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."
If it was just unleashed on them, I wouldn't have too much problem with it. Maybe the terrorists could just dust the Berkeley protestors with anthrax, that way they could kill some Americans and the rest of us won't want to retaliate.
Bob would do well to pack heat....
Easy - go talk to 1,000 Muslim Americans or Arab Americans and ask them why they live in this country. Ask them what they fleed to come to the U.S. and ask them what they think of the U.S. what they think of Hesbollah, Hamas, Al Qaeda, bin Laden.
The racist insinuation in your post that implies that maybe a bunch of them wish death to America makes me sick to my stomach. Either you've had alot of bad experience with anti-American Mulsims or Arabs in this country or you are speaking from ignorance. Come on, Freepers are better than this - to sink to some prejudice based not on track record but of religion, ethnicity, race or otherwise.
I just read that book within the last year. What a creepy read!
Candi
In my youth, I used to gasp when people used your terminology. Now in Middle age (and hoping to make it to OLD age) I couldn't agree more. I think taking out small cells and individuals with a *surgical* strike is too long term and perhaps misguided. A well placed nuclear device (like in bin Laden's shorts) speaks much louder and faster and leaves a lasssssssssssssting impression. YMMV
Easy - read their posts at TH.
I'm a former Buchanan employee and supporter and I used to hear all the allegations of racism lobbed against Pat because of things he would say and what people would read into them. As a man he was kind and gentle to everyone he met no matter what their station in life.
I would hope all Freepers would follow the same example... most here seem to but some don't.
Some posts this past week sound like the language of some camps (both sides) in Europe in the 1940s.
HYBRIDON antisense from Boston?
Chemicals Discovered in Belgium BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Investigators discovered large quantities of chemicals that could be used to make a bomb and that were linked to a Tunisian arrested on suspicion of plotting attacks on U.S. interests in Europe, officials said Saturday.
The 220 pounds of sulfur and 13 gallons of acetone were found in an apartment above a North African fast-food restaurant in central Brussels late Thursday, said Laure Wynands, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office.
The chemicals were mentioned in documents found at the home of the unidentified Tunisian, one of two men arrested last week and suspected of planning anti-U.S. attacks.
``At face value, it is suspect,'' she said. ``It is rare to have 100 kilos (220 pounds) of sulfur and acetone at home, especially in a snack bar.''
Investigators stressed that they have not established a link with the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites) or the chief suspect in those attacks, Osama bin Laden (news - web sites).
The Tunisian, however, was suspected of having connections with a radical Egyptian Islamic organization linked to Afghanistan (news - web sites)-based groups. Police did not provide any details on the second person arrested last week.
Two more men who lived in the apartment where the chemicals were found were arrested and charged with conspiracy, Wynands said.
The prosecutor's office said the two men arrested last week were being held on charges of criminal organization, and one had also been charged with illegal weapons possession.
Belgian magistrate Bernard Michel said that investigators believed they were planning to attack ``American interests'' but that their specific targets were not known
Were you ignorant of this fact and many others showing covert support for the terrorists in the "moderate" moslem community?
I think we can distinguish between arab-Americans and those who are here on a visa.
Yep, and who says it has to be a cropduster? A Cessna 172 with a little canister on the bottom would do just as well, wouldn't it? The know, the planes that we're all used to seeing pulling big banners around at every major college football game?
I used to have some as friends back in college and at work. Every one of them hated Jews and everyone of them hated the US government although they would say they "liked Americans as individuals". I mostly thought it was just all rhetoric, I used to see them burn the US flag on our campus and I figured they'd just see what tolerant, open-minded, freedom loving people we were. I was wrong about them being friends, they were just here learning our ways to use against us. Even today I have yet to see the Arab nationals show support of the US by flying flags (at best they just whine that they are feeling picked on now), around here almost all Mexicans are ---but why not the Arabs?
Ironic if the country was attacked by a WW1 Stearman at 80 mph...
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