CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter October 2014 1 www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter October 2014 FBI, NYPD Find No Evidence of Any New Threat to NYC After Iraqi Prime Minister Indicates Attack Source: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Terror-Threat-New-York-City-Subway-ISIS-Iraq-MTA- Transit-277087501.html There is no evidence of any new, specific the alleged plot by Baghdad, and that it was threat to New York City's subway system, the work of ISIS in Iraq. Asked if an attack was according to intelligence sources asked imminent, he said, "I'm not sure," according to about potential developments after the the AP. He also said the United States had Associated Press reported the Iraqi prime been alerted about the threat, according to the minister said his country's intelligence AP, but security officials tell NBC 4 New York operation uncovered a plot for an imminent that is not true. attack. No overseas partner told U.S. law enforcement The mayor and the police commissioner also of any new or specific such threat, a senior said in a news conference they assessed the security official said, nor have authorities at the prime minister's "vague" statements and found FBI, NYPD, Port Authority or MTA uncovered no credible threat. evidence indicative of any new, specific plot The Associated Press reported Prime Minister targeting the city's transportation system. Haider al-Abadi said Thursday he was told of 2 Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton ride the subway to Union Square as a show of assurance that the city is as safe as ever. "The first we heard of this threat is when the heightened security level "can be very quickly press began reporting it," the official said. enhanced." At a briefing at the Union Square subway De Blasio and Bratton assured New Yorkers station, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police that they should feel "very comfortable and Commissioner Bill Bratton said they assessed very secure riding the subways," according to the prime minister's statements and found "no Bratton. credible threat," but police will remain "ever The police commissioner added vigilant," said de Blasio. that he and the mayor had just The city has already been on high alert due to taken the subway to Union the United Nations General Assembly and the Square with Yankees fans on Jewish high holidays, Bratton said, and that their way to Yankee Stadium to www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter October 2014 celebrate Derek Jeter's last home game there. "New York City normally operates at a Nevertheless, the mayor urged residents to heightened level of security and we adjust that remain as vigilant as always. posture daily based on our evaluation of "Law enforcement depends on everyday information as we receive it," the statement citizens to alert us to any potential threat," he said. said. Officials have stepped up security across the Al-Abadi made the tri-state area in response to the ISIS threat initial remarks in a overseas in weeks out of an media roundtable. In abundance of precaution. expanded remarks to Last week, a post on an ISIS NBC News later, an message board titled ―To the Iraqi official clarified Lone Wolves in America: How the prime minister's to Make a Bomb in Your statements, saying the Paris public Kitchen, to Create Scenes of transit system was a target, but that no specific Horror in Tourist Spots and target in the United States had been revealed. Other Targets‖ encouraged readers to attack A federal security official said the prime sites throughout the country, including Times minister's comments "took us security officials Square. by surprise." Another senior official said, "We Earlier this week, the extremist group don't know what he is talking about." purportedly released a new audio that warned An internal Homeland Security bulletin to law Americans "you will not feel secure even in enforcement agencies said the department's your bedrooms." intelligence unit has been working with multiple On Wednesday, Govs. Cuomo and Christie intelligence community partners to try to announced a bi-state agreement to coordinate identify the kind of threat reports that al-Abadi intelligence-gathering and share information as referred to. part of a plan to step up security in the wake of But "no similar threat reporting can be located," the threat overseas. A senior security official stated the bulletin, obtained by NBC News. told NBC 4 New York if tri-state area residents "Nor is it clear who, or what agencies in the notice a ramping up of security on trains 3 United States Government were alerted." Thursday, it's because of that agreement and Authorities are looking into the source of his the general threat environment, not because of information and comparing it against past the remarks by Iraq's prime minister. "open source" intelligence from about a month The bi-state agreement to substantially ago alleging a possible threat against