Officials told The Associated Press a day earlier that discovery of the unexploded bomb represented an intelligence prize resulting from a covert CIA operation in Yemen, saying that the intercept thwarted a suicide mission around the anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden.
Surfer sets World record by Riding 70 foot wave (Video)
May 10, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under World
The indomitable Human Spirit is an amazing thing to behold!
Garrett McNamara now has the Guinness World Record for the largest wave ever surfed after riding a 78-footer in November off the coast of Nazare, Portugal.
Mike Parson had the previous mark, riding a 77-footer off the Southern California coast in 2008.
The ruling became official on Friday by a panel of experts for the annual Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards.
McNamara told Petethomasoutdoors.com, “It’s amazing we get to do what we do, I am so grateful. The world record doesn’t mean as much to me, this is for the town of Nazaré and Portugal and for all my family and friends there.
“To be able to give them something to be proud of and inspire them… I didn’t want to get caught up in it all, but I have to tell you the truth, when they announced my name I got a bigger rush than probably on all the waves I rode this year.”
Russian Hackers Attack Online Live Streaming Video Sites
Hackers shut down a United States online video company on Wednesday that was being used by Russian activists to stream live video of protests in Moscow, prompting the company’s leaders to launch a Russian-language version of the site.
Brad Hunstable, chief executive and co-founder of the company uStream, said that the online platform was down for nine hours. He said it was the third highly coordinated attack from Russia in six months. He noted that each attack took place at the same time Russian activists were using the platform to stream live video of protests in Moscow and other cities.
He said the attack began on Wednesday at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time, targeting a channel operated by a Russian citizen journalist filming the protests. Known as a distributed denial of service attack, or DDoS, it involved thousands of IP addresses coming primarily from Russia, Kazakhstan and Iran that flooded the site, Mr. Hunstable said, crippling the company’s data centers all over the world.
Yemen terror group may have made more underwear bombs, US officials say
Just days before the news broke about the CIA’s takedown of a plot involving a sophisticated new underwear bomb, al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen publicly boasted that it had vastly expanded and improved its capabilities for making such devices.
That boast — contained in a largely overlooked passage of Inspire, the online propaganda organ of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) — has fueled concerns that there may be other versions of the seized device and more bomb makers assembling them, according to U.S. security officials and members of Congress who have been briefed on the case.
“They have a team of engineers, scientists and doctors. It’s a little spooky,” said Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, a member of the Homeland Security Committee who was briefed this week on the intelligence operation that U.S. officials say thwarted an AQAP plot to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner. “In my view, it’s very likely they have produced more of these.”
Russian plane disappears in demonstration flight in Indonesia
Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) — Russia’s newest civilian airliner disappeared Wednesday from radar screens during a half-hour demonstration flight in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, state-run RIA Novosti news service reported.
There were 44 passengers on board.
The plane went missing at about 2 p.m. in the area of Bogor, West Java, Indonesian Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan told Metro TV.
The pilots requested permission to descend from 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet, air traffic controllers said. After that, all radio contact was lost.
Don’t Cry Wolf! FBI studies ‘undetectable’ device after CIA thwarts new al-Qaida underwear bomb plot
May 8, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under World
Yeah the last “Underpants Plot” was a set up. Intel gave the would be bomber the devise, then drugged him and put him on the plane. No passport, no clue. So are we now to believe this fable? We guess some O’bomba supporters will. Election Terror? You can bet that this is all the O’bomba admin needs to turn up the heat on Yemen.
(Susan Walsh, File/ Associated Press ) – FILE – In this Sept. 7, 2011 file photo, John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, speaks in Washington. U.S. bomb experts are picking apart a sophisticated new al-Qaida improvised explosive device, Brennan said Tuesday.
By Associated Press, | Updated: Tuesday, May 8, 2012
The Associated Press has learned the CIA thwarted a plot by al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden.
The CIA thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, The Associated Press has learned.
John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, said Tuesday the discovery shows al-Qaida remains a threat to U.S. security a year after bin Laden’s assassination. And he attributed the breakthrough to “very close cooperation with our international partners.”
