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US Transportation Security Administration Raises Alert Over Stolen Crop-Duster
http://www.avweb.com/newswire/10_46a/briefs/188494-1.html
By Mary Grady
The Transportation Security Administration issued an advisory on Friday that a Piper PA 25 Pawnee crop-dusting aircraft was stolen from Ejido
Queretaro, near Mexicali, Mexico, on Nov. 1. "Although there is currently no indication that this has any connection to terrorist activity," the TSA
said, "the theft is cause for concern. Past information indicates that members of al-Qa'ida may have planned -- or may still be planning -- to
disperse biological or chemical agents from cropdusting aircraft." The stolen aircraft is registered in Mexico and bears the tail number XBCYP. If you
see the aircraft, the TSA says you should immediately contact the TSA General Aviation Hotline at (866) 427-3287. The TSA encouraged
aerial-application operators and airport operators to take security measures such as storing aircraft in locked hangars with electronic security
systems, parking airport heavy equipment such as trucks and forklifts where it would block aircraft access, use propeller locks and chains or
tie-downs to secure aircraft stored outdoors, and more. Additional security guidelines are available from the TSA and the National Agricultural
Aviation Association. The TSA added that any suspicious activity should be reported immediately to local law enforcement as well as to the TSA General
Aviation Hotline at 866-GASECUR (866-427-3287).
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elgatoloco
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Maybe to smuggle 'liquid sensimilla'?
aka 100% blue agave 
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Anonymous
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Reason for plane theft in Mexico worrisome
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20041117-9...
Was it taken for terror or for use in drug trade?
By Anna Cearley
and Onell R. Soto
November 17, 2004
TIJUANA ? No one knows why a group of armed men stole a crop duster plane in the Mexicali Valley this month.
The incident has raised some concern north of the border, where U.S. authorities have acknowledged that terrorist groups might try to use such planes
to spread dangerous substances. But drug traffickers also use such planes, according to Mexican federal investigators in Tijuana.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson said during a visit to San Diego yesterday that the missing crop duster was a
concern, but not an overwhelming one.
"I don't think we should live in fear," said Hutchinson, who oversees transportation and border security for the agency.
A Time magazine article this week noted the theft of the plane in a story about the possibility that al-Qaeda could try to move chemical or nuclear
weapons through Mexico to stage an attack in the United States.
The magazine attributes such a scenario to unnamed top U.S. security officials, who based their information on interrogations of an al-Qaeda member.
The account hasn't been verified, according to the magazine.
The plane was stolen Nov. 1 from the property of a man involved in the fumigation business, said Diana Escalante, a spokeswoman with the Baja
California State Attorney General's office. Four armed men assaulted a pilot, who was guarding the plane, and then took off in it, she said.
The case, Escalante said, has been turned over to federal authorities because of the apparent involvement of organized crime.
Mexican federal investigators, who requested anonymity, said it's likely the plane was meant to be used by drug groups.
The investigators say it's possible that terrorists could try to operate along the border, but while working with U.S. authorities in chasing down
leads on terrorist operations, they found no connections to al-Qaeda. Among the leads investigated, they said, was the August capture of a group of
people in Mexicali, including suspected smugglers, who appeared to have ties to the Middle East.
Hutchinson said U.S. authorities have no information indicating a terrorist network has tried to get something across the Mexican border ? though it
remains a possibility.
"Terrorists look for any opening to put their operatives in this country," he said.
The Time report said Mexican officials would be looking at flight schools on their side of the border. Mexican federal investigators said that would
likely be the work of the country's equivalent of the CIA, a secretive intelligence group that wasn't available for comment.
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Anonymous
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Bordering On Nukes?
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101041122-...
New accounts from al-Qaeda to attack the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction
By ADAM ZAGORIN
Nov. 14, 2004
A key al-Qaeda operative seized in Pakistan recently offered an alarming account of the group's potential plans to target the U.S. with weapons of
mass destruction, senior U.S. security officials tell TIME. Sharif al-Masri, an Egyptian who was captured in late August near Pakistan's border with
Iran and Afghanistan, has told his interrogators of "al-Qaeda's interest in moving nuclear materials from Europe to either the U.S. or Mexico,"
according to a report circulating among U.S. government officials.
