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Letter Bomb Explodes in Germany
A letter bomb addressed to a local politician exploded in the southern German town of Regen Monday -- the first device to explode in what police say they suspect is a four-month campaign by a mystery attacker.
No one was injured in the explosion at the district council headquarters and authorities intercepted a second device addressed to a local mayor, a police spokesman said.
Politicians in Lower Bavaria have been targeted by a series of letter bombs since April. Police believe one individual is behind the attacks but say the motive is not clear.
State criminal investigators
had previously offered a reward of 8,000 euros ($9,662) for any
information on the letter-bomber.
30 August 2004, Reuters
Pipe Bomb Explodes at Bio-Lab
An explosion that blew out a number of windows at a Boston-area laboratory specializing in stem-cell research was caused by a pipe bomb, local police said Friday.
No one was wounded in Thursday’s early morning blast at Watertown, Massachusetts-based Amaranth Bio, which says on its Web site its technology is focused on organ regeneration and that it is working on cures for diabetes and liver disorders.
In a statement, Watertown police confirmed the explosion was the result of a pipe bomb and said they believe someone broke into the facility. No arrests have been made, police said.
Local radio station WBZ reported that police had identified a “person of interest” in connection with the explosion. Watertown police were not immediately available for comment on the report.
In addition to local police, the explosion was being investigated by state police and fire officials as well as the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
An Amaranth Bio official did not return a telephone call seeking comment.
Stem-cell
research has become the subject of nationwide debate ahead of
the U.S. presidential election in November. President Bush has
banned federal funding for research on new embryonic stem-cell
lines but Democratic candidate John Kerry has said he would rescind
the ban.
27 August
2004, Reuters
Hoax
Bomb in UK Evacuates Offices at Utility Company
A bomb scare left Npower workers across the borough stranded outside their offices for nearly two hours yesterday.
The company's offices in Lode Lane, Solihull and Cranmore Boulevard, Shirley were evacuated just before midday yesterday after the electricity supplier's call centre in Durham received a suspicious call at 11:30am.
The call suggested that a bomb had been placed in either Radcliffe House in Blenheim Court or Shirley's Cogen Court.
Police were called and swiftly evacuated nearly 300 staff from both buildings until the all clear was given at 1:30pm.
A spokeswoman for Npower
said: " We are now working with police and investigations
into the hoax call are ongoing."
27 August 2004, Solihull
News
Suspicious Package Addressed to Kerry Sent to VFW Headquarters
Some employees of the Veterans of Foreign Wars were evacuated from the group's national headquarters following receipt of what was described as a suspicious package addressed to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.
VFW spokesman Jerry Newberry said the package was received Wednesday morning. Police did not confirm it was addressed to Kerry, saying only that the person it was sent to "obviously didn't work there or receive mail there."
Newberry said there were photos of an unknown person on the package, including a driver's license and a military identification card. He said it is rare for suspicious packages to be sent to the VFW office, but that employees are trained to deal with them.
Police, a hazardous materials team and bomb and arson officers were called to the receiving dock of the building after employees noticed the address label. A camera-equipped robot was used to inspect the package, and X-rays were taken.
"There were some items that were very suspicious as far as shape and size," Police Major Anthony Ell said. "But after looking at it, it was inconclusive to what exactly was inside."
The package was placed in a sealed containment unit and taken to a disposal site.
Newberry said 15 to 20 VFW employees left the building for about 90 minutes, returning after the package was removed.
Kerry, a decorated veteran who served with the
Navy in Vietnam, and his Republican rival President Bush, who
was in the National Guard and did not serve overseas, both spoke
last week at the VFW's 105th annual convention in Cincinnati
26 August 2004, AP
Suspicious Package Found at Post Office Addressed to World Trade Center
Police and the bomb squad were called to action in Northeast Philadelphia Friday, after a suspicious package was found at the post office. It was addressed to the World Trade Center.
The Philadelphia bomb squad detonated what it deemed a suspicious package outside the post office at Harbison and Levick. Workers evacuated the building when the package was brought in from a nearby mailbox addressed to the World Trade Center.
Scott Hanstein/POSTAL WORKER:
"It's about 18", wrapped in tape to the occupants of the World Trade Center."
The police department's Anti-Terrorism Unit x-rayed the package and determined it should be detonated. It was not an explosive. But experts believe someone wanted the package to look like a bomb.
Insp. Robert Tucker/U.S. POSTAL SERVICE:
"I can't get into specifics of what was in it. It was a hoax. So not that it was nothing in there, we saw how we secured the area and disrupt the device."
The package was picked up from the mailbox by a postal worker who tells authorities his suspicions were immediately triggered. Many postal workers say this situation illustrates the occupational hazard they face more frequently these days.
Jacob Ruser/U.S. POSTAL WORKER:
"You never know what's in there. It's getting crazy. Don't know what to do."
The postal worker notified supervisors about the package.
Authorities are trying
to trace whoever sent the package which lists only Trenton as
a return address.
26 August 2004, WPVI News
Possible Bomb Investigated at Texas Pregnancy Center
Police investigated a possible bomb threat at a Killeen Pregnany Center Wednesday.
According to police, around 7am Wednesday morning a jogger passing by the Hope Pregnancy Center noticed something suspicious that he thought could be a bomb and called 911.
Police called in explosive experts from Fort Hood.
Carroll Smith with the Killeen Police Department says, "They found an industrial type fuse, something you would use with fireworks, and they took care of it. There was no threat or note or anything like that."
Police say the item was not an explosive device, but they are continuing to investigate the industrial fuse as a possible threat against the center and nearby businesses.
Hope Pregnancy Center
is in the same area as Killeen's abortion clinic.
