Posted on 02/09/2006 9:00:20 PM PST by SandRat
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2006 – Al Qaeda terrorists were planning to fly a plane into the tallest building on the West Coast not long after they'd launched the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington, President Bush said here today.
The terrorists' target was a notable Los Angeles office building, he said during a speech given at the National Guard Association of the United States' headquarters.
The 73-story Los Angeles office building, the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River, was called the Library Tower at the time of the terrorist plot. It was renamed US Bank Tower in 2003.
Bush said the scheme involved terrorists using shoe bombs to hijack an aircraft that would then be flown into the skyscraper. The plot was thwarted in early 2002, Bush said, when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key al Qaeda operative who was in on the plan.
"Subsequent debriefings and other intelligence operations made clear the intended target and how al Qaeda hoped to execute it," Bush said. "This critical intelligence helped other allies capture the ringleaders and other known operatives who had been recruited for this plot."
Bush said the ringleader of the West Coast plot was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was al-Qaeda's military chief at the time. Mohammed was later captured in Pakistan in March 2003, Bush said.
Mohammed had planned to employ members of JI, an al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group located in Southeast Asia, for the Los Angeles operation, Bush said. The al Qaeda chief wanted young South Asian men rather than Arabs to conduct the operation, he said, so as not to arouse as much suspicion.
Bush said the leader of JI was a terrorist called Hambali who'd recruited key operatives for the plot who'd been trained in terrorist camps in Afghanistan. The recruits met with Osama bin Laden to get their marching orders, he said, and then began preparations for the ill-fated West Coast attack.
"The West Coast plot had been thwarted," Bush said. "Our efforts did not end there. In the summer of 2003 our partners in Southeast Asia conducted another successful manhunt that led to the capture of the terrorist Hambali."
Today, al Qaeda and its affiliates remain determined and dangerous, but they are weakened thanks to cooperative anti-terror operations like the one that exposed the West Coast plot, Bush said.
"It took the combined efforts of several countries to break up this plot," the president said. "By working together, we took dangerous terrorists off the streets.
"By working together, we stopped a catastrophic attack on our homeland."
The president, a former Texas Air National Guard fighter pilot, also viewed the unveiling of a bronze bust cast in his image that was presented in his honor at the event.
This isn't news.... this has been out there for years....
Major Question to be pondered:
Hessan Mohammad Hadayat, the gunman who opened fire inside Los Angeles International Airport killing two people and injuring several others in 2002, I remember the FBI at first said it was an 'isolated incident' and that it wasn't ' terrorism' I always thought there was more to the story. So was Hadayat part of an LA cell?
City of LA was told nearly 4 years ago.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigrosa (and James Hahn) are first-rate liars....
Los Angeles Times, March 31, 2004
Al Qaeda had planned to attack Los Angeles' tallest building in the months after Sept. 11 as part of a second wave of strikes that was never carried out, according to a statement by an alleged terrorist that was passed on to the Los Angeles Police Department. "We were made aware of that information last spring," said John Miller, the LAPD's top anti-terrorism official. "From a public safety standpoint, we took a number of immediate steps to tighten our procedures on notifications of any hijackings in the area."... Two law enforcement sources said that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the former operations chief for Al Qaeda captured last March, reportedly told his interrogators that the Library Tower -- now known as the U.S. Bank Tower -- was targeted along with Chicago's Sears Tower. Law enforcement officials, however, caution that Mohammed's statements since his capture have been viewed with a degree of skepticism by U.S. intelligence.
There sure was a lot of spinning going on today about the timing of Bush's announcement. Crazy dims.
Was built in the 80's, to be the 1st Interstate Bank HQ. They moved into it when it was complete, and not long after, Wells Fargo Bank bought 1st Interstate and that was the end of that.
Wells Fargo sold it, and it's had several owners since, I believe. Also, had a memorable fire about 3/4 of the way up in the early 90's...everyone called it the towering inferno of course. But the blaze was fairly quickly dispatched, as I recall.
This just posted. What an idiot!
Posted on 02/09/2006 11:05:26 PM PST by BurbankKarl
Statement by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in Response to President's Speech Regarding Failed LA Terror Plot LOS ANGELES - President Bush, in remarks this morning, made reference to a failed terrorist plot to fly a plane into the tallest building in Los Angeles, the Library Tower. The existence of a potential terrorist plot has been generally known and in fact reported by the media. However, today is the first time that all of the details were publicly disclosed.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1575712/posts
The 1st Interstate fire? they thought it was going to topple into the streets!
The Columbia Center (formerly the Bank of America Tower and the Columbia Seafirst Center) is the tallest skyscraper in the downtown Seattle skyline. Standing at a height of 967 feet (295 m), it was the tallest skyscraper west of the Mississippi River when construction was finished (currently it is the fourth), the second tallest on the West Coast, and the twelfth tallest building in the United States. It contains 76 stories of office space above ground and 7 stories of various use below ground. This makes it the tallest building by number of stories west of the Mississippi. Construction of this building began in 1982 and finished in 1985. It was designed by Chester L. Lindsey Architects.
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The U.S. Bank Tower at 633 West Fifth Street in downtown Los Angeles, California is the tallest North American skyscraper west of Chicago, the tallest building in California, and the tallest building with a helipad on the roof. Standing 1,018 feet (310 m) high, it is also one of the tallest in the world (22nd as of 2005). Until the construction of Taipei 101, it was also the tallest structure in an major active seismic region; its structure was designed to resist an earthquake of 8.3 on the Richter Scale. It consists of 73 stories above ground and two parking levels below ground. Construction was begun in 1987 and was completed in 1990. The building was designed by Henry N. Cobb of the architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and cost $350 million to build.
The building is also known as Library Tower due to its location across the street from the Los Angeles Central Library; it was built as part of the $1 billion redevelopment of the Library following two disastrous fires in 1986. The City of Los Angeles sold air rights to the developers of the tower to help pay for the reconstruction of the library. The building was also known for a time as First Interstate World Center after being bought by First Interstate Bank. After First Interstate merged with Wells Fargo Bank the name Library Tower was restored. In March 2003 the property was bought by U.S. Bancorp and the building was renamed U.S. Bank Tower. Residents, however, continue to refer to it as Library Tower and are unlikely to stop doing so.
Maybe I missed it, but I don't think I saw a retracton of his "blind sided" statement. I wonder who pointed out to him, pssst...mayor, you weren't mayor then. LOL!
Knowing this mayor of LA, he would have made a public announcement in Spanish and let the rest sort themselves out.
LOL!!! You think a demonRAT is going to retract a statement? LOL - that's a good one.
Maybe when stop sign Harry Reid retracts his "I got no money from Abramoff" lie, the good mayor of LA will retract his lie. ;*)
During the late evening of May 4, 1988, and the early morning of May 5, 1988, members of the Los Angeles City Fire Department successfully battled what has proven to be the worst, most devastating high-rise fire in the history of Los Angeles. Extinguishing this blaze at the 62-story First Interstate Bank Building, 707 West Wilshire Boulevard, required the combined efforts of 64 fire companies, 10 City rescue ambulances, 17 private ambulances, 4 helicopters, 53 Command Officers and support personnel, a complement of 383 Firefighters and Paramedics, and considerable assistance from other City departments.
d:o)
BTTT
It's worth noting that the current mayor, wasn't the mayor at the time this happened. So he really has nothing to say, and is just trying to create a political issue out of a serious event.
Nope, nor their clones either. There was some democrat spokesperson (they all look alike) on one of the FNC shows yesterday explaining that see, it really wasn't because of the TSA, it was really a CIA operation.
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