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Locked on 05/30/2004 12:58:53 AM PDT by Jim Robinson, reason:
Thread Nine: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1144669/posts? |
Posted on 05/17/2004 12:36:39 AM PDT by JustPiper
What's your opinion of post #4242?
I think EOM doesn't mean anything except for End Of Message. Nothing really significant. I think the key thing is that Gadahn is living in Karachi, Pakistan, working as an Al Qaeda translator with access to operations information. I don't think he's a suicide operative. I think he's a propagandist who is very close to what is going on via his role as a translator and monitor of US news sites.
If I had to bet, it would be several different allied navies and the USN cooperating in an exercise that simulates a large scale amphibious invasion of some foreign country.
From the size of it, it is a rather huge task force, but exercises like these occur all the time. They just dont get announced like this one has been.
Secondly why would alphabets tell the caller "she said the FBI has no reason to believe any of the seven are in Colorado or traveling through.
Unless they didn't get descriptions of the vehicle then it's pretty much a dead end. Why would they say no reason to believe in Colorado etc....unless they have a darned good idea where they are.
Finally they should have called 911 while these guys were still there if they were so sure they matched the description.
Note: Lesson learned, I guess if you see something like this call 911 and say you have an emergency, skip the red tape.
If at all plausible then we have 2 going west from Avon Colorado....check map.
Hi back!
"If there was a state sponsor for 9/11 and it was Iraq it is possible that they didn't care what they hit as long as we were hit and hit hard...a state sponsor may not have a hand in the target...random thoughts."
Zarqawi plays a lead role in "The Empire Strikes Back". They seek to make America an extension of the Iraqi battlefield.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110005133
Saddam's Files
New evidence of a link between Iraq and al Qaeda.
Thursday, May 27, 2004 12:01 a.m.
One thing we've learned about Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein is that the former dictator was a diligent record keeper. Coalition forces have found--literally--millions of documents. These papers are still being sorted, translated and absorbed, but they are already turning up new facts about Saddam's links to terrorism.We realize that even raising this subject now is politically incorrect. It is an article of faith among war opponents that there were no links whatsoever--that "secular" Saddam and fundamentalist Islamic terrorists didn't mix. But John Ashcroft's press conference yesterday reminds us that the terror threat remains, and it seems especially irresponsible for journalists not to be open to new evidence. If the CIA was wrong about WMD, couldn't it have also missed Saddam's terror links?
One striking bit of new evidence is that the name Ahmed Hikmat Shakir appears on three captured rosters of officers in Saddam Fedayeen, the elite paramilitary group run by Saddam's son Uday and entrusted with doing much of the regime's dirty work. Our government sources, who have seen translations of the documents, say Shakir is listed with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
This matters because if Shakir was an officer in the Fedayeen, it would establish a direct link between Iraq and the al Qaeda operatives who planned 9/11. Shakir was present at the January 2000 al Qaeda "summit" in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at which the 9/11 attacks were planned. The U.S. has never been sure whether he was there on behalf of the Iraqi regime or whether he was an Iraqi Islamicist who hooked up with al Qaeda on his own.
It is possible that the Ahmed Hikmat Shakir listed on the Fedayeen rosters is a different man from the Iraqi of the same name with the proven al Qaeda connections. His identity awaits confirmation by al Qaeda operatives in U.S. custody or perhaps by other captured documents. But our sources tell us there is no questioning the authenticity of the three Fedayeen rosters. The chain of control is impeccable. The documents were captured by the U.S. military and have been in U.S. hands ever since.As others have reported, at the time of the summit Shakir was working at the Kuala Lumpur airport, having obtained the job through an Iraqi intelligence agent at the Iraqi embassy. The four-day al Qaeda meeting was attended by Khalid al Midhar and Nawaz al Hamzi, who were at the controls of American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon. Also on hand were Ramzi bin al Shibh, the operational planner of the 9/11 attacks, and Tawfiz al Atash, a high-ranking Osama bin Laden lieutenant and mastermind of the USS Cole bombing. Shakir left Malaysia on January 13, four days after the summit concluded.
That's not the only connection between Shakir and al Qaeda. The Iraqi next turned up in Qatar, where he was arrested on September 17, 2001, six days after the attacks in the U.S. A search of his pockets and apartment uncovered such information as the phone numbers of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers' safe houses and contacts. Also found was information pertaining to a 1995 al Qaeda plot to blow up a dozen commercial airliners over the Pacific.
After a brief detention, our friends the Qataris inexplicably released Shakir, and on October 21 he flew to Amman, Jordan. The Jordanians promptly arrested him, but under pressure from the Iraqis (and Amnesty International, which questioned his detention) and with the acquiescence of the CIA, they let him go after three months. He was last seen heading home to Baghdad.
One of the mysteries of postwar Iraq is why the Bush Administration and our $40-billion-a-year intelligence services haven't devoted more resources to probing the links between Saddam's regime and al Qaeda. In his new book, "The Connection," Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard puts together all of the many strands of intriguing evidence that the two did do business together. There's no single "smoking gun," but there sure is a lot of smoke.The reason to care goes beyond the prewar justification for toppling Saddam and relates directly to our current security. U.S. officials believe that American civilian Nicholas Berg was beheaded in Iraq recently by Abu Musab al-Zarkawi, who is closely linked to al Qaeda and was given high-level medical treatment and sanctuary by Saddam's government. The Baathists killing U.S. soldiers are clearly working with al Qaeda now; Saddam's files might show us how they linked up in the first place.
He said he was a heavy metal/death metal music enthusiast who tried to collect as much of that kind of music as possible. So I think it was part rejection of his father, his Jewish blood as well as the typical anti-social stuff you see from death metal fans. He decided to channel his anger into Islam and the rest is history. But he seems more of a talker than a doer. He posts safely from his Karachi home as EOM, either known or unknown by his Al Qaeda masters.
Oh if only we could. Someone should just flood the forums with pig pictures and the fact that many of us will have pork products with us as we travel.
Add a:
2) c) for electronic warfare
AQ seems to have allies too. ie., I see NK, Russia and factions of EU involved. Maybe China?
Are they supporting for financial gain? Or do they have a stake in our demise.
Combining the carrier battle groups and amphibious groups at sea involved in these two exercises, there would be enough seapower to invade practically any country on Earth.
30,000 troops isnt a lot of personnel for a large scale invasion. Maybe a first wave of assault troops, but thats about it. Its a little more than one division.
This reminds me a lot of the old REFORGER and RIMPAC exercises of the Cold War era.
Take care, have a safe and wonderful weekend.
"Maybe a combination? We need to follow the weapons they use."
the axis of evil
I noticed that too -- that they were heading toward the west. Seems to be a lot of activity on both coasts lately.
4247:
Thats interesting. A Chinese version of Teddy Roosevelt's Great white fleet?
That did come out a bit like a Mad Libbs, huh?
It does appear to be an interesting game Cal. I seem to remember some Russian exercises that are due to happen in June as well.
This could get interesting.
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