“We’re continuing to investigate who might have been associated with the construction of it as well as plans to carry out an attack,” Brennan said. “And so we’re confident that this device and any individual that might have been designed to use it are no longer a threat to the American people.”
On the question of whether the device could have been gone undetected through airport security, Brennan said, “It was a threat from a standpoint of the design.” He also said there was no intelligence indicating it was going to be used in an attack to coincide with the May 2 anniversary of bin Laden’s death. (hasn’t stopped the media from inferring it though)
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Tuesday that “a number of countries” provided information and cooperation that helped foil the plot. He said he had no information on the would-be bomber, but that White House officials had told him “He is no longer of concern,” meaning no longer any threat to the U.S.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters Monday night that she had been briefed Monday about an “undetectable” device that was “going to be on a U.S.-bound airliner.”
There were no “immediate” plans to change security procedures at U.S. airports.
U.S. officials declined to say where the CIA seized the bomb. The would-be suicide bomber, based in Yemen, had not yet picked a target or purchased plane tickets when the CIA seized the bomb, officials said. It was not immediately clear what happened to the would-be bomber. (OR if this event even occurred at all?)
President Barack Obama had been monitoring the operation since last month, the White House said Monday evening. White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the president was assured the device posed no threat to the public.
“The president thanks all intelligence and counterterrorism professionals involved for their outstanding work and for serving with the extraordinary skill and commitment that their enormous responsibilities demand,” Hayden said.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said: “The device did not appear to pose a threat to the public air service, but the plot itself indicates that these terrorist keep trying to devise more and more perverse and terrible ways to kill innocent people. (and you don’t?) And it a reminder of how we have to keep vigilant.” Clinton spoke during a news conference Tuesday in New Delhi with Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna.
The operation unfolded even as the White House and Homeland Security Department assured the public that they knew of no al-Qaida plots against the U.S. around the anniversary of bin Laden’s death.
On May 1, the Homeland Security Department said, “We have no indication of any specific, credible threats or plots against the U.S. tied to the one-year anniversary of bin Laden’s death.”
The AP learned about the thwarted plot last week but agreed to White House and CIA requests not to publish a story immediately because the sensitive intelligence operation was still under way. Once officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP decided to disclose the plot Monday despite requests from the Obama administration to wait for an official announcement Tuesday.
The FBI and Homeland Security acknowledged the existence of the bomb late Monday. Other officials, who were briefed on the operation, insisted on anonymity to discuss details of the plot, many of which the U.S. has not officially acknowledged.
It’s not clear who built the bomb, but because of its sophistication and its similarity to the Christmas Day bomb, authorities suspected it was the work of master bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri. Al-Asiri constructed the first underwear bomb and two others that al-Qaida built into printer cartridges and shipped to the U.S. on cargo planes in 2010.
Both of those bombs used a powerful industrial explosive. Both were nearly successful.
WAR PROPAGANDA!
The new underwear bomb operation is a reminder of al-Qaida’s ambitions, despite the death of bin Laden and other senior leaders. Because of instability in the Yemeni government, the terrorist group’s branch there has gained territory and strength. It has set up terrorist camps and, in some areas, even operates as a de facto government.
On Monday, al-Qaida militants staged a surprise attack on a Yemeni army base in the south, killing 22 soldiers and capturing at least 25. The militants managed to reach the base both from the sea and by land, gunning down troops and making away with weapons and other military hardware after the blitz, Yemeni military officials said.
But the group has also suffered significant setbacks as the CIA and the U.S. military focus more on Yemen. On Sunday, Fahd al-Quso, a senior al-Qaida leader, was hit by a missile as he stepped out of his vehicle along with another operative in the southern Shabwa province of Yemen.
Al-Quso, 37, was on the FBI’s most wanted list, with a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. He was indicted in the U.S. for his role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the harbor of Aden, Yemen, in which 17 American sailors were killed and 39 injured.
