Posted on 10/07/2005 7:05:08 PM PDT by FairOpinion
The White House has given details of 10 major terror plots that President Bush says have been foiled by the US and its allies since the 11 September attacks. Mr Bush cited the disrupted plans in a speech, designed to boost support for the so-called war on terror.
They include a plot to use hijacked aircraft to hit the US East and West coasts and to attack Heathrow Airport.
But the sketchy details provided by the White House make it hard to assess how serious or advanced the plans were.
Most of the plots have been previously reported in some form, but a few were revealed for the first time.
Mr Bush also mentioned five instances where targets within the US had been "cased" - including the cases of Iyman Faris who was accused of exploring the destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.
White House list of disrupted plots:
West Coast airliner In mid-2002 the US disrupted a plot to attack targets on the West Coast of the United States using hijacked aeroplanes. The plotters included at least one major operational planner involved in planning the events of 11 September 2001.
Overall, the United States and our partners have disrupted at least 10 serious al-Qaeda terrorist plots since 11 September, including three al-Qaeda plots to attack inside the United States
President Bush President Bush discusses the War on Terror (41K) Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Download the reader here
Bush's passionate defence
East Coast airliner In mid-2003 the US and a partner disrupted a plot to attack targets on the East Coast of the United States using hijacked commercial aeroplanes.
Jose Padilla In May 2002, the US disrupted a plot that involved blowing up apartment buildings in the United States. One of the plotters, Jose Padilla, also discussed the possibility of using a dirty bomb in the US.
2004 UK urban targets In 2004, the US and partners disrupted a plot that involved urban targets in the United Kingdom. These plots involved using explosives against a variety of sites.
2003 Karachi In the spring of 2003, the US and a partner disrupted a plot to attack Westerners at several targets in Karachi, Pakistan.
London Heathrow Airport In 2003, the US and several partners disrupted a plot to attack Heathrow Airport using hijacked commercial airliners. The planning for this attack was undertaken by a major 11 September operational figure.
2004 UK In 2004, the US and partners, using a combination of law enforcement and intelligence resources, disrupted a plot to conduct bombings in the UK.
2002 Gulf shipping In late 2002 and 2003, the US and a partner nation disrupted a plot by al-Qaeda operatives to attack ships in the Gulf.
2002 Straits of Hormuz In 2002, the US and partners disrupted a plot to attack ships transiting the Straits of Hormuz.
2003 tourist site In 2003 the US and a partner nation disrupted a plot to attack a tourist site outside the United States.
White House list of casings and infiltrations:
US government and tourist sites tasking In 2003 and 2004, an individual was tasked by al-Qaeda to case important US government and tourist targets within the United States.
Gas station tasking Around 2003, an individual was tasked to collect targeting information on US gas stations and their support mechanisms on behalf of a senior al-Qaeda planner.
Iyman Faris and the Brooklyn Bridge In 2003, and in conjunction with a partner nation, the US government arrested and prosecuted Iyman Faris, who was exploring the destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Faris ultimately pleaded guilty to providing material support to al-Qaeda and is now in a federal correctional institution.
2001 tasking In 2001, al-Qaeda sent an individual to facilitate post-11 September attacks in the US Law enforcement authorities arrested the individual.
2003 tasking In 2003, an individual was tasked by an al-Qaeda leader to conduct reconnaissance on populated areas in the US.
And these are just the ones who mentioned openly, I am sure there are many others that we aren't revewaling for various reasons.
I bet we found out most of this from questioning captured terrorists, which we won't be able to do in the future, if the insane Amendment protecting terrorists, that the US Senate passed, becomes law.
Senate Supports Interrogation Limits (90-9 vote to protect terrorist detainees)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1497443/posts
Amendment Number: S.Amdt. 1977 to H.R. 2863 (Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2006 )
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00249
(a) In General.--No individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
(b) Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be construed to impose any geographical limitation on the applicability of the prohibition against cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment under this section.
(c) Limitation on Supersedure.--The provisions of this section shall not be superseded, except by a provision of law enacted after the date of the enactment of this Act which specifically repeals, modifies, or supersedes the provisions of this section.
(d) Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Defined.--In this section, the term ``cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment'' means the cruel, unusual, and inhumane treatment or punishment prohibited by the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, as defined in the United States Reservations, Declarations and Understandings to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment done at New York, December 10, 1984.
I hope the President uses his veto and strikes this.
Missed terror plots, UO football game.
How do ya feel knowing that the main author of this act of appeasement (your FR thread 'Senate Supports Interrogation Limits (90-9 vote to protect terrorist detainees)' ), will be coming to California to campaign with aRnie for his reform package? just curious.
CA: Arizona senator to campaign for governor's ballot initiatives (John McCain) ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1498716/posts
And yet the Mexican border remains wide open.....
Oh for God's sake, this is just silly.
You gotta to love the BBC (/Sarc)
Also don't forget AA587 ....
