Canada due to his past, but that did not prevent him from being able to get into the United States.

Phillips also reported that Ali has been removed from his position as a security guard and that his past did not come up during a background check.

****

In 2014:

One of the two Americans killed while fighting for the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization in Syria had worked at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport cleaning planes before he went overseas to become a jihadist, an investigation has revealed.

Abdirahmaan Muhumed, 29, who died in the same battle as Minnesota native Douglas McCain, was employed by Delta Global Services, a cleaning company owned by Delta Airlines. Two former employees confirmed they’d worked with Muhumed, who had been married three times and was the father of nine children. While earlier this year, the airport’s cleaning contract was taken over by Airserv, another contractor, Muhumed would have had to had security clearance to work for Delta. More here from NewsMax.

This past April:

ClarionProject: Brussels airport is partially reopening today for the first time since it was hit by twin suicide bombs on March 22 in attacks that killed 35 people.

The airport reopening was delayed by a strike called by police officers who de3maqnded extra security measures. Specifically they requested checks at the main entrance to the departure lounge. Authorities feared this could create bottlenecks going into the airport.

A group of police officers wrote an open letter to the press criticizing alleged security failings at Zaventem airport. They alleged that 50 ISIS supporters are still working at the airport.

Some people suspected of having fought in Syria came to the airport as “false tourists”. We reported their presence but we do not know if anything was done with that information, the letter read according to the Daily Mail.

The officers complained about people who worked at the airport whom they allege celebrated the Paris attacks.

“When we checked these people, we were surprised more than once. It was men with a radical ideology and a long police history,’ they said.

‘Even today, there are at least 50 supporters of the Islamic state who work at the airport. They have a security badge and have access to the cockpit of a plane”