Muzbots prepare to turn on their kill-switches. Via NY Sun:
In the aftermath of two major terrorist attacks on Western targets, America’s counterterrorism community is warning that Al Qaeda may launch more overseas operations to influence the presidential elections in November.
Call it Osama bin Laden’s “October surprise.” In late August, during the weekend between the Democratic and Republican conventions, America’s military and intelligence agencies intercepted a series of messages from Al Qaeda’s leadership to intermediate members of the organization asking local cells to be prepared for imminent instructions.
An official familiar with the new intelligence said the message was picked up in multiple settings, from couriers to encrypted electronic communications to other means. “These are generic orders,” the source said — a distinction from the more specific intelligence about the location, time, and method of an attack. “It was, ‘Be on notice. We may call upon you soon.’ It was sent out on many channels.”
Also, Yemen’s national English-language newspaper is reporting that a spokesman for Yemen’s Islamic Jihad, the Qaeda affiliate that claimed credit for last week’s American embassy bombing in Sa’naa, is now publicly threatening to attack foreigners and high government officials if American and British diplomats do not leave the country.
An adviser to Senator McCain and a former director of central intelligence under President Clinton, James Woolsey, said Al Qaeda has a “history of doing three things at least related to elections. One is to attack before elections, such as in 2004 in Spain, and of course the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. They also have a history of attacks when new leaders take over, like Gordon Brown in Britain and the new leader in Pakistan, with the attack over the weekend. Also Al Qaeda sends messages to populations in elections. You really don’t know which one of these they are going to implement.”
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- Freed by U.S., Saudi Becomes al-Qaeda Chief
- Lashkar-e-Taiba Said Behind Mumbai Terror Attacks
- Ottawa University Instructor Arrested in 1980 Blast at Paris Synagogue
- Al-Qaeda Plans for Israel War
Originally published 2010: https://web.archive.org/web/20101130100718/http://smoothstoneblog.com/2008/09/spies-warn-that-al-qaeda-aims-for-october-surprise.htm