Prez a Bomb Target? / 1999 study mulled suicide blast attack

New York Daily News ^ | 5/21/02 | GREG B. SMITH

[kattracks]

American intelligence officials have worried about suicidal belt bombers for at least two years, since a report raised fears that Osama Bin Laden might send them after the President of the United States.

The possibility of a suicide attack on the President was contained in a September 1999 study that also predicted Bin Laden might send kamikaze pilots to slam airplanes into the Pentagon.

The report by the National Intelligence Committee to CIA Director George Tenet describes Bin Laden's growing "martyrdom battalions" as consisting of "human bombs training to carry out spectacular terrorist operations."

Intelligence estimates at the time put Bin Laden's force at more than 10,000 "trained fighters."

"There is an open front, and there are always volunteers seeking martyrdom," it noted.

Portrait of a Bomber

The report specifically notes that leaders of several terrorist groups, including Bin Laden, "could become desperate, paranoid or simply vengeful enough to order their suicide devotees to employ the belt-bomb technique against the leader of the Western World."

Though sending suicide bombers after the President might not seem logical, the report argued Bin Laden does not "need a logical reason, for he believes that he has a mandate from Allah to punish the 'Great Satan'."

To date, suicide bombers have been an overseas phenomenon.

But Bin Laden's Al Qaeda has increasingly embraced suicide attacks as a tactic, starting with the June 1996 truck bomb attack on the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, continuing with the August 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa and ending with the October 2000 suicide boat that blew a hole in the destroyer Cole off Yemen.

The only apparent suicidal bomb plot in the U.S. was a July 1997 attempt by two Palestinians to detonate a nail-filled pipe bomb inside the city subway.

The bombers were caught at the last minute, but only because a roommate became suspicious of their activities and flagged down a police officer.

The 1999 National Intelligence Committee report, however, makes clear that spotting a suicide bomber ahead of time is extremely difficult.

"In short," the report warned, "a terrorist will look, dress and behave like a normal person, such as a university student, until he or she executes the assigned mission."

[happygrl]

Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, was assassinated in this way in 1991. A woman approached him with flowers, then blew herself up.

[texasbluebell]

bttt

[rageaholic]

In short," the report warned, "a terrorist will look, dress and behave like a normal person, such as a university student, until he or she executes the assigned mission."

"normal"? Why is everybody in the government afraid to say they will look like a middle easterner between the ages of 17 and 40? And why is the INS granting student visas by the thousand to middle eastern "students"?

If the Pres, or anybody else is assasinated by a muslim suicide bomber, the INS will be a co-conspirator.