Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Intercepts revealed plan for great devastation
nzherald.co.nz ^ | 110601 | By DAVID USBORNE

Posted on 11/06/2001 5:59:22 AM PST by Missy35

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=226665&thesection=news&thesubsection=world Intercepts revealed plan for great devastation

05.11.2001 By DAVID USBORNE

A series of intercepted telephone conversations between suspected members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network prompted President George W. Bush's decision to order a general terror alert for the United States last week.

The calls indicated an attack against America that would be more devastating than the September 11 atrocities.

While the intelligence from the telephone calls was chilling, officials wrangled for hours over whether the public should hear about it.

A general warning issued by Attorney-General John Ashcroft on October 11 drew sharp criticism from some Congressmen who complained that the warning then was too vague to be of much use to the authorities but sufficiently ominous to unsettle already nervous Americans.

But Mr Bush decided the latest alert had to be put out.

Transcripts of the intercepts have not been made available but officials said they were especially frightening.

The FBI was opposed to issuing a country-wide alert while nothing more specific could be made available.

The agency feared that law enforcement authorities around the country would be irritated by a warning that had no substance.

Last week, the Governor of California, Gray Davis, made public a confidential warning that had been conveyed to him and to seven other western states by the FBI.

The warning said terrorists might be planning attacks on suspension bridges on the west coast.

The governor's announcement triggered charges that he was overreacting and sowing panic unnecessarily among Californians.

But there is speculation that nothing happened after the alert on October 11 because whatever had been allegedly planned by al Qaeda was either postponed or cancelled after some of its operatives were caught in the international anti-terror operation and arrested.

While most cities across America were already on very high alert, the alert last week may have galvanised officials once more to be on their toes.

No-flight zones were established around all of America's nuclear power plants and the Sears Tower in Chicago, now the country's tallest skyscraper.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last
To: HiJinx
I am personally looking for a BB type hand gun that I can use to shoot at a TV screen (and not damage the TV), so that every time I see OBL's face I can get target practice time in in the comfort of my own home without having to going to the range. :)
21 posted on 11/06/2001 7:23:05 AM PST by CathyRyan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Marysecretary
I think this goes beyond school buses. What ever they are planning will be on a national level, like the WTC attacks. I doubt it will be local acts of random violence.
22 posted on 11/06/2001 7:28:44 AM PST by michaelje
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: vannrox
Were those photos really necessary?
23 posted on 11/06/2001 7:41:44 AM PST by white rose
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Dog Gone
Let's suppose that the last red alert had to do with smallpox...........WHEN would the first cases start cropping up?

There's been TOO much talk about smallpox. Seems to me it's a 'prep' for when the thing breaks out.

24 posted on 11/06/2001 7:46:22 AM PST by mommadooo3
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Missy35
No-flight zones were established around all of America's nuclear power plants and the Sears Tower in Chicago, now the country's tallest skyscraper.

I know this is a helluva time to be petty, and the article make much more important points, but I just want to add that the Sears Tower has been the country's tallest since it was completed. Still the world's tallest, by any reasonable definition.

25 posted on 11/06/2001 7:49:04 AM PST by Hegewisch Dupa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Marysecretary
Movie theaters, football games, school busses (or schools), traffic jams during rush hour, the beach at Ocean City, Md on a hot July day, state fairs, etc.

Jeez - There is no shortage of potential targets where massive numbers of people could be killed by a single, well armed terrorist.

Keep you eyes open and question something that looks out of place or unusual. And don't hesitate to call authorities or confront the suspect yourself, even innocently like to ask directions, just to satisfy your curiosity.

And let's see the damn interepts if the exist.

26 posted on 11/06/2001 7:52:29 AM PST by seoseo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: vannrox
ya make me want that booster!
27 posted on 11/06/2001 7:58:26 AM PST by PatrioticAmerican
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: michaelje
I would think that school bus targets would be MORE than localized. Think of how many kids are on any given bus...how many towns they come from to go to a certain school...how many extended families they come in contact with daily/weekly. Good analogy...toss a pebble/school bus in a pond, watch the ripples flow out.
28 posted on 11/06/2001 7:59:22 AM PST by mommadooo3
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: vannrox
Is your effort to intensify the terrorism effect succeeding? Have your handlers sent to you any more graphic materials to be splattered all over the net for visual assistance in the terrorism campaign? Agitprop! Hysteria is your friend I see! What a creep you're turning out to be. Yeah, I know you've been a member since the beginning. What persuasion do you serve with your hysterical posting of late?
29 posted on 11/06/2001 8:07:52 AM PST by MHGinTN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: CathyRyan
Get a 'sticky' dart gun ... you lick the rubber pad and shove the dart down into the spring until it clicks; aim, and pull the trigger; your sticky dart stays attached to the TV glass until you remove it. Great fun!
30 posted on 11/06/2001 8:10:26 AM PST by MHGinTN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: arete
They may have already thrown their best punch at us.

Hope for the best. Plan for the worst.

31 posted on 11/06/2001 8:11:10 AM PST by sphinx
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: mommadooo3
There's been TOO much talk about smallpox. Seems to me it's a 'prep' for when the thing breaks out.

Unfortunately, I agree. There is almost no reason for the government to be doing the things it is doing regarding smallpox vaccinations if they didn't think it was an immediate threat.

They wouldn't think it was an immediate threat unless they believed that either al-Qaida had the weapon or Iraq intended to use it now.

