Posted on 05/20/2002 7:26:55 PM PDT by TomGuy
Other Groups, with Al Qaeda, Said to Threaten U.S.
Mon May 20,10:44 AM ET
By Niala Boodhoo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Islamic groups like Hizbollah and Egypt's Islamic Jihad could be planning to attack the United States and may be more able to do so than the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman said on Monday.
"Our enemy is not al Qaeda alone," Sen. Bob Graham said on NBC's "Today" show, referring to the movement believed behind the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States that killed more than 3,000 people.
"There are several international terrorist groups which have abilities, in some cases greater abilities than al Qaeda and a similar desire to attack the United States."
"Groups like Hizbollah, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad" were two organizations with the capability and desire to attack the United States, said the Florida Democrat.
Neither group has been linked directly to activities on U.S. soil, and such an attack would represent a major change in their tactics.
Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) on Sunday said a new attack on the United States was "almost certain" as U.S. intelligence officials picked up signals that a fresh al Qaeda strike could be in the works.
The FBI (news - web sites) also warned of a possible plot by al Qaeda network to detonate bombs in U.S. apartment buildings.
Graham said in a separate CNN interview that he was "almost certain" another attack would take place within three to five years.
He said he was especially concerned about security at the nation's seaports and mentioned a recent instance of 25 "extremists" who had entered the United States.
"(They) jumped on ships outside the United States, hid in the container cargoes until they got to the United States and then disembarked and they've been lost in the American population," he said.
Defense Department spokeswoman Victoria Clarke stressed that despite major successes against al Qaeda in Afghanistan (news - web sites), where a U.S.-led military campaign has destroyed the group's main camps, it and other groups remained a threat.
"We have always said this is about more than one person, one network and certainly is about more than Afghanistan," Clarke told a news briefing.
Lebanon's Hizbollah, largely seen as a resistance group to Israeli occupation, has traditionally carried out suicide and other attacks against targets in Israel and Lebanon. The Shi'ite Muslim group is backed by Iran.
Egypt's al-Jihad, which has links with al-Qaeda, is the country's second-largest Islamic militant group. The United States has blamed the group for bombing the Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad in 1995 and planning to attack the U.S. embassy in Albania in 1998.
A 1999 report for the CIA (news - web sites) that envisioned bin Laden's network might attack the United States by crash-landing an aircraft into the Pentagon (news - web sites), the CIA or the White House also named Lebanon's Hizbollah as a possible group that could carry out an attack on the United States.
So, you believe the government should let everyone know everything they have planned? Let's take out television, radio, billboard, internet, and newspaper ads. Let's tell the world all our classified information. Unless, of course, you have been let in on all the classified information and know everything that is being planned. Do you honestly believe the government has been telling us everything? Have you thought that the information we are receiving is exactly what our government wants the terrorists to believe. I have to have confidence in our leaders. God forbid, what if it was Gore and his administration were leading this war?
With our "anything goes" immigration policies these Islamic terrorists will, as Cheney admits, certainly attack us again and again and again. The BIG QUESTIONS IS "Why Are We Still Allowing Immigration From Terrorist Nations"? And Why Are Our Borders STILL UNPROTECTED? I'd like to know why since our LEADERS are busy giving us Mea Culpas for the next attacks while they cower before the political correct in our country that just as soon see America reduced to a 3rd world country as long as Freedom In America is extinguished.
Nah. We just take Israel off their leash and let them do that for us. We use our military might to bomb Damscus, Tehran, Baghdad, Beirut...
I agree 100%. Here's a tactic I wish we, the USA, would adopt. You saw all the lefties and terror apologists in this world line up to defend the bin Laden after 9/11. "How do you know it was him? Show us the proof! We can't just make a decision to go to war without hard evidence!" yaddayaddayadda. If a terror organization denies doing this or that, there are reams of people and gov'ts out there that take that as gospel truth.
My tactic would be this: Overnight, use Stealth Bombers to bomb one of these cities without warning or announcing it on the TV. The next morning when the press got word of it and came around asking questions, the President would just get on the TV and say "I don't know what you're talking about- It wasn't us." And simply continue in that vein. Cruise missile attacks with unmarked missiles, night bombing, SpecOps raids and hits on hostile gov'ts- all the while totally denying our involvement and claiming it could've been anyone. Hey, if our enemies can use that tactic, we should be able to as well.
We should just kill Arafat. For the first few weeks afterwards we could even pretend to deny that he was dead. We could say we don't believe it, show us proof. When they show photos, just retort with "yeah, those could be fakes". After a couple weeks we could finally admit that the old pig is, in fact, dead. Then we could sit around and theatrically scratch our heads-- "Hmmm, I wonder who would do such a thing?" We could point to Pacific islanders, New Zealanders- what about those whites in Zimbabwe- they're desperate folk...
I just figure, the UN and the leftist world opinion is always complicating the issue and against us anyway. Why not do what we need to and then play dumb?
Well, if you can get about 100 million or so of our countrymen to agree with you- I'll make it happen! ;-)
Gosh, I thought these were the good terrorists?
For all the blame Israel firsters here, take a look. Israel's problems are ours too.
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