Associated Press & Urban Survival.com – 2006-01-17 23:25:59
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/17/wmd.terrorism.ap
US: ‘Very High’ Chance of WMD Terror Strike
Associated Press / CNN.com
LONDON, England (January 17, 2006) — There is a “very high” probability that a terrorist group will strike using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, a senior US counterterrorism official said in comments published Tuesday.
“I rate the probability of terror groups using (weapons of mass destruction) as very high,” US State Department counterterrorism coordinator Henry Crumpton was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph newspaper. “It is simply a question of time.”
Crumpton said a biological attack was potentially the most troubling scenario. He said evidence from Afghanistan suggested al-Qaeda had been seeking to develop anthrax before the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001.
“It is not just the nuclear threat that bothers me,” he was quoted as saying. “I think, if anything, the biological threat is going to grow.”
“As catastrophic as a nuclear attack would be, it would be self-contained. But if you look at a worst-case scenario for a biological attack, it would be difficult to determine whether or not it was a terrorist attack, and it would be far more difficult to contain.”
Crumpton told the newspaper that US and international efforts had severely disrupted the al-Qaeda network since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, but that “in all probability” Osama bin Laden was still alive.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
War Ahead or Just Training?
The Marines are MOVING.
Urban Survival.com
Not to be an alarmist about such things, but we have one Reader who spends a lot of his time watching public information about the US military. Today, he notes the following:
Almost everything that can carry a Marine is now at sea. Enough stuff is now out to fully outfit an ADDITIONAL FIVE Marine Expeditionary Strike Forces.
All 8 LSD’s are out
Six of the 8 LPD’s are out .(One was scheduled for retirement this spring and another ond in August, so I don’t even know those two are capable of going to sea.)
Four of our seven LHD’s (new model mini-carrier) and three of our five LHA (old model mini-carrier) are out (enough for one for each real and each potential ESG).
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/news/.www/status.html
As of January 17, 2006:
Carriers:
• USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) – Persian Gulf
• USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) – Pacific Ocean
• USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) – Pacific Ocean
Command Ships:
• USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) – Atlantic Ocean
• Tarawa Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) [13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) (SOC)]
• USS Tarawa (LHA 1) – Indian Ocean
• USS Cleveland (LPD 7) – Indian Ocean
• USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52) – Indian Ocean
• Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) [22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) (SOC)]
• USS Nassau (LHA 4) – Arabian Sea
• USS Austin (LPD 4) – Persian Gulf
• USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) – Arabian Sea
Amphibious Warfare Ships:
• USS Peleliu (LHA 5) – Pacific Ocean
• USS Essex (LHD 2) – Pacific Ocean
• USS Boxer (LHD 4) – Pacific Ocean
• USS Ogden (LPD 5) – Pacific Ocean
• USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43) – Pacific Ocean
• USS Comstock (LSD 45) – Pacific Ocean
• USS Germantown (LSD 42) – Pacific Ocean
• USS Bataan (LHD 5) – Atlantic Ocean
• USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) – Atlantic Ocean
• USS Nashville (LPD 13) – Atlantic Ocean
• USS Oak Hill (LSD 51) – Atlantic Ocean
• USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41) – Atlantic Ocean
• USS San Antonio (LPD 17) – Gulf of Mexico
• USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) – East China Sea
• USS Juneau (LPD 10) – East China Sea
Could Iran (or somewhere else) be about to “go hot?” We’re watching for the last few days of the month into first week of Feb in part because of the movement of forces, partly because of the dark of the moon then, and because the web bots say something unexpected is coming around then… Now, place your bets: Is this a bluff? You saw our reports of air units moving to the Middle East we reported last week, right?
