Osama takes credit for Detroit underwear bomber - blah-blah-blah.

Speaking in an audio recording released after Britain raised its terror threat level, the al-Qaeda terror chief also threatened fresh attacks against American targets.

He praised Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who tried to blow up a Delta Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit with explosives concealed in his underpants, as "a hero".

The one-minute recording, which bin Laden directed personally to President Barack Obama, sought once again to draw a direct link between al-Qaeda's terror campaign and US support for Israel.Although he did not claim direct responsibility for the attack, bin Laden said that Abdulmutallab's mission was intended to "re-affirm" the message sent to the United States on September 11, 2001.

"America will never dream of living in peace unless we live it in Palestine," bin Laden is heard to say in the recording, which was broadcast by al-Jazeera television in Qatar. "It is unfair that you enjoy a safe life while our brothers in Gaza suffer greatly."

Despite warnings of a potentially imminent terror attack on British soil, possibly to coincide with conferences in London this week to discuss Yemen and Afghanistan, bin Laden made no specific threats, confining himself to a pledge to continue his struggle against the US.

"With God's will, our attacks on you will continue as long as you continue to support Israel," he concluded.

While the voice on the recording appeared to resemble bin Laden, the audiotape has yet to be authenticated by Western intelligence. If confirmed, the recording would represent his first audio message released since Sept 25 when he issued a demand for the withdrawal of European troops from Afghanistan that was timed to coincide with federal elections in Germany.

Bin Laden's latest recording appeared partly designed to show that he retained control of al-Qaeda even after it transformed itself into a series of loosely linked franchises extending from West Africa to Afghanistan.

Abdulmutallab is believed to have embarked on his failed mission after making contact with al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen, al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (Aqap), which has claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day attack.

Yemen's growing reputation as a safe haven for Islamist extremists has been a cause for concern in Britain and the US for over a year and efforts to counter the resurgence of al-Qaeda in the country have been stepped up over the past month.

According to Yemeni experts, the local leadership of Aqap sees bin Laden as its inspiration rather than as a commander and consequently plans its missions without reference to him.

"All operations are locally planned and implemented," said Mohammed al-Ahmadi, a Yemeni journalist who has long covered Aqap. "There may be encouragement from the core leadership, but nothing more."

Britain: Terrorist Threat Level Raised

By JOHN F. BURNS
Published: January 22, 2010

Britain’s intelligence services raised the threat level of a terrorist attack from “substantial” to “severe” on Friday. The rating, the fourth highest of five levels, means an attack is considered to be highly likely. Home Secretary Alan Johnson said there was no intelligence to suggest that an attack was imminent. “All I would say to the public is we need to be vigilant,” he said.

Officials: U.S. To Give Unarmed Drones To Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - The United States plans to provide Pakistan with a dozen unarmed drone aircraft that will help bolster its military as it takes on Taliban militants, U.S. defense officials said.

Details of the drones emerged late Jan. 21 during a visit to Pakistan by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was asked in an interview with Pakistani television if Washington would supply Islamabad with the unmanned aircraft. "There are some tactical UAVs that we are considering, yes," Gates said.

Defense officials in his delegation afterward confirmed funds had been set aside to secure 12 Shadow aerial drones for Pakistan.

The Shadow drones, smaller than the armed Predator and Reaper aircraft, are about 11 feet long and have a wing-span of 14 feet, with sensors and cameras feeding video images back to operators on the ground.

The Pakistani military already had some less sophisticated drones for surveillance but would need to heavily invest in training specialists to be able to take advantage of the new hardware, said U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. employs armed drones for missile strikes against al-Qaida and Taliban figures in Pakistan, fueling anti-American sentiment and drawing public condemnation from the government in Islamabad.

Pakistani officials have previously called for Washington to provide its military with armed drones.

Second man was tracked on Detroit flight

Second man was tracked on Detroit flight: "U.S. authorities had another Nigerian-born man with an engineering background on their radar when Northwest Airlines Flight 253 prepared to land in Detroit, Michigan, on Christmas Day.