Al-Quso was believed to have replaced Anwar al-Awlaki as the group’s head of external operations. Al-Awlaki was killed in a U.S. airstrike last year.
The new Yemeni president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, has promised improved cooperation with the U.S. to combat the militants. On Saturday, he said the fight against al-Qaida was in its early stages. Hadi took over in February from longtime authoritarian leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Brennan appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the “CBS This Morning” show and NBC’s “Today” show. King was interviewed on CNN.
US secretly releasing Taliban prisoners from Bagram prison
May 8, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under World
YET…. None violent drug offenders ROT in America’s private prisons.
America has secretly been releasing high-level Taliban prisoners from a top security military prison as part of negotiations with insurgents.
The United States agreed to hand over control of Bagram prison to the Afghan army earlier this year, during negotiations over a 10-year strategic deal governing American aid to the country after 2014 Photo: AFP/GETTY
Up to 20 prisoners have been released from Bagram prison in the past two years after giving assurances they would give up their struggle and reconcile with the government.
The clandestine “strategic release” programme at the prison north of Kabul has allowed America to use prisoners as bargaining chips when trying to reach local deals with insurgents.
Officials admitted the scheme was risky however and difficult to police. They would not say whether any of those released had resumed attacks on Nato or Afghan forces.
“Everyone agrees they are guilty of what they have done and should remain in detention,” one official told the Washington Post.
“Everyone agrees that these are bad guys. But the benefits outweigh the risks.”
Gavin Sundwall, spokesman for the US embassy in Kabul, said the programme was two years old and “rarely used”.
Commanders from both the American and Afghan forces deliberated on releasing prisoners who were “willing to denounce violence and engage in the process of reconciliation”.
He said: “Fewer than 20 detainees have ever been released under this program, and the decision to release a detainee takes into account whether they pose any further security threat.”
The release of prisoners has become a significant hurdle to embryonic peace contacts aimed at finding a political settlement to the conflict.
Contacts in Qatar appeared to founder earlier this year when Taliban negotiators pulled out saying America had broken a promise to transfer five leaders from Guantánamo Bay, in Cuba, to looser custody in the Gulf state.
Releasing the men from Guantánamo requires congressional approval and is seen by analysts as a risky move for Barack Obama during a presidential election campaign.
However while Bagram prison is second only to Guantánamo for holding the most senior Taliban prisoners from the decade-long Nato-led campaign, their release does not need approval from Congress, the Washington Post reported.
The United States agreed to hand over control of Bagram prison to the Afghan army earlier this year, during negotiations over a 10-year strategic deal governing American aid to the country after 2014.
Senior prisoners have in the past been transferred to Afghan custody only to be then released under murky circumstances and Western officials have said Afghan custody is a “revolving door” for any insurgent with money or political links.
In the most notorious example, Mullah Abdul Qayum Zakir, was released into Afghan custody from Guantánamo in 2007 only to be freed to rejoin his Taliban comrades and rise quickly through the ranks to a senior leadership post.
Israel: ELECTIONS CANCELLED… “Unity” for coming War
May 8, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under World
The Obama Admin is taking notes, “You can do that?”
Brothers from another Mother?
Breitbart (Neo O Con angle)
In a dramatic, late-night move, Israel’s two main political parties have agreed to form a national unity government, canceling early elections and forming a solid front as the country braces for a possible pre-emptive strike against Iran–and possible American opposition. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had only recently announced his intention to call early elections for the sake of stability heading into the fall, has likely achieved that stability almost immediately through his political gambit.
The price reportedly demanded by the opposition Kadima party, led by former Israel Defense Force Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz, was that the current law allowing military deferments for religious students be amended.
Netanyahu’s governing Likud has been frequently demonized by then-Senator Barack Obama and his left-wing allies, including the radical J Street organization, who have held out the opposition Kadima as an acceptable alternative to the current Israeli government. As much as Likud may have to accept some policy compromises, Israel’s critics will be forced to confront the fact that Israeli society is largely unified against the threat of a nuclear Iran and against the threat posed by a potential terrorist state in the West Bank.
