FBI braces for possibility of July 4 attacks

Chicago Tribune ^ | 6/19/02 | Eric Lichtblau

[browardchad]

Even as authorities played down uncorroborated reports of an Al-Qaida attack on the Southern California coast, the FBI was girding for possible attacks on July 4 and canvassing major celebrations around the country for signs of trouble.

The FBI "is assuming a heightened security posture" because of a rash of worrisome intelligence reports indicating that major Independence Day celebrations could be attacked, according to a confidential law enforcement alert reviewed by The Los Angeles Times.

[browardchad]

By opening control files on major events, the FBI -- which has been accused of failing to connect pre-Sept. 11 warnings -- would be able to look for patterns and match new intelligence information against what is known about July 4 celebrations, sources said.

What a novel idea -- they really are thinking outside the box. </sarcasm

[Fred Mertz]

Quick, run for the hills! Cancel all fireworks! Surrender to these evil terrorists! </sarcasm>

[alisasny]

Our entire family is going to be at my house on the 4th to Celebrate a very special Independence Day. If something happens on Long Island we will all be together. If not we will have fun and enjoy our freedoms!!!

[ecomcon]

"Unfortunately, this is part of the new reality post-9/11, and it's something we're all still growing used to," a Justice Department official said Tuesday.

Unfortunate? It's not unfortunate, it's unacceptable, and I'm not going to "get used to it". I'm not going to let them make us live like the Israelis, in fear and in constant half-a**ed "war". Kill every last one of these evil Islamic barbarian animals before they kill us.

[Maceman]

Quick, run for the hills! Cancel all fireworks! Surrender to these evil terrorists!

Go ahead and laugh -- but I think July 4th is absolutely the day that I would attack if I were a terrorist. They will score a tremendous psychological victory by using a 9-11-type attack to forever change the symbolism and associations of July 4 in the American psyche.

[Digger]

ATTENTION: On all holidays & weekends there is a terroist threat. (Now the goverment has covered its a$$) BTW there truly is a terrorists threat every day --CLOSE THE BOARDERS!!!!

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

What could be packed into fireworks that could kill people? Anthrax (would it be destroyed?)? Nerve gas? Not to mention that, with all those explosions going on, 'real' ones are more likely to be ignored. Especially during the cannon-firing at the end of the 1812 overture. I'll be in Boston watching the Pops perform that one. I hope I will, anyway. If my Aussie girlfriend gets her visa today (cutting it very close -- her flight leaves June 21 from Brisbane).

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

They will score a tremendous psychological victory by using a 9-11-type attack to forever change the symbolism and associations of July 4 in the American psyche.

They think they will. They will be wrong.

July 4th is possibly the worst day they could pick, if they want to injure our psyche. Worst for them, not for us. Doing it July 4th will come at a time when we are thinking of our love of country and of freedom, more than any other day. But let them go ahead and attack then.

[geege]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh I'll just hide under my bed!!!!!!!

[Wurlitzer]

"If not we will have fun and enjoy our freedoms!!! "

But not the freedom to use fireworks. NYS has determined we are too dumb and must be prevented from hurting ourselves. Funny they still allow the sale of cigarettes. Must be all the tax revenue.

[DoughtyOne]

Let me get this straight, after being warned that middle-eastern types were training at our flight schools and that there was a likelihood those people could be terrorists the FBI and others kept their yap shut. Now every nimrod that burbs causes a full scale alert nationwide. That makes sense.

This government of ours has gone hysterical. With almost no evidence whatsoever they are trying to terrify the people of this nation. They're trying to turn them into a bunch of shivering wimps. This is pathetic.

Al Quieda is for the most part dead. Yes there are still some operatives working world wide, but those in custody that are talking have been in custody for months. Yet strangely they know details of things that are going to happen now. Yeah, right. I think these folks are screwing with our federal government. Disinformation acted upon causes disruption. Wow, who would have suspected that?

At best I think the masses are being herded.

[StockAyatollah]

I am waiting to see some "fireworks" over Riyadh. Too bad the Bush family is such good buddies with that evil regime over there.

[Conservative_Rob]

Scoff all you want - there are enough terroists in the country right now - and no effort to contain them - that I would stay far, far, away from Washington DC on July 4th. People have still not come to the realization that MAD means nothing to who we are fighting now. Our enemy looks forward to the day he/she will die killing Americans and Jews. If there is an attack on July 4th - and I pray that there won't be - I will demand that ALL Islamists (note I am not saying Arabs or Muslems) in this country be rounded up and expelled IMMEDIATLY! ALL visas from Islamic or Muslem countries will have to be approved by the Department of Homeland Security BEFORE any applicant can even BOARD a plane/boat/car/camel/ox-cart headed to this country. If this takes several months or years - so be it. I would hate to think that it will take thousands of more American deaths before we finally take the measures needed to secure our safety. Anyone who thinks that our government is doing things any differently now than what it was doing on September 10, 2001, is living in a fantasy world. Please note: 100% of all terrorist attacks on the United States over the last 20 years (and YES I am including Oklahoma City) have been orchestrated by Islamists. It's time to drop all this PC garbage and do what has to be done.

[old school]

Them sumb*tches better get ready to run because the 4th of July is a day when Americans discharge more firearms than ever. Woe be to the errant desert-dweller who gets caught out in the open after launching some kind of nonsense!

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

Scoff all you want

I didn't say they WOULDN'T attack July 4. I said it's not the best day, ultimately, if the goal is to injure our national psyche. If the goal is just to kill lots of people, it's probably a pretty good day. But they'd be winning a battle to lose the war. A Pyrrhic victory. But to your point, they probably don't give a crap, they just want dead people. I was just saying that of all days to hurt our psyche, July 4 is probably at the bottom of the list.

[AmericanInTokyo]

We are currently in a state of war. However, the prime aspect of that war is that it is a PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR rather than a physical war within our borders. They cannot kill us all. They cannot conquer us all. They cannot occupy and destroy America. But they can sure play with our psyche.

The prime vehicle of the delivery of that war to our shores is....none other than....our own mass media.

Count all the kids that died at the hands of al-Qaida on Haloween. They tried to cause us to give up our celebrations and our culture. We cannot let the paranoid US media pound us into submission, in fear of even breathing, because of al-Qaida's mind games.

[3catsanadog]

I have to work 7/4. I won't be anywhere near any holiday celebrations unless the terrorists try to blow up an old people's nursing home.

[AmericanInTokyo]

I am for a) CLOSING THE BORDERS ASAP; and b) not panicking but instead fully and boldly and even arrogantly proudly enjoying our American Culture, Society and Traditions, including INDEPENDENCE DAY, and sticking it in their disgusting Arab Radical Islamist faces and turning out in even larger numbers than ever with American flags. We will not cede the psychological high ground to them. We must in turn use strong psy war tactics against them, many outside the shining lights of the media and Amnesty International, IMHO. Time for hardball, under the surface, if we aren't already doing this.

[thepitts]

It is pathetic.

[asformeandformyhouse]

Even a broken clock is right two times in a day.