25 August 2004 KCEN
TV News
Bomb
blasts rock opposition rally in Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh — Soldiers and armed police patrolled
the Bangladeshi capital on Sunday, a day after more than a dozen
grenades were thrown at an opposition rally, killing at least
18 people and injuring hundreds.
The main opposition leader, Sheikh Hasina, escaped injury when at least 13 bombs exploded while she addressed thousands of supporters outside her Awami League party's headquarters in the city centre.
At least 18 people were killed and more than 300 injured, including senior opposition members, ATN Bangla TV station reported Sunday. The toll increased after four more deaths were reported in Dhaka hospitals, it said.
Doctors were overwhelmed and appealed for blood. Many people were critically wounded in the blasts and the number of dead could rise, they said. Ms. Hasina's party said it will hold mass funeral prayers for the dead across the country Sunday.
No one claimed responsibility, but Awami League General Secretary Abdul Jalil claimed Ms. Hasina was the target. The rally was called to protest a series of explosions early this month that killed two people, including an opposition supporter, in the northeastern city of Sylhet.
Witnesses and the local media say 13 hand grenades went off.
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia condemned the “dastardly attack” and said her government will try to find those responsible.
Angry opposition supporters smashed or burned dozens of passing vehicles to protest the attack. Police fired tear gas to disperse the rampaging crowd, witnesses said, while security forces patrolled the streets.
Violence also spread to about a dozen other cities and towns, where protesters smashed vehicles and attacked shops, witnesses said. Security was stepped up across the country, authorities said, with paramilitary troops and police patrolling the capital in full force.
The Awami League called for nationwide general strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday to protest the bombings.
It has accused Zia's government of corruption, incompetence and harassment of political opponents. It has asked Zia to step down and call early polls. Zia's government rejects the allegations and has vowed to remain in power until its five-year term ends in 2006.
Bangladesh, an impoverished nation of 140 million people, has a history of political unrest.
At least 134
people have died in bomb blasts in the past five years, Dhaka's
New Age daily said Sunday. Bangladesh also has witnessed two presidents
assassinated in military coups and 19 failed coup attempts since
gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971.
21 August 2004, Globe and Mail
Market
bomb 'a settling of accounts'
CITY hall officials said today an explosion in
which 14 people were injured in a marketplace on the outskirts
of Kiev yesterday may have been a settling of accounts between
rival businessmen.
But police thought the likeliest cause was vandalism, the interior ministry said today.
Of the 14 people injured, two were reported to be in serious condition. Eleven were taken to hospital, a spokesman for the emergency situations ministry said.
The explosive devices went off in trash cans at the Troyeshchinsky market as it was about to close for the day.
The Ukrainian capital has been the scene of several blasts, in recent years, some fatal.
21 August 2004, Courier Mail
Bomb Found in Students Backpack in Kansas City
Seaman High School students got a big scare Friday. A suspicious device in a student's backpack caused an entire school evacuation, and brought in the bomb squad.
More than 700 students spent over 2 hours on the football field waiting for the all clear. The threat came when a student reported seeing a suspicious device inside another student's bookbag. School security reacted right away by calling Shawnee County Sheriff's office, Soldier Fire, and the Topeka Police bomb squad.
"We received a very good tip from a student who was concerned, and we take those tips very seriously," said Seaman High Principal Ronald Vinduska.
The bomb squad rolled in just after 10-o'clock, and quickly and carefully removed the bag and its contents. The device will be taken to Forbes Field to be detonated. Authorities then brought in bomb-sniffing dogs to check out the rest of the school before allowing students to go back to class.
Police arrested the student who brought the bag to school. 16-year old John C. Cutchins will face charges of criminal use of a weapon, criminal threat, and possession of a concealed explosive.
Authorities are still investigating exactly what the device was.
24 August 2004, 13
News
Bomb
Squad Detonates Package Left by Pennsylvania Bank Robber
Today, for the third day in a row, a city bank was robbed.
But this time, the robber threatened the tellers with an explosive device, forcing police to re-route downtown traffic and evacuate several businesses around Penn Square.
The robbery at the Fulton Bank office in Penn Square occurred around 9:15 a.m., detectives said.
The suspect was described by police as a large black man, between 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-5, wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans. He placed a package on the counter, police said, saying it was an explosive, and he demanded money.
After getting an undisclosed amount of cash, detectives said, the man fled on foot.
City police officers swarmed to the scene, evacuating several nearby businesses and clearing pedestrian traffic in and around the square.
Traffic was also shut down, with cruisers blocking off incoming traffic around the square, closing the first block of South Queen Street and the first block of West King Street.
City police Capt. of Detectives John Flemming said bomb-sniffing dogs were being brought to the scene to help investigators determine if the explosive device was real.
Bomb squad experts detonated the package shortly after 3 p.m. No one hurt during the incident.
21 August 2004, Lancaster Intelligencer
Nepalese
rebels bomb capital
Nepalese rebels shot a policeman and set off two bombs in Kathmandu
on Friday while keeping up a blockade that has isolated the capital
since midweek to press demands for the release of rebels held
by the government.
A few hours later, the cabinet promised to meet one rebel demand – that the government account for suspected rebels missing since apparent arrests. It was not clear, however, if officials also would agree to demands for immediately freeing known rebel prisoners and removing their “terrorist” label.
There was no immediate reaction from the rebels, who have been fighting since 1996 to replace the monarchy in this Himalayan nation with a communist state.
Early in the day, gunmen wounded a policeman guarding the Land Revenue Office in the heart of Kathmandu, then put a bomb under a staircase at the agency.
Hundreds of people waiting to pay land taxes, transfer land ownership and settle disputes stampeded out of the building after the shooting, and the bomb exploded minutes later, witnesses said. “People were screaming and jumping over walls,” said Mukesh Sharma, a lawyer.
