Posted on 07/07/2005 9:53:59 AM PDT by areafiftyone
An American terrorism expert says evidence shows so-called sleeper cells have been quietly plotting attacks like the ones that hit London Thursday, and that other cities across Western Europe might be vulnerable as well.
CBS News consultant, Col. Randy Larsen, director of the Homeland Security Institute, told co-anchor Rene Syler on The Early Show Thursday that he'd just read a report about "how Islamic terrorists are throughout Western Europe."
"Several times, we've discussed here, do we have sleeper cells in the U.S.? We think so, but we're never sure.
"But over 300 Islamic terrorists have been arrested in Europe since the '93 attack on the World Trade Center, many of them in the London area.
"Shortly after 9-11, they arrested some folks there who were making a sarin bomb, a type of nerve agent. They arrested people trying to build a dirty bomb. Just last year, they captured a ton of fertilizer in a warehouse that was going to be used to make a very large bomb, similar to what Timothy McVeigh used in Oklahoma City in 1995.
"So, there's no question that there's a large terrorist operation in London. And I think we see the result of that (Thursday). … It's clear it has all the earmarks of an al Qaeda attack."
Larsen noted that communications capabilities in the Washington, D.C., area have been improved since 9/11 to assure that "first responders" to attacks are able to use their cell phones.
But he says he learned in a trip to Scotland Yard after 9-11 that a key factor in fighting terrorism is to get things back to normal as soon as possible after an attack. Another key, he was told, is for affected areas to be resilient.
"We must not magnify the effects of these attacks," Larsen stressed. "We must not let the terrorist disrupt our lives."
He added, "A couple months before the attacks on the trains in Madrid, al Qaeda said that they were going to try to influence Spain's involvement in Iraq. And so, we must not respond to the terrorists in the way they want. So get things running (again in London) quickly."
Larsen says he wasn't "at all" surprised when he heard about the attacks: "We have been talking for quite awhile that a likely scenario was an attack on a subway system. It's an ideal place for a terrorist to plan one, and also doing it in a city like London, which is so dependent …London cannot operate without its subways and buses."
He also pointed out that, "Al Qaeda is a completely different organization than it was on 9-11. It's very fractured and splintered now. They have people who were trained by al Aaeda and received some funding and some logistical support, but it's pretty much up to those individuals operating in (different cities) to decide where and when to have attacks. It's a much different operation today.
"The way these folks work, they can go the logistics planning, to get the equipment they need and do the surveillance. Al Qaeda-trained people do a tremendous amount of surveillance to find the right targets, the right time of day or whatever. But then, you can put all those plans and equipment on the shelf, and then with one phone call, in as little as 24 hours, execute those plans."
I hope you're right. But think of all the wastage of money just for keeping an eye on Muslims. Would it not be more cost effective to expel them all and use the funds to prop up our economy and lower our taxes?
At no time in the history of this nation has it been so vital to be cautious about a group of "fellow citizens" whose allegiance to their homeland is very much in doubt.
The son of a friend of mine has been recruited for Arabic languages translation. The need is great, and important.
>>>Boarding up the militant mosques and shipping their hateful imams back to the hellholes they came from should be the first order of business in every country>>>
I never thought I would agree with you, but you may be right. If the 'peaceful' muslims start feeling the backlash, they may be more apt to turn over the rotton ones. If they want to hide them, they will suffer the punishment right along side of them.
I suspect that if we have another such terrorist incident in the US, the mosques will suffer immediately and indiscriminately.
After 9/11, it was quite a while before most people really understood that Islamists were responsible. Another attack, it will be clear immediately that Islamofascists are responsible. You're right - It won't be pretty.
I'll give it a 50% chance of being out of work IRA. But if it isn't, maybe now Blair will look at his immigration policies. I admire the calm of the British people and am confident Scotland Yard can handle this. It's nothing new for them.
Prayers for Britian.
many of these nitwits are probably educable. Their problem is mainly that they listen to the FRAUDcasters.
RE post # 10 : You are very correct.
From a sick perspective, I sort of hope so. It's the only way that France and Germany will wake up and get on board with us in our fight on terrorism. (Though Spain didn't get it, and did a cut-and-run after last year's Madrid bombing.)
"Which is why my 9mm is in my garter"
I'll bet that makes for interesting romantic interludes.
If standard SOP is followed we'll get all fluffed up and glued to the MSM sources for 2 days and our fast food "gimmie I want let's go" AADD infected society will be right back to demanding we send DOD assets to look for one party girl eaten weeks ago by a shark in a foreign country.....vs killing these Islamakazi SOB's in their own nests or securing our borders.
I was impressed (not) by the selective alert upgrades from yellow to orange per HLS....they blew up a blue bus so we up the alert on only blue busses that may get blown up per se.......the clear thinking of our leadership is enough to make one ......blue.
France will never wake up. They have that certain "laisez fag" attitude.
What we badly need are people who can ask and answer the question, "How do we most expediently identify and eliminate the sleeper cells in Western Europe and the US"?
In other words, proactive *#%!*&#_+*&^!%#)@*# leadership!
ping
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It's always fun to bash France but in this case you're wrong. In fact in all of the EU it is France that has taken the harshest steps toward identifying, isolating and removing the more radical muslims within its borders. Britian has done the least. They have clung to the mantra of multi-culturism that has encouraged separateness and a true Laissez-faire attitude toward the outrageous muslim voices in their cities.
Pray that he does it before it is too late.
The thing that needs to be seriously looked at is the homicide bombers on the buses.
It is highly likely that our HLS has elevated isolated areas because they think we may have a security hole this terrorism incident pointed out they want to address or evaluate.
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