Officials concerned about holiday terror threat (Is CNN trying to stop the economic growth?)

www.cnn.com ^ | 12/05/2003 | Kelli Arena

[kerouacbal]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As the holiday season approaches, recent intelligence has counterterrorism officials increasingly concerned about a possible attack against soft targets, such as shopping malls.

"As recently as two weeks ago, the intelligence community was telling the Homeland Security Department that this felt a lot like the summer of 2001," said Roger Cressey, a former counterterrorism official with the National Security Council. "[We're] seeing lots of data, lots of information coming together that paints a very disturbing picture."

[kerouacbal]

Why can't I find this from any other news source. To me It seems they are trying to get people to stay any from shopping malls so they don't spend the money Bush has put in their pockets

[The_Victor]

Is CNN trying to stop the economic growth

Does a bear defecate in the woods?

[kerouacbal]

Freerepublic changed the head line of this post. The orginal head line was
Is CNN trying to stop the economic growth

[Free Trapper]

The reporters remark that some of the warnings had not "panned out" struck me as being pretty odd unless he wanted them to happen.

Maybe it's just me.

[TomServo]

House rules dictate we use original headlines when posting articles.

[angkor]

Read CNN's assemblage of random thoughts once again, but carefully.

Now try to find the quotes supporting the opening graf.

Try to find anything supporting the assertion that "shopping malls" are under any sort of threat whatsoever. Try to identify the "official" who asserted such a thing.

Then try to find the single theme that connects one paragraph to the next.

At the end, try to determine how the entirety of these random statements by CNN qualify as "news" or even as "a story."

When I was in Bangkok in September reporters were writing about the local "soft targets." When I was in Jakarta in November they were writing about the local "soft targets."

How does CNN justify this as "news"?

[1rudeboy]

You changed the article's headline.

Source

[kristinn]

Also, an al Qaeda video -- which appeared this week on a Web site affiliated with the terrorist network -- shows the two planes hitting the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001, that sources in Washington said was videotaped from an angle they had not seen before.

Until now, there has been only one known video tape showing the first plane hitting the towers (the French brothers'.) If it is true that al-Qaeda has never-before-seen video of the first and second planes hitting the towers, it points to a wider conspiracy and unknown operatives still on the prowl.

[angkor]

If it is true that al-Qaeda has never-before-seen video

There's another conspiracy.

CNN states above that this video was or is on a jihadist Web site.

Yet CNN deigns not to say which Web site that is. Indeed, CNN does not say anything at all about this purported Web site.

Either CNN is lying, or CNN is spiking the news.

[kristinn]

Either CNN is lying, or CNN is spiking the news.

That's a tough choice to make, given CNN's history of doing both.

[SwankyC]

I thought I was the only one that got the real meaning of that.

[kerouacbal]

I might be wrong but I don't think that tape surprised the government. I my self would not be surprised if there were more tapes of the attack. The reason for the post was not a warning of a pending attack but was meant to show that CNN is making up a fear of an attack on malls that no one else is reporting.

[aristeides]

If it is true that al-Qaeda has never-before-seen video of the first and second planes hitting the towers, it points to a wider conspiracy and unknown operatives still on the prowl.

I think I agree.

[Lead Moderator]

Check the title out now- see how I did it? This way anyone searching on the original title will find it and it provides what you think is the salient detail which would interest Freepers.

All the best, LM

[Hegemony Cricket]

Late in the month of Sept. 2001, or early October, I heard/read a brief story about a small group of "middle-eastern" men who were seen shooting video of the towers when the planes hit. The story went that they began to jump around and "high-five", etc., but I never heard if these guys were arrested or what. Not hearing anymore about it, I filed it away under "possible urban legend". You're right. The existence of this tape, and the source it came from, would reinforce a wider conspiracy.

[upchuck]

CNN

Contrived News Network

Long on content, extremely short on believable, provable facts.

Sheeple fodder:

counterterrorism officials
Homeland Security officials say
some officials continue to
At least one senior U.S. official stressed
Also, officials say the terror movement
appeared this week on a Web site affiliated with the terrorist network
that sources in Washington said was videotaped
FBI officials only said they           <-- Well, at least we know the agency on this unattributed fact

This is awful, horrible reporting. The only named people quoted are folks who DO NOT work for the government and thus have no clue about intel. All they can do is guess.

I can understand quoting sources who prefer not to be named, but, geeze, at least say so.

And CNN, where's the link to the web site. That is a matter of public record.

End rant.

[Doe Eyes]

Its the vast left wing conspiracy.

[Wright is right!]

NBC also ran the tape from "a known Al Kayduh website" last evening without identifying the website. Since none of the other networks or cable channels had yet aired the footage, NBC called it an exclusive...which it would NOT have been if NBC said what the URL was. Of course, once NBC aired it, a quick google would have turned up the addy, which is no doubt how CNN got it.

Michael