Soldier shouts alleged Fort Hood killer name in court (Reuters)

WACO, Texas (Reuters) – Army soldier Naser Jason Abdo shouted the name of a military psychiatrist accused of a 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, during his first appearance in court on Friday on a charge related to an alleged terror plot.

Abdo, 21, was formally charged with illegal possession of a firearm two days after his arrest in a Killeen, Texas, motel room in possession of suspected bomb-making materials.

"Abeer Qassim al-Janabi Iraq 2006; Nidal Hasan, Fort Hood, 2009," Abdo shouted at the media as he was led out of the Waco courtroom.

The name Al-Janabi refers to a 14-year-old girl who was raped and murdered by American soldiers in Iraq in 2006. Several soldiers have been charged and sentenced, including a soldier from Midland, Texas.

Nidal Hasan is a military psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people and wounding 32 at a medical facility on Fort Hood in 2009. Hasan, who is in a wheelchair after being shot by police during the attack, faces court martial next year.

Abdo's outburst was the first public indication of his possible intentions when he was arrested.

After his arrest on Wednesday, he told the FBI that his plan was to attack Fort Hood and blow up a local restaurant, according to an FBI affidavit filed with the charges on Friday.

Authorities have said they expect more federal charges to follow. Another hearing was set for August 4.

Abdo is a native of the Dallas area, but authorities at first said they did not know of any connection to Killeen or why he picked Fort Hood.

Abdo has been missing from his Fort Campbell, Kentucky, post since July 4 and was being held in connection with an unrelated pornography warrant.

Abdo was granted conscientious objector status by the U.S. military earlier this year because his Muslim beliefs clashed with military action overseas. But that was suspended following the pornography charge.

He was arrested Wednesday afternoon after a call from Greg Ebert, an employee at a Killeen gun shop, who told Reuters he was concerned when Abdo bought ammunition and smokeless powder.

It was the same gun shop where Hasan bought his weapons two years ago.

An affidavit by FBI agent James Runkel said Abdo told police he intended to conduct an attack against Killeen and Fort Hood.

He also indicated in response to questions that there were explosives in his backpack and in his hotel room, Runkel said.

His backpack was searched and the officers found a handgun, ammunition, items that can be used to construct a "destructive device," and an article entitled, "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom," Runkel said.

He said FBI personnel then interviewed Abdo on July 27 and he, "admitted that he planned to assemble two bombs in the hotel room using gun powder and shrapnel packed into pressure cookers to detonate inside an unspecified restaurant frequented by solders from Fort Hood."

In the brief court hearing, U.S. Magistrate Jeffrey C. Manske declared Abdo held without bond, citing a charge of absent without leave from the Army and previous charge relating to child pornography.

Abdo was stoic throughout the five-minute proceeding and was surrounded by eight U.S. Marshalls. Two marshals had to prompt him to stand when Judge Manske entered the courtroom.

Abdo answered respectfully and affirmatively when asked whether he understood the charge. The judge asked him whether he had any conditions that would impair his ability to understand the proceedings, and Abdo said "No."

(Writing by Karen Brooks; Editing by Greg McCune)

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Bush to be in NYC to mark 10th anniversary of 9/11 (AP)

NEW YORK – The ceremony at the World Trade Center site marking the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks will be a solemn but stately event that will include former President George W. Bush and a chance for victims' families to view the names of loved ones etched into the memorial, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

President Barack Obama and Bloomberg will be joined by the leaders in charge during the 2001 attacks, including Bush, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former New York Gov. George Pataki. Current New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will also be there, he said.

Speaking on his weekly radio show Friday on WOR-AM, Bloomberg said the lawmakers will read short poems or quotes. No speeches will be given.

"This cannot be political," he said. "So that's why there's a poem or a quote or something that each of the readers will read. No speeches whatsoever. That's not an appropriate thing."

The mayor also revealed a few more details for the ceremony on Sunday, Sept. 11. It will be held on the highway to the west of the site, and only relatives will be allowed inside the memorial to look for the names of their loved ones, etched into the railings at two huge waterfalls built in the footprint of the World Trade Center. The falls descend from street level down into a void.