Obama Kills USS Cole bombing “Suspect”?
May 7, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under World
That Osama thing already wearing off? Remember when some of the Cole “Bombers” were allowed to “escape” from a Yemeni Prison? We do.
USS Cole bombing suspect killed in Yemen raid
(AFP) –
ADEN — Yemeni Al-Qaeda leader Fahd al-Quso, who was wanted in connection with the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, has been killed in an air raid in eastern Yemen on Sunday, a tribal chief said.
Al-Qaeda, which has strongholds in southern and eastern Yemen, confirmed Quso’s slaying in an SMS text message sent to reporters that could not be immediately verified.
“Fahd al-Quso, who was wanted by the United States for the attack against the USS Cole, was killed tonight (Sunday) in an American raid on the Rafadh region” in the Shabwa province, tribal chief Abdel Magid bin Farid al-Awlaki told AFP.
The October 2000 attack on the US Navy destroyer, the USS Cole, in Yemen’s port of Aden killed 17 sailors and wounded 40 more.
Quso was killed when two missiles slammed near his home in Rafadh, east of Ataq, the provincial capital of Shabwa province, the tribal chief said, adding that two of the suspect’s body guards were also killed in the raid.
A US government official welcome the death of the “senior terrorist operative,” saying he had been actively planning attacks against the United States and Yemen.
“Fahd al-Quso was a senior terrorist operative of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who was deeply involved in ongoing terrorist plotting against Yemeni and US interests at the time of his death,” the official said, requesting anonymity to speak about the matter.
“He was also involved in numerous attacks over many years that murdered Americans as well as Yemeni men, women and children.”
Quso’s name figured on an FBI list of most wanted terrorists, along with a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest.
In its text message, Al-Qaeda said: “The martyr Sheikh Fahd al-Quso was martyred, killed in an American raid this afternoon in Rafadh.”
The Yemeni embassy in Washington also confirmed the death of “one of the most wanted terrorists in Yemen.”
Al-Qaeda had claimed responsibility for the attack on the USS Cole, which was carried out when militants riding an explosives-laden skiff blew a 30-by-30-foot (10-by-10-meter) hole in the USS Cole.
The USS Cole was in the port of Aden for a routine fuel stop when it was attacked.
Quso belonged to the powerful Al-Awlak tribe of US-Yemeni cleric and terror suspect Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in September.
US intelligence officials believed Awlaki was linked to a US army major charged with shooting dead 13 people in Fort Hood, Texas, and to a Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a US airliner on December 25, 2009.
He was also believed to be the leader of external operations of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — the local Al-Qaeda branch in Yemen.
In April, The Washington Post said that the CIA is seeking permission to launch more drone strikes in Yemen, adding that there have been at least eight US raids in Yemen in first four months of this year.
The United States has never formally acknowledged the use of drones against Al-Qaeda in Yemen, and the Yemeni government continues to deny that such air strikes take place.
According to the Washington Post, US drones are launched from a secret base in the Arabian Peninsula.
Related articles
- Al Qaeda kills 20 in surprise Yemen attack
New York Daily News – 45 minutes ago - At least 32 Yemeni troops killed in militant attack
Reuters Canada – 3 hours ago - airstrike kills senior al-Qaida leader in Yemen
Kansas City Star – 18 hours ago
ALSO:
Regarding the USS Cole; the attack upon the USS Cole was basically a repeat attack of the USS Liberty.
Wayne Madsen (a former Navy officer and NSA employee during the Iran Contra years) relays an uncorroborated charge — I repeat this is uncorroborated — about the bombing of the USS Cole:
“The former CIA agent who worked with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York and New Jersey stated that the USS Cole was hit by a specially-configured Popeye cruise missile launched from an Israeli Dolphin-class submarine. Israeli tests of the missile in May 2000 in the waters off Sri Lanka demonstrated it could hit a target 930 miles away. The ex-CIA agent also stated that Ambassador Bodine threw (FBI investigator) John O’Neill and his team out of Yemen lest their investigation began uncovering evidence that the Cole was not blown up by an explosive-laden boat but by an Israeli cruise missile.