No serious injuries were reported from the blast, but doctors said the policeman suffered critical head and chest wounds from bullets.
Later, an explosion blasted an empty police post on the city's outskirts, along a highway linking Nepal with Tibet. No one was hurt.
At an emergency meeting Friday, the cabinet agreed that an investigation and report on missing people would be conducted within a month, Information Minister Mohammed Mohsin said. He did not say if the other rebel demands were being considered.
The government also repeated its offer to resume negotiations for a peaceful resolution of the war, which has killed more than 9,500 people, mostly in remote rural areas.
The bombings came on the third day of a rebel blockade that has shut down Kathmandu's road links with the rest of the country, even though the insurgents have not set up a single roadblock. Despite beefed-up police patrols, the rebels' threat to attack any vehicles on the roads has been enough to stop nearly all civilian traffic.
A heavily guarded convoy of six buses left Thursday, apparently without incident, and at least three dozen buses and cars also made their way out of town under army escort Friday. Some taxi drivers who had been waiting to take passengers on the main highway changed their minds after the bombings.
“We could easily be the next victims. No one knows where the bombs will come from,” driver Kami Gurung said. “It is just not worth the risk.”
Roads are vital for Kathmandu, which has no railroads. Most of the city's food, fuel and other supplies are trucked in, and the blockade has left stores short of fresh produce and cooking fuel.
Officials said the capital has enough food staples such as rice and flour to last a month, but prices for vegetables, fruits and other perishable goods are climbing.
“Tomatoes
were just 25 rupees (40 cents Canadian) per kilogram two days
ago. Now it is twice that much. The poor people will starve if
this continues,” said a housewife, Tara Maharjan, at the
main vegetable market.
20 August 2004, AP
Meat
'bomb' at athletics HQ
Anarchists claimed responsibility for a bomb threat
at the Greek Athletics Federation's headquarters in Athens today,
but police said they found only a bag filled with minced meat
and syringes.
Bomb disposal experts evacuated and searched the central Athens building and cordoned off nearby roads after an anonymous call to a local newspaper.
In a statement sent to the semi-official Athens News Agency, the little-known Anarchists' Intervention group protested against the Olympics, saying "commercialised sports serving records, profits, sponsors and medals at any cost cannot but be covered in anabolics".
The group called the agency to say its bomb threat was a hoax.
The athletics federation, SEGAS, has been embroiled in a doping scandal in which the host nation's two top sprinters, Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou, pulled out of the Athens Games yesterday after missing a drugs test last week.
The case has rocked Greek athletics and the government has pledged to come down hard on cheats. "We are not treating this as a very serious matter," said a police official. "After carefully sweeping the building we saw that there was no bomb and we found the harmless bag."
The biggest security operation in peacetime Europe has been mounted to protect the first Summer Olympics since the September 11 attacks on the US three years ago.
Dozens of fringe groups, including leftists and anarchists, stage minor firebomb attacks or bomb hoaxes in and around the Greek capital.
20 August 2004, Courier Mail
Bomb Found Near Tony Blair’s Holiday Villa
Tony Blair was at the centre of a security scare last night after terrorists managed to plant a bomb close to his holiday villa.
The PM and his wife had left the Italian island of Sardinia only hours before police made the discovery.
Bomb disposal experts defused the crude device near the luxury villa of Italy's controversial leader Silvio Berlusconi.
The attack by a local anarchist group raises serious questions about how they were able to get so close to two top politicians.
Security for the Blairs' visit to Italy had been exceptionally tight in the wake of threats by Islamic terrorists.
Just days ago, an al Qaeda-linked group issued a statement warning the Italian government they had 'dug their grave by their own hands'.
Anti-terrorist police and sniffer dogs had swamped the north-east coast of Sardinia before the Blairs arrived to visit Berlusconi.
The PM and his wife Cherie arrived on Monday and were seen walking with Berlusconi near his luxury villa and appeared to be oblivious to safety fears.
Anti-terrorist experts are urgently reviewing security after the group managed to breach the huge security cordon.
The small bomb,a stick of mining dynamite attached to a timer and battery, was found in a bin less than a mile from Berlusconi's 27-bedroom villa la Certosa.
The alarm was raised late on Tuesday night when a caller rang the local newspaper, L'Unione Sarda, to warn them of the device.
The caller added: 'We have to give Berlusconi a lesson. We promised a summer of fire and we will keep that promise.This is a war on war.'
The bomb had been due to explode at 4.30am.
Police said it had been found within 30 minutes of the warning.
Had it gone off it would have caused considerable damage and anyone passing by would have been seriously injured, they said.
Anti-terrorist police chief Paolo De Angelis said: 'Being able to actually defuse the device and get our hands on it is a stroke of luck from an investigative point of view.
'From the bomb, we will be able to piece together who made it - ajob much easier than if it had exploded.'
The group responsible for the bomb have been active in Sardinia for the last four years and have been behind a series of attacks.
Their devices have gone off outside bars, banks and trade union offices causing minor damage.
Last night, a spokesman for Berlusconi said he had been informed but was not letting it get in the way of his holiday.
Meanwhile, Blair was with his family at the villa of Prince Strozzi in Tuscany where he is having a week's holiday.
He discussed the bomb with the speaker of the Italian house of Parliament, Pier Ferdinando Casini, over lunch yesterday.
19 August 2004, Daily Record
Hoax
bomb delays A-level results in North
A hoax
bomb in a postal sorting office has delayed the delivery of A-Level
results to students in Northern Ireland.
The Mallusk mail centre, just outside Belfast, was evacuated for two hours following the alert.
