-Caveat Lector-
The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com
Chechen terrorists probed
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published October 13, 2004
U.S. security officials are investigating a recent intelligence report that
a group of 25 Chechen terrorists illegally entered the United States from
Mexico in July.
The Chechen group is suspected of having links to Islamist terrorists
seeking to separate the southern enclave of Chechnya from Russia, according
to officials familiar with intelligence reports.
Members of the group, said to be wearing backpacks, secretly traveled to
northern Mexico and crossed into a mountainous part of Arizona that is
difficult for U.S. border security agents to monitor, said officials
speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The intelligence report was supplied to the U.S. government in late
August or early September and was based on information from an intelligence
source that has been proved reliable in other instances, one official said.
A second U.S. official said the report is being investigated, but said
it could not be determined whether the group of Chechens actually entered
the country, as the intelligence source reported.
"We don't know whether or not that report is true," this official said.
A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed that the
intelligence report was provided by another government agency, but said
Border Patrol agents were unable to verify its accuracy.
It could not be learned whether the reported infiltration is related to
the recent Education Department warning to school officials to examine
security in the aftermath of the attack last month by pro-Chechnya Muslim
terrorists on a school in Russia, in which more than 300 people were killed
and some 700 wounded.
In the Russian attack, heavily armed Islamists took over and wired with
explosives the school building in Beslan, North Ossetia. It is believed that
an accidental explosion set off a battle between Russian security personnel
and the terrorists, who set off several explosions and shot schoolchildren
and teachers as they tried to escape.
U.S. officials believe the Beslan terrorists included some al
Qaeda-linked foreign terrorists.
The Education Department letter said that school officials should
examine "protective measure guidance" for helping to prevent and respond to
a similar terrorist attack, were it to occur in the United States.
The notice said the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are
"currently unaware of any specific, credible information indicating a
terrorist threat to public and private schools, universities or colleges in
the United States."
The letter stated that indicators of terrorist surveillance before an
attack include interest in site plans for schools, bus routes and attendance
lists from persons who don't normally request such information.
Authorities also were advised to remain alert for "static surveillance"
by people who may be disguised as panhandlers, shoeshiners, newspaper or
flower vendors, or street sweepers who seem out of place in a particular
area.
Other indicators of terrorist surveillance can include spying on school
security drills, people staring at employees or vehicles in parking areas,
and surveillance by pedestrians.
Fears of an attack on American schools also were raised by the recent
discovery in Iraq of a computer disk containing data showing the layout of
six schools in the United States, including districts in California,
Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey and Oregon.
Officials believed the disk may have been part of a terrorist plot.
However, FBI officials said on Friday that there did not appear to be a
terrorist threat connected to the computer disk.
The Iraqi who had the disk, a member of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party,
apparently was collecting information from the Internet sites of American
schools that would be useful for emergency planning for Iraqi schools, U.S.
officials said.
U.S. security officials have been concerned in recent months that al
Qaeda or other terrorists are planning to enter the United States from
Mexico.
Intelligence officials said a suspected al Qaeda leader who has been in
the United States was spotted recently in Mexico. Officials believe Adnan
Shukrijumah, whom the FBI wants for questioning, met with alien smugglers in
Mexico and Honduras and was seeking ways to bring al Qaeda members into the
United States. Shukrijumah was seen in August in the Sonora province of
northern Mexico, officials said.
Since October 2003, authorities have arrested five Arabs attempting to
cross illegally into the United States from Mexico.
In July, officials dismissed as untrue an Internet report that said a
group of Middle Eastern men were recently caught trying to cross the border
from Mexico.
The report apparently was based on a group of Oaxacan tribesmen who were
stopped as they tried to cross the border in Arizona. The tribesmen spoke an
Indian language native to southern Mexico that may have been mistaken for
Arabic, officials said at the time.
Copyright © 2004 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
Return to the article
www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
