BUT if, God forbid, one is detonated on US soil, all bets are off.
MECCA - BEFORE
MECCA - AFTER
Posted on 11/28/2004 7:18:24 PM PST by upbeat5
An al-Qaida attack on the US with non-conventional weapons is virtually "inevitable," and the organization is likely "tying up the knots" for such an attack, Yosef Bodansky, former director of the US Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
"All of the warnings we have today indicate that a major strike – something more horrible than anything we've seen before – is all but inevitable," he said.
Bodansky, here for the second annual Jerusalem Summit, an international gathering of conservative thinkers, added that "the primary option" for the next al-Qaida attack on US soil would be one that would use weapons of mass destruction.
"I do not have a crystal ball, but this is what all the available evidence tells us, we will have a bang," Bodansky said.
He said that al-Qaida has not carried out a second major attack on the US until now for internal psychological and ideological reasons, but after the reelection of President George W. Bush, it has gotten "the green light" to do so from leading Islamic religious luminaries, as well as from "the elites of the Arab world."
According to Bodansky's reading of Osama bin Laden's mind-set, after the elaborate attacks of 9/11 there was no need for the "bin Ladens of the world" to carry out a second major attack in the US, both because the target audience of the attacks – the Arab and Islamic world – had gotten the message that America could be penetrated, and because a second attack would necessarily have to be more grandiose.
Following the attacks and the US-led war on terror, a debate started within the operational arm of the organization over the potential use of weapons of mass destruction, Bodansky said.
If, in pre-9/11 days, the theme used by bin Laden was that perpetual confrontation and jihad against the US was the only way to protect Islam, the argument now used is the ability to punish American society, Bodansky said.
"Just as the West was challenging the quintessence of Islam by means of the globalization era, there was a parallel need by Islamic extremists to strike at – and hurt – the core of American society, this time with weapons of mass destruction," Bodansky said.
A subsequent theological debate emerged within the organization, and its supporters in the Arab world, he said, over whether the mass killing of innocents is permissible.
While bin Laden and his associates argued that by virtue of their participation in US democracy, US citizens were enabling their rulers to fight, other Islamic luminaries contended that this does not permit such massive attacks, Bodansky said. The reelection of Bush in November, he said, was viewed by bin Laden and his cohorts as a decisive answer to this deliberation, with Americans now "choosing" to be the enemies of Islam. In bin Laden's mind-set, he said, the stage was set for a non-conventional attack.
Bodansky said that while there may still be some vestiges of debate and doubt within Islamic circles, he believes that planing for such an attack is finished. "They got the kosher stamp from the Islamic world to use nuclear weapons," he said.
Moreover, Bodansky said that America is losing the war against terrorism, noting the number of recruits bin Laden is able to count on, as his call to arms gains widespread support throughout the Muslim world.
In the pre-9/11 world, Bodansky said, jihadists could count on 250,000 individuals trained and willing to die, and 2.5 million–5 million people willing to help them in one way or another. He cited intelligence estimates from this summer that suggest that as many as 500,000-750,000 people are willing and trained to die, 10 million are willing to actively support them, short of killing, while another 50 million are willing to support such a movement financially.
They probably brought down that jet a week (?) later in NY. They definitely would have brought down Richard Reid's flight.
Psychologically, they would have come closer to winning if they had hit any one of the "hot dates" that have occurred since 9/11 in the USA with a massive assault. They would have shaken up a whole generation of Americans who would not have been able to feel 100% secure again in their lives. They would have thought they might influence our people's choice of leadership or inspired us to back out of the Middle East (since they think we are a paper tiger).
The only reason they haven't succeeded yet is because they couldn't. I do not think bin Laden was waiting for a seal of approval.
Number One - Get out of the cities!
Number Two - Get out of the cities!
Number Three - Get out of the cities!"
Yuh thaink?
I agree that Iran is the problem. I have also heard they are harboring many terrorists, including al Qaeda and possibly UBL and al Zawahiri. If there is a WMD attack on the US (or on our troops in Iraq?), I'd bet Iran would be the source.
We, meaning the government, know who they are and where they are. We know who their friends and families are. We know who here in the U.S. deal with them.
I think the other comments in the thread hint at what private citizens have in mind.
Counting the bodies at the attack site is the visitors' score. Then it's our turn.
hillbilly!
More of the old "it is Bush's fault". While I am certain they intend to attack again, it won't be because this President hasn't done all he can to stop it. Can't say that for everyone in our government. The blood will be on their hands as far as I am concerned.
Mecca is the first to go!
We most likely won't seal our borders, although I wish we would. I certainly am not naive enough to think it is even possible if it were to be tried.
LOL?!
Exactly.
Foul-mouthed elitist!
There, I got the last word because I'm signing off now.
Whatever you type, I won't see it.
You'll just have to tuck yourself in tonight with the pleasant thought that, once again, Nita got the last word with you. :-)
BUT if, God forbid, one is detonated on US soil, all bets are off.
MECCA - BEFORE
MECCA - AFTER
I've read "Bin Laden - the man who declared war on America" - very interesting. The guy has connections. I believe he is ex-KGB and has sources in Russia.
His latest book is "The Secret Iraq War". I'm half way through - a blow by blow of just about every event, big and small, leading up to and after the invasion.
Bodansky either has fantastic, and believable, connections...or he has the most vivid imagination af any current affairs author around.
If they nuke us, we'll do it, because if we don't, we won't survive. We probably won't nuke them all, but we will nuke some of them, most likely Syria and Iran. I don't know if you've noticed lately, but we have been firing on, and bombing mosques in fullujah.
You say -- "I will never understand what those radical's problem is?"
It's their religion. It's a totally false religion, based on death and killing and war and subjugation. The more one is an *absolute adherent* to that religion, the more that one is a terrorist. You have to be a terrorist, if you believe in that religion ("absolutely believe", that is).
There are a lot of so-called Muslims that are nominal and others who are in name only, to keep from getting their heads cut off. If they had true freedom of choice, I would be willing to bet almost half of the Muslim population would cease to be Muslim. They cannot defend it intellectually, like one can with Christianity (which has real moral force).
But, what "more specifically" makes those "absolute adherents" to Islam hate us. Well..., it's our support of Israel. This is the classic battle between the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- versus -- the one who is known as the liar, deceiver and murderer (i.e., Satan), known in Islam as Allah.
In our support of Israel, we are "giving the lie" -- that is -- the "lie" what Islam is "really" (i.e., a "false religion") -- basically because Israel exists (as the Bible says it will, as proof of God's existence and His protection of Israel).
Those "absolute adherents" to Islam *have to destroy Israel* to keep from being perceived as the false religion. Therefore, these terrorists will never stop until Christ comes again -- and He puts a stop to all this.
We've got a long war on our hands, depending on how long it takes for Christ to return again.
Good read? You recommend it? I will read it.
I don't believe for a minute that we couldn't do a better job of policing our borders. Seal them? Maybe. Or maybe not. But I do believe we can get a better grasp of who's here and what they're doing if we had the political will to do so.
And Qom, Damascus, and Pyongyang, and that's just the first wave. If the islamoterrorists think we're brutal infidels, then lets show them what that really means.
You have 5 warheads left.
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