The delay meant that
some letters did not make today's delivery, and students will
have to wait another day to find out how they fared.
19 August 2004, Ireland
online
Suspicious mail sent to U.S. Embassy
Authorities are testing a suspicious powder mailed to the U.S. Embassy in Malaysia to determine whether it is anthrax, officials said today after the second such scare within a week at a U.S. mission in Asia.
The powder was mailed with an intimidating leaflet from an unknown group called Jemaah Muhajirin Mohamad, demanding Washington remove its troops from Iraq "or face the consequences." It threatened to blow up the embassy and kill or kidnap Americans in Malaysia, said Abdul Aziz Bulat, Kuala Lumpur’s police chief of criminal investigations.
"We think that it’s just a hoax and this group is nonexistent, but we will take precautions by investigating this seriously," Abdul Aziz told The Associated Press.
16 August 2004, AP
Independence
Day bomb kills 16 in India
A powerful bomb exploded during an Independence Day parade in
India's remote north-east on Sunday, killing 16 people, mostly
schoolchildren, and injuring more than 40 others, despite the
country's prime minister promising to "fight terrorism forcefully".
Thirteen schoolchildren, who had been watching a ceremony to mark the end of British rule in India 57 years ago, were killed in the blast at the local college grounds in Dhemaji in Assam state.
Reporters said the blast had ripped through the crowd without warning.
"It was such a powerful blast that the bodies of the dead were in two or three pieces. It was a horrific tragedy," New Delhi TV's reporter Kishalay Bhattacharjee told viewers.
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom, which had warned people to stay away from celebrations, was suspected. The group has been fighting for an independent Assam since 1979.
After the bombing witnesses say the crowd took to the streets in Dhemaji. "The people started attacking the police and trying to burn government buildings. The crowd was angry because they said they had been promised protection if they came out to celebrate independence day," said Bhattacharjee.
Earlier, India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh said his government would take a tough stand against groups which opted for violence rather than seeking to resolve issues by talking to New Delhi.
"We will fight terrorism forcefully. Let there be no doubt about it. But if a group is ready to give up arms and talk to us, we are ready," Singh said from the Red Fort, a tradition followed by each prime minister since Indian gained independence from Britain on August 15 1947.
The chief minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi, said there were "intelligence reports of a bomb attack but not the exact position". Admitting that the deaths may have been as a result of a security failings, he said there appeared to have been lapses which he would punish.
The states of north-east India provided the first real jolt to the country's integrity in the 1970s. That decade saw separatist movements erupting in Assam, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and Meghalaya.
Carved out of the old British Raj province of Assam, these states were politically integrated with the rest of post-1947 India but were geographically and culturally remote. Today only Mizoram and Meghalaya are quiet.
A state of 26-million people, Assam is rich in oil and tea but has been unable to exploit its natural wealth because of the 25 year insurgency.
16 August
2004, Guardian Newspapers
Police detonate bomb in Spain
Bomb disposal experts detonated a small explosive device in northern
Spain today following a telephone warning on behalf of Basque
separatists, officials said.
The blast in the resort town of Llanes was "very small," the Interior Ministry said. There were no injuries.
It was the third such explosion in the northern Asturias region since August 7 claimed by or blamed on the armed Basque separatist group ETA. Two others went off in the neighbouring Cantabria region.
Prior to today's explosion, a man called a newspaper in the Asturias regional capital, Oviedo, and warned that a bomb would go off near the port in Llanes, and said he was speaking on behalf of ETA, the Interior Ministry office in Oviedo said.
15 August 2004, Globe and Mail
US
Embassy to reopen Monday
The US Embassy, which was closed last Tuesday following an Anthrax
scare, will reopen on Monday, the Embassy said in a statement.
"Tests conducted on a white powder found in an envelope proved negative for any toxic substances," the Embassy said.
The embassy said new appointments will be given to visa applicants as quickly as possible. New interview dates will be notified by fax.
Normal operating hours will be maintained. The Embassy thanked the Sri Lankan Government, well wishers and the Medical Research Institute for their cooperation.
The Embassy
was closed after the unknown substance was received in the mail.
The nearby USAID and US Information Service offices were also
shut. It also turned off its air conditioning system and fans
and ordered staff to leave.
15 August 2004, AP
Rockford
Business Has Scare with Suspicious Powder
Employees at a Rockford debt collection agency were given a scare
Thursday morning when an envelope containing powder was opened
in the company's mail room.
A spokesman says an employee at CAMCO discovered the powder.
Everyone was evacuated from the building. While officials cleared the building of the brown powdery substance, a field test for anthrax came up negative. The substance has not yet been identified.
Employees
returned to the building Thursday afternoon
14 August 2004, AP
Suspicious
Package Turns Out to be Cell Phone
A suspicious package that led to the evacuation of a Landover
warehouse turned out to be harmless.
Prince George's County Fire and Rescue spokesman Mark Brady says
the device apparently consisted of a cell phone from overseas
and some other electrical components.
Authorities had feared the device might contain explosives. It was detected about 1 this afternoon during a routine X-ray inspection. A robot with the county's bomb squad was brought in to examine it.
The warehouse is used by some government agencies to presort mail for delivery.
13 August 2004, AP
Suspicious Package Causes Bomb Scare at World Bank’s Mail Processing Facility
The county bomb squad, investigating a suspicious package in Landover, determined it was a cell phone and associated electronic equipment being sent to the World Bank in the District.
The bomb squad arrived at about at about 1p.m. to the Landover site of the contractor that screens the World Bank's mail.
The squad finished its operations at about 5p.m.
Using a bomb squad robot, the team extracted the package containing the suspected explosive device from a conveyor belt in the loading dock of Kane 3PL, the contractor located in the 3600 block of Pennsy Drive.
