San Diego school crisis plan is found on disk in Iraq

A man arrested by U.S. authorities in Iraq had a computer disk in his possession containing a public report downloaded from a U.S. Department of Education Web site on crisis planning in school districts, including San Diego Unified.

The man was described as an Iraqi national with connections to terrorism and the insurgency that is fighting U.S. forces in Iraq. Officials in San Diego said the man's intentions were unknown. San Diego law enforcement officials said there was no indication of any terrorist plot against schools in San Diego or elsewhere in the country. They did not publicly release the information because there appeared to be no threat.

The information was relayed to the San Diego FBI office last week and then to the school district Friday. "The children are absolutely safe," said San Diego Police Chief Bill Lansdowne. "If there was a threat, we, the San Diego Police Department, would be first to notify (parents). This is not a threat."

The disk contained a document entitled "Practical Information on Crisis Planning, A Guide for Schools and Communities." The 50-plus page document, published in May 2003 by the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, is available to the public on the U.S. Department of Education's Web site, said San Diego District spokeswoman Peri Lynn Turnbull. FBI officials visited the office of district Superintendent Alan Bersin Friday to inform him, Turnbull said. Because there was no indication that terrorists were targeting any schools, in San Diego or elsewhere, the district informed the school police department, but decided not to notify schools and parents.

"We certainly did not want to create any unnecessary panic in our community," Turnbull said. The FBI said because there was no specific threat, that was the appropriate response. "The superintendent was alerted by the FBI that there were no direct threats to the district or any San Diego school and that by our maintaining our same level of care and concern that our schools would be safe," Turnbull said. Dan Dzwilewski, head of the FBI office in San Diego, said there is no reason for alarm.

"We don't know the intention of the person that had this material," Dzwilewski said. "But the disk contained absolutely no threat information. It's only out of an abundance of caution because it was discovered in Iraq that we shared this with another public agency." Some counterterrorism officials said they were concerned that the information would be misinterpreted and would alarm people unnecessarily.

They said the information was withheld from the public because there was no specific threat, and the public may become inured to repeated general warnings of vague possibilities of attacks. "There is no threat here," said a San Diego police lieutenant who spoke on condition of confidentiality because of the sensitive nature of such investigations. "When you've put out information month after month after month, the public thinks we're crying wolf.

"The context here is, a public source document put out by the U.S. Department of Education was found on a computer. Period. My concern would be if a particular school district, or a particular school, or a particular institution was targeted, which it has not been." Lansdowne said the situation shows that the federal government is sharing information with local agencies in an efficient manner.

"I think it's a good indication of how quickly we're notified and the thoroughness of the information we receive," the chief said. "They give us all the information now and allow local jurisdictions to do with it what they think they should." Lansdowne said the report on the disk lauds the district as an example of good planning. The document mentions other school districts and gives information about evacuations, lockdowns and other emergency procedures in the event of a disaster, such as an earthquake or terrorist attack.

"If somebody read the article, they would say we're not going to pick San Diego because they have a very good plan in place," Lansdowne said. "It's probably more good news than bad news."

the American intelligences interrogate 11 individual of the Al-Qaeda inside a secret prison in Jordan

The news brief /

The war file testified on the Al-Qaeda Network yesterday three important developments, The Times Online newspaper has mentioned that security institutions observed Adnan Shukri Jumah who believes that it from the Al-Qaeda officials in Mexico, and he tries an arrangement individuals from its group sneaked into The United States, while was informed Washington Times newspaper from a report to one of the intelligence agencies that a group of 25 Chechens might have sneaked into The United States in last July through the limits with Mexico .

As for the Israeli Haartz Newspaper then said the American Central Intelligence Agency ( Si . Ay . a stop it ) it detains suspect organs from the Al-Qaeda inside a secret prison in Jordan for the purpose of their interrogation by prohibited means in The United States .And the Israeli newspaper mentioned that between 11 men detained in Jordan are found the mastermind the suspect for the attacks of 11 September is Khaled Sheikh Mohammad and the Hanbali religious leader accused that he is the Al-Qaeda ally in southeast Asia .

And Ha'aretz according to the sources of international intelligences said that their detention ( the detainees ) outside The United States allows to Alsi 's investigators . verses . a stop it with the use of interrogation means that the American law bans in a country that co-operates a strong cooperation with the Americans, the matter that with it the news leakage dangers is less .

He mentions that Roanne is Skarboro the editor in Washington Times newspaper mentioned in his book Harb Ramsfild Jordanian investigators helped their American colleagues in the interrogation of members suspect from the Al-Qaeda in Guantanamo .And Skarboro said it was known about the American investigators their threat of some of the detainees is Btrhlihm a sea to Jordan what did not co-operate .

