Posted on 07/22/2004 10:47:47 PM PDT by FairOpinion
Key points • Terrorists thought to have targeted at least two US flights in dry-run attacks • 9/11 Commission warns attack worse than Twin Towers 'probable' • Cameras caught 9/11 terrorists setting off security alarms prior to hijacking
Key quote "Every expert with whom we spoke told us an attack of even greater magnitude is now possible and even probable. We do not have the luxury of time" - Tom Kean, chairman 9/11 commission
Story in full DEVASTATING new evidence has emerged that terrorists are preparing another attack on the United States, with air marshals and flight crews reporting a series of dry runs for attacks on aircraft in mid-air.
At least two flights are thought to have been targeted so far by groups of Middle Eastern men who appear to be forming a plan of attack.
On one flight an air marshal reportedly broke into an onboard toilet to find that a mirror had been removed and that a Middle Eastern man was trying to break through a wall to the cockpit.
One air marshal told the Washington Times newspaper yesterday: "No doubt these are dry runs for a terrorist attack."
The revelation came on the day a major US report into the 11 September attacks warned that another attack was likely.
The commission recommended an overhaul of the country’s intelligence services to prevent al-Qaeda launching more deadly plots against America.
Warning that an attack "of even greater magnitude" than the one that killed almost 3,000 people in 2001 was "probable", the commission accused the Clinton and Bush administrations of failing to have sufficient imagination to have envisaged al-Qaeda’s lethal plot.
Tom Kean, the chairman of the commission, said: "Every expert with whom we spoke told us an attack of even greater magnitude is now possible and even probable. We do not have the luxury of time.
"We must prepare and we must act. The al-Qaeda network and its affiliates are sophisticated, patient, disciplined and lethal."
Airline staff and passengers have catalogued repeated incidents that suggest new attacks are in preparation.
"It’s happening and it’s a sad state of affairs," one pilot said.
On one flight last month, 14 Syrian men on a flight between Detroit and Los Angeles boarded the flight, sitting apart. They pretended to be strangers, according to those on board, but once airborne they started filing in and out of the plane’s toilets. When the plane was about to land, the men shot up to different toilets, arousing the suspicions of air crew, passengers and air marshals.
However, air marshals who monitored the incident said there was no "legal basis on which to take enforcement action".
In another incident, the Washington Times revealed, a flight attendant reported a passenger using a long lens to take photographs of the cockpit door.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that Islamic militants had found a new way to circumvent security systems at airports. Instead of trying to take bombs onto aircraft, they would place the components on board, which they can then assemble in mid-flight.
Security sources told newspapers that the tactic had already been tried out, again in dry-run form, on flights between the Middle East, North Africa and western Europe.
As early as November, the FBI was warning that "terrorists are considering the use of improvised explosive devices assembled on board to hijack an aircraft".
Security agencies around the globe are now trying to track down the militants that have been trained to carry out such attacks.
The activities are a terrifying echo of the meticulous planning of the hijackers involved in the 11 September plot, which was comprehensively detailed in yesterday’s report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
The 567-page final report issued by the ten-member commission pointed to "deep institutional failings" and missed opportunities to thwart the hijackings carried out by al-Qaeda operatives.
"Terrorism was not the overriding national-security concern for the US government under either the Clinton or the pre-9/11 Bush administrations," the report said.
It said that on at least nine occasions, chances were missed that might have led to the uncovering of the plot.
Overnight, US television networks broadcast a newly released surveillance video from Washington’s Dulles International Airport on the morning of the attacks that investigators view as one of the missed opportunities.
The video shows five hijackers passing through security checkpoints. Four of them repeatedly set off alarms but were quickly cleared to board the flight that later crashed into the Pentagon. It was not clear what set the alarms off.
The commission was sweeping in its recommendations for change.
It proposed the appointment of a national intelligence director and the creation of a national counter-terrorism centre to better co-ordinate and share information about future terrorist threats.
"The national intelligence director should oversee national intelligence centres to provide all-source analysis and plan intelligence operations for the whole government on major problems," the report said.
The commission also said the US government must do more domestically to guard against future terrorist attacks, including measures such as setting national standards for issuing drivers’ licences and other identification, improving "no-fly" and other terrorist-watch lists and using more biometric identifiers to screen travellers at ports and borders.
Other recommendations included declassifying intelligence spending, upgrading the computer technology used by US intelligence and reorganising congressional oversight.
Given new warnings about al-Qaeda’s desire to strike again on a mass scale, James Thompson, commission member, said all US leaders would be wise to take the commission’s findings to heart.
"If it happens and we haven’t moved, then the American people are entitled to make very fundamental judgments about that," he said.
The commission’s vice-chairman, Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman, appealed for political unity at the heights of America’s power. A "shift in mindset and organisation" within the US intelligence apparatus and a smoother transition between presidencies were also necessary, he said, to ensure "that this nation does not lower its guard every four or eight years".
"The US government has access to vast amounts of information but it has a weak process, a weak system of processing and using that information," Mr Hamilton said. "Need to share must replace need to know."
