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.
After all, 2/12/03 is only Lincoln's birthday. Also, since I believe the rows upon rows of high rise appartments along Miami Beach are filled with Jews who will be home for the holiday... these are soft targets, ripe with promise under the circumstances.
I too, certainly hope I'm wrong, but this is the most likely scenario I could come up with in view of this Arab Muslim terrorist threat, just before Iraq is struck a final blow!!!
They might like to hit Congress or the white house if they could, but we took that threat seriously. If they can kill more thousands of innocents in the state of the President's brother on President's Day, a uniquely American Holiday... that is the terror they want!!!
Exactly. That was my first thought too.
U.S. senators warned of al Qaeda snipers on golf courses Friday, October 18, 2002
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. senators were warned earlier this week that those who play golf may be targets of al Qaeda snipers on golf courses and were given tips on how to protect themselves, a U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman said.
Police were notified about the potential threat to senators, said Marcia Krug, a Capitol Police spokeswoman. She would not say which agency notified the Capitol Police or when exactly they were told.
But she said her department, in turn, notified the sergeant-at-arms, who then notified the senators that al Qaeda snipers might be looming near golf courses, ready to pick them off.
The sergeant-at-arms, who is in charge of lawmakers' security, did suggest precautions the senators should take, Krug said. She would not elaborate.
it's been all over fox, abc, hell, probably the weather channel, pretty much all day. and it figured in the ridge interview.
dep
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Your Majesty, I grew up in those years, and I remember all too well the terror we all experienced. I was in the hospital recovering from surgery during the Cuban missile crisis. It was no small thing, and, I have a terrible feeling, neither is this.
It was such a well kept military secret the adults at that time couldn't comprehend what had happened. They kept looking at newspaper photos without any idea of atomic power.
It had to be explained to the public in terms of the equivalent thousands of tons of TNT that it would take to cause that much damage.
Since we had been attacked at Pearl Harbor the Japs didn't get much sympathy from Americans at that time.
But like all things where a threat is removed, atitudes change. Especially by people after the fact who want to berate this country. - tom
All the more reason for deportations taking place in mass. The liberals have fought this from the beginning. What will it take to make them see what is right before their eyes?
For crying out loud...if they know that al Qaeda cells are operating within our borders, they have a duty to round up every alien from a country with an Islamofascist movement and tell them kindly that they must leave--rapidly. Once they're gone, they're welcome to reapply for entrance, but under a new screening system designed to keep terrorists out (at the risk of keeping some good guys out, too--I'd rather see us err on the side of caution). If our leaders can't find the courage to do what is needed to protect us, it is only fitting that they don hats with targets painted on them to run interference for those of us who they are supposed to defend.
U.S. senators warned of al Qaeda snipers on golf courses Friday, October 18, 2002
Ashen faces = No golf?
Al Quaeda could be doing us a favor, getting Congress face reality while simultaneously curtailing private avenues for lobbyists. How are they gonna make their private deals now? This could be the best thing that's happened to this country in years.
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