Posted on 02/21/2003 7:20:52 AM PST by LonePalm
I just turned and looked out my office window and saw a column of black smoke rising towards Union Beach/Perth Amboy NJ.
I then felt the force of an explosion rattle my window.
The problem is there apparently are very few in the US, unless they're the world's laziest and unmotivated terrorists.
You've got several elements in the US:
1) A small (probably fewer than 300 actual agents worldwide and many have been arrested, with fewer than 100 in the US at their absolute peak) but extremely dangerous, fanatical and organized group, Al Queda, which finally came up with a brillant and simple plan to hijack aircraft and use them as bombs. This group seems to have been heavily disrupted.
2) A tiny handful of nutty Muslim hangers-on not affiliated with the AQ organization perpetrating small-time stuff (LAX shooter, and the DC snupers)
3) A much larger network of basically fundraisers for violent Palestinian anti-Israel terrorism, which has never mounted an attack on US soil and never has really seemed to have the inclination to (The South Florida professor, etc.) This is pretty similar to the thousands of Irish-American idiots who donated vast sums of money to, and in some cases purchased and smuggled large amounts of weapons for, the Irish Republican Army in the 70s and 80s.
4) May or may not be very small networks of state-supported terrorists from Iraq. These were hilariously incompetent in a Keystone Kops/Three Stooges way in attempted attacks during the 91 Gulf War.
Collectively, it's not many people, not nearly as many as a lot of people on FR would have you believe. And you have millions of Muslims in the US. Given luck and the right plan, some of them obviously can be extremely dangerous.
But the overall lack of attacks drives a lot of the people who are desperately looking for more terrorism in the US nuts...hence they try to turn every breaking incident into a terror attack and get upset at anyone that doesn't agree.
This works the same way as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson going to bed every night desperately hoping they'll wake up and find some dumbass white-trash redneck racists dragged a black guy to death behind their pickup truck overnight. It helps their political agenda and confirms their prejudices. And people LIKE having their prejudices confirmed.
Now, as we know, there ARE some dumbass white-trash redneck racists inclined to drag black men to their deaths. But there are VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY few of these guys...not nearly enough for Jesse and Sharpton.
In the same vein, there aren't enough fanatical Muslim terrorists in the US for a lot of people....the people that are eagerly sitting around with their Jpegs of atomic bombs going off so their can make their millionth idiotic "NOOKE MECCA" post or prattle on about World War III between Christianity and Islam.
Explosion, fire rock Staten Island oil storage facility
By ELIZABETH LeSURE - The Associated Press
2/21/03 11:39 AM
NEW YORK (AP) -- An explosion rocked an oil storage facility at the edge of Staten Island on Friday, sending black smoke and flames hundreds of feet into the air.
A federal government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that there was a preliminary report of one person injured and two unaccounted for.
Fire officials labeled the blaze a gasoline fire, and said it was burning on water and on land. Spokesman Michael Loughran said preliminary reports indicated that none of the dozens of oil tanks at the ExxonMobil storage facility were on fire.
"We have a preliminary report that a tanker was transferring a product or was being fueled and somehow ignited," Fire Department Battalion Chief William Van Wart said.
Police spokesman Michael O'Looney said the incident appeared to be an accident, and FBI spokesman Steve Kodak in Newark, N.J., said there was no indication of terrorism. However, FBI officials in Washington said they were still examining it because a refinery is the type of infrastructure terrorists might target.
The Department of Homeland Security "is closely monitoring the situation with local state authorities and other federal agencies as well as assisting in the coordination of the response," said department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.
The explosion, which could be heard several miles away, occurred at the edge of Port Mobil, near the Outerbridge Crossing that links the island to Woodbridge, N.J., in the southwestern part of Staten Island, said a spokeswoman for the Staten Island borough office.
It was reported shortly after 10 a.m., according to a spokeswoman for the New York Fire Department.
City officials said residents were not in immediate danger.
"At this point, people should not take any special precautions. It's unlikely this could spread to a residential area," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said shortly after the fire was reported.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said the agency issued temporary flight restrictions on aircraft, barring them from within two miles of the explosion site and an altitude of 3,000 feet and below.
Staten Island residents gathered on street corners watching the plume of smoke about two miles away.
"I thought it was a terrorist attack," said Jennifer Wall, 28, who was videotaping the smoke as it floated over her home. "It was like thunder, but 20 times more vibrations. It shook the house."
And another is that the group keeps going for bigger or more spectacular attacks that the government can't pass off as accidents.
If the DC snipers had continued on their path of just shooting one victim here or there, the government would have kept passing it off as robberies/random shootings.
"FBI spokesman Steve Kodak in Newark, N.J., said there was no indication of terrorism. However, FBI officials in Washington said they were still examining it because a refinery is the type of infrastructure terrorists might target."
That's bull. A president that is trying to make a lazy nation recognize the threats in the world is not going to cover up real attacks.
Pretty inept terrorist attack if they can't even be the lead story on the news that day.
FBI spokesman Steve Kodak in Newark, N.J., said there was no indication of terrorism. However, FBI officials in Washington said they were still examining the situation because a refinery is the type of infrastructure terrorists might target.
Of course, as repeated by news outlets and news readers, quotes mutate.
But saying there was NO INDICATIONS of terrorism is a perfectly valid and accurate statement to make, because I'm sure they don't have any. It would be irresonsible for an FBI spokesman to say "Well, it could be terrorism" because that will instantly mutate into "FBI says explosion was terrorism!" in the media.
However, as usual, the FBI quote is already mutating on FR into a claim the FBI said it definately wasn't terrorism, and I guarantee that someone will claim that the FBI "ruled out" terrorism as a cause of the explosion 10 seconds after it happened.
No, for one very important reason, I am of two minds as to whether I agree with it or not but, I believe that if President Bush told the American people that in fact a few of these "Accidents" were Terrorist acts, there would be chaos in the streets, people would just take matters in their own hands and completely ignore what the government or anyone else says. Needless to say within a very short time Marshall law would be imposed and the People would revolt. This would make the civil war of the 1800's pale in comparison.
I think it will happen anyway, just may take longer. I also think the war between good(non-Muslim) and evil(Muslim) is just around the corner, but what do I know.
Thank you for being so eloquent in expressing the disquiet I've felt at reading FR for the last several months...
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