Posted on 07/31/2004 3:45:34 PM PDT by tmp02
Edited on 07/31/2004 4:31:44 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
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Big Apple Terror?
Sources: Al Qaeda Plotting to Attack New York City Corporations
ABCNEWS.com
N E W Y O R K, July 31, 2004? ABC News has learned that federal and New York City officials have received credible intelligence that al Qaeda has been plotting to carry out suicide attacks on corporations based in the city. |
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| Sources at several law enforcement agencies tell ABC News that an "overseas source" has provided the information about the threat to New York and that it is more significant than the usual "chatter" intercepted from likely terrorists that has prompted warnings in the past. Officials from dozens of local and federal agencies met into the night Friday and again this morning. "Intelligence reporting indicates that al Qaeda continues to target for attack commercial and financial institutions, as well as international organizations, inside the United States," the New York City Police Department said in a statement released today on the "ongoing al Qaeda threat." "The NYPD recommends that corporate and institutional security directors review their protection of HVAC systems, parking installations, and security in general," the statement added. "The alert level for New York City remains unchanged at 'orange' or 'high.'" Border Worries Intelligence sources say al Qaeda plans to move non-Arab terrorists across the border with Mexico. Authorities already have in custody a woman of Pakistani-origin arrested after crossing into Texas. She carried a South African passport with several of the pages torn out, $7,000 in cash and an airplane ticket to New York. New York is already on heightened alert for the Republican National Convention, which meets at Madison Square Garden in a month and will bring scores of high government officials to town. The sources tell ABC News that Wall Street firms may be among the targeted U.S. corporations based in New York City. Which corporations or how many may be targeted has not been revealed. Suicide Truck Bombings Particularly disturbing to authorities were the intelligence reports that the attack may involve one or more suicide truck bombings, a tactic never seen in the United States, but one widely used by terrorists elsewhere. "I think they want to try and shake our psyche again," says Jerry Hauer, an ABC News consultant and former director of New York City's Office of Emergency Management. "And I think the easy types of attacks right now are car bombs, truck bombs." Law enforcement officials acknowledge such bombs are extremely difficult to prevent. As to the timing of any planned attack, sources say it could take place between now and Election Day in November. As the government tries to verify the reports of the threat, there are no plans to raise the national threat level, a senior Bush administration official tells ABC News. ABCNEWS' Pierre Thomas and Bob Jamieson contributed to this report. |
The real target would not be computer screens and hardware -- that can be quickly replaced. The target would be all the experienced traders. Kill them off with a nerve gas attack, and trading stops until they get some rookies up to speed. And then, what replacement is going to want to be on that trading floor, regardless of assurances about how safe it is now?
I don't know why you highlighted the HVAC part but let me say that professionally speaking, and in plain English - That won't work. You can't commit mass murder that way. There's a gazillion technical reasons I could go into but I don't feel like running an HVAC class now.
As such, someone at the NYPD apparently believes in urban legends. I suggest they contact someone at ASHRAE before they waste a lot of peoples money and instill paranoia needlessly.
Yes. That is the Pakistani woman with the South African passport mentioned in this post.
This is the first source that I've read that mentions her nationality. The South African government has acknowledged the theft of some 7000 blank passports.
Really? Am I missing something here? Man, I can't believe you actually typed that.
Are you saying...that anyone raising the question about our borders, and illegal immigration from a terror-type perspective...is a xenophobe? That's not logical, nor realistic...and is right near "knee-jerk" liberal-like.
Agreed.
Pat Buchanan wanted to do this 12 years ago. The commie media called him a right-wing extremist, wacko. We should have listened to him and not the media.
I'll vote for that.
The Aun also released anthrax spores from a Tokyo high-rise rooftop in 1993 -- don;t think there was any affect. However a gas mask -- or even a surgical mask would have helped in the case of spores, no?
In the Bhopal industrial accident they say that water-wetted cloths worn over the nose and mouth would have reduced alot of the carnage.
Anthrax is a biological weapon not a chemical type. The sole portal of entry there is inhalation, so yes, any sort of mask would help.
The Bhopal incident was really an industrial accident of huge volumes of a corrosive gas. It wasn't designed to kill folks. Wet towels work there, they also work in a housefire to prevent death by smoke inhalation. The problem with Bhopal was that the wet towels protected the mouth and lungs, but they didn't protect the eyes. Contact with the fumes almost instantly destroyed the eyeballs and so the victims stumbled around until the fumes made their way into the lungs with fatal results. A mask would have obviously helped in that accident.
No-NO! That's baloney. In practicality it can't be done - all Hollywood fantasy.
The NYPD should be ashamed for spreading this HVAC paranoia BS.
No, not "anyone", just certain FReepers who are engaged in a concerted effort to undermine President Bush's reelection efforts.
Immigration policy is always a legitimate issue of discussion upon which men of good will can have honest disagreements. Defense against terrorism is a crucial issue that we should all be familiar with and border security is an important component of that.
But there is very little reasonable debate on these threads. Instead there is the same old racial crap that they were using four years ago to divert conservative votes away from President Bush. But four years ago they didn't use Arab terrorists as the fear factor, they used the code phrase "diluting our culture" and Buchanan ran ads showing a man choking on a meatball because the 9/11 operator was bilingual.
It's easy to tell who the anti-Bush instigators are. They make such statements as "Bush doesn't care about terrorists coming across the border", Bush is doing nothing to secure our borders from terrorists, Bush is pandering to Mexicans, Bush is incompetent, etc... They call him a traitor, incompetent, stupid, a criminal etc... and conclude by saying they won't vote for him this time.
I know for a fact that border security has become a very high anti-terrorism priority of this administration since 9/11. But "anti-terrorist" and "anti-laborer" are two separate issues. Building a two thousand mile Berlin Wall might cut the inflow of laborers down to a hundred thousand or so per year but its a waste of resources when the goal is to stop twenty terrorists from entering.
And at the fringe of a sarin or VX attack wouldn't a mask reduce toxin loading?
GOOGLE Search Term: "UPS Uniforms"
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22UPS+Uniforms%22&btnG=Google+Search
A nerve agent is the most deadly substance on the face of the planet. The amount of agent needed to kill would just cover the head of a pin. Don't worry about toxin loading with a nerve agent.
About Ricin, I can't really answer that off the top of my head. I'd have to dig out my nbc school notes.
Your expertise is appreciated.
I hope the nuke rumors aren't true....
One would assume it (ricin) is 'bio', since its orgin is the castor bean. But I'd defer to you on that.
It's not too late to move the convention to a more isolated place - like Martha's Vineyard.
Well, maybe not exactly there... :o)
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