How many terrorist did the govt. "convict" using the Patriot Act?
That is the dilemma that any dept. dealing with such threats has to face. It cannot really show its successes, but any failures are absolutely clear to everyone. It could stop a hundred attacks, but most people will never know about that. However if one attack goes through (and no safety net is truly inpenetrable), then everyone gets to see it (since it is, after all, clear and present in everyform). God help these guys.
We didn't really stop this one. He just missed his target.
The backpack search was more likely an effort on the War on Drunk Frat Boys, not the War on Terror.
The point of Patriot Act was not conviction, but prevention -- it's a whole new paradigm: prevent an attack before it happens, instead of being unable to do anything until after it happened.
The Canadian border is a far greater infiltration risk.
Radical Islamists are far more likely to speak English than Spanish. Plus, they are far more likely to find support among an indigenous community in Toronto than in Monterrey, e.g.
In Mexico, these people would stick out like a sore thumb. In Canada, they could melt into the Muslim community.
You gotta know there are more, and more pending as well. Instead of cheering our President and Homeland security they are doing all they can to bring him down. God help us if liberals are in charge again soon.
And there are still reports that middle-easterners have been negotiating with mules to get them across the border.
ok, then i guess it's working.
Foiled terror plots brings this fictional work to mind
AN ALTERNATIVE HISTORY: washington, april 9, 2004. A hush fell over the city as George W. Bush today became the first president of the United States ever to be removed from office by impeachment. Meeting late into the night, the Senate unanimously voted to convict Bush following a trial on his bill of impeachment from the House.
Moments after being sworn in as the 44th president, Dick Cheney said that disgraced former national security adviser Condoleezza Rice would be turned over to the Hague for trial in the International Court of Justice as a war criminal. Cheney said Washington would "firmly resist" international demands that Bush be extradited for prosecution as well.
On August 7, 2001, Bush had ordered the United States military to stage an all-out attack on alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan. Thousands of U.S. special forces units parachuted into this neutral country, while air strikes targeted the Afghan government and its supporting military. Pentagon units seized abandoned Soviet air bases throughout Afghanistan, while establishing support bases in nearby nations such as Uzbekistan. Simultaneously, FBI agents throughout the United States staged raids in which dozens of men accused of terrorism were taken prisoner.
Reaction was swift and furious. Florida Senator Bob Graham said Bush had "brought shame to the United States with his paranoid delusions about so-called terror networks." British Prime Minister Tony Blair accused the United States of "an inexcusable act of conquest in plain violation of international law." White House chief counterterrorism advisor Richard Clarke immediately resigned in protest of "a disgusting exercise in over-kill."
When dozens of U.S. soldiers were slain in gun battles with fighters in the Afghan mountains, public opinion polls showed the nation overwhelmingly opposed to Bush's action. Political leaders of both parties called on Bush to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan immediately. "We are supposed to believe that attacking people in caves in some place called Tora Bora is worth the life of even one single U.S. soldier?" former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey asked.
When an off-target U.S. bomb killed scores of Afghan civilians who had taken refuge in a mosque, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Aznar announced a global boycott of American products. The United Nations General Assembly voted to condemn the United States, and Washington was forced into the humiliating position of vetoing a Security Council resolution declaring America guilty of "criminal acts of aggression."
Bush justified his attack on Afghanistan, and the detention of 19 men of Arab descent who had entered the country legally, on grounds of intelligence reports suggesting an imminent, devastating attack on the United States. But no such attack ever occurred, leading to widespread ridicule of Bush's claims. Speaking before a special commission created by Congress to investigate Bush's anti-terrorism actions, former national security adviser Rice shocked and horrified listeners when she admitted, "We had no actionable warnings of any specific threat, just good reason to believe something really bad was about to happen."
The president fired Rice immediately after her admission, but this did little to quell public anger regarding the war in Afghanistan. When it was revealed that U.S. special forces were also carrying out attacks against suspected terrorist bases in Indonesia and Pakistan, fury against the United States became universal, with even Israel condemning American action as "totally unjustified."
Speaking briefly to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before a helicopter carried him out of Washington as the first-ever president removed by impeachment, Bush seemed bitter. "I was given bad advice," he insisted. "My advisers told me that unless we took decisive action, thousands of innocent Americans might die. Obviously I should not have listened."
Announcing his candidacy for the 2004 Republican presidential nomination, Senator John McCain said today that "George W. Bush was very foolish and naïve; he didn't realize he was being pushed into this needless conflict by oil interests that wanted to seize Afghanistan to run a pipeline across it." McCain spoke at a campaign rally at the World Trade Center in New York City.
This sounds like McCain's fondest fantasy.
If that Senate bill would be allowed to become law, this ludicrous fiction could immediately become reality.
Most people don't grasp the seriousness and the full impact of this Senate Bill. That's why Bush is willing to veto the defense budget, if this is included -- it would totally cripple us in our fight against terrorists, we might as well give up.
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