The former CIA agent said the reason for the Israeli attack was to further galvanize U.S. public opinion against both Al Qaeda and the Democrats in the weeks prior to the 2000 presidential elections. The Bush-Cheney team could blame the Democrats for not taking the Al Qaeda threat seriously. However, this is exactly the tact the Bush administration took after taking office: failure to support the CIA-FBI’s Alex Station, pressuring John O’Neill and other agents like Minneapolis agent Coleen Rowley and others across the nation who detected activity involving Arab flight students, and pulling the plug on a major data mining operation directed against Al Qaeda code named Able Danger, which was being jointly run by the DIA and the Special Operations Command. ”
O’Neill was not permitted to interview Yemenis who witnessed the Cole explosion. O’Neill was not permitted to examine the hat worn by one of the bombers in the boat nor was he allowed to examine the harbor sludge for evidence.
O’Neill was soon pulled out of Yemen and Bodine refused him and his team permission to re-enter the country. O’Neill was getting too close to something. In February, 2001, after Yemen’s Interior Minister Hussein Mohammed Arab made a statement that there was no evidence linking the Cole bombing to Al Qaeda (“Investigations have not so far proved, either to us or to the Americans, any link between Osama bin Laden and the Cole bombing.”), the Bush administration showed no desire to find out who actually bombed the ship. They were too busy clearing the baffles for the Iraq invasion and their other agendas. ”
– Clearing the Baffles for 911, By Wayne Madsen
Zionist Jewesses Barbara Bodine and Madeline Albright Sabotage John O’Neil investigation into the USS Cole attack
Bodine, who is Jewish, was the Ambassador to Yemen. When the USS Cole was attacked, the FBI sent a team led by John O’Neill who immediately suspected Israeli involvement. Bodine started an intense political battle to oust O’Neill.
Bodine wanted to control the investigation, and resented the fact that suddenly there were hundreds of FBI personnel in the country.
Albright provided a handful of State Department personnel to watch the investigation.
Albright and Bodine Panic as O’Neill Investigation Points to Israel
Albright complains to upper echelons of the FBI about O’Neill. 8
Bodine wanted O’Neill to drop his bodyguards and he became suspicious of Mossad assassination. Bodine and Madeleine Albright finally went to the Zionist Jewish FBI Director, Louis Freeh, to remove John O’Neill from Yemen.
Then January 2001 came, and O’Neill wanted to go back to Yemen. But, Ambassador Bodine wouldn’t give him clearance. In July 2001, O’Neill resigned from the FBI.
After leaving the FBI for obstructing his investigations into fake Al Qaeda O’neil was hired as head of security at the WTC by Jew Jerome Hauer and Jew Silverstein, where he is killed on his first day of work, 9/11. What a coincidence.
More on O’neil and the Cole investigation
[link to servv89pn0aj.sn.sourcedns.com] … Oneill.htm
US Defense Secratary during the Cole bombing was the Jew William Cohen, who used the Cole attack as a pretext to establish “Bin Laden” in the public consciousness as chief terror architect in preparation for the Israeli attack on 9/11, which the Jews blamed on Bin Laden again.
Here’s a great run down of the evidence that the Cole bombing was a staged Israeli black op like all the rest
[link to southeastasianews.org] … ation.html
Imagine this, ten of the “Al Qaeda” suspects arrested for the USS Cole bombing ESCAPED the highly guarded prison compound they were held in through a window. 
If you believe that, then I don’t know what to tell you.
SAN`A, Yemen — Yemeni authorities were hunting for 10 of the main suspects in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole after they escaped from prison Friday, officials said.
The fugitives, including chief suspect Jamal al-Badawi, were jailed in the tightly guarded intelligence building in the port city of Aden since shortly after the destroyer was bombed, killing 17 American sailors.
Officials close to the investigation said the men fled through a window they smashed inside the building.
The officials said on condition of anonymity that prison officers gave the men permission to go to the prison courtyard for their daily morning break before they escaped.
