Operation Enduring Freedom - September 2002

• Day 358: Sun, 9/29/02 - A command post is nearing completion in Qatar, which will be occupied by US Central Command in the event of US action against Iraq.  A new base for special operations forces is in place in Djibouti, just across the Red Sea from Yemen.  Armored infantry awaits orders in Kuwait, 28 miles from the Iraqi border.  Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia still refuse to discuss military actions against Iraq.  "The Kuwaiti government ordered gas masks for all civil servants and authorized their sale to civilians."
• Day 354: Wed, 9/25/02 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair issues his government's assessment of the Saddam Hussein issue, including that Iraq has chemical, biological, nuclear, and ballistic missile programs in place.  View Britain's dossier Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction.
• Day 342: Fri, 9/13/02 - Homefront: Five men of Yemeni descent, some holding US citizenship, were arrested in a raid in Lackawanna, NY on suspicion that they were operating a terrorist cell.  "Evidence included a recent spike in communications with suspected terrorist locations overseas, and some evidence of attendance at a terror training camp linked to Usama bin Laden."  An Arab social club, at least four homes, and a garage were raided.  The radiation coming from the "quarantined" Liberian ship on Tuesday may be coming from clay tiles, but the containers will continue to be inspected before the ship is cleared.  Two of the five men arrested in the Baltimore apartment Wednesday were released on bail yesterday and all will face deportation hearings next week.  The computer confiscated from the apartment was found to have web links to flight schools.  A railcar containing ammonia and cyclohexamine at the BASF plant in Clute, TX exploded.  Four people were injured.  The cause for the explosion is under investigation.  Local news said that evacuated contract workers and employees were moved to an undisclosed location.
• Day 341: Thur, 9/12/02 -  15 Pakistanis onboard a cargo ship from Casablanca, Morocco, were arrested on charges of "subversive association and association for the aim of international terrorism" when they docked in Italy.  The men all carried fake passports.  Homefront:  President Bush outlined what Iraq must do in order to avoid the US taking action against Saddam Hussein.  He also listed the Iraqi leader's transgressions over the last ten years, including defiance of UN resolutions, developing weapons of mass destruction, repressing the Iraqi people, supporting international terrorism, refusing to account for Gulf War prisoners, refusing to return stolen property, and trying to circumvent the economic sanctions.  View this information in the White House document A Decade of Deception and Defiance (or go straight to the pdf version).  According to a nurse who was a customer in a Shoney's restaurant in Calhoun, GA, she overheard three Arab men laughing about 9/11 and joked about how they celebrated the attacks last night.  The men, sitting at another table, spoke ominously about attacks planned for 9/13.  The police were advised of what was heard and, after one of the two cars the men occupied passed through the I75 tollbooth east of Naples without paying, the vehicles were pulled over.  The three men, Jordanian, Iranian and Pakistani, (one a US citizen, one naturalized, one with a valid visa) were uncooperative with police.  The men:  Ayman Gheith, 27; Kambiz Butt; Omar Chaudhary.