Masri also said al-Qaeda has considered plans to "smuggle nuclear materials to Mexico, then operatives would carry material into the U.S.," according
to the report, parts of which were read to TIME. Masri says his family, seeking refuge from al-Qaeda hunters, is now in Iran.
Masri's account, though unproved, has added to already heightened U.S. concerns about Mexico. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge met publicly with
top Mexican officials last week to discuss border security and smuggling rings that could be used to slip al-Qaeda terrorists into the country. Weeks
prior to Ridge's lightning visit, U.S. and Mexican intelligence conferred about reports from several al-Qaeda detainees indicating the potential use
of Mexico as a staging area "to acquire end-stage chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear material." U.S. officials have begun to keep a closer
eye on heavy-truck traffic across the border. The Mexicans will also focus on flight schools and aviation facilities on their side of the frontier.
And another episode has some senior U.S. officials worried: the theft of a crop-duster aircraft south of San Diego, apparently by three men from
southern Mexico who assaulted a watchman and then flew off in a southerly direction. Though the theft's connection to terrorism remains unclear, a
senior U.S. law-enforcement official notes that crop dusters can be used to disperse toxic substances. The plane, stolen at night two weeks ago, has
not been recovered.
? With reporting by Syed Talat Hussain
From the Nov. 22, 2004 issue of TIME magazine
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Anonymous
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Crop-duster theft raises concern
http://amarillo.com/stories/112004/new_638944.shtml
by JOE CHAPMAN
November 20, 2004
The Transportation Security Administration has alerted airports and authorities to watch for a crop-dusting plane stolen this month in Mexico.
Nothing indicates that the plane was stolen for diabolical purposes, but in a post-Sept. 11, 2001, world in which almost anything can be imagined as a
weapon, such news still may raise eyebrows.
"Although there is currently no indication that this has any connection to terrorist activity, the theft is cause for concern," a TSA advisory dated
Nov. 5 stated. "Past information indicates that members of al Qaida may have planned - or may still be planning - to disperse biological or chemical
agents from crop-dusting aircraft."
The plane is a Piper PA 25 Pawnee, a 1960s model that was one of the first planes specifically designed for crop-dusting. The plane, which was stolen
from Ejido Queretaro, near Mexicali, is registered in Mexico and bears the tail identification of XBCYP.
On Friday, Darrin Kayser, a spokesman for TSA, downplayed the notion that the administration has terrorist-related concerns about the theft.
"We put out general aviation alerts from time to time whenever something like this occurs," Kayser said. "A plane was stolen, and we want to help
authorities track it down."
Local crop-dusting pilots offered lukewarm reactions to the news of the stolen plane.
"Because a spray plane is stolen in Mexico, I don't think on my level I'm gonna do anything different," said Jody Wood, a 13-year crop-dusting veteran
of Panhandle.
Wood said he hadn't gotten a notice about the stolen plane. He figured it will wind up in South America, which has a market for old-model planes.
Rodney Puryear of Panhandle Ag Air in Pampa agreed. He said it would be hard to smuggle a stolen plane into the country.
"I think the United States government pretty much 24 hours a day has airplanes up high with downward-looking radar and infrared stuff," Puryear said.
"Now, they're watching that border."
Both pilots said it would be hard to swipe a plane around here because of the traffic at airstrips.
And because crop-dusting planes are expensive, pilots lock them up in hangars rather than leave them sitting on the runway.
"I live beside mine," Puryear said. "Every time a car drives by, I get up and look."
But unlike modern planes, the Pawnee will start without a key, Wood said.
"If you want to steal a plane and you know how to get at it, you're going to get it," he said.
Greg Dodson, owner of Buffalo Airport in Amarillo, said he faintly recalled hearing about the stolen plane.
"Every now and then, we get these postcard-size notices," he said. "I vaguely remember at the time thinking I hadn't seen (a crop-duster) at my
airport and I threw it away."
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JESSE
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Its commonly used to smugle drugs, people are too paranoid.
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