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".
He DID report it, not only to the pilots, but also to the FBI immediately AFTER the flight.
That is why, if you knew all the facts, you would know that the FBI called James Woods after 9-11 (may have even been that same day) and they said: "We'd like to talk to you about your report."
Woods said "Ok, I'll get dressed and come right down."
FBI said "Don't bother, we're in your driveway."
It easy to comprehend your points.
It's just that they are not too cogent.
You can't start rounding people up because one person seems to think that they are behaving strangely. That's just not feasible.
Plus it is offensive.
This "debunking" by some college student is about the weakest thing I've ever seen. All he did was determine that one Arab singer played in California around the time of the scary airline flight. Period.
He did not determine that the singer *had* a backup band at all (his source only said "probably"), or that if he did it consisted of 13-14 people, who were actually Arab, who were not local, and who flew in for the gig.
Nor did he determine whether the singer in question had flown in on the particular flight, or any flight at all -- he may have been in the area previously doing part of some tour.
Etc., etc., etc.
One Arab singer in California hardly qualifies as a "debunking" or any sort of proof that this singer and his hypothetical background band is in any way connected to the people who raised fears on the flight in question, or that those people on the flight were actually musicians.
Sheesh.
You not only are ignoring facts, but even are refusing the READ them, when you are directed to them.
READ O'Reilly's interview with Woods.
"WOODS: Well, first I have to back up and tell you about the flight that I took. The flight I took was actually on August 1st. And I have not talked about this in the press until this day because there was a lot of misinformation that came out about it.
I was on a flight, without going into the details of what made me suspicious of these four men, although it would have been blatantly obvious to the most casual observer, I took it upon myself to go to the flight attendant and ask to speak to the pilot of the plane. The first officer came out. I reported to him that I felt that the four men, and I said, "Can you look over my shoulder and see who I'm talking about?" And he said, "Yeah." I said I think they're going to hijack this plane. I mean, everything they're doing, and I explained to him these details, which I've been asked to keep private, until whatever jurisdiction, you know -- whatever trials may take place, their behavior was such that I felt that they were going to hijack the plane. "
Woods did warn, but he was IGNORED.
You are encouraging people to IGNORE suspicious people, who may be terrorists.
The point is that there are warnings at airports, TELLING people to look around them and REPORT suspicious behavior.
Geoff Boettcher, an airline pilot and a director of the Allied Pilots Association, has said that Mrs Jacobsen's incident "is not a singular or isolated experience. The terrorists are probing us all the time". Mr Boettcher said captains have been trying to speak out on this, but so far their words have been falling on deaf ears.
It is telling in this context that the 11 September Commission's report documents the patience and determination of the hijackers and how they explored weaknesses in airline and border procedures, even taking test flights to see when cockpit doors were open.
According to Mark Bogosian, a pilot for American Airlines, such incidents "occur more than you like to think. It's a 'dirty little secret' that all of us, as crew members, have known about for quite some time."
Rand Peck, captain for a major US airline, said he was "deeply bothered" by the inconsistencies he sees at the Transport and Security Administration. "I've observed matronly grandmothers practically disrobed at security checkpoints and five-year-old blond boys turned inside out, while Middle Eastern males sail through undetained.
"We have little to fear from grandmothers and little boys. But Middle Eastern males are protected, not by our Constitution, but from our current popular policy of political correctness and a desire to offend no-one at any cost, regardless of how many airplanes and bodies litter the landscape."
http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=841042004
Your comment jarred my memory and yes, you are correct.
But, in fact that proves my point. FairOpinion said that if only someone took Woods seriously, 9/11 could have been prevented.
It turns out that the FBI did take hinm seriously, and it wasn't. Fact is it couldn't have been.
The 13 musicians were also subjected to police checks on arrival in LA. I'm sure their baggage was opened and inspected, and the plane searched. It would have been irresponsible to do less. They were cleared.
What is the problem here? What do you people want?
GASP!!!! at the thought.
When I read your post to me, I am forced to the conclusion that you haven't read or understood a single thing I've said.
I don't think there is a dimes worth of difference between us on the essential issues here, but you are just trying to pick a fight for the sake of conflict.
I'm out. Conceded. Not interested.
Indeed. Mohammad Atta wasn't a terrorist either, after all, he was getting a table dance in the strip club the night before, right? Muslims don't attend stip clubs, so that's a sure fire sign that Atta has been falsely accused, and in fact, has been mistaken for the real terrorists, who of course, wear camo pants and either have a turban or a Yasser Arafat doo-rag on their head.
Believe it, if those scumbags can learn to fly an airplane, they can learn to play music.
I was at some airports recently and they made several announcements over the loudspeaker, requesting people to be alert and report any suspicious people or behavior.
People who are discouraging people from reporting suspicious behavior, are doing a disservice to the innocents, who may end up being murdered, because someone could have raised the alarm, and didn't.
If it's false alarm, no harm done, except a minor inconvenience to people, who should know better, than behave suspiciously, if they are innocent. If, on the other hand, they are terrorists, an alert bystander may foil the attack.
Another example is Richard Reid. If passengers and the flight attendant hadn't been alert, anothe plane would have been blown up.
I suppose John Valentine would have advised those passengers, to not get all paranoid, relax, and sit calmly, while Richard Reid blows them all to Kingdom Come.
And TSA testing people employed at airports to verify their vigilance in reporting and stiff fines if one does not pass the test! ; )
Arafat was a dentist.
Yeah... I think you are acting a bit withdrawn--- erratic like, and moody. Maybe I ought to turn you in to the FBI :>)
"We have little to fear from grandmothers and little boys. But Middle Eastern males are protected, not by our Constitution, but from our current popular policy of political correctness and a desire to offend no-one at any cost, regardless of how many airplanes and bodies litter the landscape."
And this is the real problem!
I'm a bit sick and tired of you putting words in my mouth that I have never uttered. especially when they are precisely the opposite of my clearly expressed views.
Thats a technique of a foul liar like Bill Clinton, and not what I expect on this site.
"One Arab singer in California hardly qualifies as a "debunking" or any sort of proof that this singer and his hypothetical background band is in any way connected to the people who raised fears on the flight in question, or that those people on the flight were actually musicians. "
Exactly!
"It turns out that the FBI did take hinm seriously"
That was AFTER 9-11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Which you would know, if you bothered to read the article, as I suggested several times.
But, again, you not only ignore, but REFUSE to even look at facts, because facts refute your position.
FairOpinion; EGPWS = proactive
John Valentine = reactive.
FairOpinion; EGPWS = proactive
John Valentine = reactive.
Like Michael Savage said today--if the government is not going to protect us, then we have to protect ourselves. His rule--if there are 5 or more Middle-Eastern looking men on a plane, he's outta there. I would leave if there were more than 3....Political Correctness will kill us ! Unfortunately, its going to take another tragedy for these idiots to wake up...sickening....
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