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Arrests of al Qaeda terrorists disrupt plans for attack
Washington Times ^ | 2/04/03 | Bill Gertz

Posted on 02/03/2003 10:51:37 PM PST by kattracks

Edited on 07/12/2004 4:00:43 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

Al Qaeda is planning a mass-casualty attack to rival September 11, but preparations have been disrupted by arrests of terrorists during the past several months, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

Recent intelligence reports indicate that communications among clandestine cells of al Qaeda members are being restored gradually, the intelligence officials said.


(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
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To: kattracks
Good catch, scary article. But.

I still can't get over the attitude about the enemy (radical? islam). It might be that another really big attack is neccessary to galvanize public opinion. Personally, I don't think the war will be won until there are mass arrests/detentions/deportations domestically and 6-10 "regime changes" in moslem countries. The moslems are teaching hatred to their children and until that practise ends, we are in for it.

41 posted on 02/04/2003 7:42:56 AM PST by Former Proud Canadian
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To: truth_seeker
The president of Pakistan is very pro US relative to the population. He’s providing military basses and investigative/police efforts, but Pakistan is a democracy. We don’t want to force him to undertake such a degree of search and destroy missions throughout his country as to be unelectable unless we’re prepared to police and administer their nation.
42 posted on 02/04/2003 7:47:20 AM PST by elfman2
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To: SevenofNine
bump
43 posted on 02/04/2003 7:50:16 AM PST by Tamzee
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To: kattracks; OKCSubmariner; Lion's Cub
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/2/4/84014.shtml

Arrests of al-Qaeda Terrorists Disrupt Iraqi Attacks on U.S.

Newsmax is reporting this story differently than the Washington Times

NewsMax.com Wires
Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2003

WASHINGTON – Plans for a mass terrorist attack have reportedly been disrupted through the arrest of terror suspects, and U.S. officials plan to subvert other such threats by detaining suspected Iraqi agents should a war in Iraq begin.

Two newspapers today reported the anti-terror moves. Al-Qaeda plans a series of smaller assaults, including assassination of political figures, before launching a large-scale attack, the Washington Times said. The Washington Post reported that the CIA and foreign intelligence agencies were tracking suspected Iraqi agents and planned to forestall any retaliatory acts should the United States go to war with Iraq.

"We and our allies are bracing for a terrorist offensive, and we are keeping track of Iraqi intelligence officers around the world," the Post quoted a senior U.S. intelligence official as saying.

Thousands of Iraqi Illegal Aliens

The newspaper said allies were tracking suspected Iraqi agents in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa. The FBI is reportedly searching for several thousand Iraqis, in the United States illegally, who are missing.

Officials said the campaign stemmed from the suspicion that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein would order terror-style assaults on U.S. interests should Iraq be attacked.

The Post said CIA Director George Tenet sent Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., a letter that said Saddam "might decide that the extreme step of assisting Islamic terrorists in conducting a WMD [weapons of mass destruction] attack against the United States would be his last chance to exact vengeance by taking a large number of victims with him."

The Times said recent intelligence reports showed that communications between cells of al-Qaeda operatives were picking up. The newspaper said the threat was included in reports sent to the White House last week. The warning did not say whether the main assault would be in the United States or some other country.

"This attack will be large-scale," an unnamed intelligence official told the Times.

Although details were not reported by the newspaper, it did say the main strike would come after smaller attacks, including assassinations.

Copyright 2003 by United Press International.

44 posted on 02/04/2003 8:09:29 AM PST by honway
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To: Former Proud Canadian
Very true -- outside of the New York-Washington area, memories of the horror of that day are already fading. Unlike New York where a big hole in the ground still exists, day to day reminders for Joe Everyman (whose family or close friends were not harmed) are not present. That is why the Rats are able to separate 9/11 from Iraq in the minds of many who were not directly impacted. Others know better and know that the terrorists will get WMD from any entity they can. Indeed, another attack will galvanize the public. And it will unite Whites, Hispanics and non-Muslim blacks in strength against these servants of Satan in a way that can not be imagined.
45 posted on 02/04/2003 8:14:04 AM PST by CedarDave (We gave peace a chance, what we got was 9/11)
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To: kattracks; OKCSubmariner; thinden; Lion's Cub; Fred Mertz
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/829332/posts

FBI SWEEP GRILLS 50,000 IRAQIS IN U.S.

