Posted on 05/18/2002 10:48:44 PM PDT by Spar
Sunday May 19, 10:50 AM
Al-Qaeda may target US apartment buildings: FBI
Militants from the al-Qaeda network, blamed for September 11 suicide attacks, may be preparing another massive strike against the United States, including US apartment buildings, US officials said.
The announcement came as US intelligence analysts reported increased communications among al-Qaeda cells around the world, which they said could be an indication that preparations for a new terrorist attack against the United States could be under way.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has received information al-Qaeda leaders had discussed a possible plan to rent apartment units in the United States and plant explosives there, FBI spokeswoman Debra Weierman told AFP.
"We have no indication that this proposed plan went beyond the discussion stage," she said. "But in an abundance of caution, we notified our field offices and the Joint Terrorism Task Force last week."
Weierman described the reports about al-Qaeda's possible plans to attack apartment complexes as unsubstantiated and uncorroborated and said they gave no clue where the targeted building were located.
While there are no known recent cases of terrorist bombings of apartment buildings in the United States, they are very well-known in Russia.
A total of about 300 people were killed in a spate of bomb blasts, blamed on Chechen separatists, that rocked multi-apartment housing projects in Moscow and the cities of Buinaksk and Volgodonsk in 1999.
At least in one of these incidents, explosives were moved into a Moscow apartment building in burlap sacks marked "sugar."
Al-Qaeda and the Chechen rebels maintain close ties, according to US officials, with the two group providing each other military assistance.
The US officials and counterterrorism experts denied the administration of President George W. Bush planned to raise the national security alert level, which currently remains at "yellow," or elevated.
But they warned the suspected new attack could be even more devastating than September 11 suicide strikes with hijacked airliners against the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon building near here.
A fourth airliner crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers apparently thwarted the hijackers.
"There are serious threats that remain," said White House spokeswoman Anne Womack. "We doing our best to collect the information."
She said she could not comment on specific intelligence information from the Central Intelligence Agency about al-Qaeda's activities.
But intelligence specialists, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there has been an increase in message traffic among al-Qaeda cells in recent weeks.
"That strongly suggests preparations for a new operation," said one of them. "There has been a lot of movement within al-Qaeda recently."
US intelligence analysts believe last month's attack on a synagogue on the Tunisian resort island of Djerba, which killed 19 people, and a suicide bombing in Karachi, Pakistan, that killed 11 French naval engineers and three Pakistanis, were the work of al-Qaeda.
"That, in conjunction with other factors, indicates al-Qaeda has been able to reorganize itself" since the loss of its bases in Afghanistan, said one of the intelligence experts.
The increase signals traffic among al-Qaeda cells was first reported by The New York Times, which described the intercepted messages as cryptic and ambiguous but with a pattern reminiscent of the period leading up to the September 11 attacks.
The Bush administration has accused al-Qaeda and its leader, Saudi-born Islamist militant Osama bin Laden, of masterminding the September 11 attacks, and launched a massive military campaign to disrupt the group's activities.
Weren't the Chechens the good guys until recently?
This Committee may simply be Freepers who haven't yet heard the latest change in the Party Line.
Someone please inform them that Oceania is now at war with Eastasia, not Eurasia.
The American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, a nonpartisan, nonprofit, private organization chaired by Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Alexander M. Haig, Jr. and Ambassador Max M. Kampelman, represents nearly 100 distinguished Americans including academics, journalists, politicians, and foreign policy experts, and is dedicated to promoting a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
Private organization? I wonder what groups who wish to remain private fund this nonprofit organization?
It's going to be a long hot summer I imagine.
The judge may have been "sure it was in the bomb," but the defendants were never even charged under anti-terrorism statutes that make mere possession of potential chemical and biological weapons a federal crime, Parachini noted. The rumor's origins date back to an earlier raid by the FBI of a New Jersey storage shed rented by the suspects. The agents found one sealed bottle of sodium cyanide in aqueous form. Aqueous sodium cyanide is used for photographic purposes and can cost less than $3 per pound, Parachini noted in his study, after consulting chemical experts. But it is sodium cyanide in solid form, usually briquettes costing many hundreds of dollars more, that can be effective as a chemical weapon when it's converted to hydrogen cyanide gas by a blast.
Nevertheless, the federal prosecutor in the initial World Trade Center trial raised the idea of a chemical bomb when questioning a senior FBI official, Steven Burmeister, about the consequences of mixing sodium cyanide with other chemicals present in the bomb. Burmeister testified that "if you breathe that gas I'm afraid you've breathed your last breath." Despite this "chilling testimony," however, "Burmeister never suggested during the trial that his investigation had led him to believe that the bomb actually contained sodium cyanide," Parachini writes -- and the trial transcript proves.
In addition, an FBI chemist who participated in the case told Parachini flatly, "There is no forensic evidence indicating the presence of sodium cyanide at the bomb site." Salon
YIKES!! All that missing cyanide...THIS COULLD be it!! Hope to heavens that I am not correct.
Oh, yes. Quoting the NY Times. The same people that always support America's enemies. The same people that never fail to find a reason to justify communist dictators. The NY Times was only harsh on Serbia because they were Clinton apologists. Supporting the domestic Marxists took precedence over supporting foreign Marxists. If the NY Times found it useful to bash Bush by criticizing Serbia, they'd go back to it in a flash.
Funny, how Sharon is a fan of the Serbs.....in fact, he is a close friend of the present Serbian President.
Your buddies, the mujahadeen in Chetnyna are MAGGOT FILLED PIG MEAT ISLAMICS who mulitated an innocent JEWISH TEENAGE GIRL....they cut off her fingers!! Just GROSS...they are just the grossest pigs!!
Your allies....are not freepers.
Not only are your views worthless but are bizarre in a humiliating sort of way to you personally.
I welcome you posting more on the subject since each post represents a shot into your own foot.
Let me know if you come up with another nugget, it will give me an opportunity to post links agianst it and bump it to the top.
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