Two water projectiles were fired at the package and the components were exposed, and firefighters soon determined the package was not an explosive device at all.
At first, county fire and police officials confirmed that the package contained components needed to construct explosives after learning that employees spotted the package while X-raying mail.
A partial
evacuation of the building was undertaken
13 August
2004, AP
Bombs
rip through pro-Taliban school in Pakistan
Two bombs ripped through an Islamic school Sunday in Pakistan,
killing eight and injuring 42 in the latest outbreak of violence
gripping the southern port city of Karachi.
The blasts went off near a restaurant close to Jamia Binoria in western Karachi, a Sunni Muslim school where thousands study, said Fayyaz Leghari, a senior Karachi police official. There was no claim of responsibility.
Eight people died and 42 others were injured, Mr. Leghari said. Some were Jamia Binoria students, but no casualty breakdown was available. One of the dead was a child who'd been passing by with his parents, said Iqrar Abbasi, a doctor at Civil Hospital Karachi.
A spokesman for the seminary, Ghulam Rabbani, said there were two explosions — the first apparently intended to draw a crowd.
"The first one was smaller. When people got to the site there was another explosion," he said. Officials earlier reported the explosion was near Jamia Islamia Binori Town, a prominent seminary that had links with the Taliban in Afghanistan. But Jamia Binoria, where the two explosions occurred, is a different school located near an industrial area in Karachi.
More than 100 police and paramilitary troops blocked off streets in the blast area Sunday night. Explosive experts defused another bomb hidden in a plastic shopping bag near the scene of Sunday night's blasts, Mr. Leghari said.
President General Pervez Musharraf condemned the attack and expressed grief over the killings, state-run Pakistan Television reported. Gen. Musharraf appealed for people to help keep peace in Karachi, PTV reported. Violence in revenge for attacks is common in the city.
The explosion shattered windows at the restaurant and other nearby buildings. The burned wreckage of the motorcycle in which one of the bombs was planted lay with glass and other pieces of rubble strewn around on the street.
"We were drinking tea in the restaurant when the first bomb exploded. We rushed outside" said Hayaullah Khan, 20, a student at the school, with tea spilled over his traditional white shalwar kameez outfit.
Meanwhile, police stepped up patrols and vehicle checks for bombs and weapons in the capital, Islamabad, said Sultan Azam Temuri, a police official there. Mr. Temuri said that the Karachi blasts were "in our mind," but that there was no specific threat of an attack in Islamabad.
Karachi is Pakistan's main port city and commercial centre, and is believed to be a hide-out for Islamic militants, some with suspected al-Qaeda links. In recent months the city has been the scene of bomb explosions and attacks targeting security forces and Westerners, including an assassination attempt against a senior general in June.
The general survived, but 10 other people died. Much of the violence in the city of about 14 million people is blamed on Islamic hard-liners who are angered by Gen. Musharraf's decision to ally with the U.S.-led war campaign against terrorism.
On Saturday,
a bomb killed two people outside a Karachi car dealership in part
of the city where Pakistani police had arrested al-Qaeda operative
Ramzi Binalshibh after a shootout in September 2002.
FBI investigating bomb letters sent to
Democratic convention
Federal investigators are investigating threats to bomb the Democratic National Convention in Boston last month, which they say were mailed from upstate New York.
Agents have questioned a Los Angeles-area man, who has Binghamton relatives, according to an FBI application for a search warrant.
The man was questioned about mid-July threats of the detonation of biological and nuclear weapons at the Democratic convention, according The Press and Sun-Bulletin of Binghamton. The newspaper did not name the suspect because no charges have been filed.
The warrant says the man said he knew of seven suitcase nuclear devices somewhere in the country.
The warrant application filed in Seattle says that two threatening letters were postmarked in Binghamton on July 15 and received at the local FBI office the next day. Both were signed "Patriot."
A third letter, mailed July 17 to the Binghamton FBI office from Johnson City, referred to chemical weapons allegedly located in Washington state and Peabody, Mass. That letter was also signed "Patriot."
Investigators
did not report the discovery of any bombs at the convention, but
agents said the person who wrote the letter can be charged for
using mail to threaten to kill or injure people.
6 August 2004, AP
Suspicious
Package Forces Evacuation of Greyhound Bus Station
Things
were a little tense Friday morning at the Greyhound bus station
on 8th Avenue South in downtown Nashville.
Police say
someone left a suitcase behind on the boarding dock and folks
got a little suspicious. The bus station was evacuated and the
surrounding roads were shut down during the morning rush hour
while the bomb squad investigated.
Eventually, they determined that the suspicious package was simply
someone's forgotten luggage and everyone was allowed back inside.
This was the third time Metro police have been called out to investigate a suspicious package or noise in the last three days. The Polk Building downtown was evacuated Wednesday after a piece of plexiglass fell down a mail shoot.
And on Thursday, everyone was ordered out of a medical building near Centennial hospital after someone left a small case with their cigarettes and lighter in it in a restroom.
6 August 2004
Package with Suspicious Powder Sent to Kerry in Washington
Federal authorities yesterday confiscated a suspicious package addressed to Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry from what used to be the Brentwood Postal Facility in Northeast.
A postal inspector said the package contained a granular substance that looked like white powder. The substance was later confirmed to be powdered potatoes, the inspector said.
A postal inspector responded to a call yesterday afternoon about a substance leaking from a package at the V Street post office. Considering it a low-risk substance, the inspector placed the package in a car and transported it to the Curseen-Morris Mail Processing and Distribution Center, formerly known as the Brentwood facility.
D.C. fire and rescue personnel arrived at the center along with FBI and Secret Service agents about 3:15 p.m. The package was taken away in a plastic bag for lab testing.
Postal inspector Molly McMinn said the package contained a return address and officials are trying to contact the sender to verify the package's contents.
Miss McMinn did not know if any procedures were violated when the inspector transported the package.
Initial reports said that a postal worker found the suspicious letter Wednesday. But because the package was poorly addressed, an employee did not know what to do with it and took it home. The reports said the employee brought the package to the inspector the next day.
"That was inaccurate information," Miss McMinn said, adding that the report was repeated on the evening news.
The incident came as the District continued to be on high alert after the federal government received intelligence of potential terrorist attacks on financial institutions in the District, New York City and New Jersey.
Brentwood was shut down for 26 months after October 2001 when anthrax-laced letters were processed in the building. Two mail workers died as a result.
No suspects were ever arrested in the case but federal agents investigating the deadly anthrax attacks yesterday searched the homes of the founder of an organization that trains medical professionals to respond to chemical and biological attacks.
More than three dozen agents, some in protective suits, combed through several homes in upstate New York and in New Jersey yesterday.
Authorities provided few details about the investigation, but did say that FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service agents were searching multiple locations in Wellsville and Dover Township, N.J., as part of the anthrax probe.
The searches raised the prospect that authorities might be closer to a break in a case. Five persons were killed and 17 sickened in the anthrax attacks.
Property records list the New York homes as the addresses of Dr. Kenneth Berry, 48, a bioterrorism expert who once advocated the distribution of anthrax vaccine in major cities. It was not immediately known why the agents searched the homes, and attempts to reach Dr. Berry by telephone and e-mail were unsuccessful yesterday.
In New Jersey,
agents searched a lagoon-front bungalow and hauled out garbage
bags that a neighbor said appeared to be filled with bulky contents.
Authorities also removed boxes with clear plastic bags in them.
Two flatbed trucks hauled two vehicles away from the property.
6 August 2004,
AP
New
twist to the 2001 anthrax attacks in the U.S.
In a new twist to the 2001 anthrax attacks in the U.S., the Federal
Bureau of Investigation is searching 2 homes in new York and New
Jersey which may be related to the attacks.
The houses appear to belong to Dr. Kenneth Berry, 48, a bioterrorism
expert and the man behind PREEMPT Medical Counter-Terrorism a
company founded in 1997.
Dr. Berry is president of the American Academy of Emergency Physicians and a member of the board and special counsel to the chair of the Board of Certification in Emergency Medicine. He serves as director of emergency services at the Jones Memorial Hospital in Wellsville, NY. Berry is also a fellow of the American Academy of Family Practice, the American College of Forensic Medicine and the American College of Forensic Examiners.
Over 30 agents in protective suits, searched through the two homes.
The F.B.I has not provided any details about the investigation, other than to say that FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service agents were searching multiple locations in Wellsville and Dover Township, N.J.
The 2001 anthrax attacks occurred over several weeks in September and October 2001. Cases of anthrax due to bioterrorism broke out at various locations. Due to the fact that this immediately followed the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks there has been speculation of linkage between the two events. This was furthered by allegations that the "skin lesion" for which Ahmed al-Haznawi, one of the alleged September 11 hijackers, sought treatment at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was in fact caused by cutaneous anthrax.
There were numerous exposures, several infections (nineteen), and five fatalities. Thousands were tested. 10,000 people in the United States took a two-month course of antibiotics after possible exposure. Hundreds or thousands of unexposed persons acquired the antibiotic Cipro through their doctors or over the Internet. Later statistical analysis claims that approximately 5 deaths and 25 non-fatal cases of anthrax were prevented by prompt antibiotic use.
All of the anthrax spores in the mail were found to be of an identical strain. This strain is one that the U.S. military used for study at USAMRIID and distributed to other government and university labs as well as to other governments including United Kingdom. The FBI claims that they are concentrating on a domestic terrorist. They now believe that the anthrax attack was not related to the September 11th, 2001 attacks.
Anthrax toxin
is comprised of three proteins: protective antigen (PA), lethal
factor (LF), and edema factor (EF). To gain entry into host cells,
PA must recognize a receptor on the surface of the target cell.
Once PA has bound to the cell, it then enables EF and LF to bind
and form a pore through which PA forces EF and LF into the cell
in a syringe-like action.
5 August 2004, New Medical
Bomb explodes in Karachi
A bomb exploded
outside a car dealership in southern Pakistan on Saturday, killing
two people and wounding three, police said.
Rescue teams have taken the victims, all workers at the dealership, to a hospital, said Munir Sheikh, a senior police official.
He said the explosion damaged three cars and shop windows in the commercial area of Karachi, the capital of Pakistan's southern Sindh province.
The blast occurred in the same area from where Pakistani police had arrested important al-Qaeda operative Ramzi Binalshibh after a shootout in September 2002.
Mr. Sheikh said police were investigating the blast and gave no other details.
It was not immediately clear who planted the bomb outside the business of Haji Akram.
"I have no enemy in the city ..... I don't know who put the bomb outside my shop," Mr. Akram said.
Karachi, Pakistan's largest city with a population of 14 million, has been the scene of several terrorist attacks in recent years, mostly blamed on Islamic militants.
Pakistan is
a key ally of the United States in its war on terror and the latest
explosion came about two weeks after Pakistani security agencies
captured several al-Qaeda suspects, including Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani,
a Tanzanian indicted an alleged role in the 1998 bombings of U.S.
embassies in eastern Africa.
5 August 2004, Associated
Press
US
embassy
closes visa section following bomb threat
The Consular (Visa) Section, the Department of Homeland Security
— Immigration Office — at the US Embassy and the Information
Resource Center (American Library) at the American Center here
will remain closed to the public on August 5. The decision was
conveyed to the Delhi Police on Wednesday evening.
