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Posted on 07/11/2005 8:12:04 PM PDT by nwctwx
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Agreed.
After reading your links, I hope that intelligence will be a little more forthcoming if they get the same kind of signals they got last time.
But I doubt it. I have a suspicion we're gonna be on our own in this one.
coinkydink? Lets hope so . . .
I had not seen this article before...
http://www.worldthreats.com/al-qaeda_terrorism/AQ%20WMD%20Attack%20Soon.htm
Terror expert:
Qaida WMD Attack on US
Likely Soon
By Etgar Lefkovits
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, Yossef 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.
BC, based on that article, the only sufficient U.S. response to such an attack would be the utter devastation of every country that has proven itself to be a source of terrorist education and funding: Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia... to start.
And if the attacks do occur, I doubt there would be much opposition to such an action.
Cool heads are gonna be far and few between if something like that happens though.
Bored, I go back and forth. The part of me that looks from the present wants to be rational and determined in a response. The part of me that sees the aftermath of such an attack is already jumping on a winged horse and hurling fireballs at anything that looks at us wrong.
After 9/11 I contended that the U.S. needed to gain the reputation of a mad dog, unpredicatable, angry, and swift in attack. We're part way there, but political correctness has betrayed our soft underbelly.
I keep going back and forth.
Dont get me wrong, on that fateful day back in Sept 2001, I left work early and layed all of my weapons out, spit shined everyone of 'em. I have quit an arsenal. I even cleaned my rounds. I was ready to go to Afghanistan and take out every one of those "taliban". I wanted revenge! I speak about a cool head because we are gonna need one and I'm afraid I'm not gonna be one of them.
I too go back and forth. Hind sight is 20/20 and I think going into Afganastan was the right thing to do. I dont think we did it right though . . . I digress, sorry . . .
I got my dates wrong on the attacks in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998! They were August 7th, not the 5th. But the 7th is a Sunday this year so it still wouldn't make much sense as an attack date.
Sometimes I think it would be better if they just got on with it and did their worst. Part of the genius of terror is keeping people in suspense!
bookmark
WND ON THE AIR
'Al Qaeda Connection' author on Farah show
Ex-FBI consultant says terrorists have suitcase nukes in U.S.
Thanks.
It's REALLY good to be home!
Hmmm. That's a biggie, IMO.
Hiroshima anniversary 8/6/05.
8 + 6 + 5 = 19
Definitely be prepared and vigilant on Saturday.
From and including: Tuesday, September 11, 2001
To and including: Saturday, August 6, 2005
It is 1,426 days from the start date to the end date, end date included
Or 3 years, 10 months, 27 days including the end date
Alternative time units
1,426 days can be converted to one of these units:
123,206,400 seconds
2,053,440 minutes
34,224 hours
203 weeks (rounded down)
http://www.timeanddate.com/date/durationresult.html?m1=9&d1=11&y1=2001&m2=8&d2=6&y2=2005&ti=on
ROFL.
Which sister?
Thanks Vel.
Suspicious package found near theater on Okinawa base
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=30726
My pleasure
Hi, V. Welcome to the party.
Terror Scare in South Pittsburg
Jessica Morris
July 29,2005
A man stopped at the National Guard Armory in South Pittsburg, Tennessee Thursday afternoon and asked what authorities are calling "provocative" questions.
Now, he's in jail, and the TBI is investigating the incident.
“The local police came in and said we had to evacuate our office. They'd found a U-Haul full of questionable explosives,” said Dr. Russ Hadcock, a local physician.
That U-Haul was parked at a storage unit off 12th Street, shutting down traffic on that road for a couple of hours.
According to local law enforcement, a man walked into the National Guard Amory and started asking alarming questions, like where the nearest nuclear power plant is and information about security systems.
When the National Guard reported the tag number of the U-Haul the man was driving, it came up stolen.
That's when the South Pittsburg Police, the Marion County Sheriff's Office, the TVA Police, the TBI, and the Chattanooga Bomb Squad were called to the scene—a storage unit where the U-Haul was parked and the Lotto Mart Drive-thru Diner across the street where the suspect had been seen earlier in the week.
Store workers said Tuesday the man spent all evening at the diner. Little did he know, the mayor of South Pittsburg was watching him.
“I was suspicious about him. There was something, something wasn't right about it,” said Mayor Mike Killian.
They arrested Robert Powell, Jr., 32, and charged him with theft over $10,000.
As for the U-haul... It was empty. A false alarm, but some say it's better to be safe than sorry.
“You have to take all precaution until you check it out, and that's what we did,” said Marion County Sheriff Ronnie Bo Burnett.
“I have them know the system works, but I'm glad it was a false alarm,” said Mayor Killian.
Powell is in the Marion County jail, Mayor Killian said, for stealing a U-haul from Montana out of a police department parking lot.
The TBI will continue to investigate.
. . . asking alarming questions, like where the nearest nuclear power plant is and information about security systems.
. . . stealing a U-haul from Montana out of a police department parking lot . . .
Your kiddin right. This story sounds so made up.
I just read it again OMG. This moron should win the stoopid with two Os award.
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