Posted on 06/22/2004 6:04:02 PM PDT by nwrep
IN THE NO-FLY ZONES OF northern and southern Iraq, Saddam Hussein's gunners blindly fired surface-to-air missiles at patrolling American and British warplanes. In Yemen, terrorists seized a group of British Commonwealth and American tourists, and four of the hostages died in a shootout. In Tel Aviv, the U.S. Embassy abruptly closed down after receiving a terrorist threat. Perhaps it was just a typical week in the Middle East. But in a region where no one puts much faith in blind coincidence, last week's conjunction of Iraqi antiaircraft fire and terrorism aimed at the countries that had just bombed Iraq convinced some that a new conspiracy was afoot.
Here's what is known so far: Saddam Hussein, who has a long record of supporting terrorism, is trying to rebuild his intelligence network overseas--assets that would allow him to establish a terrorism network. U.S. sources say he is reaching out to Islamic terrorists, including some who may be linked to Osama bin Laden, the wealthy Saudi exile accused of masterminding the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa last summer. U.S. intelligence has had reports of contacts between low-level agents. Saddam and bin Laden have interests--and enemies--in common. Both men want U.S. military forces out of Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden has been calling for all-out war on Americans, using as his main pretext Washington's role in bombing and boycotting Iraq. Now bin Laden is engaged in something of a public-relations offensive, having granted recent interviews, one for NEWSWEEK (following story). He says ``any American who pays taxes to his government'' is a legitimate target.
Saddam's terrorism capability is still small-time, according to senior U.S. officials. ``He's nowhere close to the level of the Iranians or Hizbullah,'' says one.
It's going to be even scarier when they nuke New York this fall.
You know, it's sad to say, but you're probably right. It may not be NYC, but it is likely to coincide with the election. They'll try to do with us as they did with Spain and influence the elections. Hopefully, Kerry will be discredited enough by then that an incident like that won't turn the tide. Again, scary, but very likely.
Man, my sister lives on the lower east side of Manhattan. Bought a place there post 9-11. She's got stones, I'll give her that. And soon to have a brand new BMW on her lawyer's salary. And as you might guess, as a single, female, New York litigator, she's going to be voting for John F. Kerry come November. I worry a lot about a nuke attack in Manhattan. That was among my reasons for seeking work in the Jersey suburbs, though no one is immune from a terror attack. This press amnesia is SCARY. We are at war. I am very happy to have this ammo though. I have some targets who need to see it first thing tomorrow morning. It'll ruin their day. Well, no it won't. They deny reality.
I just love the Internet. No wonder the UN wants to control it.
My only comforts are a) that Washington DC is a slightly likelier target; and b) I have somewhere else I can be then.
I guess Time just keeps ticking......
Think Dan Rather will do a "in thier own words" story about this Time piece? Me either.
Lookee here.
I love the internet, don't you?
Wanna see something cool?
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3693e5252fa6.htm
Tee-hee....already posted!
You might get a kick out of post 29
bump for exposure
OMG......that is a FABULOUS FIND!
I retro rocked back in time!
Though it was too early to know for sure, the CIA suspected that bin Laden had a hand in the abduction of 16 foreign tourists in Yemen last week. Four of the hostages--three Britons and an Australian--were killed when the police intervened, and two others, including an American woman, were wounded. Most kidnappings in Yemen are strictly cash-and-carry affairs, in which tribal desperadoes raise money without harming their captives. But these kidnappers, who came from a Yemeni group calling itself Islamic Jihad, demanded that the authorities release two of their leaders, who have ties to bin Laden. And they said they were protesting Western "aggression" against Iraq.The idea of an alliance between Iraq and bin Laden is alarming to the West (what if Baghdad gave the terrorists highly portable biological weapons?). Saddam may think he's too good for such an association. Jerold Post, a political psychologist and government consultant who has profiled Saddam, says he thinks of himself as a world leader like Castro or Tito, not a thug. "I'm skeptical that Saddam would resort to terrorism," says a well-informed administration official. "He can do a lot of other things to screw with us." But Saddam is famous for doing whatever it takes to stay in power. Now that the United States has made his removal from office a national objective, he knows he is fighting for his life. "The worst thing you can do is to wound him, let him know you meant to kill him, and then let him survive," says an Iraqi Shiite leader in London. As his own people know only too well, Saddam is quite capable of fighting dirty.
LOL.........that's making me LOL......remember how everybody would whine and moan anything Jim and/or John made ANY kind of change to the forum back then?
They drug us kicking and screaming into the the 21st century, didn't they?
Are you seeing these posts? I am really scared of our national press when I see what they are doing.
Yeah, thankfully this is still to me a very usable forum. I like it better than any other just in terms of managing threads, keeping threads, interacting. They've done a terrific job with it. It also just shows what a vibrant and informative place this is. It's my mega multi vitamin of awareness. My lifeline.
Huck, the national press turned me into a radical conservative 30 years ago. Nothing they do surprises me, and I mean nothing.
And now I see these articles. There's another one floating around from the Guardian in 98. Articles from the pre 9-11 days when we sent envoys to parlay with the Taliban and deliver a "tough wish list." That sounds like an SNL joke, post 9-11 doesn't it? Sending the Taliban a tough wish list? The Clinton Doctrine.
But, I am also very happy to see the articles, because there is a hippy left wing forum where I take em on 10 at a time, and they are going to be greeted with these articles tomorrow morning. And then I will say to them, is it just me, or has the press, and the democrat party got a bad case of amnesia? This is Newsweek. CNN. The Guardian UK. Hell, there's bound to be similar articles from the NY TImes out there too. And the Washington Post. If it was on CNN and in Newsweek, it was in all those other places surely. They've all got amnesia. Right?
And then I'll wait for their response.
Throw their own articles back in their face so they know that we know and are not fooled by them.
Nice!
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