Terrorists attempt fresh wave of US hijackings ("MUST READ" describes recent attempts)

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.

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.

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".

One more rule that would need to be made is NO ALCOHOL SERVED to carrying passengers.

I could live with that. As long as the airlines are the ones setting that rule. Not some idiot government bureaucrat.

We can't attack anyone, but everyone must have guns? That is an odd combination. According to the commission the attackers on one of the planes were attacked by a passenger, an x-IDF. He did not see the one behind him and was taken out with a knife to the back.

I think it goes without saying that the passengers will fight, that is why they are sending so many more on the dry runs now.

However, I intend to take out more than my fair share, with luck I am good for at least three. Now if I had a gun... -grin-

Length of time at Free Republic is poor credentials compared to what life hands you. As to if you are a troll or not, your speech is abusive, you are deliberately obtuse, and are ignoring the obvious as if you only write but do not read. These are the three top traits of a Troll. If it writes like one, speaks like one and thinks like one, it most likely are one.

I suspect they are terrorists with a very weak cover. One is a Koran reader, another makes videos praising suicide killings as a path to paradise. All of them followed quite closely the MO that there is a terror warning about.

Were they terrorists? That I do not know. If they had been, and thought it was a go, that plane would have been down. If they were terrorists or not is immaterial, the fact that they had no opposition was proof that our system is flawed and needs to be corrected. The flight crew should have popped on the seat belt sign and then insisted that the passengers be seated. They did not exert their authority and put the plane in danger.

That much is clear.

I am for passing a law that a flight crew, like a captain on a ship is THE law, and is immune from prosecution on PC Hate crimes. Logic would dictate that a crew member that feels a flight risk over rides some persons "feelings" being hurt, but the cash happy tort courts "feel" otherwise.

We are at war and had better toughen up, or we will end up with our throats slit or worse.

My speech is never abusive except in response to unwarranted, misdirected, and personal attacks, such as the one you leveled against me. I have alwyas learned to speak truth against the lie, and I will continue to do so in spite your apparent wish that I hold my tongue.

Neither am I obtuse, although I must admit there seem to be few on this thread capable of making fine distinctions. That is the only explanation I can come up with why people attack me for holding views and positions that I have never espoused. You seem to fall into this category.

Also, my complaint is about OTHERS who don't read. I do.

Your descriptions of a "troll" are pretty much on target, but I submit to you that, quite unwittingly perhaps, you have just described yourself to a "tee".

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.