The names of the nearly 3,000 victims — including those who died at the Pentagon and aboard United Flight 93 that went down in Shanksville, Pa., — will be read aloud for the first time.

The public will be allowed into the space, still a major construction site, the day after the ceremony but only with tickets. Bloomberg said limiting the number of people is a safety precaution as the work continues on 1 World Trade Center, the PATH station and museum.

He said there have been a couple hundred thousand reservations already, and a few days are already booked solid. He estimated that a million people annually will visit the site.

The museum is still under construction and is scheduled to open next year. Artifacts from the terrorist attacks are slowly being accumulated for the space, including a steel T-beam shaped like a cross that was discovered by a construction worker in the smoldering rubble. A national atheist group sued over the inclusion of the cross in the museum. It says all beliefs should be included, or none.

Bloomberg said on his radio show that the group had a right to sue, but the cross had a right to be there.

"This clearly influenced people," he said. "It gave them strength. In a museum you want to show things that impacted people's behavior back then, even if you don't think it was right. It's history. Museums are for history."

Bloomberg said other religious relics would be in the museum — a star of David cut from World Trade Center steel, a Bible found during the recovery effort and a Jewish prayer shawl.

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Businesses play critical role in thwarting terror (AP)

KILLEEN, Texas – Ultimately, it was the keen eye of a Texas gun shop clerk that helped authorities find an AWOL soldier who'd stashed bomb-making material in his nearby motel room for a planned attack on Fort Hood soldiers.

The tip that led Killeen police to Pfc. Naser Abdo on Wednesday prevented what could have been the second terrorist attack on the Army post, following a 2009 shooting rampage in which an Army psychiatrist is charged with killing 13 people. Earlier this year in Texas, a shipping company that told the FBI about a suspicious order for a chemical explosive foiled an alleged plot to blow up former President George W. Bush's Dallas home.

The enduring lesson for a post-9/11 world: America's work force plays a crucial role in preventing potential terror attacks.

"A vigilant public and informed local law enforcement make it much more complicated for people wishing to carry out attacks to do so," said John Cohen, principal deputy counterterrorism adviser at the Homeland Security Department.

Federal and local law enforcement agencies have established programs over the past decade that encourage the public to report suspicious activity, and tips from businesses have led to multiple high-profile arrests.

Abdo, 21, who went absent without leave from Fort Campbell, Ky., early this month, was arrested Wednesday at a motel outside Fort Hood and charged with possession of an unregistered destructive device. Police say he was perhaps only a day away from unleashing bombs in a restaurant frequented by soldiers and attacking the Army post.

Abdo's alleged plan was cut short when Guns Galore employee Greg Ebert became suspicious after the soldier acted oddly while purchasing smokeless gunpowder, shotgun ammunition and a semi-automatic pistol magazine. Ebert's call to police and the soldier's subsequent arrest was a proud moment for employees of the store — the same place Maj. Nidal Hasan bought a pistol used in the Fort Hood shooting spree two years ago.

Store clerk Dave Newby said Hasan's purchase, while legal, devastated store workers and put everyone on higher alert.

"I think we all changed," he said. "It was terrible. We thought about coulda, shoulda, woulda."

Ebert noted this week that although there was "nothing extraordinary" about Abdo, he saw just enough to make him suspicious.

The retired police officer said Abdo arrived at the Killeen gun shop in a taxi — unusual for the Central Texas town — and proceeded to buy 6 pounds of smokeless gunpowder, while asking what it was. Abdo didn't say much as he paid in cash, and he didn't bother to collect his change or a receipt before returning to the waiting taxi.

"Now, he hasn't done anything unlawful — it doesn't prevent me from being curious," said Ebert, who retired from the police force last year.

Federal authorities say actions like Ebert's can keep America safe.

"The willingness of an individual to contact law enforcement about an event or incident that may be indicative of a possible threat is vital to our mission," FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said. "It may turn out not to be a threat but at least we have the opportunity to check it out."

Other business tips have been credited with preventing disaster.