It was unclear whether the escapees received any assistance from people inside or outside the prison.
Who benefits? Israel.
Who doesn’t benefit? Muslims.
Who has the capability to pull it off? Israel.
Who has a pattern of doing the exact same thing? Israel.
On February 3, 2006, 23 suspected or convicted Al-Qaeda members escaped from jail in Yemen. This number included 13 who were convicted of the USS Cole bombings and the bombing of the French tanker Limburg in 2002. Among those who reportedly escaped was Al-Badawi. Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni number two Abu Assem al-Ahdal may also be among those now on the loose
Poison drones carrying biological weapon are new Olympic threat, warns Army Colonel
May 6, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under World
Wait… Terrorists have Drones now? So is this just basic police state conditioning? Or… a false flag in the making?
A senior Army officer has warned that unmanned drones carrying deadly poison could be used in a devastating terrorist attack during the Olympic Games.
Lieutenant Colonel Brian Fahy delivered the grim warning at a meeting intended to allay the fears of residents worried about the Army’s plans to place missiles on the rooftops of flats.
He said it was ‘feasible’ that remote-controlled aircraft filled with poison and small enough to fit into a backpack could be used as a biological weapon in the capital.
Watch out: Armed police officers patrol outside the Olympic stadium in the Olympic Park, London
Crosshairs: Royal Artillery Bombardier Johnathan demonstrates a High Velocity multiple surface rot air missile system to local residents at Buxton school in Leytonstone
He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) can be put in a backpack. They come in all sorts of sizes and it’s feasible they could be filled with something noxious and flown by remote-control.’
Lieut Col Fahy – the officer responsible for community relations during the Games – made his remarks on Friday in Leytonstone, East London, near one of six sites which could see the deployment of surface-toair missile batteries in order to shoot down aircraft attempting to infiltrate an Olympic ‘no fly’ zone.
Fears: An unmanned drone could be used by terrorists to deliver a biological weapon strike, a senior army officer warned
During the meeting at Buxton School, his team showed locals a ‘dummy’ missile battery and allowed children to play on the unarmed weapon.
Lieut Col Fahy declined to elaborate on what type of poison might be used during an aerial attack.
He said: ‘For the duration of the Olympics anyone flying into controlled airspace is to file their flight plan with the Civil Aviation Authority.
‘The range of threats varies in size and capability. It could be a commercial airliner hijacked by somebody with malicious intentions or a protest group using a microlight to get their name in the papers.’
His poison warning came as it was revealed that SAS troops have had anthrax emergency training at the Government’s top-secret military research establishment at Porton Down, Wiltshire.
Sources say the elite soldiers wore biochemical protection suits, gloves and masks during exercises over the past few months to prepare for any attack using the deadly bacteria.
Such an incident could threaten the lives of thousands of people attending the Games this summer.
Lieut Col Fahy told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We have worked up a comprehensive plan to protect against the potential hijacking of a commercial airliner down to slow-moving microlights or radio-controlled planes.’
Battle stations: The army placed a surface-to-air missile on top the Fred Wigg tower block in Waltham Forest, est London as part of a series of security tests for the 2012 Olympics
Defence: The surface-to-air missile on top of the Waltham Forest tower block are one of a link of armaments designed to create a ring of steel around the Olympic site
Repurposed: The Fred Wigg Tower in Waltham Forest, London, has been chosen as one of six sites around London to form a ‘ring of steel’ to safeguard the Olympic Games
Asked if they would fire a missile at a protester flying a microlight near the Olympic site, Lieut Col Fahy said: ‘We would not take it out. For something like that we would scramble helicopters to go and look at it.
‘There will be an RAF sniper on board if there was serious evidence to suggest something like that represented a threat. That information gets passed on and it’s a political decision to engage.
‘It’s the same politicians who will decide whether we fire surface-to-air missiles at a potential threat. It’s a decision that I’m quite happy not to make. It will weigh very heavily.’
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has made it clear he is ready to give the order to shoot down any aircraft threatening the Olympics with a 9/11-style attack.
