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Posted on 11/03/2003 9:17:27 AM PST by tubavil
Edited on 01/26/2004 3:58:09 PM PST by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
Monday, November 3, 2003
A new message was posted in the last few hours by the Jeddah-based al-Qaeda-linked Al-Islah (Reform) society calling on Muslims to flee New York, Washington and Los Angeles in advance of major al Qaeda attacks in those cities. This is revealed by DEBKAfile.
The message accuses the United States of predetermining its end (doom) by its policies. ?The Jews rule the Pentagon by remote control and (are the cause) of Muslims being killed in every corner of the world. The United States should therefore expect more blows.?
The message is signed on behalf of the al Bayan (The Threat) movement by ?your warrior brother, Abul Hassan al Khadrami?.
Our Muslim expert identifies the name of the signatory as belonging to a Yemeni from Hadhrameuth, the Bin Ladens? place of origin where Osama enjoys substantial tribal support.
DEBKAfile?s counter-terror sources stress that warnings appearing on these forums are taken both very seriously and with caution by the intelligence services keeping track of the terrorist network?s electronic traffic.
Last November, Jeddah-based fundamentalist forums addressed a message to an Al Qaeda member, saying whoever understands ? understands; whoever knows, knows, but we are marching towards an operation that will take us to Paradise. Three days later, the Mombasa Paradise hotel was blown up killing 12 Kenyans and 3 Israelis and a failed shoulder-launched Strela anti-air missile missed an Israeli airliner at Mombasa airport.
Yes that does seem suspicious ... certainly anyone in the US military or intelligence community who blabbed that much about things that would appear likely to be classified would be subject to court-martial or worse. Though stranger things have happened.
Let's look at the nuclear angle for a moment. Real nukes are a big problem for a group that doesn't quite amount to a nation-state ... since as far as we know al Qaeda has not tested any nukes (and this isn't easy to hide from the seismologists), they have no way to know if any home-grown nukes would work. Things such as suitcase nukes would require lots of maintenance since they have a short shelf life ... and if they have to do too much maintenance then they'd want some assurance that it was still operational. Add in the problem that an unsuccessful attempt would have the potential for severe "blowback" without causing us much damage at all. The result is that a traditional nuke may well be too risky from their point of view if they couldn't be certain that it would actually work.
So the obvious thing is a dirty bomb ... a very low tech device, all you need is some assorted hospital or industrial radioactive pellets, an ability to mill them, and almost any conventional explosive charge. You'd get almost as much bang for the buck, so to speak, since people are irrationally afraid of anything radioactive - it might be hard to convince people it was really safe to return even after everything was cleaned up. Plus you can play the nuclear angle back home with the ignorant masses in the mideast most of whom are equally misinformed - most non-technical people in the world hear the words "radioactive" or "nuclear" and think "bomb." So they could make it sound like a whole city was really "destroyed." What could be better? You get all the benefits and none of the risk - except the risk of blowback of course, but they'd be counting on the US being so terrorized that we'd be afraid to do anything.
Quayle?
goodnight all!
Yeah - I thought I ought to cut my losses, quit posting, and sit back and wait for some wise @*$% to point it out. Didn't have to wait long. Try not to revel in it to much Revel. :-)
Where do I get it?
CRIMEAN-CONGO HAEMORRHAGIC FEVER
Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a viral haemorrhagic fever of the Nairovirus group. Although primarily a zoonosis, sporadic cases and outbreaks of CCHF affecting humans do occur. The disease is endemic in many countries in Africa, Europe and Asia, and during 2001, cases or outbreaks have been recorded in Kosovo, Albania, Iran, Pakistan, and South Africa.
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