Suicide bombers coming to U.S.? Israeli raid turns up terror plot against Americans, Europeans
worldnetdaily.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: March 1, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
Editor's note: Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is an online, subscription intelligence news service from the creator of WorldNetDaily.com – a journalist who has been developing sources around the world for the last 25 years.
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
A document discovered during a recent Israeli army raid on some West Bank financial institutions found payrolls being prepared for terrorists trained to commit suicide attacks – not just in Israel but in the U.S. and Europe, Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin reports.
Israel has reportedly shared the information with the intelligence agencies of friendly countries, including the U.S. and Russia, according to the premium, online intelligence newsletter.
In addition, new information about the ways and means of suicide bombers has been shared indirectly with the governments of Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states.
G2B has learned Israeli specialists are now working closely with Russian agents of the Federal Security Force, sharing with them information on the technology and means of preparing suicide bombs to be used by individual shahids – or "suicide martyrs."
In the course of the latest raids, Israel seized millions in cash from four Palestinian bank branches – much of it sent by Iran, Syria and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas to fund Palestinian terrorists.
The joint operation by police, army and the Shin Bet security service last Wednesday marked Israel's largest-scale effort in more than three years of fighting to stop the flow of funds to Palestinian terrorist groups, including from Hezbollah.
Troops were accompanied by computer experts from two of the banks, who had been arrested overnight. Soldiers covered the banks' cameras with sacks or disabled them, and confined employees to back rooms, witnesses said.
"The purpose of this operation is to impair the funneling of funds, which oil the wheels of terror against Israel," an Israeli army statement said.
Israeli forces checked several hundred bank accounts, some belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, security sources said. An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the forces were also looking for evidence of possible involvement by Yasser Arafat in funding terror attacks.
The forces took the equivalent of $6.5 million to $9 million from the bank vaults, corresponding to the amount of money found in the targeted accounts, security sources said.
The operation is part of the "global war" on terrorist funding, an Israeli army statement said.
Suicide bombers are growing more sophisticated, say G2B sources. Israeli counter-terror experts who participated in a South Carolina conference introduced a number of photos and actual products of suicide bombers' equipment including carry-on bags and briefcases loaded with pipe bombs and activated by cell phones. The cell-phone system is described as a method used by a team of attackers – one is the mule carrying the bomb and the other dials the activating number at the right moment. This method is also designed to avoid last-minute hesitations by the bomb carrier.
Police experts say the method of building suicide bomb vests has advanced by the use of more sophisticated explosives and techniques of flattening the charges so they can be concealed easily into clothing items. A police source told G2B terrorists are developing such bombs knowing they will have to improve concealment towards the coming spring and summer. Climate conditions will automatically raise suspicions of whoever wears heavy, winter type, items when the temperatures are high.
The use of better designed suicide bombs will have an effect on other terror intentions such as attacks on airlines or penetrating offices guarded by traditional methods only.
While suicide bomb attacks are common in Israel, they have been unheard of in the U.S. They are on the increase, however, against U.S. forces in Iraq. Last week Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the No. 1 threat to the new government and U.S. forces in Iraq comes from suicide bombers. |