the increase security at transportation hubs and metropolitan area's commuter rail system, but critical infrastructure in the metropolitan area is they stress they have found no new threat to effective immediately. Over the next 100 days, local infrastructure. law enforcement and military personnel will join Nothing about the prime minister's forces within the metropolitan area to engage statement has been validated and no one in counterterrorism operations by increasing knows where his information came from, visibility, inspections and surveillance on and at one New York security official said. trains and train stations, airports, landmarks, The NYPD said in a statement it was aware of and bridges and tunnels, according to the plan. the prime minister's statements and was in The two states will also participate in a joint close contact with the federal law enforcement emergency exercise in the coming months and agencies "as we assess this particular threat continue to evaluate methods for increased stream." intelligence and emergency coordination. EDITOR'S COMMENT: What I liked most from this article is the accompanying photo! Most probably Mayor's PR people believe that New Yorkers are stupid enough to think: "Oh! The Mayor is using the subway. So it is SAFE!" Old fashion reactons to cover the inability for pre-emptive measures… and when they say: "no evidence found" what do they mean? A bomber with a suicide vest or a backpack full of explosives? Come on people! www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter October 2014 Female UAE pilot 'leads strikes' on jihadists Source: http://www.terrorismwatch.org/2014/09/female-uae-pilot-strikes-on-jihadists.html A female pilot has led United Arab Emirates air strikes that targeted Islamic State jihadists in Syria as part of the US-led campaign against extremists. Major Mariam al-Mansouri, 35, "led the squadron" of UAE fighter jets that participated in raids Tuesday against the extremists, an Emirati source familiar with the matter said. The UAE did not confirm officially that a woman was among the pilots that conducted the raids. 4 Mansouri is reportedly the first female UAE pilot of a fighter jet. She graduated from Abu Dhabi's Khalifa bin Zayed Air College in 2007 and is veteran pilot of F-16 warplanes. Washington has said the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan, took part in the strikes on the Islamic State, which has seized swaths of Iraq and northern Syria. Saudi Arabia on Wednesday released photographs of eight airmen it said were involved in Tuesday's US-led operations. One of the pilots is a son of Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, according to Saudi newspapers. Mansouri's participation in the raid stirred a debate on social media networks, with supporters posting her picture on Twitter and commending her service. "She is taking part in crushing the dens of Daesh," wrote one woman on Twitter, using an Arabic acronym for IS. Angry Islamist sympathisers, however, slammed Mansouri's "criminal" act. The UAE is a largely conservative Gulf state, where women citizens wear the traditional Islamic head cover and black Abaya loose cloak. But authorities in the oil-rich state have made efforts to put pioneering women forward and many women have assumed top government positions www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter October 2014 The Arab world debates Islam and IS Source: http://www.dw.de/the-arab-world-debates-islam-and-is/a-17954060 "I will never agree that the country to fight IS committed by IS," asked political commentator should be the United States," says Qatari Tariq Alhomayed in the daily newspaper Al- Sharq al-Awsat. "Is al-Qarawadi really against IS?" Arguments such as those put forward by al-Qarawadi had become outdated, Alhomayed went on to say. "We are currently experiencing a total rejection of religious extremism, be it Sunni or Shiite." Differing views of IS The role of Islam with regard to the atrocities being carried out by IS is religious scholar Dr. Yousef al-Qarawadi - even being debated intensively in public. A fault line if he is opposed to the ideology and practices has emerged between national leaders and of the "Islamic State" terror group. some supporters of IS in the populations they "They are not guided by Islamic values, but govern, according to Raghida Dergham, a rather by their own interests - even if it columnist in pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat. amounts to blood being shed," the 88-year-old "Governments have described IS as an tweeted to the world, causing something of a 'existential threat,' while there are sections of stir. the public that sympathize with the group and With his Al-Jazeera-broadcast program, "Al- its motives," writes Dergham, adding that some Sharia wa'l hayat" (Sharia and Life), al- of the support came from those who saw it as a Qarawadi ranks as one of the most popular counterweight to a perceived increasing Shiite 5 television preachers in the Arab world.