"Intercepted Messages Call for Al-Qaeda Attacks on Portugal"

Click on link above for a 23 July 2011 article in a Portuguese newspaper. The "external intelligence service" referred to in the article is ITRR-TAMC.

The English translation (according to Google Translate) is below:

"Threat rating: moderate, level 3." That's a non-European information service defines a jihadist communications intercepted on Wednesday that calls for "attacks on major ports [sea] and other Western targets in Portugal". The i confirmed that the July 20 services Portuguese were alerted by information services to foreign counterparts that have arisen at the site of a radical Islamic forum, a message (post) to encourage an "attack on port facilities, shipping lanes and tourists in Portugal."

The degree of elaboration and complexity of the plan described on the Internet, combined with other information and analysis of recent events, take the foreign service to consider that "hostile elements have the ability to hit the target and this action is within the reach of adversarial intent."

The evaluation of the information specialists in Islamic terrorism is that "an attack or action, is probably a priority and may even be prepared." In the message that was intercepted, Portugal is a major terrorist plot that you want to strike "a devastating blow on the economies Western "through attacks directed at" us "of" worldwide shipping routes. "

In the list of targets, Portugal is next to the Suez Canal, the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Hormuz. "In the seas and oceans are shipping routes for transport and tourism. If we attack commercial vessels, we can change the system naval routes and raise the cost of marine insurance or even halt the [shipping], especially tourism, "reads the first message written in Arabic intercepted by intelligence services.

A reply message to the first post says: "We should attack the Persian Gulf, is a strategic region, with all those oil tankers. It is very important that the Mujahideen are acting in this region because this will hasten the fall of the infidel states, whose economy will be severely affected obtained through oil in Arab countries. " Arousal Although Portugal and threatens to call specifically target potential terrorist attacks, "the alert level of national security is the same," says the i an expert in the area: "Also because such references to Portugal is not so rare, it happens almost every month. "

Another source close to intelligence services supports a different theory, and states that the "interception of messages with specific references to attacks and direct incentives in Portugal has not happened for some years." The message in question mentions "the Portuguese invaders who insulted Islam and Muslims so elusive." "This barbaric and savage Portugal. The brutality was unique in history. I wish that Al-Qaeda Deliver a sharp blow in Portugal. And I ask Allah to be merciful to al-Qaeda when she does." The current leader of Al-Qaeda, the Egyptian Al-Zawahiri, who happened to Osama bin Laden six weeks after the murder of the mentor of the terrorist organization in Pakistan, advocates a "global jihadist intifada" and has shown a growing interest in Algeria, the base of the former Group Salafist Preaching and Combat, which has become Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Since 2006, Zawahiri in Algeria aims to create a recessed base of al-Qaeda to launch attacks on Portugal, Spain and France.

The attacks against the United States and England use the base set back from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Threat detected the threat of Islamic terrorism is not new in Portugal. The Homeland Security Report 2010 shows that there is "evidence of a growing synergy between al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and criminal groups acting in the Sahel in Africa and submagrebina, particularly at the level of drug trafficking and illegal immigration What sets the increased threat to both Europe's interests, particularly the Portuguese, in the region, both on the European territory. " "It is considered that Portugal is not immune to development in its territory of activities related to the Islamist terrorism.

Among other factors, the presence of Portuguese military contingents in conflict zones such as Afghanistan, can be a motivating factor for cases of violent radicalization of individuals or for the selection of our country as a target for the realization of attacks " it said. Further, the report indicates the "subsistence risk projection for the country's terrorist implanted matrix / active spaces geographically close or where they come from foreign communities resident in Portugal, namely Europe, the Sahel, the Maghreb, or the Indian subcontinent. These risks are extended to the Portuguese communities living abroad and Portuguese foreign presence - of an economic, diplomatic and military. "