The one possibility that could explain their actions, though, without there being an immediate threat, is the determination that we have to take out Saddam Hussein and that, at that point in time, he might use smallpox as a weapon. In that case, they're simply trying to be prepared well in advance.

I hope that's it instead of some information that someone infected with smallpox is attempting to seek entry into the country today.

32 posted on 11/06/2001 8:12:47 AM PST by Dog Gone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: twntaipan
"What if the devestation is to come from large-scale attacks by Muslims in the USA on a wide scale, rather than high profile attacks? An American intifadah?"

Picture Custer at the Little Big Horn. It would be a ten minute uprising and we would have a lot of adds in the paper for cab drivers and Quicky Mart clerks...
Oh dear me was that insensitive?
33 posted on 11/06/2001 8:20:08 AM PST by Kozak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: vannrox
But why would the pox viruses want to mimic us? To hijack our genes and incorporate them into its own DNA would have taken thousands of years of evolution. The virus had to have some diabolical reason for it.

Interesting interview, but viruses are NOT thinking entities.
I have run into this thought process before, that we are only tools that DNA uses to perpetuate itself.
Wow, a chilling mind-set!

34 posted on 11/06/2001 8:20:15 AM PST by Psalm 73
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Dog Gone
I have NEVER been a great fan of our public health system ever since I did a clinical nursing rotation through the system. But you know, I am really angry about NOT being able to be vaccinated against Smallpox and Anthrax. Mandatory this and that for school children but the two vaccinations I would truly like to have to protect my family I can't have. Let freedom ring!
35 posted on 11/06/2001 8:20:57 AM PST by Norma
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: mommadooo3
5 to 15 day incubation period for the pox was normal in the '60's when smallpox was still an "active" disease. The very communicable stage starts just before the first sympotoms manifest as the infected person begins to cough and blister, soon the illness makes the patient feel and look terrible making others want to avoid the very sick person. Caugh launched viruses can reamin airborne for at least half an hour so passersby can be infected long after the carrier has left an area. Also, vaccinated people can be carriers, aka "vectors". Washing hands often, gloves, face masks, and eye protection are classic and worthwhile methods of dealing with epidemincs.

The SOBs wanting a return of a 19th Century pandemic believe that their own 3rd World culture will hardly know the difference from just another plague. They do not understand. Smallpox kills one in three.

Last week I read that TB in Russia may be approaching one in six. They have created totally drug resistant strains through incompetent public health practices, especially within their prison system. That disease will be to our hometowns soon.

We are leaving "the good old days".

36 posted on 11/06/2001 8:21:29 AM PST by SevenDaysInMay
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: HiJinx
i wish i could buy a gun but i live in NYS. i suppose i could get a rifle but they're so unwieldy and i would prefer a handgun but it's next to impossible to get a license, the problem is i'm a law-abiding citizen. instead, i walk around with MACE which is highly unreliable. sometimes i wish i lived in the dakotas or montana.
37 posted on 11/06/2001 8:33:08 AM PST by contessa machiaveli
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: vannrox
Every time I see those pictures posted, I wonder where they came from. Surely they are chosen to portray the horror of the most severe cases, among malnourished and health-compromised populations. Not to take anything away from the seriousness of smallpox, but we don't need to assume that this is how all victims end up.
38 posted on 11/06/2001 8:41:59 AM PST by nepdap
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: logos; Nita Nupress; RightOnline; OwenKellogg; LSJohn; Fred Mertz; Missy35
No-flight zones were established around all of America's nuclear power plants and the Sears Tower in Chicago, now the country's tallest skyscraper.

Clearly the folks in charge of protecting U.S. figure great damage could still come from the skies. OK, I'm glad they're watching for planes and I'm even glad they'd shoot one down if necessary. I assume they're tracking all planes with radar, have guards who can see the plane lights (which could be turned off) and hear the sound of the motors.

What I can't shake out of my mind is that filthy calendar that showed a plane crashing into NYC for September and a scene of general mayhem for October. Remember the balloons in the October picture? No radar image. No sound. I guess the flames might be visible at night. Could they be masked?

Obviously gently drifting one of these down on a nuke plant wouldn't have the effect of a jet fuel laden 747 crash unless they have MAJOR explosives packed in it, like maybe one of the suitcase nukes that are alleged to be missing.

Another sort of loose thought... Isn't Bush going to address the UN pretty soon? I have a vague memory of a news announcement to that effect a ways back, but I can't find anything on it searching under Bush visit or address United Nations... I've missed a lot of news lately (traveling)--had to rely on CNN in most hotels so I've mostly only heard of anthrax, anthrax, anthrax.

Anyway, while I wish the UN would go away, I don't want to see it "martyred" and I damn sure don't want to see it blown away with the U.S. President in it. I don't know how that could really be protected against anyway since these suitcase thingies can allegedly wipe out 11 square miles. All they'd need is a suicidal 7th century whack-job with a nuke getting within that 11 square mile area. That's a lot of NYC to rope off and clear on a room to room basis.

Nevertheless, I keep wondering why those balloons found their way onto that calendar. It was such a strange note. I know October got over without any of that picture coming true, but legend has it that loads of the psychos have been quietly rounded up behind the scenes. If they're out of business rather than just slowed down, that's great but probably too good to be true.

Any thoughts? I'd love to have you tell me that a sky-camouflaged balloon couldn't possibly be an effective weapon because I don't think it was on that calendar for decoration.

39 posted on 11/06/2001 8:44:08 AM PST by Sal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dog Gone
We must always be "ever vigilant".
40 posted on 11/06/2001 8:47:38 AM PST by dixie sass
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson