Drudge - cancelled flight believed headed to attack Las Vegas

12/25/03 | Drudge

[Jim Noble]

It occurred to me, tho, that just hitting the power grid on the top of the hills on the Nevada side would cause havoc throughout Nevada and Calif.

I think they want to turn out the lights (Cave of Darkness).

Niagara Falls Hydroelectric Station is the Eastern target (probably), I thought Hoover Dam the likely SW target but I didn't think through how hard it would be to hit it, much less destroy it, with a jet.

If there are adjacent distribution facilities, that would certainly be a better bet.

[Jim Noble]

If one of the main terrorist goals is to damage the economy---particularly the already financially-ailing airline industry, which was dealt a terrible blow in the aftermath of 9 11---killing helpless passengers in-flight while the ships' captains, ensconced on the flight deck, plod on---well, that would work for them just fine...

There is too much concern at a national level about "the economy", and not enough about the war.

The only economy we need is manufacturing JDAMs and aircraft carriers.

AQ can and probably will shut down international air (and maybe sea) commercial travel.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

[Las Vegas Dave]

Lake Mead's level has dropped 90 feet, the concrete at that level is much thicker, plus other posters have noted that it would be very difficult (to impossible) to fly a plane into the dam due to the twists and turns of VERY narrow canyon walls.

[NYC GOP Chick]

Lots of things.*Most* were very positive — and all were *vey* interesting — oob. ;)

[GotMojo]

Perhaps London was the target? I can't imagine the damage a fully fueled 747 would cause......

[Las Vegas Dave]

It is being said that Las Vegas Strip may have been the target. Hoover Dam would not sustain much damage if hit by a plane due to its construction. But the strip, imagine what would happen the loss of life, the economy, if it succeeded.

[San Jacinto]

Hey, the French asked these guys if they were terrorists and they said "No". Of course they let them go. I expect the Democrats to congratulate the French on their impeccable and compassionate investigation. After all, if actual terrorists had been caught, Bush would have gotten a bump in the polls. The Democrats on the Intelligence Committee would have been deeply saddened.

[Semper911]

A devastating strike on the dam would be improbable, IMO. But a crash landing in down town Vegas would be catastrophic and very do-able. Looks like we fended this one off, no thanks to the f*ing Nazi-loving French.

I agree on every point.

[No Blue States]

The questions that keeps ringing in my mind is what is the diversionary tactic.

"Al Qaeda has secretly hired Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson and Kobe Bryant?"

LOL! I just woke up thanks for the laugh. Thats so true though, and AQ didnt even have to hire them.

If the media were the target it would become more important to them than the soap opera stories. It reminds me of a Tornado in Fort Worth a few years ago, the weathermen were casual about it right up to the point that the tornado passed over them and they saw swirling plate glass windows from their towercam before it went offline.

[LinuxRocks]

"1. Why was no one held or arrested?"

It is rumored that the French leaked the intel we shared with them in order to ground the planes and that leak tipped off the bad guys and that's the reason they didn't show. I hate France...

[Great_Dame]

Not only are our defences at the Hoover Dam that good, I pitty the poor aviator who haplessly wanders too close to ANY power plant and doesn't heed the radio warnings he receives. Nobody is getting close, nope, no sir, not even close.

Do "they" really think the Americans are going to stand by and watch an unauthorized or hijacked aircraft go for a joy ride and see where it ends up? Yeesh!

[LinuxRocks]

The link you provided was a VERY interesting read:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2001/Sep-20-Thu-2001/news/17037273.html

[LinuxRocks]

From here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30985-2003Dec25?language=printer

This...UNBELIEVABLE...they effectively told the guys we were after them and let them go: Police in Paris questioned 13 people who had checked in for two Air France flights that were canceled Christmas Eve because of a terrorism warning from U.S. authorities, but no evidence of wrongdoing was found, the French Interior Ministry said. All 13 were released.

[BobS]

Just don't hit the Bellagio. That's my favorite place to play with the big boys.

[Quix]

GLAD to read that.

THANKS.

[elli1]

Thanks, Brad. I'll do some surfing & see if I can turn up a title. Quite possibly the local university library will have a copy of the program on tape. And, hehe, thank you for not spoiling the ending!

[elli1]

Thank you for the info. I'll hunt it down. Even some of us girls love great adventure stories.

[diamondjoe]

I was wondering how they could possibly drop in elevation enough to hit Las Vegas if they are descending into L.A.--at that distance out, even on the descent, planes are still way too high to do a sudden drop into L.V. without getting the planes from Nellis out to check on them. But what if Al Qaeda can get into the cockpit w/o alarming the cabin (think of how many people on board are completely asleep on an overnight, international flight), and then radio that they've got some sort of problem and request emergency landing in Las Vegas? Then they've got a non-suspicious descent, and at the last minute they just veer off course and hit a major casino. I stayed at Luxor once, and you can see planes landing from the rooms.

[cyncooper]

I don't get it...I seriously can't believe that these terrorists think they can hijack a commercial flight still.

So after 9/11 they after to deal with:
1. Aviation security is more or less better.
2. Passengers and flight crew are not just going to let some terrorist take over the flight, they know their fate if they do.
3. The cockpit doors are now reinforced on all (I believe) commercial flights making it more difficult to gain entry into the flight deck-if #1 and #2 did not already stop them dead in their tracks.

Please read up on what has been going on. There has been talk of flight crews being infiltrated, so if terrorists are snug behind a secured cockpit door, how are the passengers going to get to them?

If other aspects of airport personnel have been infiltrated by terrorists, is it not possible someone who has joined the staff could then get something on board, past your vaunted beefed up security?

Also I am not comforted by the way the story is unfolding about how seriously France took this situation--which is they did not take it seriously.

The good news is, the U.S. has obviously been combing through not only flight manifests, but names of employees of airlines worldwide, so you are right about beefed up security----but only to a point. The rest of the world (France, for example), needs to get with the program.

[cyncooper]

As far as Vegas being a target, I wonder how anyone would conclude that based on anything other than the fact that the casinos were one of the few businesses open today.

Um, perhaps the same way "anyone" concluded that particular flights emanating from Paris--right down to certain flight numbers--were being targetted by the terrorists.

Intercepts and other types of intelligence.

Our people have said they had pretty specific information, compared with times past when they had more general chatter indicating some plot was in the works.