-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Information Warfare Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. Janet Reno, Louis Freeh, Sandy Berger, and Madeleine Albright are "protecting" you from terrorists. WASHINGTON (AP) -- The State Department issued a new worldwide warning Tuesday night that Americans may be the target of terrorist attacks in the New Year period. Large groups of people, assembled for religious festivals or to mark the millennium, may be especially at risk, the department said. Arrests in Jordan last week have produced information that hotels, tour buses and tourist sites in the Arab kingdom may have been targeted, the statement said. However, even after the arrests of 13 suspects, ``we cannot rule out the possibility that attacks still may be planned for this and other parts of the world,'' the department said. Amid heightened concerns about the possibility of a holiday terrorist attack at home as well as abroad, security was ordered tightened Tuesday at American airports and the Pentagon said it was taking ``appropriate action'' to protect U.S. forces overseas. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart reiterated a State Department warning that there was ``credible information'' about potential terrorist threats abroad, and that Americans should stay in touch with U.S. embassies or consulates. An earlier worldwide caution was issued Dec. 11. At the time, a senior U.S. official said, the U.S. government knew a plot had been uncovered in Jordan. ``The announcement was designed to keep Americans abreast of the counter-terrorism operation,'' said the official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The official also said authorities were looking for a 31-year-old U.S. citizen from California with ties to Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile the Clinton administration considers the mastermind of a worldwide terrorist operation. Anxiety has increased since last week's arrest of an Algerian who crossed into Washington state from Canada in a car carrying bomb-making materials. The Federal Aviation Administration said travelers should expect tightened security precautions at airports, including stricter enforcement of parking regulations. The agency said it would make more use of devices to check airline passengers for small traces of explosives and additional bomb-sniffing dogs and uniformed police would patrol airports as the new year approaches. In another development, law enforcement officials said they were searching for as many as three people they believe may have been accomplices to the Algerian arrested last week. The new warning to Americans was stated clearly: ``The U.S. government believes that terrorists may be planning to conduct attacks, including against official and non-official Americans, in and around the New Year period, from now through mid-January 2000.'' At the Pentagon, spokesman Kenneth Bacon said the Defense Department last week sent to U.S. military commanders worldwide two advisories highlighting State Department cautions about terrorist threats against Americans abroad. The messages also provided ``other information'' relevant to the security of U.S. forces. Bacon would not be more specific, although he said no commanders abroad had requested additional equipment or other assets to increase security on their bases. Asked specifically if the Pentagon had taken any new precautions or put any additional military assets on standby, Bacon said only, ``We're taking appropriate action.'' Also Tuesday, Federal Election Commission employees in Washington were told to evacuate their building shortly after 5 p.m. because of a threat directed against the FBI building across the street, FEC spokeswoman Sharon Snyder said. The FBI denied there was a problem. The U.S. Embassy in Quito, Ecuador, was closed Friday over concern it might be targeted by terrorists, the State Department's deputy spokesman, James B. Foley, said Tuesday. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, CIA Director George Tenet, Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and several other senior U.S. officials met for two hours Monday at the White House to consider issuing new public warnings about the potential for yearend terrorist attacks here and abroad. Various statements were drafted for their review, but none was approved, a senior government official told AP. The primary causes of concern are the travel of some suspected terrorists from one country to another, and reports that a terrorist group linked to bin Laden may be planning attacks, said another official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Last week, Jordanian authorities announced the arrest of 13 members of the terrorist group linked to bin Laden and said they were planning attacks against Americans, Israelis and other targets. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, long accused by the United States of supporting terrorism, said Tuesday he had no knowledge of imminent danger to Americans, but added, ``The U.S. government is hated. All the people in the world are against it, therefore there is a threat.'' In an interview from Tripoli on CBS' ``The Early Show,'' Gadhafi said, ``I hope it will not happen in this new year. I have no knowledge about this.'' In response, Foley said that enemies of free and open market democracies ``see in the United States the opposite of what most of the world sees in the United States. They see the U.S. as the beacon of a kind of freedom and respect for human rights that they oppose.'' Meanwhile, U.S. Border Patrol officers said they had arrested two people Sunday at a border station in Beecher Falls, Vt.. One was an Algerian national with a falsified Canadian passport; the other was a