Drudge - cancelled flight believed headed to attack Las Vegas

12/25/03 | Drudge

[salbam]

Developing

[Zechariah11]

Kudos!

[riri]

Wouldn't it take quite a bit to knock Hoover Dam out?

[nwctwx]

No one is "taking out" the hoover dam, especially with a plane...

[Victoria Delsoul]

Thanks. :-)

[Beck_isright]

Last convention I was there for there were over 10,000 people in that hotel at night. This is not a good thing. I just hope the boys are flying high and have the missles hot.

[riri]

That's what I thought.

[kcvl]

Question:

What is the status of the meeting in Prague between September 11th hijacker Mohamed Atta and Iraqi embassy intelligence officer, Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani?

Answer:

The basic information has not changed: Czech counter intelligence determined that an Iraqi official under its surveillance met Atta in April 2001. The interpretation of it, however, has undergone a number of vacillations. Here is the chronology:


1. October 13, 2001. Based on an apparent leak from the Czech foreign ministry in Prague, Czech newspapers reported that Czech foreign minister Jan Kavan had briefed Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington about a trip Atta had taken to the Czech Republic in April. Kavan said that Czech intelligence had observed Mohamed Atta meeting in Prague with Iraqi Counsel Al-Ani. Since Ani worked as a case officer for Iraqi intelligence, the liaison implied a connection between the hijackers and Iraq.



http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:fowtVvIdmvYJ:edwardjayepstein.com/2002question/prague.htm+al-Ani,+Prague,+atta&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[Semper911]

No one is "taking out" the hoover dam, especially with a plane...

Depends on what's in the plane.

[nwctwx]

It would likely take a nuclear device to destroy the dam, and why waste one on a dam if you have one?

[Bobalu]

A Jumbo Jet at full speed would just bounce off of Hoover dam :-)

Might as well try to knock over a small mountain.

You would need a tiny tactical nuke or a VERY large conventional explosive detonated in the water near the dam to crack it.

IMHO

[go star go]

French police sources said that after they received the U.S. information, six people were questioned but no one was arrested. All of the men had tickets for Air France Flight 68 to Los Angeles and were on a watch list provided by U.S. authorities, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. THIS IS FROM CNN.COM So, the frogs did release them...

[hoosiermama]

The Hoover Dam, Twin Towers and Pentagon are all major engineering wonders.....

"In 1985, Hoover Dam was designated as a National Historic Landmark. In 1955, the American Society of Civil Engineers named Hoover Dam one of the Seven Modern Civil Engineering Wonders of the United States.

And in 1999, Hoover Dam was voted one of the Top Ten Construction Achievements of the 20th Century through a poll commissioned by the organizers of a construction, aggregates, and ready mixed concrete industries trade show. Heady accolades for a dam, but it is not surprising when you consider the impact Hoover Dam has had on the American Southwest, and on other major dam construction projects throughout the world."

[Maigrey]

The MGM Grand does, and I also think that the Mirage, and maybe 2-3 more do.

After looking op a map, MGM Grand is adjacent to the airport, as well as Bally's, Hard Rock, and Caesar's.

I tend to think the HoJo would be small enough. (LOL)

[goodnesswins]

Well.....think about this....

http://www.hoteldiscounts.com/cgi-bin/hotelinfo?SID=VCW&Dest=LAS&LKF=VCW&HotelId=LAS%20STRA&HName=STRATOSPHERE&Return=Prev

[nhoward14]

I'm thinking "bug on a windshield" if they fly a plane into Hoover.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Agreed. Hoover Dam would shrug off an airplane attack.

I'm flying to Vegas tomorrow for a four-day weekend. Should have a front row seat if anything happens. Wish me luck...

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Maybe the terrorists got away (for capture another day).......but if the story is accurate and not one American died or was injured on United States soil, it was a big win.

[Maigrey]

After watching a documentary on Discovery on how the Boulder (Hoover) Dam was build, I'd sayit would take more than a plane to take it down. Now, about cracking it would be another matter.

[larlaw]

I'm here in Las Vegas, and this is a very scary thought. The MGM Grand is indeed the biggest hotel in Las Vegas with over 5000 ROOMS, and is usually close to sold out from now through New Year's Eve. Not just the MGM, but every other major hotel and the Strip are packed with tourists.

However, as you mentioned, based upon the scheduled landing I 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. If the plane were hijacked just prior to landing at LAX at 4:05 p.m., it would take approximately 45 minutes to divert to Las Vegas, putting the crash time just after the opening kick off of the game...

[f7Oshawn]

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.