Practice: Setting up ahead in Blackheath, of a training exercise designed to test military procedures prior to the Olympic period
Training time: A member of the Royal Artillery aims the Starstreak High Velocity Missile System, part of the ground based air defence systems that may be deployed during the Olympics, at Blackheath, London
Lieut Col Fahy also revealed that armed police would guard any missile sites being used in case any attempts were made to steal them or protest against their deployment.
He added: ‘What we are doing is unusual. Londoners are not used to seeing a lot of soldiers around. Some people feel uncomfortable about the missiles but the vast majority, I think, appreciate we are doing this.’
HMS Ocean, one of the UK’s biggest warships, is based in the Thames, with the capability to fire a hail of missiles at a terrorist aircraft.
The awesome array of military hardware ready to thwart an attack includes four RAF Typhoon jets, three Royal Navy Sea King and two RAF Puma helicopters.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said last night: ‘We are prepared for any eventuality.’
More…
- Now there’s a block of flats you wouldn’t break into! Surface-to-air weapons are put in place to form an Olympic ring of steel to protect the Games
- The biggest ship in London! HMS Ocean heads up the Thames in show of strength before the Olympics (as Defence Secretary warns: ‘We would shoot down a jet if necessary’)
Living 911 Gitmo patsies show defiance at Trial: ‘They may Suicide us’
May 6, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under World
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — Khalid Shaikh Mohammed fingered his long, henna-dyed beard and stared down in silence on Saturday, pointedly ignoring a military commissionsjudge asking in vain whether the self-described architect of the Sept. 11 attacks understood what was being said and whether he was willing to be represented by his defense lawyers.
“Look mean or No Soup for you!” – European Pressphoto Agency
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the top defendant, in 2003.
Minutes later, Ramzi bin al Shibh, another of the five detainees arraigned on Saturday as accused conspirators in the attacks, stood, knelt and started praying. Later, he shouted at the judge that he should address their complaints about prison conditions because “maybe you are not going to see me again.”
“Maybe they are going to kill us and say that we have committed suicide,” he added.
One defendant, Walid bin Attash, was wheeled into the courtroom in a restraint chair for reasons that were not disclosed.
Amid disruptions both passive and aggressive, the government’s attempt to restart its efforts to prosecute the five defendants in the long-delayed Sept. 11 case got off to a slow and rocky start in a trial that could ultimately result in their execution.
After hours of jostling over procedural issues, all five defendants deferred entering a plea. The judge set a hearing date for motions in mid-June; the trial is not likely to start for at least a year.
The Bush administration had started to prosecute the men in the military commissions system in 2008.
The Obama administration tried to transfer the case to a federal court in Lower Manhattan, a short distance from the World Trade Center site, but the plan collapsed amid security fears and a backlash in Congress.
As defense lawyers repeatedly tried to change the subject to security restrictions that they say have hampered their ability to do their jobs, the judge, Army Col. James L. Pohl, struggled to stick to a military commissions script that had been rewritten the day before — and so was not yet translated into Arabic.
The judge, however, was determined to keep the case on track. When a lawyer for Mr. Mohammed, David Nevin, explained that his client had decided not to respond to the judge’s questions about his assigned defense lawyers in order to protest what he saw as an unfair process, Colonel Pohl replied that he would assume that he had no objections to being represented by them.
“He has that choice,” Colonel Pohl said of Mr. Mohammed’s silence. “But he does not have a choice that would frustrate this commission going forward.”
The arraignment was the first time since 2008 that the five high-profile Qaeda detainees had been seen in public. They wore loose, light-colored garb; their lawyers complained that they had brought other clothes to wear, but that prison officials refused to let them wear it.
Four walked into the courtroom without shackles but surrounded by three large guards who stood between them when the court was not in session. With Mr. bin Attash initially restrained, guards put glasses on his face and attached his prosthetic leg.
Colonel Pohl said he would have the restraints taken off if Mr. bin Attash would pledge not to disrupt the court, but Mr. bin Attash refused to answer him. Eventually, the restraints were removed after the judge accepted a promise relayed through Mr. bin Attash’s lawyer.
