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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wayners who wrote (41399)	8/7/2004 11:49:39 PM
From: Richnorth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

Ominous drop in 'chatter' by terrorists WASHINGTON A DROP in so-called 'chatter' among suspected terrorists is raising concern among United States counter-terrorism officials, who noticed a similar fall in intercepted communications prior to the Sept 11 terror attacks. US government sources told CNN that security experts are still trying to fathom the reason for the troubling ebb in recent days. While there have been several similar quiet episodes in the past, the 'chatter' continued as before even after the mid-July arrest of key Al-Qaeda suspect Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan by Pakistani security forces, which was announced last week. The fall-off in chatter comes at a sensitive time in the war on terror. Information obtained in the Pakistani crackdown on Al-Qaeda pointed to a possible attack on US financial institutions as well as British targets. It triggered a heightened security alert in the United States and prompted anti-terrorist sweeps in Britain, which netted over a dozen suspects. Within the past few days, security operations in Britain and Pakistan have produced thousands of leads, particularly intelligence related to two men: Khan and Abu Eisa Al-Hindi, believed to be the man behind the network's surveillance reports on American targets. Al-Hindi was one of a dozen suspects arrested last week in Britain. Another terror suspect detained last Thursday, Babar Ahmad, was found to have in his possession a floppy disk that contained details about a US Navy battle group from April 2001. The plans included drawings of the battle group's formation, specific assignments of individual ships and details of each ship's vulnerability. The information noted that the USS Constellation, which at that time was assigned to enforce sanctions against Iraq and undertake operations against Al-Qaeda and Afghanistan's Taleban government, was scheduled to pass through the narrow Strait of Hormuz on April 29, 2001. 'They have nothing to stop a small craft with RPG (rocket-propelled grenades) etc, except their Seals' stinger missiles,' said an entry in the document. Navy officials confirmed to US prosecutors that the information, which was classified at the time, was accurate. Ahmad, a 30-year-old college employee and a cousin of Khan, appeared in a London court on Friday. The US, which is seeking to extradite him, also accused him of being a fund-raiser for the Taleban and Muslim separatist fighters in Chechnya. Evidence offered by US prosecutors indicated that Ahmad had ties to Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, who has claimed responsibility for attacks on Russian civilians, including the 2002 Moscow theatre siege. The US extradition request accused Ahmad of operating a series of 'pro-jihad' websites, including two that appealed to Muslims to use every possible means to undertake military and physical training for holy war. The sites also appealed for financial support and provided instructions on how to infiltrate war zones in Afghanistan and Chechnya. The computerised data from his arrest - 500GB of data - was the result of nine search warrants and 100 subpoenas. The US Department of Homeland Security investigators are poring over the data for clues to other Al-Qaeda suspects, plots and websites. -- Los Angeles Times, New York Times