A clerk at a Circuit City store in New Jersey told police in 2006 that customers had asked him to make a DVD out of video footage of them firing assault weapons and screaming about jihad. The FBI later tracked six men, now known as the Fort Dix Six, who plotted to kill soldiers in a raid at the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey.

Earlier this year, two companies — Carolina Biological Supply Co. in North Carolina and Con-way Freight in Lubbock — contacted federal and local authorities about suspicions each had surrounding a purchase by Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, who has been charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and schedule for trial later this year.

Federal authorities said Aldawsari bought explosive materials online and planned to hide them inside dolls and baby carriages to blow up dams, nuclear plants and Bush's home. A former Texas Tech University chemical engineering student from Saudia Arabia, Aldawsari was arrested after the North Carolina company reported $435 in suspicious purchases to the FBI.

The freight company notified Lubbock police and the FBI with similar suspicions because it appeared the order wasn't intended for commercial use. Con-way Freight spokesman Gary Frantz said since Sept. 11, 2001, the company has worked with local, state and federal authorities to develop training programs employees participate in at least once a year.

"I think we can be a force multiplied, which is a term often used by law enforcement, where private industry serves as additional eyes and ears to help authorities to uncover these activities to protect the public," Frantz said.

Carolina Biological Supply spokesman Keith Barker said his company has procedures to closely monitor orders involving "chemicals of a high degree of hazard."

"We've taken it upon ourselves to be vigilant," Barker said.

Meanwhile, "Operation Tripwire" is an FBI effort that asks certain businesses and industries — such as airlines and cruise ships — to look for and report suspicious behavior. The Department of Homeland Security has a national "If You See Something, Say Something" public awareness campaign that works with businesses and groups, such as the National Basketball Association, to promote public vigilance.

Some local law enforcement agencies also have partnered with businesses. New York Police Department detectives have asked thousands of companies to be on the lookout as part of "Operation Nexus."

"In a sense we don't know what we deter," because people don't commit crimes and get arrested, said Paul Browne, spokesman for the nation's largest police department. "But by making these things harder, and by educating people who may become unwitting players in terrorist plots, we hope to have that deterrent impact."

The Los Angeles Police Department created "iWatch," which uses brochures, public service announcements and meetings with community groups to provide advice on how to detect and report suspicious behavior.

LAPD Cmdr. Blake Chow said the program is augmented by a web-based system that lets private businesses and security firms exchange information about suspicious activities. The intelligence gleaned with these systems, along with phone tips, has helped disrupt the financing of suspected overseas terrorist organizations, he said.

"The general public is the ones that go to the same place every day to work, they know their neighbors," Chow said. "We rely on them to tell us if they see something or an individual's activities that seem out of place."

___

Associated Press writers Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Colleen Long in New York City, Eileen Sullivan in Washington and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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'Oslove,' Norway's powerful answer to terror (AFP)

OSLO (AFP) – They call it "Oslove," written with a heart-shaped second 'O,' and a week after the attacks that killed 77 people in Norway the symbol of a peace-loving nation's response is everywhere.

The word is carved into rocks marking a mainland jetty used by residents to sail across to Utoeya island, where Anders Behring Breivik gunned down 69 mostly young people about an hour away from the capital.

A car bomb blast targeting government offices in the city centre also claimed by Behring Breivik killed another eight.

In the night-time bars where Oslo's young are letting their hair down once more after going through an emotional wringer, Norwegians greet strangers with a kiss and the whispered mantra.

Outside the city cathedral it crops up time and again in the giant garden tribute to the dead that has sprung up there.

"It's my fourth visit, and each time it has got bigger," said Henrik, 56, of the sea of flowers, flags, candles and messages of condolence, 50 metres (yards) long and 20 wide.

"It feels good to be here, that's why I come. It's fantastic to see all this love," he adds.

Anxious to preserve this outpouring of emotion, the mayor of Oslo has said the pictures drawn by children and the other messages left at the site will be gathered up and housed at Norway's national archives.

The flowers, meanwhile, will be turned into compost, to give new life somewhere else.

"It didn't really hit me when I saw it on television," said Oganda Mawanda, a 28-year-old African immigrant, of the floral tribute. "But once you're here in front of it... It's just so terrible what happened."