While passive when the judge tried to talk to them, the detainees occasionally whispered to one another. During brief recesses, they talked freely to their defense lawyers, and while guards came and stood between them, they craned their necks and talked to each other as well, appearing relaxed.
Each detainee also had a bin containing items liked legal papers, Korans, prayer rugs and other materials. Mr. Mohammed, wearing a black skullcap, took a white cloth from his bin and fashioned it into a sort of turban. One detainee, Ali Abd al Aziz Ali, had a copy of the Economist magazine, which he appeared to be reading and later handed to a detainee sitting behind him, Mustafa al Hawsawi, who leafed through it.
The detainees refused, however, to wear headphones so they could hear a simultaneous Arabic translation. To make sure they knew what was being asked, the judge directed translators to repeat in Arabic over a loudspeaker each phrase that was uttered in the courtroom, sometimes causing a confusing jumble and significantly slowing the process — especially after Mr. bin Attash insisted that prosecutors read the full charges, which consumed more than two hours.
The arraignment was the latest chapter for the detainees, who were captured and held for years in secret overseas prisons by the Central Intelligence Agency and subjected to harsh interrogation techniques. In 2008, they were charged before a tribunal and seen for the first time; Mr. Mohammed’s beard then was gray, and his behavior during pretrial motions was marked by frequent outbursts, not silence.
The high-security courtroom at this naval base was sealed; anything the detainees say is considered presumptively classified, and at one point censors cut off an audio feed when a defense lawyer said his client had been tortured, but later comments about torture were not. The sound also cut out at first when Mr. bin al Shibh began shouting — but was turned back on midway through.
Among the observers watching the proceeding behind soundproof glass were several family members of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks, separated from reporters and other observers by a blue curtain. (A closed-circuit feed was also broadcast to several locations around the United States.)
Several family members could be heard muttering when the lawyer for Mr. bin Attash, Cheryl Borman — who wore traditional black Muslim garb, covering everything but her face — asked women on the prosecution team to consider dressing more modestly so that the defendants would not have to avoid looking at them “for fear of committing a sin under their faith.” The women were wearing military or civilian jackets and skirts.
Ms. Borman later sought a court order preventing prison guards from forcibly extracting detainees from cells if they did not want to come to the next hearing, saying Mr. bin Attash had “scars on his arms”; as she spoke, he took off his shirts, but put them back on after the judge admonished him. Mr. Nevin also complained that Mr. Mohammed had been strip-searched that morning — which, along with not being allowed to wear the clothes their lawyers had brought for them, and not having a translation of the just-rewritten hearing script — had “inflamed the situation.”
Colonel Pohl said several such concerns were valid, but he would take them up at the next hearing.
Family members also whispered angrily about the disruptions. Against the backdrop of scrutiny over whether the military commissions system was a fair venue, Colonel Pohl appeared to be giving broader leeway to the defendants and the defense lawyers than many federal judges would tolerate.
Throughout the hearing, for example, lawyers for the detainees repeatedly raised complaints about restrictions on their ability to communicate, including problems with translators and a prison policy of looking through mail about the case. Colonel Pohl told them again and again not to raise an issue he had already said would be addressed later.
And when Mr. bin al Shibh stood and began praying, Colonel Pohl did not order guards to intervene. Later, when all five detainees returned from an hour break and then started praying in the courtroom, delaying the hearing by 20 minutes, he expressed only mild frustration.
“I fully respect the accused’s request for prayer,” he said. “It’s a right for them to have it. But a right can still be abused, if you understand me.”
Donald Guter, a retired rear admiral who was formerly the top judge advocate general in the Navy, attended the arraignment on behalf of Human Rights First. A critic of military commissions, he praised Colonel Pohl’s temperament — suggesting that the judge’s patience on procedural issues was probably aimed at “carrying over into a perception of fairness on the substantive issues.”
Related
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Via Video Feed, Families Watch 9/11 Case and Seethe (May 6, 2012)
