The hunt for Iraqi ‘sleeper cells’;men had been discovered filming bridges and tunnels,

MSNBC.COM ^ | March 6, 2003 | Lisa Meyers

[RaceBannon]

March 6 — The expulsions of two Iraqi attachés came as FBI agents fanned out to interview thousands of Iraqis in the United States. Click "Play" to watch Lisa Myers' report for "NBC Nightly News."

By Lisa Myers NBC NEWS WASHINGTON, March 6 — The FBI is conducting an intensive hunt for potential “sleeper cells” of Iraqi agents planted to strike in the event of war after two attachés at Iraq’s U.N. mission in New York were caught filming bridges and tunnels, U.S. officials told NBC News. At least 70 Iraqi nationals are under active surveillance, law enforcement officials said, and agents have spread out to interview thousands of Iraqi men in an attempt to track down hundreds who came to the United States after the 1991 Gulf War and disappeared.

[Vol2727]

Gail, my husband's co-worker lives up in LaFollette and he says that if Norris Dam were to be blown up, it would flood Clinton and Oak Ridge. Sounds to me it would be a strategic dam, no?

These guys worked at Knoxville Center Mall which is only ten minutes from where I live. It's pretty scary. None of us are immune to these terrorists.

[Trident/Delta]

Riser cabeles are only about 4 inches in diameter. A shaped charge could take it out easy

[areafiftyone]

No biggie. He'll survive. Nothing will happen.

[areafiftyone]

It could have been a bomb scare or something. After all crazy people are always doing that in NYC - even the office buildings are not exempt for that.

[Stopislamnow]

The alphabet agencies wear those windbreakers with big yellow letters announcing thier allegiance.

ATF
FBI
DEA

You know them, they are the "leftits" home grown oppressors of religious freedom, political asylum, and constitutional rights.

[GailA]

Norris Dam was one of a series of dams built by the TVA I think to control the flooding up in that area. My dad lives in LaFollette as does my aunt, brother and his wife. Yes it is scary what they could do with a few pounds of "plastic".

[browardchad]

You may want to read Jim Hoagland’s Column for tomorrow's Washington Post:

9/11 Mysteries In Plain Sight

By Jim Hoagland

Sunday, March 9, 2003; Page B07

Analysis and commentary are my bread and my butter. But detached perspective is in short supply when it comes to Khalid Sheik Mohammed. I hate this murdering terrorist chieftain even for being captured.

>>>snip<<<

He knows the answer to these two central questions: How did al Qaeda, within two or three years, go from obscurity to becoming super-terrorists capable of blowing up U.S. embassies, warships and skyscrapers with astonishing precision? And what are the links between 9/11 and the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 by Ramzi Yousef, who authorities say is Mohammed's nephew?

>>>snip<<<

The U.S. media and government officials describe Mohammed and Yousef as "masters of disguise," and then assume they are who they say they are this time. There is scant reason to be so trusting. When Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy sentenced Yousef to life plus 240 years in 1998, he said: "We don't even know what your real name is."

>>>snip<<<

Mohammed migrated from the identity of small-time freelance terrorist to the top ranks of bin Laden's ultra-secretive band not long after the 1993 bombing resulted in the breakup of Yousef's U.S. network. Could al Qaeda have been the target of a takeover operation by an intelligence service with good legend-manufacturing skills and a great, burning desire for revenge on the United States?

________________________________________________________

I heard on the CBC this morning that Australia is also ousting an Iraqi diplomat.

[30-06 Springfield]

If someone of dubious character is caught taking pictures or doing other suspicious activity around bridges, dams or other strategic structures why not just . . . . . . . . ?

[anymouse]

Ping

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[bytesmith]

My Boyfriend works at the METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART in NYC at night and its right across from the Iraqi Mission and the FBI were there all night last night. SCARY!!!


"How about "reasuring"!

[Lady Heron]

They have been seen at almost all of the big dams since 9-11, not to mention power and water plants, oil refineries and some food processing plants. They just love taking pictures at these American tourist destinations.

[Lady Heron]

Norris was Built for power as were all of the TVA dams. It was a big project to help very poor Tennessee at the time. A goverment project that for once did help. TVA now supplies power to Tennessee and sells it to the surrounding states.

[elfman2]

"Cables on suspension bridges are several feet in diameter - unless they're going to "cut" them with a bomb...nothing's getting cut. "

Thanks for clearing that up. I thought that they were like guitar string wire, and wasn't being facetious at all. LOL!

[The Great Satan]

Very interesting post. Everyone should check out Hoagland's column.

