Posted on 10/08/2004 5:58:22 AM PDT by NotchJohnson
AMERICAN SCHOOLS TARGETED
More news in the War on Terror...this time regarding some information found in Iraq. A computer disc was found containing information about schools in California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey and Oregon. What was the information about? Information like photos, floor plans, as well as an Education Department report on how to prepare and respond to a crisis. And why would this information be there?
Because terrorists put it there. Terrorists in Iraq that are preparing to strike the United States. And why would they strike a school? Just like they did in Beslan, Russia, where Islamic terrorists shot innocent children, the terrorists know that killing people's kids would get the biggest reaction. They have absolutely no respect for innocent non-Muslim human life, and they will do everything possible to kill as many Americans (young and old) as possible.
Somebody should ask The Poodle...if Iraq is not a terrorist threat, then why was this material found in Iraq? Because it is a terrorist threat, that's why.
...and if this nation puts Kerry in the White House, we will face unimaginable potential for this type of horror IMHO.
It is amazing to me...almost impossible to believe, that so many people could be so blind...could follow the pied piper. Kerry is the most left leaning politician to have ever been in the Senate. His record is that of a pure, unadulterated socialist/marxist. He is an enemy to the foundational principles upon which this nation has been founded and what has made her great...and he is unapologetic about it, and been extremely vocal about it over the years. He out and out betrayed this nation and all those who have fought and bled for her...and consorted with the enemy in so doing...he has not changed since.
How so many could have forgotten the lessons of 9-11, or the stark reality of what it is the terrorists and those nations and organizations that support them are doing up to this day...is beyond me. I pray that the majority of Americans...the vast majority...come out in numbers on November 2nd and defy and astonish this cabal of politicians, media, entertainers and their followers.
If we do not...I fear the horror we face will be magnified ten fold.
IMHO this is the best reason we have to elimate "gun free zones" in our schools, and allow school employees who are CCW qualifed to carry during work. One of the big things I hate about dropping my kids off at school, is my .45 has to stay at home when I do.
Well if this was found out the US was on to it. Yesterday I heard the author of "Losing Bin Laden" say that 1 attack a day was being prevented. So afetr 3 years we have done awesome. The people who scoff at the terror alerts (John STewart comes to mind) won't be laughing wheen this comes close to fruition and stopped by a heads up cop or citizen.
From http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw105367_20041008.htm
Computer disc found in Iraq contained floor plans, other data on schools in six states including Michigan
October 8, 2004, 5:35 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Education officials in six states including Michigan were put on notice last month that a computer disc found in Iraq over the summer contained photos, floor plans and other information about schools in their districts, two U.S. government officials said.
The downloaded data the U.S. military found in July -- all publicly available on the Internet -- included an Education Department report guiding schools on how to prepare and respond to a crisis, one official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The officials said it was unclear who downloaded the information and stressed they had no evidence of any specific threats involving the schools.
The districts mentioned were in California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey and Oregon, officials said, adding that the FBI alerted local education and law enforcement authorities of the finding about three weeks ago.
Officials did not provide the names of the districts. But Kay Baker, superintendent of Oregon's Salem-Keizer district, confirmed hers was among them.
"Local law enforcement has no knowledge of a specific threat to any of our school buildings," she said. "We will work collaboratively with law enforcement on any further developments."
Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said, "We are unaware of any specific information that indicates terrorists are plotting or planning an attack at a school here in the United States."
San Diego schools also were included, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune, and ABC News said there was a second California district. The Salem Statesman Journal reported the other districts were Fort Myers, Fla.; Jones County, Ga.; Birch Run, Mich.; and Franklinville and Rumson, both in New Jersey.
The disc contained an Education Department report called "Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide for Schools and Communities," published in May 2003, as well as photos and floor plans.
Birch Run Superintendent Wayne Wright confirmed that the FBI contacted him two weeks ago.
"They stressed that there is no evidence of any threat involving Birch Run schools," Wright told The Saginaw News for a Friday story. "They said they had uncovered dated information about the computer disc and that they didn't know how credible it was.
"They said they receive thousands of pieces of information each day, and that they have to check each piece out. The main thing they emphasized was that they didn't want to raise a panic, but that they thought I should be informed."
In a separate but more widespread warning put out this week, the Education Department advised school leaders nationwide to watch for people spying on their buildings or buses to help detect any possibility of terrorism like the deadly school siege last month in Russia.
The warning follows an analysis by the FBI and the Homeland Security Department of the siege that killed more than 330 people, nearly half of them children, in the city of Beslan.
"The horror of this attack may have created significant anxiety in our own country among parents, students, faculty staff and other community members," Deputy Education Secretary Eugene Hickok said in a letter sent Wednesday to schools and education groups.
The Education Department's advice is based on lessons learned from the Russian siege. But there is no specific information indicating a terrorist threat to any schools or universities in the United States, Hickok and other officials emphasized.
Federal law enforcement officials also have urged local police to stay in contact with school officials and have encouraged reporting of suspicious activities, the letter said.
In particular, schools were told to watch for activities that may be legitimate on their own -- but may suggest a threat if many of them occur.
Among those activities:
-- Interest in obtaining site plans for schools, bus routes and attendance lists.
-- Prolonged "static surveillance" by people disguised as panhandlers, shoe shiners, or newspaper or flower vendors.