To that like a ruler previous to one of Afghanistan regions in front of the entrusted military reviewing committee the view in the legal statuses to the detained detainees in Guantanamo . And the spokesman the reviewing committee said that the Afghan prisoner is detained in Guantanamo two years ago and aged 30 years but he refused the revelation of his name, while the observers preferred he may be merciful Khikhaw Allah that ruled Herat region starting from the year of 1999 Eng. Thm his detention took place in a Pakistani village close to the Afghan limits after the fall of Kabul by the Americans hand .

And in the context himself officials and analysts said that the government of the American president George Bush will increase number soldiers with skills not combating and she follows up its war on the terrorism .And the Pentagon ( the Pentagon ) said that a program is for the re- balance its period seven years its steps will accelerate after the presidential elections, explaining that it intends finding 100 thousand jobs in the police sector .

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041013-121643-5028r.htm

Chechen terrorists probed

By Bill Gertz

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

U.S. security officials are investigating a recent intelligence report that a group of 25 Chechen terrorists illegally entered the United States from Mexico in July.

The Chechen group is suspected of having links to Islamist terrorists seeking to separate the southern enclave of Chechnya from Russia, according to officials familiar with intelligence reports. Members of the group, said to be wearing backpacks, secretly traveled to northern Mexico and crossed into a mountainous part of Arizona that is difficult for U.S. border security agents to monitor, said officials speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The intelligence report was supplied to the U.S. government in late August or early September and was based on information from an intelligence source that has been proved reliable in other instances, one official said. A second U.S. official said the report is being investigated, but said it could not be determined whether the group of Chechens actually entered the country, as the intelligence source reported. "We don't know whether or not that report is true," this official said.

A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed that the intelligence report was provided by another government agency, but said Border Patrol agents were unable to verify its accuracy. It could not be learned whether the reported infiltration is related to the recent Education Department warning to school officials to examine security in the aftermath of the attack last month by pro-Chechnya Muslim terrorists on a school in Russia, in which more than 300 people were killed and some 700 wounded.

In the Russian attack, heavily armed Islamists took over and wired with explosives the school building in Beslan, North Ossetia. It is believed that an accidental explosion set off a battle between Russian security personnel and the terrorists, who set off several explosions and shot schoolchildren and teachers as they tried to escape. U.S. officials believe the Beslan terrorists included some al Qaeda-linked foreign terrorists.

The Education Department letter said that school officials should examine "protective measure guidance" for helping to prevent and respond to a similar terrorist attack, were it to occur in the United States. The notice said the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are "currently unaware of any specific, credible information indicating a terrorist threat to public and private schools, universities or colleges in the United States."

The letter stated that indicators of terrorist surveillance before an attack include interest in site plans for schools, bus routes and attendance lists from persons who don't normally request such information. Authorities also were advised to remain alert for "static surveillance" by people who may be disguised as panhandlers, shoeshiners, newspaper or flower vendors, or street sweepers who seem out of place in a particular area. Other indicators of terrorist surveillance can include spying on school security drills, people staring at employees or vehicles in parking areas, and surveillance by pedestrians.

Fears of an attack on American schools also were raised by the recent discovery in Iraq of a computer disk containing data showing the layout of six schools in the United States, including districts in California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey and Oregon. Officials believed the disk may have been part of a terrorist plot. However, FBI officials said on Friday that there did not appear to be a terrorist threat connected to the computer disk.

The Iraqi who had the disk, a member of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party, apparently was collecting information from the Internet sites of American schools that would be useful for emergency planning for Iraqi schools, U.S. officials said. U.S. security officials have been concerned in recent months that al Qaeda or other terrorists are planning to enter the United States from Mexico. Intelligence officials said a suspected al Qaeda leader who has been in the United States was spotted recently in Mexico.

Officials believe Adnan Shukrijumah, whom the FBI wants for questioning, met with alien smugglers in Mexico and Honduras and was seeking ways to bring al Qaeda members into the United States. Shukrijumah was seen in August in the Sonora province of northern Mexico, officials said. Since October 2003, authorities have arrested five Arabs attempting to cross illegally into the United States from Mexico. In July, officials dismissed as untrue an Internet report that said a group of Middle Eastern men were recently caught trying to cross the border from Mexico.

The report apparently was based on a group of Oaxacan tribesmen who were stopped as they tried to cross the border in Arizona. The tribesmen spoke an Indian language native to southern Mexico that may have been mistaken for Arabic, officials said at the time.