Posted on 08/14/2005 12:26:02 PM PDT by sgtyork
Don't usually post vanities, but this Able Danger information has just jogged a memory of mine that has me spooked.
My friend's daughter flew out of Logan on September 10th 2001, the evening before the World Trade Center Attacks. When we got together after the attacks she recounted that there had been unusal activity at that airporat that night. There seemed to be lots of police looking for something, she said. Also, she was on a project opening a new store and had a box cutter in her luggage. When she arrived home it was not there.
She's a pretty normal 20 something from a great family and recognized that this story seemed weird to believe but now...
This is really spooky, but is it another data point. Was Able - Danger close enough to alert the aiport?
I've often wondered, if we were onto these 9/11 bastards, at what point we would have intervened.
We were probably warned, in part, by the Saudis, who to cover themselves probably told us just enough to give them credence, but not enough to stop the events--since they had to keep in the good graces of Al Qaeda, too.
And who knows--maybe we did manage to stop the bulk of the attacks. Does it seem logical that they would plan to steal only four aircraft (when their earlier planning for an attack over the Pacific called for attacking ten planes)?
In before zot?
I don't think this is a Zot-worthy thread. Vanity? Sure. Zot? No.
You smell ozone?
Just finished reading Mark Steyn's article in the Orange County Register (Southern CA) commentary section today on Atta's presence in the country the year before 9/11. Good reading. The column was in our morning paper but it is also on the newspaper's site. His columns don't always appear on his own site right away but it's worth reading -sorry, do not know how to link to it.
To consider the scenario you put forth here is indeed chilling. How great that airport screening will possibly have some requirements eliminated now - such as knives etc., being permissable. It's supposedly to speed up boarding! I'm sure the terrorists appreciate TSA's plans being telegraphed in the news. Could we help them any more?
"...she was on a project opening a new store and had a box cutter in her luggage. When she arrived home it was not there."
"In before zot?" Could be!!!
The answer is no. All thats been said is that they had links between these four terrorists and Al Qaida. Nothing has been said of any specifics on a plot, the type of plot to be carried out and where it might be carried out. Huge stretch to assume they knew enough to be alerting Logan. ... unless you know something else.
This, the new sign-up date, and the bad spelling had me spooked.
I'm dubious. Got any substantiation?
Thought about a "sleeper cell zot" possibility too. But judging by forum contributions, FReeper sgtyork appears sincere.
If the targeted passenger searches were in place at Logan, wouldn’t such activity indicate that AD intelligence was NOT withheld?
BTW, sgtyork, welcome to FreeRepublic.
> How great that airport screening will possibly have
> some requirements eliminated now - such as knives
> etc., being permissable.
I suspect the thinking is: now that cockpit doors are
hardened, small cutting instruments aren't going to
result in a pilot assault. They might threaten attendants
of other pax, but heck, that can be done with bare hands.
A relative who recently moved, and flew to his new home,
made the mistake of putting the box cutter he'd need at
the other end in his carry-on. Nearly missed his flight
in consequence.
Hindsight provides great opportunity for anxiety, much as if we were on the maiden voyage of the Titanic with history in mind. This Atta boy, much as I might care to inflict a "slight" amout of bodily injury upon him and his followers prior to their final flight, by now wishes he had never been born.
Of course, he's dead and has been so for 4 years now, but I think he and his 18 buddies are in a very special level of Hell, usually reserved for the really evil ones, including the "Prophet" Muhammad, Stalin and Hitler.
Maybe you witnessed CAPPS activity:
When he checked in for his flight to Boston, Atta was selected by a computerized prescreening system known as CAPPS (Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System), created to identify passengers who should be subject to special security measures. Under security rules in place at the time, the only consequence of Atta’s selection by CAPPS was that his checked bags were held off the plane until it was confirmed that he had boarded the aircraft. This did not hinder Atta’s plans.
...
While Atta had been selected by CAPPS in Portland, three members of his hijacking team—Suqami,Wail al Shehri, and Waleed al Shehri—were selected in Boston.
...
Hundreds of miles southwest of Boston, at Dulles International Airport ... Hani Hanjour, Khalid al Mihdhar, and Majed Moqed were flagged by CAPPS.
On Sept. 11, 2001... the only thing that the hijackers had to deal with at Logan was the traffic.
Remember the Jimmy Woods (actor) story about riding into Logan with a bunch of creeps?
We simply did not contemplate the possibility of overtaking a commercial passenger pilot and flying the plane into a valuable target. Those days are over, but the days of considering what other means and methods of destruction are available for extremists are not.
I don't mind seeing a loosening up of screening, but I do expect to see profiling.
Well we all know that Senator Kerry was warned about security problems at Logan, months before 9/11, and chose to ignore the warning.
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