Breaking: John Ashcroft says U.S. disrupted plans to attack U.S. with "dirty" radiation bomb.

[Dales]

Breaking now. Details shortly

[PoppingSmoke]

Well kick me. Its not Ridge, but the release of this came from the White House I am told. Timing is everything. Lets see, its a plot, (which is good enough for me) but the release after all the crap last week smells like someone needed to release some positive news. However, its my experience that we are looking at is "news control" for the rest of this week. this is a story with legs. Editors and TV folk will be chasing this one. We can expect a barage of experts on RDDs, Legal, Terrorism for at least a week.

Now if this was so serious what ever happened to our warning system?

[steve-b]

Worn out your copy of "Capricorn One" from overuse?

I rather expected Johnny Cochran to play that movie for the jury, to prove that his client coulsn't possibly have been acting when he professed his innocence.

[Trust but Verify]

you were right the first time. You are a conspiracy nut. I'm sure after the beating the FBI, et al have been taking as of late for their incompetence, it's only human they would want people to know of the things they have been able to prevent. Put yourself in their position, for crying out loud! Would you like it if people heard only about your failures?

BTW, I wouldn't worry too much about Arabs being persecuted by overzealous LEO's.

[aristeides]

Justice Department news conference starting on C-SPAN Radio now.

[Freebird Forever]

Check this out.

25 The El Rukn case illustrates the seriousness of the telephone abuse problem. (US v. Leon McAnderson, et al.) In that case, even though Jeff Fort was serving a prison sentence at FCI Bastrop, TX in 1987, he was able to maintain control over the Chicago street gang “El Rukn” from prison through extensive telephone contact with gang members. After hearing that Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan had received $5 million from the Libyan government, Fort developed a plan to perform acts of terrorism within the United States in return for an annual payment of $1 million from Libya. In telephone conversations from inside prison, Fort discussed destroying a federal building, blowing up an airplane, killing a Milwaukee alderman, and committing a "killing here and there" with his fellow gang members. Fort instructed gang members to meet with representatives from the Libyan government, which the gang members did on two occasions. Fort also instructed the gang members to purchase a hand-held rocket launcher, which they also did. Fort and several El Rukn gang members were charged in a 50-count indictment for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, and using the telephone in furtherance of the conspiracy. Fort was convicted and sentenced to an additional 80 years in prison.

[freeperfromnj]

I am thinking along the exact same lines as you on both points. First, the guy you're thinking of was from Perth Amboy, NJ - different name though:

Missing New Jersey Man's Name Turns Up in Kabul

By David Rohde and James Risen

At Perth Amboy High, Hiram Torres was the valedictorian of the class of 1993, the son of a seamstress who charted a course from his hard- edged industrial hometown in New Jersey to Yale University. He was also a headstrong teenager whose best friend said he nursed a disgust for American culture and a vision of traveling the world and becoming a revolutionary. He left Yale barely a month into his freshman year, moved to Bangladesh and then Pakistan, and last called his mother in 1998 to say he was studying in Afghanistan. She has not heard from him since. (NY Times)

Second, I always believed that Dominican flight was singled out because of how easy it would have been for a middle easterner to pass himself off as a hispanic.

[ao98]

Press conference starting.

[Arizflash]

Heehee. Not too familiar with them. Not on a first name basis. I generally refer to any nuke as Mr. Thought I'd best clear that one up.

[MissAmericanPie]

Good lord, they caught Vincente Fox's chauffuer??!!!

[Dales]

Certainly. We should expect more of the rule and expect the exceptions to be a lot less frequent, and we should allocate our resources accordingly.

But we should not just allocate resources for the rule and ignore the exceptions, because then this is where our enemy would decide to target us. They probably still will, eventually, since the chance of detection is less. But not as long as they think they can just use who they've mostly got now.

We can slow them down a ton, just by focusing on the rule, and hope we can use the time to wipe them out. But it is very risky if we completely ignore the exceptions.

[CedarDave]

High profile news conference just started: Wolfowitz and Mueller.

[smith288]

And Little House on the Prairie is better for family values than some rubbernecked sub scientist. I used to watch him but all his sounds and stuff got distracting.

[aristeides]

Padilla discussed using a radiological weapon with senior al Qaeda leaders. Guess that means they don't have actual nuclear weapons.

[conservativejunkie]

BIG DEAL!

[texasbluebell]

Of course, we don't know if Chicago was the original target, but you can bet this terrorist would have gotten quite a bit of help from the radical Islamic groups in Chicago.

Yes, now another article posted says that DC was the probable target for this one. But it's only a matter of time. As someone remarked, watch for the times when our moslem citizens leave the country!

[Dales]

Y'all are nuts.

[Slip18]

Wolfowitz, Deputy Defense Secretary: "Based on information available to our govenment Senior Al Queda exploding a "dirty bomb in the United States. Received nuclear weapons and training while in Pakistan. Under the laws of war, his activities and association with Al Queda . . . enemy combatant. For this reason turned over to the DOD."

Missed a bit.

[kcvl]

Being held as enemy combatant. It seems the idiot in the press is worried about his LEGAL REPRESENTATION!

[Republic]

I am begining to become highly repulsed by anyone with an abdullah kabulla or atta ta ala dullah ba name. Can't help it...I think these jerks shame Allah and are so full of hate they change their names to hide behind um.