Drudge - cancelled flight believed headed to attack Las Vegas

12/25/03 | Drudge

[salbam]

Developing

[hoosiermama]

My mistake those are chemical factories in NJ that were listed as targets.

[uncbob]

Hard to believe pilots or passengers who know at this point in time the hijackers are going to crash the plane will sit back and do nothing

[Doc On The Bay]

IF we actually knew who they are, we should Capture them, Question them "Down to the Molecular Level," & Eradicate Them, & Their Families--out to the Sixth Generation.

We ARE AT WAR, & our "Adversaries" use "Family Ties."

IF we Must Eradicate an ENTIRE FAMILY to save one Million Innocents--SO BE IT!!

The "Other Side" is NOT "Nice!!"

Doc

[nwctwx]

Thanks... must have missed that today. I guess I am just very skeptical about this whole plane issue. It feels like the goal of all the talk of planes is misdirection.

[scannell]

would not be surprised if the Las Vegas Bowl which was held yesterday with 40,000 or such people may have indeed been the target.

However, the dramatic consequense of the WTC attack was the fact that the planes were just fuled and the fire burnt for what 30-60 days or what. These planes from France would be pratically empty.

[elli1]

Think about all the gazillions of tons of water pressure that Hoover Dam is standing up against. A 747 flying into it would be pretty darned insignificant. Even if the plane was rigged w/ explosives, wouldn't the dam & all that water behind it act like a lead curtain & most of the blast be deflected back into the air?...i.e.the path of least resistance?

[f7Oshawn]

I just don't see the terrorists succeeding if they try to hijack a commercial flight in the US anymore. People are not just going to sit back and wait.

They could always rent or lease a business jet and do whatever they want with it and not have to worry about any passengers, if they had the money. That is more of a scary possibility to me :(

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

In all seriousness, what is there in Vegas that a plane can purposely hit? And just how crowded is Vegas at this time of year?

Vegas is especially mobbed this time of year, but really... it's the perfect terror target 24/7, 365. All a suicide pilot has to do is follow the lights, and he'll take out thousands -- no matter the time or the date.

Not to mention to economic impact, local and national. It would be a devestating blow on every level.

[nwctwx]

However, the dramatic consequense of the WTC attack was the fact that the planes were just fuled and the fire burnt for what 30-60 days or what. These planes from France would be pratically empty.

Exactly! For that matter, how can we even start to come to a conclusion that this plane was headed for Las Vegas... We still do not know for sure where flight 93 was headed.

[ridesthemiles]

However, the dramatic consequense of the WTC attack was the fact that the planes were just fuled and the fire burnt for what 30-60 days or what. These planes from France would be pratically empty.

Even if the planes were empty, if they were targeting the Boyd stadium with the Las Vegas Bowl, I think they could have dome alot of damage. With no structure to impede the plane, I think they could kill alot of people, even empty.

[Zechariah11]

NBC Network News reported a disagreement between the French and US.

Took the side of France.

[TheCrusader]

"Sorry, but this is definitely not a win in our column. The terrorists escaped to do it another day."

It was like swatting down a touchdown pass instead of intercepting it. Now we gotta keep playing defense, but at least they didn't score.

[JSteff]

This time we didn't even ask them to attack anywhere with us... just arrest the bad guys. The weasels let them go.

If any of them ends up attacking us another day we should do something necessary to France. Remember this is not the second or third time they let us down... remember when they made our pilots fly an extra 5 hours when we spanked Libya.

Once again they think "they showed us". The need a slap.

[hoosiermama]

I agree no commercial flight. Cargo ie. UPS plane maybe, or a flight originating out of the US.

I'm more concerned with the containers coming into our ports. So many containers so few people to properly check them. They do their best.

The 18 wheelers on the highways could also do some damage,if some were coordinated and carried explosives. Wouldn't want to mess with our patiotic teamsters if I were a terrorist.

[kcvl]

One FBI document, labeled "Law Enforcement Sensitive," states that during the summer of 2001, Atta "conducted extensive travel" that included visits in Florida, Boston, New York, New Jersey and Las Vegas. Indeed, this and other FBI documents show that during the last few days in June—when the presumed Iraq trip would appear to have occurred—almost all of Atta's movements are accounted for: On June 27, 2001, Atta flew from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., to Boston. On the morning of June 28, he traveled from Boston to San Francisco (flying first class) where he switched planes and landed in Las Vegas that afternoon at 2:41 p.m. That afternoon, he rented a Chevrolet Malibu from an Alamo rental-car office, set up an account at an Internet café called the Cyber Zone and checked into the EconoLodge motel on Las Vegas Boulevard, a cheap motel in a neighborhood of seedy strip joints that is located barely two blocks from the local FBI office.

The FBI records show Atta logged onto his Cyber Zone Internet account five times over the next two days and then checked out of the EconoLodge at 3:30 a.m. on the morning of July 1. He then returned his rental car and boarded a flight to Denver at 5:59 a.m., landing in Boston later that day. A week later, on July 7, Atta boarded a flight from Boston to Zurich—the first leg on his trip to Spain. He returned to the United States on July 19, 2001.

Much about Atta's movements is still unknown—and most likely will remain so. FBI officials believe, for example, that Atta flew to Las Vegas as part of a series of trips he took that summer to test security at U.S. airports in preparation for the September 11 attacks. But it is just a theory. The visit to Spain is believed to have been for a meeting with Ramzi bin al-Shibh, one of the planners of the September 11 attacks, who also was in Spain during the same time.

snip

FBI records show Atta and fellow hijacker Marwan Al-Shehhi checking out of the Diplomat Inn in Virginia Beach, Va., and writing a check for cash for $8,000 for a SunTrust account in that city on April 4, 2001. For the rest of that week, Atta's cell phone was used to make repeated calls to Florida. On April 11, Atta rented an apartment in Coral Springs, Fla. While acknowledging that a few days are unaccounted for, the FBI has found no evidence that Atta departed the country overseas during this period, an official said.

snip

Youssef Nada, an elderly Egyptian financier who founded and ran the Al-Taqwa network from bases in southern Switzerland and northern Italy, was designated a terrorist financier by the Bush administration in November 2001. A U.S. Treasury official testified to Congress that Nada had provided financial assistance to Al Qaeda both before and after the 9/11 attacks. In 2002, the Treasury placed more than a dozen companies established by Nada and an Eritrean-born business associate named Ahmed Idris Nasreddin on the U.S. terrorist finance sanctions list.

[FastCoyote]

"In all seriousness, what is there in Vegas that a plane can purposely hit? And just how crowded is Vegas at this time of year?"

There is plenty to hit here, all near the airport. Large hotels.

[Las Vegas Dave]

Nellis Air Force base is near North Las Vegas, I would guess 20 miles from the strip.

Sad to say but a hijacked airplane would not make it to the strip, if you get my drift.....

[JSteff]

Maybe we asked the weasels to let them go because we had a party waiting for them. Now we know who DID NOT show up and we can terminate them "with prejudice".

No sissy French justice, good old eagle talons for the islamists

[hoosiermama]

Forgot about Nellis. Guess Hoover would be pretty well protected too!

[PAR35]

Hover Dam would make a poor target at this time of year.

1. Electricity demand is lower in the winter, so it would cause little disruption to the industrial base.

2. Water flow is lower this time of year, and Glen Canyon could take up some of the slack while the problem was evaluated.

3. Hoover could likely withstand a direct strike. It is grossly overengineered by today's standards. An impact which would wipe out a new structure would cause only superficial to the old structure. Remember what happened when a B-25 flew into the Empire State Building.

4. Any plane coming from France would be fairly low on fuel after the long flight, and there would not be a major fuel fire after impact. All you would have would be kinetic energy.

5. If the attack was aimed upstream, the face of the dam would likely be damaged, but there would likely be no breach. If they tried coming downstream, it is a mighty small target. Come in low, and they would expend energy on the water contact, and risk skipping over the top. Come in high, and they would miss it completely.