[Fred Mertz]

Customs said the terrorists - members of a group called Algerian Tahir bin Ammar al-Yusifi - were supposed to infiltrate the United States from Ontario, Canada, and use Albany as their launching pad.

Interesting info in this article. NYPD put out a bulletin, so there might be something to it. Albany?

[honway]

There is a compelling article from a source not permitted on Freerepublic that describes an al Qaeda operation to smuggle 37 man portable surface to air missiles into Canada prior to 9-11.

If the information in this article is true concerning the Soviet-made Strela-3 and Igla-9 smuggling operation, it is clear the U.S. needs to be doing more now to safeguard departure and arrival corridors at U.S. airports prior to commencement of the war against Iraq.

If the information is accurate, I believe the National Guard should be planning and training for an operation to secure departure and arrival corridors before the first use of these missles.

Additionally, the U.S. should be moving forward on equipping our airliners with the active counter measures that are available and in use today.

Since the information is so important that is presented in the article that can not be posted on Freerepublic, I would suggest anyone interested in information on the reported al Qaeda MANPAD smuggling operation to perform a google search using the following terms:

FBI Agent Ted Gunderson Strela