Posted on 09/22/2001 3:08:14 PM PDT by Reagan Man
Sources tell TIME that U.S. officials suspect that bin Laden conspirators may have been planning to disperse biological or chemical agents from cropdusting planes
Saturday, Sep. 22, 2001
New York -- U.S. law enforcement officials have found a manual on the operation of cropdusting equipment while searching suspected terrorist hideouts, government sources tell TIME magazine in an issue out on Monday, Sept. 24th.
The discovery has added to concerns among government counterterrorism experts that the bin Laden conspirators may have been planning — or may still be planning —to disperse biological or chemical agents from a cropdusting plane normally used for agricultural purposes.
Among the belongings of suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, sources tell TIME, were manuals showing how to operate cropdusting equipment that could be used to spray fast-killing toxins into the air.
The discovery resulted in the grounding of all cropdusters nationwide on Sunday Sept. 16th. The dusters have been allowed back up, but are not allowed to take off or land from what traffic controllers refer to as Class B airspace, or the skies around major cities.
One senior official cautions that because corroborative evidence is lacking the FBI does not place "high credibility" in the notion that the hijackers were in fact exploring the idea of stealing or renting cropdusters. However, the FBI is advising members of a crop-dusters' group to report any suspicious buys of dangerous chemicals in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks.
Last week, the National Agricultural Aviation Association, a crop dusters trade group, posted a message from the FBI to its membership: "Members should be vigilant to any suspicious activity relative to the use, training in or acquisition of dangerous chemicals or airborne application of same including threats, unusual purchases, suspicious behavior by employees or customers, and unusual contacts with the public. Members should report any suspicious circumstances or information to local FBI offices."
You can stop right there. I'm suddenly not too worried.
Deep down I'm not sure they think like we do at all. Some things learned very early become too engrained into us and I think we would be arrogant to really believe we understand them. They can seem nice enough but Ted Bundy apparently did too.
Why does it have to be Muslims or communists? We have our own "homegrown" terrorists groups like "Earth First" who think every human on the planet should die to protect the enviroment. This is just one group off the top of my head. There are others. Eventually,this WILL happen.
Well, if the terrorist are going to use NBC, then we should beat them to it.
5.56mm
The FBI did nothing at the time to protect us. The FBI needs to clean house and fire anyone that didn't take these reports seriously. Their excuse is that they didn't have any context to understand why the man just wanted to fly a jet not land or take off. Any one with any common sense could figure that one out. And now to find out there were crop dusting manuals in his hideout.
# 178: I think we better hold off on Nukes, the cure could be worse than the disease. You are right on though, about " no one quite has a handle on what we're in". It's a hellova time and place for, On the Job Training, but there is no other acceptable choice. The good news is our troops are highly skilled and honed in their profession, They will only have to learn to apply it on higher and steeper terrain.
Absolutely every potential mass killing weapon needs security. A car or truck hitting the right tank at a chemical plant can cause mass casualties. People need to also remeber Bhophal, Indis (SP?)
Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
Oh yes, I agree! But again that has nothing to do with being a Muslim or an Arab. It has to do with breaking the terms of a visa or being an illegal immigrant. I'm all for tougher borders and enforcement of visas and all that stuff - even if it disproportionately affects one group(s) more than another.
I argue with all my liberal friends about how limousine liberals are so much more racist and intolerant than conservatives and then I read stuff about diaperheads, bogus religions, and defaming of mosques.
There are indeed *some* mosques used by terrorists. Usually to go to a place to recruit people sympathetic to their views (in other words going somewhere LEGITIMATE and using it as a net to find others like them).
Apparently it would be no different than if someone wanted to find people with anti-Muslim and anti-Arab views to come to this thread to find people willing to go to war with an entire culture.
Sad.
Our enemy is not Saudi Arabia, it is not Kuwait, it is not Jordan. It has nothing to do with being Muslim and everything to do with being loyal to an anti-American and anti-Israeli strain of Islamic Fundamentalist.
I don't know why so many are quick to throw the baby out with the bathwater in total ignorance to a nation that is supposed to protect the individual without regard to what larger classification that person belongs to.
What is crummy is to defame a whole group of people because of the actions of one segment of their population. For example, I certainly would hope those abroad would not think all Americans are racist or hatemongerers just because there are a handful of them at Free Republic.
These means (President Bush to the contrary notwithstanding) that the bin Ladens of this world are true to the so-called "muslim faith" and those hacks who appear at our prayer services are 'muslims in name only.' They are the muslims' version of our mainline denominations.
The difficulty this poses for us is that the true Mohammedans are indeed blood-thirsty pagans and only their own version of our 'liberalizing' perverters of their 'faith' are willing to suffer a free society.
Over the next few weeks, this will become clear. As our President begins the wholly proper and justified carbonizing of Afghanistan, we will see virtually all 'muslims' from around the world condemning our efforts to rid the world of terrorism. Their true colors -- that is the true tenets of their 'faith' -- will become apparent for all to see. And that will be the end of this nonsense about a warm and fuzzy Mohammedan 'faith'.
The post you just made was quite rational in its assessment of the difference of religions and your predictions on what will come.
As someone who is agnostic and conservative (both) I do not share your opinion on the religious debate but I certainly respect it.
What I can assure you would be sheer lunacy is if Republicans and conservatives (non-Republicans) manage to alienate the Muslim/Arab community from our political circles. We will have once again found a way to get two opposing sides (in this case Jews and Arabs) opposed to us and resenting us.
I just hope people stop and remember that every human is flawed, but that doesn't make every human as evil as Al Qaeda, Hamas, or Hesbollah.
Right now we need friends who like America's way of life, like our liberalized freedoms, and like that we are fair, honest and patient when most of the rest of the world is not.
But to continuously slam Muslims and Arabs will not only ensure that we push them all to the extremists as Bin Laden and others wish, but we will then be crying on election day when our coalition does not include people who are in agreement with us on so many shared interests (including the eradication of terrorism).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.