However, it will be months if not years before such recommendations can be implemented. Yet many terrorism experts fear that al-Qaeda is planning a terrorist attack in the next four months, in the run-up to the November presidential elections.
"They [the 11 September hijackers] penetrated the defences of the most powerful nation in the world," Mr Kean said. "They inflicted unbearable trauma on our people, and at the same time they turned international order upsidedown."
Mr Kean said the US was "faced with one of the greatest security challenges in our long history".
The thing that struck me as so pathetic was the woman who wrote the story seemed to suggest that she just knew what those men were thinking.
Prior to 9-11, in August 2001, Woods became suspicious of the ME men, he reported it to the pilot and flight attendant, describing specifically what made him suspicious. They, in turn, reported it to the FAA. There is no public info, at least Woods didn't mention anything about what happened to the info after that, whether the FAA ignored it, or passed it on to the FBI, who didn't take it seriously.
After 9-11, a friend of Wood's encouraged him to report to the FBI the incident, and he did. This time, the FBI did take it seriously, recognized that his report was about the genuine hijackers.
From the interview, it was clear to me that Woods is not given to paranoia and hysteria, that he observed some specific behavior, which made him very suspicious. After 9-11, when he talked with the FBI, they told him, not to repeat publicly the specific behavior he observed, probably so as not to alert any potential terrorists, as to which specific behavior they need to change.
That's only SEVEN.
Who were the OTHER SEVEN?
We have 14 people in a 7-men band?
Where is the proof that those shown in the picture were the ones on the airplane?
It's always "Ooops! We made a mistake..." three days after every suspicious event.
The "authorities" don't want to disrupt commerce; they want the democrats to win; and they instinctively fall back on their training to obscure the facts.
Musicians. Yeah, right. All of them playing a dirge, no doubt.
From your link:
"the gents at Powerline received a note from that group's tour manager explaining the band was still in Syria when all this happened. "
So if the group's manager said they were in Syria at the time, how can people claim it was that band on the plane?
Believe it or not, I was reading your posts, not going by FO's replies. So apparently however you were phrasing things, FO is not the only one who thought you "need convincing" of something. ;-)
don't chew my arse...
here some more...
http://michellemalkin.com/ (start from here)
WNBC investigative reporter Scott Weinberger reported on Joe Scarborough's MSNBC show tonight that the 14 Syrians on Northwest Flight 327 ALL had expired visas. He said that law enforcement officials xeroxed the men's paperwork without looking at the dates. The visas had expired nearly a month earlier, according to Weinberger.
Just because they were musicians by trade doesn't mean that they couldn't also be terrorists in training.
Sure, the FBI gets many reports. But they are the professionals, who are supposed to be able to sort through all that, and maybe throw out 99% of them, but they are supposed to know which 1% to keep.
They are facing the same thing today -- they are asking for tips, and I am sure 99% of those turn out to be nothing.
The problem is that if we are wrong once, many will die.
your not reading the whole thing... there is 2 bands (one that everyone thought is was at first was in syria still, that only left one other.
READ READ READ
Do you have any idea what it cost for 14 people to fly round trip across this country? And just so they can do a show at a bottom shelf, San Diego dive?
Does Bush have to put up with strange diaperheads wandering around Airforce One at 30,000 feet? Why should he expect any of us to put up with this bull sh*t?
pinging you to this thread... speaking of what I wrote about in my email.
maybe you should start a new thread, breaking news possibly over this...
WNBC investigative reporter Scott Weinberger reported on Joe Scarborough's MSNBC show tonight that the 14 Syrians on Northwest Flight 327 ALL had expired visas. He said that law enforcement officials xeroxed the men's paperwork without looking at the dates. The visas had expired nearly a month earlier, according to Weinberger.
This does not give me much confidence in the background checks that the Joint Terrorism Task Force, FBI, and LAPD may or may not have conducted on the men before letting them walk away. Would you trust the terrorism investigation of officials who apparently neglected to verify whether these men--coming from a designated state sponsor of terrorism--WERE EVEN IN THE COUNTRY LEGALLY?!?!?!
http://michellemalkin.com/
"the 14 Syrians on Northwest Flight 327 ALL had expired visas"
===
Thanks! This is info I was not aware of.
"Terror in the Skies Again" now ranks with those bad news bears. I believe every word of this story is true, regardless of what the men with long erasers and short memories now say.
You need to chill out and not think that everyone is going against your opinion... Read Michelle's website!
http://michellemalkin.com/
It has been a roller coaster investigation, now it is looking BAD again for the FBI AND maybe this BAND is not so innocent after all. I mean EXPIRED VISAS and they let them move on. Are the back in Syria?
I'm out y'all, until tomorrow.... :-)
Stay safe, stay alert, stay prepared.
The obfuscating cover stories get more absurd every day.
Soon they'll have Jerry Goldsmith leading the plane in song for a medley of his greatest hits.
It's pretty amazing.
I think the media is deliberately covering up these stories, they want people to forget and make fun of the terrorist threat, because if people are aware of the very real, very serious danger, they will flock and vote for Bush, NOT Kerry.
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