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(Via CNN.com - U.S..)

RQ-170 Has Links to Intelligence Loss to China

RQ-170 Has Links to Intelligence Loss to China: "The same week, Air Force officials revealed that a stealthy, all-jet RQ-170 remotely piloted aircraft had flown in Afghanistan, and its top intelligence officer said his number one priority was a larger, longer-range strike-reconnaissance aircraft.

Both events have their origins in experimental and prototype unmanned aircraft developed as a result of the internment of a U.S. Navy EP-3E electronic surveillance aircraft on April Fool's Day in 2001 and the compromise of the intelligence information on board.

The RQ-170 design has linkages to earlier programs at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs including the stealthy DarkStar and Polecat UAVs. It is a tailless flying wing whose upper surfaces have conformal sensor and/or communications pods faired into each side outboard of a capacious centerline fuselage.

‘Dark Star didnt die when Lockheed Martin [retired the airframe for being too small and short-ranged],’ said a now-retired company executive last week. ‘It just got classified.’

These recent revelations also reflect the battle to balance how the military wants to fight now in Afghanistan against how it wants to fight elsewhere in the future. Part of the test will come in the next 18 months as about 150,000 U.S. and allied troops will try to break the offensive capabilities of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and new technologies will be brought into play. The rest will involve the Air Force’s investment in advanced technologies.

‘We cannot move into a future without a platform that allows [us] to project power long distances and to meet advanced threats in a fashion that gives us an advantage that no other nation has,’ says Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. ‘We can’t walk away from that capability.’

For example, surveillance aircraft can see a lot more, farther and better with technologies like long wave infrared if the platform can operate at 50,000 ft. or higher. In comparison, the RC-135S Cobra Ball, RC-135W Rivet Joint and E-8C Joint Stars manned surveillance aircraft are all limited to an altitude of less than 30,000 ft. – sometimes well under. Additionally, the multi-spectral technology to examine the chemical content of rocket plumes has been miniaturized to fit easily on a much smaller, unmanned aircraft. Other sensors of interest are electronically scanned array radars, low-probability of intercept synthetic aperture radars and signals intelligence.

Follow the landing of a damaged Navy EP-3E in China, in early 2001 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called a classified, all-day session of those with responsibilities for ‘Sensitive Reconnaissance Operations.’ (AW&ST, June 4, 2001, p. 30) They discussed how to avoid future embarrassing and damaging losses of classified equipment, documents or aircrews without losing the ability to monitor the military forces and capabilities of important countries like China. Their leading option was to start a new, stealthy, unmanned reconnaissance program that would field 12-24 aircraft. Air Combat Command, then led by Gen. John Jumper, wanted a very low-observable, high-altitude UAV that could penetrate air defense, fly 1,000 nau. mi. to a target, loiter for 8 hr. and return to base.

During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a UAV described as a derivative of DarkStar was being prepared and was said by several officials to have been used operationally in prototype form. (AW&ST, July 7, 2003, p.20 and March 15, 2004, p.35) ‘It’s the same concept as DarkStar, it’s stealthy, and it uses the same apertures and data links,’ said an Air Force official at the time. ‘Only it’s bigger,’ said a Navy official. ‘It’s still far from a production aircraft, but the Air Force wanted to go ahead and get it out there.’ The classified UAV’s operation caused consternation among U-2 pilots who noticed high-flying aircraft operating within several miles of their routes over Iraq. Flights of the mysterious aircraft were not coordinated with those of other manned and unmanned surveillance units.

There is great interest in how the U.S. now leverages its black- and white-world UAVs and RPAs to maintain a watch over the vast and rugged areas of Afghanistan with a relatively small NATO force. The revitalized conflict in Afghanistan will be largely a ground war with airpower serving as flying artillery, rapid off-road transport and as a wide-ranging reconnaissance force.
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(Via Ares.)