Posted on 07/21/2002 2:19:25 PM PDT by flamefront
Communications intercepts by U.S. intelligence agencies indicate that the July 4th attack on El Al Airlines at Los Angeles International Airport may have been an al Qaeda dry run in preparation for a larger attack, two members of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security said Sunday.Asked on CNN's "Late Edition" whether the committee had developed any information linking LAX shooter Mohamed Hedayet to al Qaeda, ranking Democrat Jane Harman, D-Calif., described a meeting she attended at LAX last Monday, where FBI and Transportation Security Administration officials revealed that "chatter" monitored by U.S. investigators pointed to a tie-in.
"They're investigating it. I mean, there is chatter, as we now say, that (Hedayet) may have been affiliated - but there's no proof," said Harman.
The California Democrat said U.S. intelligence intercepts have picked up "people suggesting that he might have been connected. He might have been a trial balloon to see how tight security is and then there may be other attacks on security lines."
Harman emphasized again that there was no proof tying the LAX shooter to al Qaeda, saying, "I want people listening to this show to understand, this is all under investigation but there is no proof at this time that he is linked to any terrorist organization."
But committee chairman Saxby Chambliss, D-Ga., confirmed that they had information suggesting the LAX attack was an al Qaeda decoy operation.
"They may have been trying to get us to concentrate and get to a higher level of preparation for July 4th and then be really thinking about coming back with some acts of terrorism later on after our guard was down," he told CNN.
Chambliss cited interviews with al Qaeda prisoners as well as intercepts by U.S. intelligence.
"As we go through the interrogation process of them we're picking up bits and pieces - that's part of the chatter that she mentioned," he told CNN. "And in that chatter there will be some intentional statements by these criminals to try to get us off guard and try to get us focused in a different direction."
Duh.. I guess "US Intelligence" might have turned on the news or read a paper or something because it was "suggested" all over the place..
And just like "US Intelligence" they had no proof.. so it remained a "suggestion"
(this is news? how desperate are these people?)
Why? Do you think Sep. 11, 2001 was of less importance, than Pearl Harbor?
Do you know anything about WWII? Who was interned? How long? Why? What would get you out?
Did you know that Japanese, Italians and Germans were interned?
What makes a non-citizen from a middle-eastern country any less dangerous, than the aforementioned nationalities?
We won WWII, partly because we could still think and act with common sense. We have less of it, now.
I doubt their capability to launch concurrent attacks on a significant scale. We were off guard on Sept 11 and we (i.e. the American people) still managed to fight off the fourth attack destined for the White House. Today, we are on guard - aware that there are maniacs out there who want to kill us and our families. I highly doubt that in a society in which information travels as quickly as it does in ours, a society that is as aware of the threats facing it as ours is, massive simultaneous attacks can be pulled off. What can be pulled off, is many smaller attacks, but that simply won't cut it. Sure, it'll scare a lot of people, but it won't do the kind of harm al-Qaeda wants to do.
Are you saying we won WW2 because of our internment of American citizens of Japanese and German descent?
I always thought it was because we nuked the hell out of the Japanese and basically had them $hitting in their pants; and because of our superior geopolitical and military 'strategery' in Europe.
Yes it does, which must have come as a great disappointment to Mr. Ridge. If the shooter was Al-Qaeda, surely he would have been at the American counter, not El Al.
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