‘‘We received information in the evening. The public dealing sections will be closed on Thursday" said Anita Roy, DCP, New Delhi district. However, it is not clear whether the closure will extend beyond Thursday.
‘‘The embassy has been in touch with the Indian government and has conveyed a security threat to its establishments on August 5,’’ Roy said. The threat perception is based on their own intelligence network, the police said.
The police will be making special security arrangements around US establishments which already have additional security. Patrolling will be intensified and watch will be kept on movement of people and vehicles in the area, a senior police officer said.
The website stated that ‘‘the embassy will make every effort to continue to provide emergency services to US citizens on August 5. Americans needing emergency assistance may telephone the embassy at 2419-8562 or 2419-0110 or contact the US embassy by e-mail at acsnd@state.gov. In case of an emergency outside business hours, American citizens may reach the embassy duty officer by calling 2419-8000.’’
The Consulates General in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata will remain open for business as usual.
6 August 2004, NewIndPress
New
threat of terror not hyped
U.S. Homeland
Security Secretary Tom Ridge defended the extensive security cordons
thrown up this week in three U.S. cities, saying the threat of
terrorist attack is real despite indications that al-Qaeda surveillance
of suspected targets occurred years ago.
There was strong evidence that al-Qaeda had updated those files recently and that multiple sources of intelligence information pointed to an attack in the coming months, Mr. Ridge said yesterday.
As some skeptics voiced suggestions that the Bush administration had hyped the threat, Mr. Ridge said, "I wish I could give them all Top Secret clearances and let them review the information that some of us have the responsibility to review."
He rejected assertions that the heightened alert was designed to bolster President George W. Bush's re-election campaign.
"We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security," he said.
Al-Qaeda's exhaustive surveillance files of financial targets may be several years old but the threat of an attack remains current -- a stark reflection of the planning, often years in advance, that characterizes the terrorist group's style, Mr. Ridge said.
"Just because we don't know when it might occur, when you see this kind of detailed planning, you have to take pre-emptive action to prevent it," he said yesterday after tight security cordons were clamped around financial landmarks in Washington, New York and Newark, N.J.
Mr. Ridge conceded that much of the targeting files recovered from an al-Qaeda suspect's computer, seized after a gun battle in Pakistan in mid-July, was as much as four years old. But he noted that some files had been updated a few months ago.
At least some of al-Qaeda's most spectacular operations -- notably the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in which four jetliners were transformed into human-guided missiles by suicidal hijackers who destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon -- were conceived years in advance, meticulously planned, adapted and carefully rehearsed.
Indeed, top al-Qaeda operative Khalid Shaikh Mohammed first conceived of a multiple hijacking seven years before the 2001 attacks. The "planes" operation evolved over time and targets and pilots were debated and selected, until finally the attack was authorized by Osama bin Laden. Not until long after Sept 11 would U.S. and foreign investigators unearth documents of much of the early planning.
The discovery in Pakistan recently of similarly detailed planning bears all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda's style, with multiple, high-profile targets and careful advance work.
But this does not suggest any attack has been approved, or that it is imminent, as Mr. Ridge acknowledged yesterday.
"There's no evidence of recent surveillance," he said, adding, "we know this is an organization that plans in advance, that prepares and is patient."
He also gave the strongest hint yet that al-Qaeda sleeper cells might be in the United States, awaiting the green light to strike.
"We don't have the luxury of waiting to identify somebody coming across the border," Mr. Ridge said. "We just have to accept, for our planning and preparation purposes, the notion that they're here."
A cache of documents, computer files and detailed drawings recovered in Pakistan, coupled with the capture of several al-Qaeda suspects there and a spike in intercepted communications, all contributed to Sunday's unprecedented warnings about specific buildings being possible targets.
"This is the most significant, detailed pieces of information about any particular region that we have come across in a long, long time, perhaps ever," Mr. Ridge said.
He strongly defended the administration's decision to issue a warning about the threat of possible car-bomb or truck-bomb attacks against five financial centres, including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, Citigroup's towering silver skyscraper in midtown Manhattan and the New York Stock Exchange, and Prudential Financial's headquarters in Newark.
But evidence of careful planning doesn't always mean al-Qaeda is moving ahead with an operation. The Sept. 11 commission detailed several plots that were extensively planned, then dropped.
Similarly, al-Qaeda operations aren't always as meticulously organized as the "planes" operation.
The "millennium plot," headed by Ahmed Ressam, was a shambles. Most of the cell members who were supposed to join Mr. Ressam in Canada failed to show up. And Mr. Ressam drew the attention of U.S. customs officers by handing over a Costco credit card when asked for a second piece of identification as he tried to enter the United States with a car full of bomb components in December of 1999.
Other plots also sank, sometimes literally. The first attempt to bomb a U.S. warship in the Yemeni port of Aden failed when al-Qaeda operatives overloaded their boat with explosives and it was swamped. Undeterred and undetected, they launched the attack 10 months later and successfully damaged the USS Cole, killing 17 sailors.
Even the "planes" operation was nearly scuppered when Mohamed Atta, the lead pilot who was running the entire operation in the United States, nearly missed the American Airlines flight from Boston to Los Angeles that he crashed into one of the WTC towers.
The quandary facing counterterrorism officials, including Mr. Ridge, is that they have to assume all suspected plots are live and that attack may be imminent.
"The
only thing you ever know about security measures is when you didn't
take enough," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday.
"You never know when you took too many of them."
4 August 2004,
Globe and Mail
Weapons scanner offer to schools
Head teachers who suspect pupils are carrying knives are to be
offered hi-tech scanners by police.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens said he would provide the machines free of charge to heads worried that weapons were being taken into school.
