Plot to attack World Cup

[Sun Wukong]

May 18, 2010
Plot to attack World Cup

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Abdullah Azam Saleh al-Qahtani is suspected of planning a 'terrorist act' in South Africa during the World Cup beginning June 11. -- PHOTO: AP

<!-- story content : start --> BAGHDAD - IRAQI security forces have detained an Al-Qaeda militant suspected of planning an attack targeting the World Cup in South Africa next month, an official said on Monday. Major General Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for Baghdad security services, said Abdullah Azam Saleh al-Qahtani was an officer in the Saudi army. He is suspected of planning a 'terrorist act' in South Africa during the World Cup beginning June 11, General al-Moussawi told a news conference in Baghdad. He said al-Qahtani entered Iraq in 2004 and is suspected in several attacks in the capital and elsewhere in the country.

In South Africa, a police spokesman said Iraq has not notified them of the arrest. 'We have not received any official reports from them,' Vish Naidoo told The Associated Press. 'Whatever arrest they made there, they know, we don't know anything about it.' Earlier on Monday, South African police paraded fire engines, armored carriers and other vehicles through Johannesburg to show they were ready to secure the country for the World Cup. 'South Africa will be hosting the whole world, and therefore will take no chances,' Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said. In Iraq, attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda have continued despite the killing last month of the group's two top figures in a US-assisted military operation. -- AP

 

[Sun Wukong]

No terror threat to World Cup


May 21, 2010
No terror threat to World Cup

<!-- by line --> <!-- end by line --> JOHANNESBURG - NO TERROR threats against the World Cup have been uncovered by any intelligence agency working with Fifa, despite claims of an Al-Qaeda plot in Iraq, the football governing body said on Thursday. 'For the time being, we haven't received (information about) any threat against the World Cup from any of the intelligence agencies we are working with,' Fifa's secretary general Jerome Valcke Valcke said.

'We are working very well with Interpol and with the police departments of each of the 32 participating countries' to ensure the security of the event, he told the Foreign Correspondents Association in Johannesburg. 'I hope the world will be calm' during the World Cup, which kicks off on June 11, he added.

An Iraqi security spokesman said on Monday that a 30-year-old Saudi man arrested two weeks ago had 'participated in the planning of a terrorist act in South Africa during the World Cup'. Reports indicated the man had taken part in planning attacks against the Danish and Dutch teams in response to perceived insults against the prophet Mohammed in Denmark and the Netherlands.

The Netherlands said on Thursday it had received intelligence reports of 'a threat against Dutch interests in South Africa' and amended its terror alert for travel to the World Cup host nation. 'We received information from our intelligence services... of a threat against Dutch interests in South Africa,' during the World Cup, foreign ministry spokesman Ozlem Canel told AFP.

The Danish embassy in Pretoria said Danish security officials were working closely with their South African counterparts to address any threat. 'This is a collaboration that has increased in connection with the World Cup,' said Danish ambassador Dan Frederiksen. 'You'll have Danish police being in South Africa and also people from the Danish intelligence service being in South Africa working closely with their South African counterparts (during the World Cup).' -- AFP

 

[shOUTloud]

Re: No terror threat to World Cup

I cannot believe that even the Al-Qaeda is dumb enough to attack the World Cup. They will anger the entire Middle East region who loves football as well.

Disrupting the World Cup is too dumb even for them.