That might coincide with the UN meetings next week. I don't think AQ would attack with Iran's president here which will be the 18th 19th and 20th. In the tpaes the specifically talk about the United Nations. So it could be the 22.
As said by Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit, a nuclear attack by al Qaeda is not only possible, it is "virtually inevitable". Also, one thing that both George Bush and John Kerry agreed upon during the 2004 debates was that "nuclear terrorism" was the greatest threat facing our nation. It is not hypothetical at all.
We just had the fifth anniversary of what *did* happen. We might be coming up on the fifth anniversary of what *almost* happened. The UN may have been a target, and targets are often revisited . . .
http://www.dawn.com/2001/11/10/top1.htm
Osama claims he has nukes: If US uses N-arms it will get same response
By Hamid Mir
(snip)
KABUL, Nov 9: Osama bin Laden has said that “we have chemical and nuclear weapons as a deterrent and if America used them against us we reserve the right to use them”. He said this in a special interview with Hamid Mir, the editor of Ausaf, for Dawn and Ausaf, at an undisclosed location near Kabul. This was the first interview given by Osama to any journalist after the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
The correspondent was taken blindfolded in a jeep from Kabul on the night of Nov 7 to a place where it was extremely cold and one could hear the sound of anti-aircraft guns firing away. After a wait of some time , Osama arrived with about a dozen bodyguards and Dr Ayman Al-Zuwahiri and answered questions. . .
HM: Some Western media claim that you are trying to acquire chemical and nuclear weapons. How much truth is there in such reports?
OSB: I heard the speech of American President Bush yesterday (Oct 7). He was scaring the European countries that Osama wanted to attack with weapons of mass destruction. I wish to declare that if America used chemical or nuclear weapons against us, then we may retort with chemical and nuclear weapons. We have the weapons as deterrent.
HM: Where did you get these weapons from ?
OSB: Go to the next question.
http://frontierpost.com.pk/main.asp?id=3&date1=11/10/2001
Al-Qaeda nukes may have reached US shores
UNGA session possible terror target (snip)
Naveed Miraj
11/10/2001
The Frontier Post (Pakistan)
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani and American investigators converge that Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network may have successfully transported several nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons of mass destruction to the United States, The Frontier Post learnt Friday.
Already on high alert, United States security officials are having sleepless nights that Al Qaeda can strike in New York again on the occasion of United Nations General Assembly session.
Investigators from Pakistan's ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) and American FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) are jointly probing into the possibilities of Al Qaeda possessing nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
They have reached a conclusion that at least two briefcase nuclear weapons may have reached the US shores, sources close to these investigators revealed to this scribe. The investigators have been able to identify at least one briefcase weapon acquired by Al Qaeda from Central Asian rogue groups. The weapon identified is small 8-kilogram device that carries at least 2 kg of fissionable plutonium and uranium. The device, of Russian make, carries a serial number 9999 and manufacturing date October 1988. . .
US security agencies are already on high alert and realise that Al Qaeda can strike in New York again on the occasion of UN General Assembly. Analysis of the recent statements released by Osama bin Laden carried out by US agencies has shown that the terrorist network can pick up an important occasion like the UN General Assembly session to retaliate against US strikes on Afghanistan.
four days later, on November 14th . . .
http://www.whitehouse.gov/vicepresident/news-speeches/speeches/vp20011114.html
(snip)
Gloria Borger: Mr. Vice President, during this crisis, you have been constantly sent to what we now know as the undisclosed location or locations for security reasons. Can you tell us why they keep doing this?
Vice President Cheney: We've done it because we feel it's important, especially when the threat level goes up to keep the President or myself separated. Not physically occupy the same space at the same time. In-years past when we're doing presidential security, we've been concerned primarily with the act of an individual. Some nut with a gun who would take out try to take out or assassinate the president of the United States. That's happened all too often in our history. But that's a different scale of threat than a situation in which you've got people able to organization a conspiracy, 19 hijackers to commit suicide on airplanes on Sept. 11.
Able to come into the country and perhaps smuggle weapons of mass destruction in with them. And threaten, in effect, not just one individual, but threatened the government. And conceivably be able to try to decapitate the federal government. That is to say, to take out the entire leadership of our government.