• Day 340:  Wed, 9/11/02 - Ramzi Binalshibh, the "20th hijacker", was captured in Karachi, Pakistan in a joint operation by Pakistani officials and US intelligence.  Police, heavily armed and wearing body armor, stormed the five-story apartment building on a tip that there were suspicious people living there.  Two  men were arrested in the apartment and the rest ran up to the roof where a three-hour firefight erupted killing two gunmen and killing a child in crossfire.  The gunmen were armed with grenades, Kalashnikov rifles, and submachine guns.  Six Pakistani officers were wounded.  "One Egyptian, one Saudi and eight Yemenis were captured in the raid."  Referring to the homicide plane bombings one year ago, Muhammad al-Massari, a prayer leader at Finsbury Park Mosque in north London, claims it happened in response to US attacks in Iraq and Palestine; "One Muslim decided to take action ... He took one eye for a hundred.  He still has 99 eyes to go."  Al-Massari, whose funds are frozen because of his membership in the Islamic Army of Aden (linked to al Qaeda and claimed responsibility for bombing the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000), has a message for President Bush "We are telling that crazy man to stop.  Don't use the war beyond your borders."  The US Embassies in Cambodia, Pakistan, and Vietnam closed.  The US Embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Jakarta, Indonesia are closed indefinitely as well as the US Consulate in Surabaya, Indonesia.  Philippine authorities are on "red alert" because at least four tons of explosives are missing and they believe "an al Qaeda plot to bomb the U.S. and Israeli embassies in the capital of Manila has been activated."  A piece of the demolished World Trade Center was buried in a ceremony at the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.  A marble headstone inscribed with "We serve because they cannot" stands over it.  Homefront: President Bush speaks on this one-year anniversary.  View the text of his speech.  Police entered an apartment in Baltimore, MD to server a warrant on a man for arson threats and ended up arresting five of eight men that were in the apartment for immigration violations.  Two of the five were Canadian citizens, originally from Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the other three were from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia.  A collection of ID cards, Arabic literature, and two computers were also seized.  The FBI is translating the Arabic writings and checking what web sites had been visited.  The High Alert status being placed across the country is based on intelligence from the captured Omar Al Faruq - says that Southeast Asia terror cells have amassed hundreds of pounds of bomb-making materials.  The James A. Rhodes State Office Tower in Ohio was evacuated for several hours after dogs detected the scent of materials that could be used to make explosives in a van.  An employee saw the vehicle's owner, Oscar Sesmas, 35, of Columbus, walking around the 28th floor looking out of place and asked what he was doing, and he replied that he was there to "install a bomb."  He was arrested and charged with inducing a panic.  An American Airlines jet en route from Houston' Bush Intercontinental Airport (departed at 12:28PM) to Dallas returned to Houston after a disturbance with a passenger in the air.  Military jets were not called in to escort.  It's destination was Nashville, TN.  Northwest Airlines' flight 979 (Airbus A320) was traveling from Memphis, TN (departed at 8:47AM, 2 minutes late), to Las Vegas, NV when four passengers began acting strangely causing the plane to be diverted to Fort Smith, AR (9:50AM).  The men all appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent.  At least three of them locked themselves into bathrooms and were possibly shaving their body hair.  No military jets were called in for escort, the pilots made the decision to divert on their own.  The plane didn't get to Las Vegas until 4:59PM; it's scheduled arrival time was 10:19AM.  (Times are from the Northwest Airlines' Flight Status data base.)
• Day 339: Tue, 9/10/02 - Iraqi fighter jets (Russian-made MiGs), for the second time within a week, crossed into Iraq's southern no-fly zone and chased a US unmanned predator plane.  Operation Champion Strike in Afghanistan ends.  Homefront: Officials placed the US and American interests at "high risk of terrorist attacks."  A senior al Qaeda officer provided information on specific planned attacks including car bombings and suicide strikes on overseas US interests to coincide with the 9/11/01 attacks.  Analysts say that with the additional increase in "background chatter" this past week, "the situation looks eerily similar to Sept. 10 of last year."  Vice President Dick Cheney was moved "to a secret location to protect the presidential line of succession in case of an attack."  View the actual FBI warning.  An Egyptian-registered private jet, carrying only a pilot and co-pilot, en route from Columbia, SC to Colorado Springs, CO was escorted by two F-16 fighter jets to land at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in NC.  The crew had not provided proper flight information.  A container ship registered in Liberia, the M/V Palermo Senator, was ordered to go to a safety zone six miles out to sea temporarily "until the condition of its cargo can be ascertained and safely offloaded."  After boarding the vessel, the US Coast Guard "heard suspicious sounds in several of the ship's cargo holds, but they could not determine their source."  There was no evidence of stowaways, and traces of radioactivity were detected in the cargo.
