Prophetic Times

WEEKLY WORLD NEWS UPDATE

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

21 JUNE 2003

AL QAIDA RECRUITS SCIENTISTS FOR WMD ATTACK

June 19, 2003 The Middle East Newsline reports: "Al Qaida has recruited scientists for a weapons of mass destruction attack on the West. The head of Britain's domestic intelligence agency said Al Qaida has recruited what she termed 'renegade scientists' to develop either biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. Eliza Manningham-Buller, the director of MI5, did not identify where Al Qaida has recruited, but officials later said Iraq and Pakistan were suspected of being the key countries supplying such personnel.

'We know that renegade scientists have cooperated with Al Qaida and provided them with some of the knowledge they need to develop these CBRN [chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear] weapons,' Ms. Manningham-Buller told the Royal United Services Institute in London. 'My conclusion, based on the intelligence we have uncovered, is that we are faced with the realistic possibility of some form of unconventional attack.'

Officials said Al Qaida has obtained services from scientists who had worked in Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. They said the Islamic insurgency group has also purchased a large amount of dual-use command and control systems from the West, particularly JapanY "

DIRTY BOMB ATTACK 'A MATTER OF TIME'

June 18, 2003 The Scotsman reports: "The head of MI5 issued a chilling warning yesterday that the war against terror would not be won quickly, and cautioned that it was 'only a matter of time' before a 'crude' nuclear, biological or chemical attack. Eliza Manningham-Buller, making her first public comments on the terrorist threat, spelled out a grim reality that there was an inexhaustible supply of potential terrorists being groomed by extremists to attack the West.

She said: 'The supply of potential terrorists among extreme elements is unlikely to diminish. Breaking the link between terrorism and religious ideology is difficult.'

Al-Qaeda was pinpointed as the 'first truly global threat' by Ms Manningham-Buller, who said that recent fatal attacks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Casablanca in Morocco proved the terror network and other groups posed a 'potent threat'. Ms Manningham-Buller said intelligence suggested that renegade scientists had told the international terrorist network how to make so-called 'dirty' nuclear bombs.

But Ms Manningham-Buller, the director general of MI5, added that conventional bombs and suicide bomb attacks remained their preferred weapons. 'They [al-Qaeda] still remain an organization capable of deadly terrorist attacks,' she told a conference at the Royal United Services Institute in central LondonY "

NEW ANTIBIOTICS 'COULD PROVE DEADLY'

June 18, 2003 BBC News reports: "A new class of antibiotics offers massive benefits to today's patients - but could place future generations in danger, say experts. Some scientists say that the principle behind a new crop of drugs currently under development will make it far tougher for bugs to become resistant to them. This is because they work in the same way as many of the methods which the body itself has always used to rid itself of bacterial infections.

But other researchers say that it is quite possible that bacteria will acquire resistance - and when they do, this will make life far more difficult, as our own defense mechanisms will be rendered far less potent. Even minor cuts and grazes will take far longer to heal, they warn, and could even progress to far more serious bacterial infections.

In addition, the researchers say, the body's inability to keep down other types of bacteria could lead to a surge in chronic illnesses such as heart disease and cystic fibrosis.

The new family of drugs, called 'Ramp' antimicrobials, are being developed in response to growing resistance to existing antibiotic drugs.

There are fears that virtually all drugs could be rendered far less effective as microbes evolve to dodge their attacksY "

HAMAS, JIHAD FAIL TO AGREE TO CEASEFIRE

June 18, 2003 The Middle East Newsline reports: "Egypt has failed to win a ceasefire agreement from Palestinian insurgency groups in their war against Israel. An Egyptian security team failed to obtain an agreement from 13 Palestinian insurgency groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, for a six-month ceasefire in the war against Israel. Palestinian sources said the insurgency groups insisted that Israel submit guarantees that it will end the targeting of their leaders and free Palestinian prisoners.

'Cease-fire means surrender to occupation,' Hamas spokesman Ismail Abu Shanab said. 'The time is not for a truce. The time is for solidarity.'

After two days of talks, the Egyptian team returned to Cairo. The sources said the ceasefire offer could be discussed in a meeting later this month in Cairo. PA Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas is expected to meet Hamas on TuesdayY "

NORTH KOREA SAYS BLOCKADE WILL LEAD TO WAR

June 17, 2003 The Associated Press reports: "North Korea warned Tuesday that any economic blockade by the United States and its allies against the communist state could lead to a war that would include Japan.

The warning came as the United States, Japan and Australia, began cracking down on the North Korean trade in illicit drugs, weapons and counterfeit money - believed to be key sources of hard currency for Pyongyang to buttress its regime and its suspected nuclear weapons programs.

North Korea's main state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Tuesday charged that the United States is 'laying an international siege to the North and putting a blockade against it as a premeditated scheme to start a new war on the Korean peninsula.'

North Korea will take 'physical retaliation,' including 'all means and methods an independent country can take,' if it concludes that the recent moves by the allies violate its sovereignty, Rodong said in a commentary monitored by South Korean news agency Yonhap.

'There is no guarantee that this blockade will not lead to such a serious condition as a full-scale war,' said Rodong. 'If war breaks out between the North and the United States, it will not be limited to the Korean Peninsula but all the areas where aggressors are lurking will become our targets.'

North Korea accused Japan of turning itself into the 'base camp for U.S. aggression against Korea.'Y "

'DIRTY BOMB' MATERIALS SEIZED IN A FORMER SOVIET REPUBLIC

June 17, 2003 ABC News reports: "A taxi driver was detained after authorities in the Georgian capital found nerve gas and radioactive materials that can make a 'dirty bomb' in his cab, officials said Monday.

Tedo Mokeliya was detained May 31 after police in this former Soviet republic discovered two containers holding cesium-137 and strontium in his taxi, said Givi Mgebrishvili, chief of the Interior Ministry's main criminal investigation department.

Cesium and strontium, which have medical and industrial applications, also are considered likely ingredients for a so-called 'dirty bomb,' in which conventional explosives are combined with radioactive material.

Police also found a dark brown liquid later determined to be nerve gas concentrate, Mgebrishvili said. No other details were immediately available. Police said the illicit materials might have been earmarked for sale in Turkey.

Officials did not say where Mokeliya is believed to have obtained the substances or why they chose to search his taxi in the first place.

Thefts of the materials became common after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and, according to some estimates, dozens of such containers remain unaccounted for.

Environment Minister Nino Chkhobadze said the materials allegedly seized from the taxi had not contaminated the surrounding environmentY "

Compiled by L. Jim Tuck, Pastor
ljtuc@msn.com
UCGIA, Oakland, San Jose, Stockton, & Santa Rosa, California