Can Iraq Hit America?

Newsweek ^ | March 17, 2003 | Daniel Klaidman and Christopher Dickey

[Storm Eagle]

"...as Washington threatens to bring Saddam’s own reign to an end, U.S. officials are afraid he might use such gruesome tactics against Americans. Outgunned on the traditional battlefield, Saddam is looking to fight back on his own terms. That, according to American officials, could mean any number of terror plots, from isolated assassinations of U.S. citizens overseas to biological or chemical attacks in the American heartland."

[Storm Eagle]

Cognizance of this kind of threat to the American heartland is not at all recent. In the autumn of 1996 during the Clinton-Dole presidential top intelligence officials from New York to Texas were clandestinely scrambling to assess what they grimly understood was an imminent threat of a bioterror attack against New York City and possibly other urban centers. This threat was not "rumor off the street," in the words of one person intimate with the investigation. The attitude of those directing the top-secret probe, involving NYPD, the FBI, the CIA, and the Israelis, was "we know where in general the threat is coming from. We just don't have specific names of operatives, nor do we know the target date for the strike."

Interestingly, during the investigation the name Al-Qaeda never appeared. But Iraq did. To make a long story short, investigators had a high confidence level at the time that the following scenario was in play: (1) mobile biological ordnance was either being manufactured or off-loaded from ships along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts, then shipped to various underground holding sites in North Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Arkansas, and (possibly) Tennessee. (2) From there the weapons could be deployed against major American cities. (3) MOs included assassinations of key public officials using ricin or botulin toxin, dissemination of anthrax-laden powder in public places, and airborne smallpox.

Significantly, at the time the FBI was looking at "Aryan Nations" types as the ones doing the dirty work. But other investigators (including a little known ultra top-secret special investigative group that probably saved the US then) had reliable information that operations, the existence of which no one in authority at all doubted, was being financed and co-ordinated by free-lancing intelligence assets from other nations (in this case, the Germans and Russians were referenced, though not the French)with interests in Iraq and certain unnamed "rogue" operators with ties to the American government.

It may be of value to mention here that one of the reasons the Clintonites seemed so intent on suppressing information about the Iraqi connection to the Oklahoma City bombing was that it might have opened up the can of worms that became evident in the fall of 1996.

As far as I am aware, the investigation was mysteriously and peremptorily shut down in early 1997. It was not the feds anyway who pushed the matter in the first place, but Giuliani's office, which annoyed the Clinton Justice Department to no end.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

for your perusal

[Judith Anne]

Interesting.

[Judith Anne]

bump for exposure to this interesting poster

[The Great Satan]

What part of this is supposed to be difficult to understand?

[FairOpinion]

I think this is a "must read" article, highly recommend for everyone, to see how Iraq is planning terrorist attacks inside the US. And liberals still say that Iraq has no connection to terrorism!

=======

"In the past few weeks, another strand of intelligence spooked officials. The Pentagon picked up “credible information” that Iraqi operatives were planning to use botulinum toxin to poison American food and water supplies. The information, NEWSWEEK has learned, was one of the factors that led the Bush administration to elevate the national threat level to Code Orange last month. Iraqi intelligence has also “indicated interest” in food-service companies supplying U.S. troops in Kuwait. "

[xzins]

Can Iraq hit America?

The easy answer is 'yes.' Just about anyone can hit anyone is the issue is simply a strike against unsuspecting civilians. They could even kill a lot of people.

However, if the question is, "Can Iraq make launch a militarily effective strike against America?" the answer is 'no.'

[FairOpinion]

The scenarios, which I am sure are quite possible, are very scary, from the poisoning of the food and water supply in the US, to letting loose biological agents, like smallpox.
The article calls this last a "remote" possiblity, but I think Saddam has the means and the will to do that, and can find some idiot suicidal types who would be willing to do this.
=======

"One grisly possibility, however remote: “human pathogens.” A small team of Iraqi operatives could be injected with smallpox and sent to America. All they’d have to do is hang out in crowds and slowly die. That’s something even bunglers might be able to handle, if they get the chance."