Canadian woman. A clerk at the U.S. District Court in Burlington identified them as Bouabide Chamchi and Lucia Garofalo. Dogs sniffed out traces of what could be explosives in the car that carried them, officials said. But searches of the car turned up nothing more. Mark Henry, assistant chief of the Border Patrol sector covering Vermont, said he knew of no link between the Washington state incident and the attempted entry in Vermont. Customs Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he was putting an extra 300 inspectors on duty at various points of entry, with particular attention to ``remote ports.'' Canadian Customs officials also were stepping up security on their side of the border. Carol Jenifer, district director for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Detroit, said more ``secondary inspections'' -- asking a driver to pull off to the side of the road -- would be performed if there were indications a driver may not be qualified to enter the United States. The Associated Press, December 21, 1999 Foreign Policy Loan to Russia Oil Industry Blocked by Clinton Take that, Bill Bradley. WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Export-Import Bank temporarily blocked $500 million in loans to the Russian oil industry Tuesday on the Clinton administration's orders. The bank board acted on a letter from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright calling for rejection of bank loan guarantees ``in the national interest.'' The administration said the decision to halt the private bank loans was triggered by concerns about dealings of the Tyumen Oil Co., not Russian military action in Chechnya. Tyumen is owned partly by the Russian government. There has been pressure from members of Congress and the presidential campaign trail to block loans benefiting Russia because of Moscow's attempts to suppress breakaway rebels in Chechnya by force. ``The State Department has determined that it is in the national interest and would advance U.S. policy with Russia not to approve the loan guarantees for the time being,'' said Alan Larson, undersecretary of state for economic affairs. Loan proceeds would have gone directly to Halliburton Co. of Dallas and 24 other U.S. companies in payment for U.S.-made oil and gas equipment and services to be bought by the Russians, the bank said. The bank board's decision followed an unusual meeting between Albright and the chairman of the bank, an independent federal agency. She failed to persuade the bank board to reject the loans on its own, but later wrote the letter invoking a law that, in effect, compels board action. Earlier, State Department spokesman James Foley said Albright only offered advice to bank chairman James Harmon. But the bank spokeswoman, speaking later under bank rules that she not be identified by name, said the board decided it would act in accordance with the secretary's wishes once they were received in writing. The bank staff had recommended approval of two loans for Tyumen to bolster Russia's oil industry: $295 million for oil field services and $203 million in engineering services and equipment for upgrading a refinery. Foley said the State Department has been concerned with issues of openness, management of bankruptcy proceedings and protection of the rights of shareholders and creditors. These issues are related to a larger goal of ``promoting the rule of law in Russia,'' he said. He also noted that Tyumen Oil was changing the makeup of its ownership Tuesday. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said, ``The problems that the administration has articulated with the loan have to do with the company and their business practices.'' The bank board has the power to make its own decisions based on concerns of creditworthiness and other financial issues but not on politics, bank officials have said. ``The board will simply act in accordance with the secretary's determination,'' the spokeswoman said. In raising opposition to Russian actions in Chechnya, U.S. officials have resisted pressure to impose sanctions, and Albright and others have said they do not want to do anything that would impede Russian economic recovery. Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley has called for an end to all loans to Russia until troops pull out of the breakaway republic. Members of Congress, including Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., have protested the loans for Tyumen on other grounds, accusing it of manipulating the bankruptcy of another firm with private U.S. and European ownership. ``I am pleased that the decision on the Ex-Im bank's loan guarantees for Tyumen Oil has been delayed,'' said Maloney, who is sponsoring legislation to give the bank broader authority to review loans. Separately, International Monetary Fund assistance to Russia remained in limbo Tuesday. A top Russian banking official, Mikhail Zadornov, said his country probably won't see the next $640 million installment of its $4.5 billion IMF loan until February because the new parliament is unlikely to pass necessary reform legislation before then. The 65-year-old bank, which guarantees financing for projects that use U.S. goods and services, has been backing financing to help the Russian oil and gas industry since 1993. It now supports $1.1 billion in Russian industry transactions. The bank is owned by the U.S. government and is run by a board that is chosen by and serves at the discretion of U.S. presidents, although it is set up to operate independently. The Associated Press, December 21, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections 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, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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