The Inquisitr » al-qaeda

CIA head nixed secret plan for assassination squad

Steven Hodson — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:02:19 +0000

According to a story in the Washington Post the CIA was in the process of developing teams of anti-terrorist assassination squads that ended up being shut down when CIA head Leon Panetta found out about them.

While there were apparently plans at the agency to develop these squads for a number of years with the idea of using them to hunt al-Qaeda leaders it wasn’t until recently that the plans were upgraded to a “somewhat more operational phase”.

Once he learned of the plans and shut them down Panetta appeared at Capital Hill to brief lawmakers about the whole deal since they had been kept in the dark about it.

The Obama administration’s top intelligence official, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair, yesterday defended Panetta’s decision to cancel the program, which he said had raised serious questions among intelligence officials about its “effectiveness, maturity and the level of control.”

But Blair broke with some Democrats in Congress by asserting that the CIA did not violate the law when it failed to inform lawmakers about the secret program until last month. Blair said agency officials may not have been required to notify Congress about the program, though he believes they should have done so.

Source: The Washington Post

The Democrat lawmakers however feel that the CIA intentionally misled Congress by failing to disclose the program. It was a program that came out of “presidential finding” signed by President George W. Bush shortly after September 11, 2001 that granted the agency broad authority to use deadly force when hunting down bin Laden and other high ranking al-Qaeda members.

Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism chief resigns after blunder

Dennis Bjørn Petersen — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:42:50 +0000

Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism chief resigned from the police today after blunder which almost blew a huge police operation against a suspected al-Qaeda cell in the UK.

Assistant Commisioner Bob Quick’s error could have been potentially disastrous. As he arrived at 10 Downing Street (where the British Prime Minister lives) to brief Gordon Brown on the operation, he was carrying a document marked “Secret” under his arm.

The document was only visible for a second, but it was enough for the photographers. The powerful telephoto lenses made the text on the document readable in the pictures.

It revealed how many terrorist suspects were to be arrested and the operation’s secret codename – “Pathway.”

As soon as the photograph was published the operation was forced to start before planned. It involved several hundred police officers raiding 10 homes in Northen England.

Bob Quick will be replaced by Assistant Commisioner John Yates.

40 Al-Qaeda Terrorists Killed….by The Black Death

Duncan Riley — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:34:44 +0000

40 members of AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest Al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East have died by the Black Death.

The plague, responsible for the deaths of an estimated 75 million people world wide during the 14th century, swept through the AQLIM training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa, and was only discovered when security forces found a body by a roadside.

According to The Sun, Al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague may have been passed to other terror cells, and even Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. One security source quoted by the paper said “This is the deadliest weapon yet in the war against terror. Most of the terrorists do not have the basic medical supplies needed to treat the disease. It spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying al-Qaeda.”

There is believed to be 1,000 terrorists attached to the camp where the outbreak took place, with many reported fleeing to other camps, potentially spreading the disease.

Al-Qaeda Hiding Behind Pedobear for British terror attacks

Duncan Riley — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:00:13 +0000

Al-Qaeda is using pedophile websites to plot terror attacks on Britain according to British Security Services.

Al-Qaeda is using the sites due to the levels of security employed: paedophile sites are said to be password-protected and encrypted to avoid detection from police, which apparently makes them great for secretly plotting terrorist attacks as well.

A security source quoted in The Mirror said “Using child pornography sites appears to be al-Qaeda’s latest desperate attempt to avoid detection. Sadly, the high levels of secrecy, passwords and encryption demanded by paedophiles means their websites can offer good cover for terrorists.”

Pedophiles and terrorists: a snappy headline waiting to be had, but not really surprising either.