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Posted here October 30, 2007
FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
Terrorists plotted setting U.S. fires
Muslim bulletin boards advocated arson before California blazes
Posted: October 29, 2007 8:36 p.m. Eastern
Editor's
note: The following report is adapted from the latest issue of Joseph
Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online intelligence newsletter
published by the founder of WND. Annual subscriptions to G2 Bulletin
are $99. Monthly trial subscriptions for credit card users are $9.95
and provide instant access to the reports.
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Firefighters battle Southern California blaze (Courtesy San Diego Union Tribune) |
WASHINGTON
– While websites frequented by jihadis have been ablaze with claims of
responsibility for setting the California wildfires, terror leaders
also urged arson attacks as a tactic last summer, according to a new
report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
In
July, a post was made to numerous jihadist boards and then spread to a
number of blogs citing a previously issued fatwa authorizing the
setting of forest fires as a weapon of jihad. The post began "this is
an invitation to the Muslims of Europe and America, Australia and
Russia to burn forests." It went on to state the justification under
Islamic Sharia law for this action and to cite its benefits for
jihadists.
The
post, revealed in G2 Bulletin's report, cites an undated video that
shows Abu Mus'ab al Suri, author of "Call to Global Islamic Resistance"
and advocate of the doctrine of individual terrorism, discussing the
benefits to the jihad of setting forest fires.
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Last
year, the report points out, Maj. Robert Arthur Baird of the U.S.
Marine Corps wrote in the May 2006 issue of Studies in Conflict and
Terrorism: "The United States is at significant risk of a future
pyro-terrorist attack – when terrorists unleash the latent energy in
the nation's forests to achieve the effect of a weapon of mass
destruction – the threat, must be defined America's vulnerabilities
understood and action taken to mitigate this danger to the United
States."
In
his master's thesis, Major Baird also discusses arson as a terror
tactic and sees it as a very real risk: "Instead of using expensive,
complex and readily detectable nuclear or radiological bombs, a
terrorist could easily ignite several massive wildfires to severely
damage regional economies, impact military and firefighting forces and
terrorize the American people."
He
goes on to state that a terrorist has the potential to "unleash
multiple fires creating a conflagration potentially equal to a
multi-megaton nuclear weapon."
Is that what has happened this year?
California
authorities have confirmed some of the wildfires were set deliberately,
and a terror watch organization says the circumstances match terror
plans the FBI alerted law enforcement to several years ago.
"In
2003 an FBI memo alerted law enforcement agencies that an al-Qaida
terrorist being held in detention had talked of masterminding a plot to
set a series of devastating forest fires around the western United
States," the National Terror Alert Response Center warned.
"It
was reported that the detainee, who was not identified, said the plan
involved three or four people setting wildfires using timed devices in
Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming that would detonate in forests and
grasslands after the operatives had left the country," the advisory
continued. "The detainee believed that significant damage to the U.S.
economy would result and once it was realized that the fires were
terrorist acts, U.S. citizens would put pressure on the U.S. government
to change its policies."
WND reported in 2004
that an Arabic-language jihadi website also posted a message purporting
to be "al-Qaida's plan of economic attack" on the U.S. that including
proposals to turn the nation's forests into raging infernos. The
National Terror Alert Response Center report said, "We are NOT implying
that the California fires are an act of terrorism; however, the threat
of pyro-terrorist attacks pose a significant risk to the U.S. and the
fires in California and Greece earlier this year should be a wake-up
call."
Less
than two months ago, between four and five dozen people were killed and
scores more hospitalized with serious injuries as a result of wildfires
in portions of Greece. Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis expressed his
suspicions.
"So many fires sparked simultaneously in so many places is no coincidence," he said when the blazes erupted.
And Terror Watch notes a top prosecutor in Greece now has begun investigating whether the arsons were, in fact, terrorism.
Dimitris
Papangelopoulos said the investigation will determine "whether the
crimes of arsonists and of arson attacks on forests" should be
prosecuted under the nation's anti-terrorism law.
Arab terrorists in Israel have started dozens of major forest fires over the years.
As
far back as 1988, Israeli police caught more than a dozen Palestinian
adults in the act of setting fires, while other Arabs confessed to
arson after arrest. Some fires followed specific calls by underground
Arab terrorists. A leaflet issued by the Palestinian uprising's
underground leadership called for "the destruction and burning of the
enemy's properties, industry and agriculture."
Original article found at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58401
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