 SOMALI pirates seized an Indonesian chemical tanker overnight with 24 crew members in the Gulf of Aden, a maritime watchdog reported. The Singapore-flagged Premoni was captured while en route to India - the third vessel since August to be taken in the region patrolled by foreign navies - said Andrew Mwangura of the East Africa Seafarers Assistance Program.
It also marked the first attack this year.
Among the crew are 17 Indonesians, five Chinese nationals, a Nigerian and a Vietnamese, said Mwangura, adding that the sailors were safe.
On Monday, pirates seized the St James Park, a UK-flagged chemical tanker with a crew of 26 from nine different countries, while Yemeni authorities said the same day that a Yemeni freighter with 15 crew members had also been taken.
Since the end of the summer monsoon season allowed pirate attacks to resume three months ago, Somali pirates had abandoned the Gulf of Aden for the wide open seas of the Indian Ocean, venturing as far as the Seychelles and beyond.
 A DEADLY al-Qaeda plot to blow up the New York subway was foiled by British security forces. Scotland Yard alerted the FBI to the biggest terror plot against America since 9/11 after intercepting an email. It sparked an operation which led to airport shuttle bus driver Najibullah Zazi, 24, being charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. The Afghan is said to have been part of a gang that used stolen credit cards to buy bomb ingredients including nail varnish remover. The chemicals bought were similar to those used to make the 2005 London Tube and bus explosives which killed 52 people. Thousands of New Yorkers could have been at risk from a US subway blitz. Zazi, of Denver, Colorado, is alleged to have been given instructions through the internet by a senior al-Qaeda figure in Pakistan. But the Yard's counter-terrorism branch was monitoring an email address uncovered in April's abortive Operation Pathway probe into an alleged UK terror cell. Eleven Pakistani suspects were arrested prematurely and later freed after Met anti-terror chief Bob Quick was pictured with a secret document on show while going to brief the PM. Quick resigned over the gaffe, but officers still kept tabs on the email address. It lay dormant for months - then was suddenly reactivated in September. After a British tip-off, US authorities allegedly found bomb-making instructions on Zazi's laptop. His fingerprints were on batteries and measuring scales were seized. A phone contained video of New York's Grand Central Station, which he visited a week before his arrest. And explosive residue was found in a kitchen. Informants also said Zazi visited a terror training camp in Pakistan. A British security source told The Sun: "This was excellent work and highlights the fact we produce good information." Furious US intelligence bosses had threatened to stop sharing secrets with Britain after the dying Lockerbie bomber was freed in August. But the source said: "They were delighted with the intelligence we gave them and believe it helped prevent a catastrophic attack." Source: The Sun
 On October 5, 2009, Alarabiya.net posted an interview with an Arab Ahwazi man who was presented as a former undercover agent for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
The man claimed that 40,000 well-trained operatives, mostly Shi'ites, are in the service of Iran in the ArabGulf states - 3,000 of them in Kuwait alone.
He stated that the cells formed by these operatives were trained to collect intelligence, sabotage installations in the Gulf region, and assassinate senior officials.
He added that Iranian Al-Qods forces commander Qassem Suleimani had prepared a plan to take over 22 embassies, both in Iran and outside it, if Iran were to be attacked. This interview is in line with a July 14, 2009 intelligence report posted by the Ahwazi Islamic Sunni Organization on its website (www.sonnaalahwaz.org ).
The organization claimed that the report was based on classified Iranian Air Force information, according to which Iran has a comprehensive military plan to attack the Gulf countries using the MiG-31 aircraft that it had purchased from Syria. Thus, it said, Iran is preparing secret airports and camps in Ahwaz province, as well as forces in the northwest of the province, in order to attack Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. The report also revealed a purported IRGC plan to carry out terrorist operations in the Gulf countries, and alleged that Iran was developing chemical weapons in two top-secret plants in Ahwaz province, and was burying the chemical waste products in the province.
Also according to the report, Iranian special forces belonging to the IRGC and acting outside Iran have the capability and the access to carry out biological and chemical weapons attacks, and had conducted joint maneuvers with Hamas and Hizbullah as well as with Yemeni Houthi forces, and also with Iranian sleeper cells in Iraq and in the Gulf countries. It should be noted that this organization claims to be operating with Saudi backup and support. Following are the main points of the report: [1]
"In direct cooperation with the National Research Center in Ahwaz, and with direct support of the Saudi National Association [sic], we have succeeded in obtaining an important classified document issued by Iranian air force headquarters, signed by the commander [Gen. Hassan Shah Safi] and sent to the commander of the airbase in the city of Al-'Amidiyya, known as 'Airbase No. 5.' In addition, we disclosed a plan by IRGC [to attack the Gulf countries from its military bases located] near the city of Al-Hamidiyya [in western Ahwaz], which is detailed below…" MiG-31 Warplanes Expected to Arrive at Al-'Amidiyya Airbase According to the report of the Ahwazi Islamic Sunni Organization, on November 2, 2008, Iranian Army Air Force commander Gen. Hassan Shah Safi sent Al-'Amidiyya airbase commander Shahryar Hosseini Nejad a classified military document with instructions to prepare for the arrival of three MiG-31 warplanes. The instructions stated that all the pilots on base must prepare for special military maneuvers, and that all the information - "photos, films, and geometrical maps indicating the storage and deployment of missiles with chemical warheads - [must be forwarded to] Ali Qaramlaki, chief expert on weapon manufacture." The document sent by Iranian Army Air Force commander Gen. Hassan Shah Safi to Al-'Amidiyya airbase commander Shahryar Hosseini Nejad, as posted at www.sonnaalahwaz.org: Read more here,,,, Source: MEMRI H/T: GH
 By EILEEN SULLIVAN WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's big city police chiefs are backing an anti-terrorism community watch program to educate people about what behavior is truly suspicious and ought to be reported to police. Police Chief William Bratton of Los Angeles, whose department developed the iWATCH program, calls it the 21st century version of Neighborhood Watch. Using brochures, public service announcements and meetings with community groups, iWATCH is designed to deliver concrete advice on how the public can follow the oft-repeated post-9/11 recommendation: "If you see something, say something." Program materials list nine types of suspicious behavior that should prompt people to call police and 12 kinds of places to look for it. Among the indicators: _If you smell chemicals or other fumes. _If you see someone wearing clothes that are too big and too heavy for the season. _If you see strangers asking about building security. _If you see someone purchasing supplies or equipment that could be used to make bombs. The important places to watch include: government buildings, mass gatherings, schools and public transportation. The program also is designed to ease reporting by providing a dedicated toll-free phone number and Internet Web page through which the public can alert authorities. Los Angeles has already begun its toll-free number and planned to put its Web site up this weekend. The Major Cities Chiefs Association, headed by Bratton and comprised of the chiefs of the 63 largest police departments in the United States and Canada, was expected to endorse iWATCH at its conference in Denver on Saturday as a model for all its communities. "It's really just common sense types of things," Bratton said. But American Civil Liberties Union policy counsel Mike German, a former FBI agent who worked on terrorism cases, said the indicators are all relatively common behaviors. And he suspects people will fall back on personal biases and preconceived stereotypes of what a terrorist looks like when making the decision to report someone to the police. "That just plays into the negative elements of society and doesn't really help the situation," German said. After the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration proposed enlisting postal carriers, gas and electric company workers, telephone repairmen and other workers with access to private homes in a program to report suspicious behavior to the FBI. Privacy advocates condemned this as too intrusive, and the plan was dropped. Bratton and LAPD Commander Joan McNamara, who developed iWATCH, say privacy and civil liberties protections are built into this program. "We're not asking people to spy on their neighbors," McNamara said. If someone reports something based on race or ethnicity, the police will not accept the report, and someone will explain to the caller why that is not an indicator of suspicious behavior, McNamara said. The iWATCH program isn't the first to list possible indicators of suspicious behavior. Some cities, like Miami, have offered a public list of seven signs of possible terrorism. Federal agencies also have put out various lists over the years. Source: My Way News
 NEW YORK: Afghan-born Najibullah Zazi pleaded not guilty in a New York court on Tuesday to a charge of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction as part of an alleged bomb plot. Judge Raymond Dearie ordered Mr Zazi, 24, to be held without bail after prosecutors argued he was a flight risk and "will pose significant danger to the community if released". The youthful, bearded Mr Zazi, dressed in dark blue and orange prison garb, remained silent during the hearing in federal court in Brooklyn.
Mr Zazi, who before his arrest drove an airport shuttle bus in Denver, Colorado, is accused of preparing a bombing spree in New York this month, possibly on the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Prosecutors say he carried bomb-making instructions in a laptop and had been shopping for large quantities of chemicals found in beauty products that could have been the ingredients for explosives.
They also say he received explosives training in Peshawar, Pakistan. Defence lawyer Michael Dowling said there was no evidence his client had committed a crime. "I would like to stop this rush to judgment," he told dozens of journalists at the courthouse. He said travelling to Pakistan "is not illegal" and that the laptop did not prove any crime had been committed. The conspiracy charge meant the government's main burden, he said, was to prove Mr Zazi plotted with others.
So far no one else has been charged. Mr Zazi allegedly drove to New York on September 9 in what a Denver prosecutor called "a chilling, disturbing sequence of events that indicated he intended to make a bomb and intended to be in New York City on 9/11". Prosecutors say Mr Zazi left New York after receiving a tip-off he was being watched by federal agents. Attorney-General Eric Holder said last week the investigation was continuing. Source: The Australian
 Afghan immigrant bought large quantities of chemicals, authorities charge
NEW YORK - An Afghan immigrant who received explosives training from al-Qaida went from one beauty supply store to another, buying up large quantities of hydrogen peroxide and nail-polish remover, in a chilling plot to build bombs for attacks on U.S. soil, authorities charged Thursday. Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old shuttle driver at the Denver airport, was indicted in New York on charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. Investigators said they found bomb-making instructions on his computer's hard drive and said Zazi used a hotel room in Colorado to try to cook up explosives a few weeks ago before a trip to New York. The extent of Zazi's ties to al-Qaida was unclear, but if the allegations prove true, this could be the first operating al-Qaida cell to be uncovered inside the U.S. since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Over the past few days, talk of the possible plot set off the most intense flurry of national terrorism warnings since the aftermath of 9/11. Prosecutors said they have yet to establish exactly when and where the Zazi attacks were supposed to take place. But Attorney General Eric Holder said in Washington, "We believe any imminent threat arising from this case has been disrupted." Zazi was arrested in Denver last weekend and was charged along with his father and a New York City imam with lying to investigators. Authorities said in the past few days that they feared Zazi and others might have been planning to detonate homemade bombs on New York trains, and warnings went out to transit systems, stadiums and hotels nationwide. Read more here,,,, Source: MSNBC
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SOMALI pirates seized an Indonesian chemical tanker overnight with 24 crew members in the Gulf of Aden, a maritime watchdog reported. 
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