How did al Qaeda, within two or three years, go from obscurity to becoming super-terrorists capable of blowing up U.S. embassies, warships and skyscrapers with astonishing precision?

A corollary: how did the same organization relapse into total incompetence the day after carrying out the most sophisticated terrorist attack in history?

The U.S. media and government officials describe Mohammed and Yousef as "masters of disguise," and then assume they are who they say they are this time. There is scant reason to be so trusting. When Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy sentenced Yousef to life plus 240 years in 1998, he said: "We don't even know what your real name is."

Why is the media not crawling over Chowan College and North Carolina A&T, interviewing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's former associates? Why aren't we seeing that on TV every night? Is that not an incredible human interest story, at the very least? Why did we hardly hear about KSM or the connections between 9/11, Project Bojinka and the '93 WTC bombings for eighteen months after 9/11? The media blackout is reminiscent of the situation with the anthrax attack on American Media.

Why two men from the remote and ungoverned Pakistani province of Baluchistan who grew up in Kuwait would devote their lives to killing Americans is a mystery.

Indeed. Does anybody really believe that the individual below, Ramzi Yousef, mutated from a West Glamorgan-educated computer programmer working for the Kuwaiti government to a globe-hopping, skirt-chasing explosives expert, master of disguise and terrorist organizer in the space of three years? And if not, what happened to that Kuwaiti computer programmer, Abdul Basit, between the last official record of his former life -- a notation made in his passport at the Pakastani embassy in Kuwait two months before the Iraqi invasion -- and his re-emergence as a Philippines-based uber-terrorist?

[Pan_Yans Wife]

"How did al Qaeda, within two or three years, go from obscurity to becoming super-terrorists capable of blowing up U.S. embassies, warships and skyscrapers with astonishing precision?"

Reminds me of the claim that bin Laden never thought in his wildest dreams that the WTC would collapse, that it was just dumb luck that his plan worked so brilliantly. I think this is to reassure the masses, that we have already seen the best that al Qaeda and like-minded organizations can do, and that anything in the future wouldn't be as spectacular.

If that is true, why do we keep hearing warnings about a spectacular attack? And, why do I get the deep impression that our president believes that the next attack will be much worse than what happened on September 11th?

[Rockitz]

Middle Eastern man taking pictures of dams, bridges, tunnels...

Is this against the law? I wrote a piece that I posted within a couple weeks of 9/11. Here it is again. -----------

I'm sure I'll get flamed by the libertarians, but let's get real, instead of utopian! A free country can't judicially handle the kind of attacks we have witnessed and may soon witness. The conspiracy laws of our land are ill- prepared for what the terrorists are going to throw at us. Can we arrest a citizen for taking a movie of the Sears Tower or asking the building manager about the Achilles heal of the structure? Hardly? Here's a cut at the kind of laws that may help us survive the next few years.

1) Deportation of all science, engineering graduate students from terrorist sponsoring nations.
2) Deportation of all flight students and those that are learning how to operate heavy equipment from terrorist sponsoring nations.
3) Strict laws against possession (and or strictly license the acquisition process) of materials which can be used for bio and chemical weaponry.
4) Seizure of all incoming and outgoing funds to and from terrorist sponsoring nations.
5) Strict laws which make it illegal to communicate with terrorists.
6) Strict laws that make the combined acts of indirect contact (through third parties) with a terrorist and collecting information on infrastructure an act of terrorism or a conspiracy to commit terrorism offense.
7) Strict laws against anyone who has ever in the past had had direct contact with terrorists from being near reservoirs, power plants, food processing plants, or agricultural areas.
8) Strict hoax laws as there are for mentioning the word "bomb" at an airport or threatening the president's life.

This enemy is stealing the very freedoms we have fought so hard to obtain, so severe restrictions in our freedoms are unfortunately necessary to combat this kind of enemy. As it is, we can literally be bankrupted by any guy with a bag of flour and a box of envelopes.

The other answer is better, but less appetizing for the politically correct- absolute extermination of radical Islam and any and all pretenders to that cause.

As it is we're getting these guys on immigration violations. That's not enough! What about the ones who came here in the late 80s and are now citizens and who may in fact be working for our own government agencies? Face it folks, we're in deep dung unless we get a pretty fierce set of conspiracy laws on the books in very short order or are prepared to face the music on my other suggestion.

[HardStarboard]

>>>Through Al Qanada, probably. <<<

Would that be Al Canada. Geeze, I didn't know the Canadians had cells down here too!

[The Great Satan]

Good job! Keep us posted!