[FairOpinion]

But Iraq can strike an effective TERROR attack against the US, killing many civilians -- hundreds, thousands, or more.

I hope everyone in the intelligence services and the general population stays very vigilant.

[Walnut]

I noticed the article was written March 17th 2003
newsweek
How can that be? its only the ninth
am I missing something?
very interesting article

[Mo1]

Jeania Davis, the reporter that has been investigating the OK bombing called into my local talk radio a few weeks back

She went in to metion the Iraqis and how some of them have opened auto body shops but never do any business, she said that what really caught her attention was that she spoke to a witness that said they saw these Iraqis always wearing latex gloves at some of these shops

[Tacis]

Of course Iraq can hit America!!

The attack personnel and their weapons of much destruction got here with the aid and assistance of Cuba and Mexico. What, 50, maybe, 100 Ford vans/SUVs, stolen in the US and easily driven to Mexico. There, they are loaded with stuff the Iraqis moved easily to Cuba and then transported to Mexico. Mexican government officials helped them move the stuff closer to the border and shifted it to the US plated vans/SUVs which were then driven back across our porous border. Once here, they were driven to major cities, usually college towns where the Muslim terrorists went to school. They are stored in those storage unit places, waiting to be detonated after the war starts.

Dashole already has his speech written, clucking about how Bush brought these attacks on us and how they wouldn't have happened had Bush not taken Iraq. But, of course, they would have, later, perhaps, but certainly at some time.

[Semper911]

The easy answer is 'yes.' Just about anyone can hit anyone is the issue is simply a strike against unsuspecting civilians. They could even kill a lot of people.
However, if the question is, "Can Iraq make launch a militarily effective strike against America?" the answer is 'no.'

I agree, from a military strategy viewpoint. However, consider the damage that a successful biological strike against civilians will do to our economy, our security, our productivity.

A biological attack, in contrast to a localized explosion-type attack, will bring us to our knees from coast to coast, and will take months if not years from which to recover.

[MindBender26]

Can Iraq hit America?

September 11, 2001, 8:46 AM

[Mihalis]

If we don't attack them they will hit us for sure. If we attack, we may be able to prevent it. We will find the WMD through interrogations of their officials. So, we will do what we have to do.

[xzins]

We agree. The can even kill a lot of people and cause great terror.

However, that effort will not be militarily effective. In fact, such an attack could escalate our own response against Iraq. If it's possible for them to lose even more quickly, the military would be released to make that happen.

[EternalHope]

Your post was much more interesting than the Newsweek article.

[geedee]

Can Iraq hit America?

The easy answer is 'yes.' Just about anyone can hit anyone is the issue is simply a strike against unsuspecting civilians. They could even kill a lot of people.

However, if the question is, "Can Iraq make launch a militarily effective strike against America?" the answer is 'no.'

Good points! With this kicker . . . if we avoid making the tough decisions because we're watching the shadows -- like the Dim-Dems do by running scared all the time -- then all that happens is the shadows get bigger and bigger. So-Dumb Saddam is gonna do what So-Dumb's gonna do. All we can do is make sure he doesn't live to see it.

If we stand proudly and resolutely for long enough, we'll be the only ones left standing. But we can't take a backwards step . . . we can't appease a tyrant today hoping he'll go away because all that does is leave our children with the same problem -- only it's had time to grow and become even more threatening. Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation had the Depression and World War II as their tests.

This is our test. We must face it with the resolve of our forefathers.

[harpseal]

The letter sent to the national Enquirer which no one is sure when it was sent the letter is missing/was never found. This is the cause of the first anthrax death and given incubation periods it may well have been before 9/11.

[bcoffey]

A point of trivia - The article's co-author (Chris Dickey) is the son of "Deliverance" author James Dickey. (I went to school with him, and he's about as liberal as they come.)