"January 25, 2003 -- The FBI has launched a sweeping probe of 50,000 Iraqis living in the United States to find terrorists and spies - or potential allies - in a military move to oust Saddam Hussein.

The Iraqi nationals are being questioned in what appears to be biggest intelligence sweep since World War II, officials said yesterday. "

--------------------------------------------------------

I wonder if the FBI will finally question Hussein Al-Hussaini, also known as John Doe 2. Al-Hussaini was a former member of the Iraqi Republican Guard, but was living and working in OKC on April 19, 1995. Many witnesses placed him with McVeigh prior to and on the morning of the bombing. The FBI never questioned him in the OKC bombing investigation. Maybe they will get around to it this time, since the "20th hijacker", Moussaoui, had a black Muslim roommate named Menepta connected to the OKC bombing,according to court testimony at the roommate's bail hearing.

For those interested, Al-Hussaini was working at Boston's Logan Airport prior to 9-11. The last account I had of him was in August of 2002 he reportedly was still living within 60 miles of Logan with two roommates who were previously employed at Logan.

46 posted on 02/04/2003 8:41:08 AM PST by honway
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To: All
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/744820/posts?page=27

WSJ:One conspiracy theory goes mainstream

Ms. Davis's evidence was examined by Patrick Lang, a Middle East expert and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency's human intelligence collection section. In a memo to Ms. Davis, Mr. Lang concluded that Mr. al-Hussaini likely is a member of Unit 999 of the Iraqi Military Intelligence Service, or Estikhabarat. He wrote that this unit is headquartered at Salman Pak southeast of Baghdad, and "deals with clandestine operations at home and abroad."

47 posted on 02/04/2003 8:45:08 AM PST by honway
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To: Freebird Forever
Oh please, don't stop there....There's plenty more where she comes from
48 posted on 02/04/2003 8:49:50 AM PST by showme_the_Glory
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To: All
In a memo to Ms. Davis, Mr. Lang concluded that Mr. al-Hussaini likely is a member of Unit 999 of the Iraqi Military Intelligence Service

--------------------------------------------------------

Unit 999 based at Salman Pak

Former CIA Director Woolsey maintains Salman Pak was the site of a training ground for terrorist hijackers using only knives to takeover a plane.

Salman Pak was the center of Iraq's biological weapons program.

Where did they find the name Unit 999 for an Iraqi Intelligence Unit based at a bioweapons center with a hijacking school.

I find it interesting John Doe 2 was a member of Iraqi Intelligence Unit 999

What can you say, it's just an upside down world these days.

49 posted on 02/04/2003 8:56:08 AM PST by honway
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To: swampfx
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/832642/posts

Mylroie: Clintonized CIA Blocking Iraq-9/11 Evidence

50 posted on 02/04/2003 8:58:40 AM PST by honway
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To: honway
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030210fa_fact
THE UNKNOWN
by JEFFREY GOLDBERG
The C.I.A. and the Pentagon take another look at Al Qaeda and Iraq.

Recently, I asked two former C.I.A. directors, James Woolsey and Robert Gates, to talk about the problem of analyzing an incomplete set of evidence—the same challenge that stymied intelligence analysts in the days before December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001.

Woolsey, who served as President Clinton's first C.I.A. director, said that it is now illogical to doubt the notion that Saddam collaborates with Islamist terrorism, and that he would provide chemical or biological weapons to Al Qaeda. "At Salman Pak"—a training camp near Baghdad—"we know there were Islamist terrorists training to hijack airplanes in groups of four or five with short knives," Woolsey told me. "I mean, hello? If we had seen after December 7, 1941, a fake American battleship in a lake in northern Italy, and a group of Asian pilots training there, would we have said, 'Well, you can't prove that they were Japanese'?"



