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. |
An interesting follow-up to my original observation: I was sitting in a (rather nice) restaurant this afternoon, and I nearly dropped my fork when I overheard a guy behind me say, "Before I was all 'Bush, Bush, Bush', but it would be nice to have a break. I think we've shown everybody who's boss, now."
I was wondering how to turn around and let the guy have it for his appalling naivete, but his conversation turned to his divorce proceedings and how he was going to keep his wife from getting anything.
Then the restaurant rejected his credit card.
At that point, I figured nothing I could say to him would make any difference. The point is, the attitude of "let's take a break" is out there, and a lot of liberals and moderates like the idea.
I am hearing what you are hearing. People want their lives to go on interrupted and they don't want to admit that terrorism is not going away. They want relief, and that is what the demrats are promising, that they are going to make it go away. With stress of jobs, raising kids and helping elderly parents, who wouldn't want to be able to let someone else worry about how US is going to be "business as usual".
HOw many of population are on computers? How many are actually participatin in these polls, and how many polls are Freeped?? Makes you wonder doesn't it, how correct our info is anymore.
The enemy doesn't care how we rally after the attack, because the attacker is dead (suicide bomber); and is thinking he will get 72 virgins instead of the hell he is actually going to get. It does not matter one iota to the guy doing the bombing cause he don't plan to live through it. That is problem with terrorism like this, they don't give a rats rear.
It's a little hard to be dragging this whole suit around and do one's job isn't it??
If you only have 9 seconds to put it on, one must carry it around, right? How do secretaries, maintenance men, and other jobs in NYC preserve themselves if the suit is anywhere but with them in case of attack?? I think he said the suits could be purchased, but what's the point. I doubt you could get one on in 9 seconds.
One of the odd things is that Bush's success in restoring stability and a sense of normalcy to this country after 9/11 is almost working against him now. People prefer to ignore the effort (on many fronts: military, domestic security, and even the financial markets) it took to do this. They like to think that it was all just a self-correcting blip in our national life, things weren't that bad after all, and we can now pretend we're all back in Never-Never Land with Bill again, ignoring terrorism until the next time.
And with true human-ostrich behavior, they all blissfully assume that the "next time" won't happen during their lifetimes, or in their cities, or to anyone they know. It's very abstract to them, because they just want it to go away and this period of relative calm has convinced them that it has done just that. Watch for Kerry to start ridiculing the anti-terror work done by the Bush administration.
Of course whiny, have it both ways skeptics will cry political foul. The fact is, the Republican convention is coming to town and now is the time to raise the threat level so that the city will be ready for the convention. This is the gathering the enemy would like to harm, not the out of power party convention. Assassination is at the top of their priority list. This is what I fear more than anything at this point. The jihadi publication referred to on ME Intel made the call to carry out kidnapping and assassination and we've seen assassination in Iraq and Chechnya and multiple kidnapping in Iraq. The enemy foot soldiers are obeying the message.
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