• Day 338: Mon, 9/9/02 - The US Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia was closed and its Sept. 11 commeration was canceled due to "credible and specific" terrorist attack threats.  A man carrying an Indian passport tried to hijack an Air Seychelles Beoing 737 en route from Bombay to the Seychelles.  He tried to enter the cockpit carrying a knife but was subdued by the cabin crew and arrested at its stopover in Male, the Maldives capitol.  Operation Champion Strike searching another village found a home with a newly plastered false wall, behind it was discovered "17 rockets, hand grenades and anti-tank mine and a variety of documents, including a postcard with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar's name written on it, rosters of names and Qurans."  Homefront: "The FBI is warning local police and the U.S. utility, banking and transportation industries of a steady stream of threats mentioning New York, Washington and the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks."  US diplomatic missions and military bases worldwide are also being placed on high alert.  There's been a flurry of terrorist chatter, which last occurred around the 4th of July.  A warning for heightened awareness continues Sept. 10-20 during the UN's General Assembly session in New York and Sept. 25-29 as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meets in Washington D.C.  The State Department also issued a warning urging all Americans worldwide to be especially vigilant this week and said "the US government continues to receive credible indications that extremist groups and individuals are planning additional terrorist actions against U.S. interests."  "Softer targets" such as clubs, places of worship, restaurants, schools or recreational events have a higher expected chance of an attack.  Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, who was arrested at the Portland airport yesterday, was found to have "TNT residue" in two pieces of his luggage.  Officials say either the inside of the luggage, or the clothing in the luggage had been in contact with TNT.  The bags also contained several thousand dollars.  He had told his ex-wife he was leaving the US permanently and, in fact, his apartment lease expires this Friday.  "Kariye, who appeared to have little money, had traveled extensively in 1999 and 2000 to Dubai, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Qatar."  His lawyer, Philip A. Lewis, says "he didn't know what to make of claims that Kariye's luggage had explosives residue on it, but he said it would be premature to associate it with terrorism."  Lewis is a moron.  He also says, "People just aren't here to raise havoc and do harm."  Guess his head's been in the toilet.  Emory University in Atlanta received an envelope containing a white powder that, when it was opened, spilled on the opener who then complained that her hands were itching and she had trouble breathing.  Five people were taken to Emory Hospital.  The powder is being investigated.  11 small tubes (about 330 pounds) of ammonium nitrate, an explosive material, was stolen from the Austin Powder Co. in San Antonio, TX.  This is the same compound that was used in the 4,800 pound bomb used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.  It was missing after 5AM when a dark SUV was seen speeding away from the site.  The paperwork needed to possess the materials was also missing, which would give them clearance if stopped and searched.  The 14-inch long tubes weigh about 30 pounds each and look a bit like caulking tubes.
• Day 337: Sun, 9/8/02 - As Afghan president Hamid Karzai left his country to visit New York over the 9/11/01 anniversary, fighting erupted in Khost, a city in the southeast.  At least 15 people were killed in the clash and over 51 wounded.  A few hours prior to the battle between two factions, a bomb exploded in a local music shop, injuring 10 people.  Television correspondent for Al-Jazeera, Yosri Fouda, said he was contacted by al Qaeda to interview two of the 9/11/01 plotters, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, in a secret place, and will air the interview Thursday on his station.  Mohammed claimed the first targets planned two and a half years prior to 9/11/01 were nuclear facilities in the US, but it was ruled out for fear that it would get out of control - but it has not been ruled out for the future.  Indian and Pakistani troops engaged in firefight again in the Kashmir region.  According to the Houston Chronicle, Iraq had claimed it never used VX (a deadly nerve agent) on its warheads, but in the summer of 1998, weapons inspectors "found VX traces on Iraqi warheads".  Iraq claims it destroyed 3.9 tons of VX, but "inspectors concluded that Iraq might have retained enough precursor chemical to make about 200 tons of VX."  Homefront: Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, 40, was arrested by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force at Portland, Oregon's airport for "unlawful use of a Social Security number and unlawful possession of a U.S. government document."  Kariye, a US citizen born in Somalia, was there to take a flight with his four young children and brother to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
• Day 336: Sat, 9/7/02 - US forces launched Operation Champion Strike about 150 miles south of Kabul in the Bermel valley.  Beginning about 8AM, about 250 soldiers surrounded the Bermel Bazaar and by late afternoon had gone through 200 buildings and arrested 14 people, including a suspected al Qaeda financier.  Just before his capture, US troops intercepted his outgoing radio message, "I'm surrounded by Americans and I can't get out."  Lots of weapons, passports, al Qaeda and Taliban documents, and mobile phones were also found.  Iran is accusing the US of using its military presence in neighboring Afghanistan as a "launch pad for anti-Iranian operations."  Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi claims, "We have information that the Americans, in collaboration with bandits and terrorist groups, are organizing actions contrary to the interests of Iran on our eastern borders."
