Posted on 02/16/2003 2:55:47 PM PST by FairOpinion
The US has credible intelligence that al Qaeda had an attack or multiple attacks set to begin at some point last week and that members of the Congress could have been the terrorist outfit's likely target, a media report said today.
Counter-terrorism officials were today quoted as saying that they had received a phone tip that members of the United States Congress could have beene targets of assassination attempts by Islamic fundamentalists.
Intelligence reports gathered from human and electronic sources around the world suggested what intelligence officials had suspected for weeks- al Qaeda operatives "Are in the execution phase of some of their operations," a senior US offficial was quoted by 'Time' magazine as saying.
Officials said the intelligence specifically mentioned that the likely targets were New York City and Washington on February 12.
Even though the feared attacks failed to materialise, the anxieties did not subside and inside the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) fears of a devastating attack are as high as they had been in months, particularly because of the possibility that "other tools" or biological and chemical weapons could be used, it said.
The Homeland Security has increased the level of alert.
Telephone calls and e-mails exchanged between several suspected terrorists and intercepted by the US and foreign intelligence agencies pointed to a plot inside the US using nerve gas, poisons or radiological devices.
"It was'nt just chatter," said Republican Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "It was a pattern." (more)
A senior Administration official tells the magazine that domestic law-enforcement agencies are investigating a report that Islamic fundamentalists in this country are trying to acquire parts to build an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) abroad-the kind of machine that terrorism experts believe could be deployed to spray chemical agents over populated areas.
The fear is that a UAV assembled overseas could be used against U.S. Assets there, Time says.
The US has credible intelligence that al Qaeda had an attack or multiple attacks set to begin at some point last week and that members of the Congress could have been the terrorist outfit's likely target, a media report said today.
Counter-terrorism officials were today quoted as saying that they had received a phone tip that members of the United States Congress could have been targets of assassination attempts by Islamic fundamentalists.
Intelligence reports gathered from human and electronic sources around the world suggested what intelligence officials had suspected for weeks- al Qaeda operatives "Are in the execution phase of some of their operations," a senior US official was quoted by 'Time' magazine as saying.
Officials said the intelligence specifically mentioned that the likely targets were New York City and Washington on February 12.
Even though the feared attacks failed to materialise, the anxieties did not subside and inside the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) fears of a devastating attack are as high as they had been in months, particularly because of the possibility that "other tools" or biological and chemical weapons could be used, it said.
The Homeland Security has increased the level of alert.
Telephone calls and e-mails exchanged between several suspected terrorists and intercepted by the US and foreign intelligence agencies pointed to a plot inside the US using nerve gas, poisons or radiological devices.
"It wasn't just chatter," said Republican Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "It was a pattern."
A senior Administration official tells the magazine that domestic law-enforcement agencies are investigating a report that Islamic fundamentalists in this country are trying to acquire parts to build an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) abroad-the kind of machine that terrorism experts believe could be deployed to spray chemical agents over populated areas.
The fear is that a UAV assembled overseas could be used against U.S. Assets there, Time says.
At a closed-door briefing Thursday a group of Senators grilled Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge about whether they should clear their families out of the capital in anticipation of an attack.
Ridge counseled them against it, but when pressed by the Senators for the odds of an attack on U.S. Targets at home or abroad in the next several weeks, Ridge, according to one source familiar with the meeting, put the probability at "50 per cent or greater."
In private, Time says White House officials sounded almost resigned to the inevitability of catastrophe. "All we can do," Vice President Dick Cheney told a gathering of top administration officials to discuss bioterrorism, "is ask ourselves, Have we done everything we can to prevent an attack?.."
The U.S. Still doesn't have a "credible and comprehensive system" in place to cope with such attacks, the magazine said.
Are technicolors ONLY for those who sit in DC, who have 'titles'?
This 'orange color' is being reported as a 'mistake', because the 'informant' flunked a polygraph AFTER the 'alert' was raised to orange. DUH....'ooopsie' just doesn't work. 'Oopsie, we have tapes that CLAIM to be from been larder, but we won't verify/investigate, 'cuz we have ALREADY claimed we killed him off.'
OK..... they(govt) have used the term 'chatter', to justify their actions/alerts/anti-Constitutionality.........Teeth chatter, squirrels chatter, dolls chatter, dead bones chatter. Do diaper-heads chatter? More importantly, do POLS chatter? How MUCH of the above 'chattering' has amounted to anything?
I have to say, I supported Bush. BUT, I'm neither a Bush-bot NOR Bush-basher. YET, if all these 'warnings/alerts/technicolors/preparations' had ANY value, WHY are the borders SOOO open/porous....WHY are the 'enemies within' NOT made 'public', and WHY is the govt SOOOO stupid in listening to those of us who ARE able to hear and see what the 'real deal' IS?
What I see NOW, are things that would have NEVER been tolerated if klintler were in charge. WHY are they being 'accepted' just because it's Bush...just because some of 'us' voted for him...just because he's not goresky?
It's insane. Asking questions is 'insane'. And not falling into 'lockstep', makes one feel like they are 'insane'.
Yes... He's thrown a peaceful white "wet blanket" on all their murderous evil plotting and schemeing.
"If this isn't evil, the word has no meaning." (George W. Bush, President of the United States of America)
Could you imagine the panic that would have happened if this were reported at the same time the threat level increased? The media would have spun this into all out panic. Just look at the sales of duct tape!
Again, I believe the government knows more than they can say, and are doing everything they can to prevent these things from happening. Of course, I also trust the Bush admin. to do what is right.
This is not correct. The alert was not raised on the basis on one informant who failed a polygraph. That has been stressed over and over from Condi Rice to Tom Ridge.
Second, we did not already claim to kill him off.
So you don't have to be upset over things that were framed by a hostile media.
Hi Paranoid . . .
BTW, I agree with you.
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