A mother brings her two little children, aged six and three, to place roses at the scene.

"I tried to explain to them what happened, without going into the details," says Siri Merete Ek of the murderous rampage.

One card jutting out sums up the feelings of everyone who stops.

"For those who have left us, for those who have lost someone, for those who have survived, for those who grieve, for those in fear, for those who are sad -- thoughts of comfort filled with love," it reads.

Nearby, a boy of five-and-a-half places his offering -- depicting balloons floating off into the sky -- among the pile.

The scene is just a short hop from the court-house where Behring Breivik made his brief appearance before a judge on Monday, to be remanded in custody as investigators gather the evidence needed to pursue a unique trial next year.

That appearance marked the only time Oslo witnessed an angry public reaction -- a youth lashed out at the armoured car bringing in the suspect via an underground back-entrance.

Even as the judge gathered the parties in his closed chambers, 'Oslove' had taken root inside the building: a Dutch-Russian couple made their wedding vows on the first floor in a pre-arranged ceremony.

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Former officials: Al-Qaida still likely to use WMD (AP)

By KIMBERLY DOZIER, AP Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier, Ap Intelligence Writer – Thu Jul 28, 6:31 pm ET

ASPEN, Colo. – A chemical or biological attack by al-Qaida and its offshoots remains a threat, despite the killing of terror leader Osama bin Laden, top former U.S. counterterrorist officials said Thursday.

"We still have pockets of al-Qaida around the world who see this as a key way to fight us," especially the offshoot in Yemen, Mike Leiter, the just-retired director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told an audience at the Aspen Security Forum. "The potential threat from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is very real."

Leiter said the new breed of terrorists understands that killing a few Americans can cause as much fear as the massive plots bin Laden backed.

"The most likely ... are simple forms of chemical or biological weapons" rather than a nuclear attack, Leiter said, using the poison ricin as an example of something that's easily made.

"Is it going to kill many people? No. Is it going to scare people? Yes," he said.

"Bin Laden was really prioritizing the big attack," Leiter added. "Some of them may have fantasies about pulling off another 9/11," but his affiliates realize they can affect U.S. strategy and society with smaller scale attacks.

"Anwar al-Awlaki gets that," Leiter said, naming the U.S.-born radical cleric of the Yemeni branch. And so do other offshoots, like the Pakistani Taliban, which sent a bomber to try to blow up a car in the middle of Times Square a year ago, he said.

With bin Laden gone, Leiter and former CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin both predicted new leader Ayman al-Zawahiri launch similar smaller scale campaign.

"Zawahiri will probably favor smaller targets," McLaughlin told the audience. "Bin Laden did not."

Leiter and McLaughlin both said Zawahiri's core al-Qaida was weaker after bin Laden's killing.

"I think it is now possible ... to actually visualize, to imagine its collapse," McLaughlin said, speaking of the original core group. But he warned against underestimating Zawahiri or his followers.

"He's not as charismatic ... but he may be more disciplined, he said, adding that Zawahiri is a physician who has long been interested in using weapons of mass destruction to attack.

"What we will know is there has been no successful inbound attack since 9/11 that we can attribute directly to al-Qaida," added Charles Allen, who has held multiple top positions at the CIA over the years. "But we can see this metastasized network linked by Internet that is self-sustaining across the world."

Leiter said the trove of information, including inter-al-Qaida communications, taken from bin Laden's compound where he was killed by U.S. commandoes showed the group already was struggling.

He said the documents revealed bin Laden was not the CEO of a large multinational corporation, as analysts thought, but the "slightly out of touch coordinator of a broad dysfunctional family who, frankly, were operating on their own agendas more than his."

But he said al-Qaida and the other groups still have enough organization and staff to keep attacking.

Leiter warned that intelligence and military leaders had to figure out how to keep their staff members, who joined after Sept. 11 to track and fight terrorists in war zones, from getting bored and leaving, because while the U.S. may be drawing down its military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, the anti-terror war is far from over.

"Smaller scale terrorist attacks are with us for at least the foreseeable future," Leiter said.

"This is going to happen," Allen added.

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