"It's a positive sign that they're finally discussing this after years of downplaying or denying even the possibility of a terrorist strike on schools," said Kenneth Trump, a Cleveland-based school safety consultant. "Public officials are in fear of creating fear, but we have to put the cards on the table, educate people in the school community and make sure they are well prepared."
The federal government is advising schools to take many steps to improve the security of their buildings. Those include installing locks for all doors and windows, having a single entry point into buildings and ensuring they can reach school bus drivers in an emergency.
Associated Press writers Curt Anderson and Ben Feller contributed to this report.
On the Net:
Education Department crisis planning help: http://www.ed.gov/emergencyplan/
The districts mentioned were in California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey and Oregon,
Oregon Ping
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Oregon Ping List.
"It is amazing to me...almost impossible to believe, that so many people could be so blind..."
2 Thessalonians 2:11
Now the cat's out of the bag and you can bet they will not toarget those six. They'll choose others from the millions that are available...and go somewhere where the heightened security does not exist.
Loose lips not only sink ships...now they kill kids in schools. This info should have been held much more securely IMHO. But perhaps it got out inadvertantly...or someone who had a need to know, violated it.
Anyhow, it's not as if though any one of us doesn't already know that the terrorists want to do this. They already showed that in Beslan.
Kerry would be the worst possible response to this level of threat IMHO.
Therefore, God is sending them a deceiving power so that they may believe the lie,
California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey and Oregon......
But why was the report not more specific? What floor plans did they have? I guess we're not allowed to know such things.
The terrorists at Beslan had apparently rehearsed their plan repeatedly. They arrived with two sentry dogs, gas masks, hand-held radios, plenty of firepower, and even had pre-stored supplies.
Let's not forget that the raw number of human operatives the terrorists had in Beslan greatly added to the problems faced by any commando response. 32 or so terrorists present a much greater problem than six or eight.
The Beslan bombs while lethal were not as potent as they might have been. If the terrorists want to just cause casualties in a school attack then they could use bombs without a school takeover. Delivery personnel and their trucks have to be viewed with suspicion. but even a smalll economy car could house a large bomb.
This is the one thing these islamo-facist scum could do that would, IMHO, turn most Americans completely against the likes of sKerry. I think something like this prior to the election would be the final nail in his coffin, because W has a record of dealing with these scumbags, while sKerry has a record of appeasement. I think something like this would probably open our citizenry up to being more willing to hit hard, IE: tactical nukes if necessary.
God help us if this happens. My wife works at a Middle school and my son attends the Elementary school right down the road from her, so this alert makes me VERY nervous. Fortunately, both schools are new and have more means of egress than you can imagine. Being in the architectural field, I can tell you that most schools we design are like this, with several ways to get out. I think newer school like this are low on the priority list for the scum, as they are harder to contain without large numbers and an entrance in one area would give more than enough time for teachers in the other areas to lock down their rooms or get the kids out. I can also take a little comfort in the fact that my son's teacher is former military, so I imagine she might just open a can of whup-arse on those scum! :)
Older schools, like my old elementary school, are perfect for a Beslan-type attack, as there are 3 means of entering and exiting and all classes are in one or two halls. VERY easy to seize and hold.
If this alert doesn't wake people up to the reality that a sKerry administration would be like open season for the terrorist scumbags, then they are bigger morons that I ever imagined.
And the question is, what can we, the normal people, do about it? I have been thinking about this, can we start a kind of neighborhood watch for schools, where parents volunteer their time to keep watch at our schools? I'll be glad to take a day off to do it. Also, can police do weekly sweeps of schools to look for hidden weapons? Also, can the internal doors in the school be more fortified to make entry from the outside harder, without compromising a quick escape in case of fire? Please come up with your ideas on some practical measures we can take to do our part.
I think that's probably a clue as to why they picked schools in these particular districts, and these particular states.
Targets? Yes as in teaching institutions they can worm into and at our expense. After Nam we took on all the boat people seeking politcal asylum. Not that that was wrong for humanitarian reasons but with those coming to escape death for beliefs we also get those who want to tear down our foundation.
So now what is the dif. They can come here as refugees but with an agenda, no trust from me, and be educated in our schools.
I think they relize suicide planes are not doable anymore, they are going to silently infiltrate our country.
I tell you what they pull a stunt in any Catholic Church here like they did in their country and I will defend my life, my faith and my trust in Militia Immaculata St. Kolbe Catholic teachings I would have to retaliate, not with violence but more spreading of the teachings, underground paper and more prayer.
Jeff, you're right. It does boggle the mind. Here's the first part of 2 Thess 2 for context...
"Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness."
But to address the issue about schools as terrorist targets - and this has been posted on FR in the past: do as the Israelis did when their schools were targeted by the PLO. They armed the parents and hired guards to be with the children on field trips and it stopped the attacks dead in their tracks.
How many of our childern will need to be sacrificed in our country on the altar of political correctness and liberalism before we implement the same safeguards?
My mind is quite "boggled" also. I am seeing so many people, who I have known all my life, fall victim to these lies and embrace the enemy. Very good solid "once" grounded in The Truth Believers are falling away.....
Ever so very important right now to hold on to The Truth with all our strength which comes from HIM.
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.