Sir John said: "We would use them in any place the head teacher felt there was a problem with knives.
"We would also work with the head in hotspots outside schools... places where we know knives are carried."
The Met owns two of the £100,000 US-made Secure 1000 scanners, which use low level X-rays to penetrate clothes rather than the body and produce digital images on screen.
It is in talks with the Department for Education over making them available to schools.
Sir John said the scanners would initially be available in the Greater London area but the offer could be extended to the rest of the country.
David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "I very much welcome the offer.
"I hope the initiative can be taken up by other forces."
The move follows the conviction last week of 16-year-old Alan Pennell, given life for stabbing 14-year-old Luke Walmsley to death at Birkbeck School in North Somercotes, Lincs.
After the
verdict Luke's mother Jayne, 41, called for better security in
schools including more use of CCTV - but said she thought scanners
in every school was "going too far".
2 August 2004,
Mirror
US banks under new terror threat
Employees
of some of the most famous financial institutions in the US have
been urged to report for work despite "credible" threats
from al-Qaeda.
The security alert has been raised to "high" - the second-highest
level - in parts of Washington DC and New York.
The alert seems to have derived from information seized after the arrest of an alleged al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan last week.
US officials
said the intelligence involved "extraordinary detail".
Pakistan has said that plans for attacks on targets in the US
and UK were found in e-mails and documents on the computer of
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani.
The Tanzanian, wanted in connection with the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa, was arrested on 25 July in Pakistan.
It is not clear how significant a factor the discovery was in the American decision to issue its warning. But the information discovered in Pakistan is described as detailed and precise.
The move comes
a day after New York authorities warned residents and businesses
of a possible new al-Qaeda suicide attack in the city.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said in a televised news
conference that there was no indication when the attacks might
be attempted, but it could be at any time in the next three months,
ahead of November's presidential poll.
He said security would be increased at buildings specified in the intelligence, which included International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings, the New York Stock Exchange, the Prudential building in Newark, New Jersey, and the Citigroup CN buildings in New York.
"This is not the usual chatter. This is multiple sources that involve extraordinary detail," he added.
Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Ahmed Rashid told the Associated Press: "We got a few e-mails from Ghailani's computer about [plans for] attacks in the US and UK."
The BBC's Zaffar Abbas, in Islamabad, says it appears that US investigators were able to unscramble information on the computers after Pakistan passed on suspicious encrypted documents.
Pakistan has
also confirmed the arrest of another man believed to be an al-Qaeda
computer and communications expert, but it is not clear if this
is also linked to the alleged US plot.
Meanwhile, Mr Ridge said staff and visitors to the named buildings
would be warned and urged to be extra vigilant.
"Al-Qaeda wants to intimidate us," he said, adding:
"Our resolve is indivisible and unyielding."
He said the US authorities understood the "preferred method of attack is car and truck bombs".
Just a few hours later, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged city residents to go about their business, saying security had been stepped up at the specific targets.
The city has
already been planning a massive security operation to protect
the Republican National Convention in late August, when the party
will nominate President George W Bush as its candidate for the
November election.
"Let me assure all New Yorkers of one thing: we are deploying
our full array of counter-terrorism resources," Mr Bloomberg
told a news conference.
"We will spare no expense and we will take no chances."
The mayor added that on Monday morning New Yorkers should "get up... [and] go about their business and enjoy the very freedoms that the terrorists find so threatening".
Appearing alongside the mayor, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said vehicles were being searched at city bridges and tunnels, while police officers - both uniformed and undercover - were on patrol.
Mr Kelly said attacks might be carried out with car bombs or backpacks filled with explosives.
New York was the US city that suffered most casualties on 11 September 2001, with almost 2,800 people killed.
2 August 2004, BBC
Car
bomb blasts at churches kill 10
Six car bombs exploded overnight outside churches in Baghdad and
the northern city of Mosul, killing at least 10 people, in a lethal,
co-ordinated assault on Iraq's Christian minority.
Police and medics gave the death toll this morning, but there was still some confusion over the figure, with some reports claiming 15 deaths, and others saying the toll was sure to rise.
Several people perished when one of the bombs exploded inside a huge church and seminary compound in southern Baghdad, causing massive damage.
A city hospital said it received six dead from the scene.
But a rescue worker
at the Al-Dura compound said he pulled out six dead women and
two dead children from the debris.
Another witness said he had clawed three dead women out of the
rubble, but there was no immediate confirmation from medics.
Dozens of wounded were admitted to hospitals as the explosions unleashed chaos on the capital's streets at the end of evening mass.
The attacks were the first targeting Christian places of worship in Iraq since the April 2003 ousting of Saddam Hussein.
The first car was detonated by a suicide bomber outside an Armenian church in Baghdad's upmarket district of Karada, said policeman Haidar Abdul Hussein.
Minutes later,
a second car bomb exploded next to a Catholic Syriac church.
2 Aug 2004, Courier Mail
Police Officer in Washington State Receives Powder and Razor Blade Threats in Mail
Woman suspected of sending death threats with white powder to a local police officer headed to court Tuesday to answer to a charge of using the U.S. mail to threaten a life.
One of the letters dared: "Catch me if you can." Federal agents think they do have their suspect in 43-year-old Janet Miller.
On April 22, 2003, anyone spotting a white powder thought "anthrax." The Tacoma post office was no exception when a letter there spilled white powder.
What no one said back then was the letter was addressed to the Sequim Police Department.
We now know that four other letters, some with white powder, arrived at the small police department in a Sequim strip mall.
Now the Feds say Janet Ann Miller wrote all five letters; some of them extremely threatening.
The first