Beware of strange men with rocket launchers (Oklahoma terror cell?)

This week, New Jersey Transit officials joined the New York Police Department in performing hapless random searches of Granny's knitting bag and Junior's Thomas the Tank backpack to prevent the next al-Qaida attack.

But not everyone is fighting the War on Terror blind. Some U.S. military personnel have been given a very clear and un-politically correct mission:

Yup, that's right. Many readers have e-mailed me about a recent report floating on the Internet that reveals military concerns about a suspicious trio of Middle Eastern men who apparently pointed a rocket launcher at low-flying aircraft near Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma earlier this month. It's authentic. Battle Staff Directive No. 41, categorized as "For Official Use Only," was issued at Hill Air Force Base in Utah last week to raise a red flag about the incident at Tinker AFB:

On 14 Jul 05, three individuals were observed outside of the perimeter of Tinker AFB, OK. They were looking through binoculars, taking pictures and one appeared to be holding a large weapon at chest level. The weapon appeared to be aimed towards a low flying aircraft. The three individuals were described as being of Middle Eastern descent and left the area when approached. The weapon was later identified as a rocket launcher (MANPAD) and the low flying aircraft to be a B-1 Bomber. FBI in Oklahoma City and AFOSI [Air Force Office of Special Investigations] determined the threat to be credible.

Someone leaked the directive to a website called Soldiers For The Truth (sftt.org), and it was picked up by another site, the Northeast Intelligence Network (homelandsecurityus.com). Tinker AFB staff and FBI officials remain tight-lipped about the incident. But Capt. Sean Carter, a public affairs officer at Hill AFB, verified the directive for me.

In a phone interview, Capt. Carter told me the memo was issued to let base personnel know that "there's a threat out there somewhere" and to inform them of what to look for to guard against possible terrorist activity. Hill AFB participates in the "Eagle Eyes" program, an anti-terrorism initiative launched by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations that "enlists the eyes and ears of Air Force members and citizens in the war on terror."

The threat of an al-Qaida attack using shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles has been of increasing concern to homeland security officials. Last year, the FBI arrested two imams in Albany, N.Y., in connection with a sting operation involving laundered funds that the defendants were led to believe were proceeds from the sale of a missile launcher to be used in a New York City terrorist plot. Federal prosecutors noted during the trial of convicted al-Qaida bomb plotter Wadih El-Hage that his role entailed "conveying military orders from Bin Laden including ... seeking weapons including Stinger missiles for al-Qaida members." In 2002, al-Qaida terrorists used two Russian-made Strela missiles to try and bring down an Israeli-chartered airliner departing from Mombasa, Kenya.

That effort failed, but the terrorists will no doubt try, try again. Hundreds of Stinger missiles have gone missing since the first Persian Gulf War, according to the General Accounting Office. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., noted last year that "there are an estimated 300,000 to 1 million shoulder-fired missiles in the world today – thousands are thought to be in the hands of terrorist and other non-state entities." Thomas B. Hunter of Jane's Intelligence Review reported: "Al-Qaeda reportedly possesses a number of MANPADs, including SA-7s and Stingers ... It is logical to assume that Al-Qaeda is in possession of additional MANPADs. If this is true, then Al-Qaeda represents the most significant threat to international civil aviation."

Washington has been squabbling over whether and how much money to spend on retrofitting all 6,000 planes in the American commercial fleet with electronic countermeasures to combat the threat. In the meantime, common-sense vigilance is the best defense.

Thankfully, military watchdogs on guard against Islamist terrorists with rocket launchers know better than to stop Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan look-a-likes with Louis Vuitton pet carriers strapped around their shoulders.

I don't care if this particular report is bogus; I have been concerned about this possibility for years. Of course, it's vanishingly unlikely that any Muslims will again attempt to simply hijack an airliner as happened on 9-11--Americans would never put up with it, and they must know this. But obviously there are other ways to kill the kafir. The necessary tools are not hard to find. Even I, a simple country lady, can tell you where to go to buy a man-portable SAM in Washington DC. There used to be a Chinese arms dealer operating out of a Thai restaurant in Adams-Morgan. . . There is absolutely nothing to stop a guy from renting a townhouse in Ashburn, Virginia, putting his SAM to his shoulder, and knocking two jetliners out of the sky at once. He could be gone before the first wreckage hit the ground. I do not know what could be done to prevent this but the knowledge that it's so very easy to do is enough to keep me from flying.

From KTOK Radio in Oklahoma City

Air Force Took Seriously Man's Missile Claim
Monday, August 1, 2005 at 2:27pm

Documents show Tinker Air Force base security personnel thought a man's story of seeing three Middle Eastern looking men aiming a shoulder fired missile at a plane was credible, but an FBI spokesman says today that's no longer the case.

By Jerry Bohnen

When Doug Clayton Yeaman went to Tinker Air Force base officials last month with a story of seeing three Middle Eastern looking men aiming a shoulder fired rocket at an approaching military airplane, they took him seriously. The FBI said today, however, that they unable to give credibility to the report.
Military documents obtained by KTOK News reveal Air Force investigators thought his story was 'credible' the day it was filed. Yeaman went to them the morning of July 13th. A so-called TALON report identified the location as 13003 SE 119th street and the Air Base Detachment 114 did the investigation. The documents revealed a day after the incident, the Air Force considered the matter to be 'Open/Unresolved'.
Item eleven of the report described Yeaman as a 'one time source. It read: "Credibility: Source is deemed credible however he has provided no information in the past."
The TALON report went on to describe in detail how Yeaman claimed to have seen the three men while he was visiting a storage shed where he keeps his business equipment. It was a few minutes before 10am on the 13th.
Initially Yeaman went to Oklahoma City police and as reported last week by KTOK News, the police report indicated he saw only two men. But the Air Force documents reveal he clarified things when he was interviewed by the FBI and AFOSI or Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
During the subsequent interviews, Yeaman said he saw three men. One was near the driver's side of the car and was using binoculars to observe the man. A second man was at the passenger's side of the car and was using a camera to take pictures. The third man was holding the weapon at chest level.
The report read: "YEAMAN described the weapon as a military green, tubular object, longer than a shotgun, two trigger grips on the front and rear and a diameter larger than YEAMAN's arm." When the men saw him, they fled in an older model four door GM Model car, a Buick or Oldsmobile.
The documents reveal the Air Force at that point took several actions, among them 'Coordinate with all base commanders, especially those in charge of flying wings.'
Another of the actions of the Tinker personnel was to notify the Air Force Office of Special Investigations Field Investigative Region 1 at Wright Patterson Air Force base in Ohio.
The national advisory was reportedly issued by U-S Army Major Mike Jackson of the
USNORTHCOM J34 Operations, AntiTerrorism/Force Protection.
When contacted today and told he was talking to a reporter, he hesitated and said the reporter should be talking to Public Affairs.
"That's about all I'm going to give you. You can talk to them," he added. While he looked up the Public Affairs telephone number, Major Jackson declined to give the geographic location of the phone number. "Thank you, have a nice day," he said shortly after providing the phone number.

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