Officials warn: Terror threat is 'significant'

USA Today ^ | 2/11/03 | Mimi Hall and Jack Kelley

[JustPiper]

WASHINGTON

[JustPiper]

Now I'm getting terrified!

[patriciaruth]

Well, we've got thirty days of supplies and I'm far off the beaten path. So far off that I am not bothering with duct tape and plastic sheeting. If it's that bad, I'll give away my stockpile and inhale deeply.

[JustPiper]

"What do you mean 'I look scared'? Heck no! I'm not scared!"

[The Great Satan]

Al-Qaeda is a myth. It is absurd on its face to suppose that al-Qaeda cares more about Saddam Hussein than al-Qaeda. The reality is, we are at war with Saddam Hussein -- he hit us bad on 9/11, and now has the anthrax dagger at our throats -- and al-Qaeda is a convenient proxy bogeyman our leaders use to evade that awful truth. We have been outwitted and out-maneauvered by a Third World thug our leaders told us was "contained" ten years ago, and he can kill millions of us and lay our greatest cities to waste if we attempt to move against him. Bad truth, but it's the truth. Deal with it, everybody.

[piasa]

Add plywood, a longer supply of food and water, and some additional things to the list and then you are prepared for a hurricane.

[JustPiper]

lay our greatest cities to waste if we attempt to move against him

But we have to get him (shaking head). I guess we know now why he does not have any anthrax, etc there, its dispersed.

[justa-hairyape]

If the tanks on the way to Baghdad were stopped by chemical and biological weapons related threats or 'demonstrations', the blackmail by a third world thug has been going on for well over a decade. Meanwhile, the Chinese bankroll the upstart Clintoon, and quite a few other third world thugs see WMD blackmailing of the US as a viable survival tactic. Hence, North Korea and Iran go for the nukes, while Clintoon is preoccuppied with his 'special purpose' in life.

[The Great Satan]

I would check safety deposit boxes, left-luggage lockers, etc. Could be a long while before we find them, however. Mohammed Atta spent quite a time travelling the length and breadth of this country, let us remember.

[patriciaruth]

Earthquake, possibly a volcano, but not much chance of hurricanes here.

More likely to have radioactive refugees from L.A. than a hurricane.

Batteries, charcoal, matches, bleach....got a nice collection of old books I don't particularly like and a fireplace if we need heat.

[JustPiper]

Can someone please put this on the bump list for the morning Freepers?

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

You have said many times that you don't believe we will attack Iraq immediately. Let's assume that we do attack Iraq. What do you think the retribution will be? Will Saddam unleash WMDs on our troops only, or will we see thousands (or tens of thousands) of deaths here? What I can't understand is why President Bush is pushing Saddam so hard if he (as you say) knows that Saddam has all the cards.

I don't disagree with you, necessarily, but I would like to know your theories on why we're pressing Iraq so hard right now.

[piasa]

The ironic thing is if they hit us in this way, they would effectively be shooting themselves in the foot. Likely targets are in areas where resides their allies, the inept chad punchers.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Total Barbara Streisand.

[FairOpinion]

My guess is that we must have information that what Saddam has now, horrible as it is, is nothing in comparison to somethings he may have in a few more months or year or so. If we don't attack now, at whatever the cost, we will never be able to attack him and Hitler will look like a choir boy in comparison to Saddam ruling the world.

[The Great Satan]

If the tanks on the way to Baghdad were stopped by chemical and biological weapons related threats or 'demonstrations', the blackmail by a third world thug has been going on for well over a decade.

This is exactly correct. In 1991, Saddam deterred Bush 41 from taking him out with his biological weapons. Saddam had Scud warheads and aerial bombs filled with anthrax and botulinum toxin ready to launch on the civilian population of Israel and Saudi Arabia – if we took it to the brink. We had no choice: he had us out-maneuvered. This was a "bad truth," so we were spoon-fed a bunch of crapola – cover stories that said that we didn't go in because we wanted to keep within the UN mandate, we didn't want to offend our Arab allies, we were afraid of taking many military casualties, we were worried about Iraqi civilian casualties, we were concerned about the stability of the Middle East. Whenever you hear a whole lot of loud talk which somehow avoids some very obvious point, some elephant in the middle of the room, you know you're being bullsh*tted.

The real story of the Gulf War was documented by a distinguished military strategist, Avigdor Haselkorn, in his 1999 book The Continuing Storm. Of course, now the Gulf War ancient history – it's safe to talk about, to tell the truth in a closed circle of academics. Only, we're not supposed to make the connection to the current situation. But the situation today is inextricably linked with the denoument to the Gulf War. The Gulf War never really ended. That was only our conceit.

[JustPiper]

I don't disagree with you, necessarily, but I would like to know your theories on why we're pressing Iraq so hard right now.

I just asked JH this very same question in one of his posts.

[oceanperch]

U and backhoe had a thread going with all kinds of links and someone posted a pic of Marines.

It seemed like a riddle to figure out what was going on.

I looked at a few links and all I could come up with is the answer is prayer. I was tired and went back to find it later anyways could you tell me what you and backhoe were enlightened on.

I am lousy at guessing games but was really intersted in what was being said that I did not get.

[The Great Satan]

You have said many times that you don't believe we will attack Iraq immediately.

Yes, I've been telling people that for over a year now. It's never been a very popular position but, so far, it has always proved to be correct.

Let's assume that we do attack Iraq. What do you think the retribution will be? Will Saddam unleash WMDs on our troops only, or will we see thousands (or tens of thousands) of deaths here?

Saddam's WMD are not battlefield weapons. They're like our WMD. They're designed to deter an attack by threatening to inflict unacceptable pain on the civilian population of his potential adversaries. In terms of the dead, he can pretty much dial in whatever casualty numbers he likes, from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of millions. With the dry anthrax that was sent to Daschle and enthusiastic jihadists to serve as human ICBMs, anything in that range would be trivial to accomplish.

What I can't understand is why President Bush is pushing Saddam so hard if he (as you say) knows that Saddam has all the cards.

What is the alternative?