• Day 335: Fri, 9/6/02 - Britain's head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism, David Veness, said the 9/11/01 attack anniversary could be used as a world stage for "lone bombers and gunmen unconnected to Al Qaeda" to promote their causes.  "Mobile armed road blocks will be in place around London as a first point of defense on Sept. 11."  A consultant to the French government, Roland Jacquard, director of the International Observatory on Terrorism, feels not only is Sept. 11 a day to remain on alert, but each day through the first of next year is a period of high risk.  He said that it would take a year to 16 months for bin Laden's terrorist network to activate an attack following 9/11/01, for which the attack time frame begins now.  Jacquard also says that there were already two other attack waves planned - pesticide sprayed from planes in the US and hitting landmarks in Europe.  Abdul Rahman, the now dead presidential bodyguard who attempted to kill Hamid Karzai yesterday, is believed to have come from a Taliban stronghold from the south.  The deadly US airstrike on July 1st that left 48 civilians dead in the Uruzgan province of Afghanistan, most of whom were attending a wedding party, was a justified strike because of those who were firing at the US aircraft.  The responsibility for the loss "rests with those that knowingly directed hostile fire at coalition forces.  The operators of those weapons elected to place them in civilian communities and elected to fire them at coalition forces at a time when they knew there were a significant number of civilians present."  Border guards in Pakistan and Afghanistan exchanged gunfire after "Pakistani security stopped an Afghan carrying a carpet from entering Pakistan."  Using helicopters, Israel fired missiles at a suspected Palestinian bomb factory in Khan Younis, on the Gaza Strip.  There were no injuries.  Homefront: Military jets resume round-the-clock patrols over Washington D.C. and New York because of the approaching one year anniversary of the attacks.
• Day 334: Thur, 9/5/02 - One US soldier was wounded during a firefight that followed an attempted assassination on Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai.  Abdul Rahman, a Pashtun who had joined the security group only three weeks ago had opened fire on the car carrying Karzai as it left the governor's mansion in Kandahar.  Governor Gul Agha Sherzai was also injured, Karzai was not.  The attacker and two others were killed when the bodyguards returned fire.  A powerful bomb in a taxi exploded in a busy Kabul marketplace killing at least 26 people and injuring 150.  A smaller explosion had drawn crowds to the area and then the taxi-bomb detonated.  Officials feel al Qaeda and/or Gulbuddin Hekmatyar may be responsible for the assassination attempt and the bombs.  Although they agreed that Saddam Hussein's allowing weapons inspectors back into Iraq would show the world that there was nothing to hide, "Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said a U.S. attack against Saddam Hussein would 'open the gates of hell in the Middle East.'"  At the two-day Arab League foreign ministerial meeting, all the Arab countries united in "total rejection of the aggressive intentions of the United States" against Iraq.  Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said he has not seen evidence that warrants an attack on Iraq.  Palestinian militants blew up an Israeli tank in Gaza, killing two soldiers and attempted to hide a truck containing a 1,300 pound bomb in Israel.  Homefront: An intruder dressed in dark clothing was spotted by four Utah National Guardsmen during two separate patrols at the Deseret Chemical Depot, "which stores and destroys chemical and nerve agents" such as mustard gas, 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.  They got within 400 meters of the intruder before he fled.  The depot sounded an alarm at 9:24AM to halt operations, which have not restarted yet.
• Day 333: Wed, 9/4/02 - In recent weeks, the US Army has moved war supplies and weaponry from Qatar to a Kuwaiti base near the Iraqi border, for testing in the event Bush calls for an attack on Iraq.  New evidence is being presented that Iraq has progressed with its weapons of mass destruction.  The head of UN's nuclear inspection team from Vienna, Jacques Baute of the International Atomic Energy Organization, says "reviews of images taken since 1999 show 'some buildings that have been reconstructed ... and some new buildings [that] have been erected' at sites his team had visited in the past."  Iraq has also apparently developed new means for biological- and chemical-weapon delivery, and has been in contact with al Qaeda before and after the 9/11/01 attacks.  Homefront: Reporters at 11 airports were able to carry utility knives, rubber-handled razor knives, a pocket knife, a corkscrew, razor blades and pepper spray through airport security checkpoints over the Labor Day weekend.  In separate testing, a CBS news crew lined bags with lead to block x-rays and 70% of the screeners let the bags pass.  The airports tested were Newark International, Boston's Logan International, Washington Dulles International, Portland International Jetport in Maine, New York's La Guardia and Kennedy airports, Chicago's O'Hare, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, FL, and Santa Barbara, CA.
• Day 332: Tue, 9/3/02 - US, European, and Pakistani investigators say al Qaeda and Taliban militia have moved several shipments of gold in recent weeks by boat from Karachi, Pakistan to either Iran or UAE, then by chartered plane to Khartoum, Sudan.  Four 107mm rockets were fired in a southeastern Afghanistan location where US troops are operating.  No casualties.  Leaflets written in Arabic by the "Secret Army of Mujahideen" are being distributed in eastern Afghanistan.  The six-page leaflet says the group has three goals:  "To avenge the innocent martyrs of the brutal U.S. bombing of Afghanistan; to continue jihad until the last foreign soldier is expelled from Afghanistan; and to defend the [Muslim] faith and freedom to establish an Islamic order."  Relatively few people in Afghanistan speak Arabic, so officials feel the leaflet is meant for the thousands of Arab al Qaeda hiding in the remote eastern mountains.  The group claims responsibility for 21 attacks against US troops since June 1st.  Former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, recently returned to Afghanistan, possibly Kunar, after his exile in Iran, may be behind the group.  He released a Pashtu-language taped message stating, "All true Muslim Afghans who want an Islamic government in their country must know it is possible only when the United States and allied soldiers are forced out.  We must all unite and rise against them."  The German Embassy in Kabul is tightening its security for the next week because of the one year anniversaries of the assassination of Ahmad Shah Masood, hero of the minority Tajiks (on the 9th), and of the 9/11/01 attacks on US soil.
• Day 331: Mon, 9/2/02 (Labor Day) - Germany's head investigator of NYC's 9/11/01 attacks and top anti-terrorism expert, Manfred Klink, says al Qaeda as well as non-aligned groups may try to use the anniversary of the suicide hijackings to stage new attacks.  "We believe a whole series of such fighters are still out there and that these people have the desire and capability to stage attacks."
• Day 330: Sun, 9/1/02 - A bomb, hidden in a four-wheeled pushcart in Kabul, exploded killing one Afghan and injuring three others, including a patrolling British peacekeeper.  The United Nations will meet with Abdul Rashid Dostum as it begins an investigation into the deaths of 200+ Taliban late last year as they were being transported in shipping containers.  UN forensics experts did tests on three bodies exhumed from the mass grave and found all three died from suffocation.  General Dostum is calling for an investigation into atrocities committed against his own Northern Alliance forces by the Taliban.  Israeli soldiers shot and killed four Palestinian men after one opened a vineyard gate with bolt cutters near an Israeli settlement near Hebron.