51 posted on 02/04/2003 9:01:09 AM PST by honway
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To: kattracks; ASA Vet
Several top al Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Khalid Sheik Mohammad, also remain at large.

Paging ASA Vet! Delivery for Mr. Gertz....

52 posted on 02/04/2003 9:02:36 AM PST by steve-b
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To: OKCSubmariner; Lion's Cub; thinden; The Great Satan
http://www.jcpa.org/art/brief1-8.htm

However, according to the UN, Iraq's most effective biological weapons platform was a helicopter-borne aerosol generator that worked like an insecticide disseminator (perhaps this was intended for domestic use or against Iranian troops close to the Iraqi border). The disseminator was successfully field tested. Dispersal research for biological weapons was conducted by the Salman Pak Technical Research Center. Iraq engaged in genetic engineering research in order to produce antibiotic resistant strains of anthrax spores. The success of this research is unknown.

---------------------------------------------------

worked like an insecticide disseminator

Sounds like a crop duster. Some of the hijackers, who were possibly trained at Salman Pak, were very interested in crop dusters.

53 posted on 02/04/2003 9:09:45 AM PST by honway
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To: All
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/792592/posts

Moussaoui Linked to 9/11 Mastermind(Khalid Shaikh Mohammed)

Khalid Mohammed is linked to Moussaoui.
Moussaoui is linked to his roommate, Mujahid Menepta.
Menepta is linked to the OKC bombing, according to court testimony at his bail hearing.

Khalid Mohammed is the uncle of Ramzi Yousef and was his roommate in the Philippines.
Ramzi Yousef is linked to Terry Nichols in the Philippines in a sworn statement by Edwin Angeles.Both Nichols and Yousef abruptly fled the Philippines in January 1995 after the Operation Bojinka bombing plot was uncovered as a result of a fire in a Manilia apartment during bomb making.
Terry Nichols is linked to the OKC bombing.

54 posted on 02/04/2003 9:24:29 AM PST by honway
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To: kattracks
Al Qaeda is planning a mass-casualty attack to rival September 11, but preparations have been disrupted by arrests of terrorists during the past several months, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

How can this be? The Democrats say the war against Iraq is distracting us from the war against terrorism.

At least they're consistent, always wrong.

55 posted on 02/04/2003 10:10:15 AM PST by Toddsterpatriot
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To: Vigilanteman
oh, I thought the she-monster was the beast of Revelation.
56 posted on 02/04/2003 10:11:26 AM PST by Donna Lee Nardo
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To: Dialup Llama
There you have it. Its really a real war in case anyone missed the message on 9-11. So why aren't our borders and visa procedures more secure?

And why do we get apologist shills on FR who insist that perfectly secure borders are impossible. Of course that's true, but it's not the point. Point is: Arrests of AQ people have stopped attacks, or at least delayed or blunted attacks. A real effort at securing our border will do the same: reduce the number of infiltrators, reduce the number of attacks, and save many American lives.

I'm no Bircher, either. I'm pro legal immigration especially on a selective basis. But the border situation is inexcusable.

57 posted on 02/04/2003 11:45:02 AM PST by eno_
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To: Future Snake Eater; SevenofNine
Scuse me! SevenofNine is well-respected around here for having some of the best posts going! You just gotta get with the lingo. RACKKKK it.
58 posted on 02/04/2003 12:04:51 PM PST by JennysCool
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To: honway
13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred threescore [and] six.

Upside down, indeed.

59 posted on 02/04/2003 12:05:59 PM PST by ez ("If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning." - GWB)
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To: steve-b
Several top al Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Khalid Sheik Mohammad, also remain at large.

Here's one for Mr. Gertz.


60 posted on 02/04/2003 12:15:06 PM PST by ASA Vet (Member of the "Hardcore wackjob segment" of FR.)
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