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TIME Exclusive: Cropduster Manual Discovered in Suspected Terrorist Hideout [THREAD 2]
time.com ^ | 9/22/2001 | MASSIMO CALABRESI AND SALLY DONNELLY

Posted on 09/22/2001 7:05:01 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck

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."


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
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Continuation of THIS

Dear admins, if this is in wrong category please reclassify instead of nuking. Thanks.

1 posted on 09/22/2001 7:05:01 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: HiTech RedNeck
No prob. Will leave thread 1 in Breaking news. Make sure you provide a link from there to here.
2 posted on 09/22/2001 7:10:15 PM PDT by Sidebar Moderator
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Associated Press published an article a few days ago that the Taliban were trying to buy a fleet of cropdusters from Romania.
3 posted on 09/22/2001 7:10:31 PM PDT by HAL9000
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To: HiTech RedNeck
If only we could spread liberalism to the Mid-East. That would poison their minds. The rest would be easy.
4 posted on 09/22/2001 7:13:49 PM PDT by lds23
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To: HAL9000
What's the range of one of those things. Is a reasonable scenario one of flying in from the ocean or Canada or Mexico, to the midst of a major population center, without getting noticed and shot down?
5 posted on 09/22/2001 7:16:26 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Everybody, go to the library and read THE PLAGUE by Albert Camus to see how ordinry people and especially leaders may react in the face of a bio weapon attack.
6 posted on 09/22/2001 7:16:31 PM PDT by Travis McGee
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Is a reasonable scenario one of flying in from the ocean or Canada or Mexico, to the midst of a major population center, without getting noticed and shot down?

I think the scenario was that the Taliban would use those crop dusters against the Northern Alliance and U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

7 posted on 09/22/2001 7:19:29 PM PDT by HAL9000
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To: HAL9000
Hmm are they THAT hard up for missiles?
8 posted on 09/22/2001 7:22:05 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: HAL9000
Why bother with cropdusters when the fire supression planes are much larger...The diaper-heads all wanted multi-engine ratings...including flytime on twins....

Many fire supression planes in Canada, Spain and S.France that would be easy access to these guys.

Now is autumn and pilots head for rest and recreation...

9 posted on 09/22/2001 7:39:38 PM PDT by spokeshave
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To: spokeshave
Is there such a thing as a special isotope of tin that we can use for our hats so that our gummint hears but the terrorists DON'T??? We may mostly be talking about things the terrorists have thought about, but why give 'em FR as a think tank for more mayhem?
10 posted on 09/22/2001 7:57:14 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: HiTech RedNeck
_
11 posted on 09/22/2001 8:21:35 PM PDT by Lady GOP
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Look what I found on another thread:
...

A bin Laden with the first name of Yahia M.A. of 2 rue Charles Bonnet 1206 Geneva, Switzerland owns 13.52 % of a Cambridge company known as Hybridon.

It messes around with things like DNA,AIDS,HPV and viruses!

As in front company for biological warfare?

Camille Chebeir,President of Sedco Services,Inc which manages the investments of the Bin Mahfouz family of Saudi,is on the Board of Directors.

Mahfouz is one of the funders of our boy Osama!

...

Delivery system and payload!
12 posted on 09/22/2001 8:22:43 PM PDT by N00dleN0gg1n
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To: N00dleN0gg1n
WOW!

Boy, I hope Bush's wake up call was in the nick of time and not too late.

13 posted on 09/22/2001 8:31:00 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: N00dleN0gg1n, Betty Jo
Betty Jo was saying she found another company in which bin Laden has an ownership interest which does work on viruses for the NIH.
14 posted on 09/22/2001 8:31:51 PM PDT by aristeides (demosthenes@olg.com)
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To: aristeides
Those menaces are like Boy Scouts in their resourcefulness aren't they.
15 posted on 09/22/2001 8:53:01 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Reminds me of Sax Rohmer's purple prose describing the diabolical genius Fu Manchu. Only this time it's not fiction.
16 posted on 09/22/2001 9:03:40 PM PDT by aristeides (demosthenes@olg.com)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
It's even worse than this. Imagine that bad guys buy a couple of older school buses - which you can drive, legally, with a "normal" driver's licence, as long as you don't carry passengers.

Then, imagine a location on a nearby highway that you know of that is a bottleneck to traffic, such as the beltways that circle a major city.

Just before rush hour, in a coordinated fashion, they dump the school buses on their side, and set them on fire (maybe they have some extra diesel fuel, which burns slowly and is less explosive). Now, the city is clogged, there is no way to drive in or out of the city. If there is a decent rail system, that is easy enough to block using the same method.

Mix in the diesel fuel some of the bad stuff, as it burns a lot of it will be burned off, but their will be enough that is not burned off but just becomes airborne.

Take a few more diesel vehicles with engines that spit out blue smoke (poor tuning, rings shot, whatever). Add the aerosol delivery system to the exhaust, not the fuel, so that as the truck burns off fuel, mixed in the exhaust is the bad stuff. Some of the vehicles are stuck in traffic, and infect the people in cars. Some of the vehicles drive around the city in an ambling fashion, using city streets (since the highways are closed anyways).

You can buy used buses and diesel trucks (cube vans, whatever) for less than $5k each - so $100,000 will get you 20 of them.

Scared yet? (I reposted from thread 1 since I didn't see the pointer to Thread 2).

17 posted on 09/22/2001 10:05:15 PM PDT by ikka
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To: ikka
Given that the material has to be released by combustion, that would be an implausible way to launch a bioattack. Chemical, maybe; I don't know what could be used that would have stealth properties (few would want to stay in the vicinity of the combustion fumes anyhow).
18 posted on 09/22/2001 10:10:28 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: ikka
P.S. Or, mixed in exhaust. Exhaust is hot. Hot kills microbes.
19 posted on 09/22/2001 10:12:05 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: HiTech RedNeck
According to my research, botulism toxin can survive 80 degrees Celsius, which is approximately a temperature of 174 degrees F.

I will be posting some more info in the next hour or two about possible ways to combat or detect chemical/bilogical warfare toxins.

20 posted on 09/22/2001 10:19:36 PM PDT by ikka
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