Advisory: Al Qaeda Planning New U.s. Attacks
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Join Date: 2002-11-13 Member: 8466Members, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
Join Date: 2002-11-13 Member: 8466Members, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">Current Events</div> <!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Advisory: Al Qaeda planning new U.S. attacks
Laundry list of possible attack scenarios
WASHINGTON (CNN) --A Department of Homeland Security advisory issued Thursday warns that al Qaeda is working on plans to hijack airliners flying between international points that pass near or over the continental United States.
A Department of Homeland Security official said most of the flights fitting this description originate in Canada, and that U.S. officials have been working with Canada over the past month to ensure it is improving screening and other security measures.
One government official noted, however, the United States has no authority to require security measures of non-U.S. carriers whose flights originate outside the United States.
The advisory was issued because of concerns about the coming second anniversary of the September 11 attacks, a recent uptick in intelligence information, and threats to aviation that continued through the summer.
Issued to state and local authorities and the private sector, the advisory said terrorist operatives have been studying countries to determine which have the least stringent requirements for entry. That could be a factor in their consideration of which flights would be easiest to board and take control of.
The advisory includes a laundry list of possible attack scenarios, and says al Qaeda may be researching how to disseminate diseases and toxins by contaminating water and food, or aerosolizing an agent in an enclosed space.
But the advisory says there is no specific information on individual targets or dates that would warrant raising the nation's threat alert level from the current yellow (elevated) to orange (high).
Some tactical information and six pages of suggested protective measures were redacted from the version of the advisory provided to the press.
Risk of multiple attacks
The advisory says that arrests of key al Qaeda members over the past several months "may have delayed or even disrupted some plans," but a Homeland Security official would not provide any details. The official did say that interrogations of those detainees produced some of the information contained in the advisory. Intercepted communications and materials seized in raids of al Qaeda safe houses were other sources of the intelligence, the official said.
The advisory cites the risk of multiple attacks against the United States and U.S. interests overseas. It notes recent mass-casualty attacks in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Iraq, "suggesting that 'soft' targets with minimum physical security measures could be viewed as attractive options in the U.S."
Among the sorts of soft targets mentioned in operational plans are apartment complexes, gas stations and restaurants.
The advisory also says critical infrastructure could be hit because of the "potentially significant economic and psychological impacts." Examples of critical infrastructure listed as possible targets are nuclear power plants and other energy facilities, petroleum and chemical facilities, the transportation sector, water systems, and the food supply.
The advisory notes that al Qaeda has successfully used suicide bombers and warns that terrorists "will employ novel methods to artfully conceal suicide devices."
Earlier in the day, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge held a conference call with state officials to tell them there are no plans at present to raise the threat level in advance of the September 11 anniversary. According to one participant in the call, Ridge said there had been an uptick in threat information, but not in the quantity or quality that would warrant moving from yellow to orange.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href='http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/09/04/homeland.advisory/index.html' target='_blank'>Story</a>
Laundry list of possible attack scenarios
WASHINGTON (CNN) --A Department of Homeland Security advisory issued Thursday warns that al Qaeda is working on plans to hijack airliners flying between international points that pass near or over the continental United States.
A Department of Homeland Security official said most of the flights fitting this description originate in Canada, and that U.S. officials have been working with Canada over the past month to ensure it is improving screening and other security measures.
One government official noted, however, the United States has no authority to require security measures of non-U.S. carriers whose flights originate outside the United States.
The advisory was issued because of concerns about the coming second anniversary of the September 11 attacks, a recent uptick in intelligence information, and threats to aviation that continued through the summer.
Issued to state and local authorities and the private sector, the advisory said terrorist operatives have been studying countries to determine which have the least stringent requirements for entry. That could be a factor in their consideration of which flights would be easiest to board and take control of.
The advisory includes a laundry list of possible attack scenarios, and says al Qaeda may be researching how to disseminate diseases and toxins by contaminating water and food, or aerosolizing an agent in an enclosed space.
But the advisory says there is no specific information on individual targets or dates that would warrant raising the nation's threat alert level from the current yellow (elevated) to orange (high).
Some tactical information and six pages of suggested protective measures were redacted from the version of the advisory provided to the press.
Risk of multiple attacks
The advisory says that arrests of key al Qaeda members over the past several months "may have delayed or even disrupted some plans," but a Homeland Security official would not provide any details. The official did say that interrogations of those detainees produced some of the information contained in the advisory. Intercepted communications and materials seized in raids of al Qaeda safe houses were other sources of the intelligence, the official said.
The advisory cites the risk of multiple attacks against the United States and U.S. interests overseas. It notes recent mass-casualty attacks in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Iraq, "suggesting that 'soft' targets with minimum physical security measures could be viewed as attractive options in the U.S."
Among the sorts of soft targets mentioned in operational plans are apartment complexes, gas stations and restaurants.
The advisory also says critical infrastructure could be hit because of the "potentially significant economic and psychological impacts." Examples of critical infrastructure listed as possible targets are nuclear power plants and other energy facilities, petroleum and chemical facilities, the transportation sector, water systems, and the food supply.
The advisory notes that al Qaeda has successfully used suicide bombers and warns that terrorists "will employ novel methods to artfully conceal suicide devices."
Earlier in the day, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge held a conference call with state officials to tell them there are no plans at present to raise the threat level in advance of the September 11 anniversary. According to one participant in the call, Ridge said there had been an uptick in threat information, but not in the quantity or quality that would warrant moving from yellow to orange.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href='http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/09/04/homeland.advisory/index.html' target='_blank'>Story</a>
Comments
It's crap. I think so at least.
...all this in the name of "our freedom."
Quite ironic, eh?
its the same as many years back, they just changed evil communist to evil terrorist.
All I have to say really <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Ryo- you don't have a lot of faith in democracy do you? I can assure you that is Bush tried to gain support for another war, he wouldn't have it. If he attacked anyway, he'd be voted out of office. Americans don't like to think of themselves as a big bully. Thats why Bush is stressing Diplomacy in N. Korea.
Also, the quote doesn't really fit with the current situation. The US didn't 'start' the war on terror. You can play the blame game about "The US caused the root of the problem..." forever. For most Americans, the war on terror started on 9/11 and we were attacked first. Of course there is support for a war on Islamic Facism (the roots of terrorism), and Iraq is a major terror center. Terror is not just Al Qaeda, but Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other groups with recognized ties to Iraq.
I wrote an article on my website about how political manipulation for war doesn't really apply to the War on Terror, based on an AF song. <a href='http://www.anti-anti-flag.com/index.php?page=story&post=15' target='_blank'>http://www.anti-anti-flag.com/index.php?pa...e=story&post=15</a>
"All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked."
What if they really are being attacked?
No my faith in democracy wanes with every passing year. I watched as the entire Australian population went from loathing our Prime Minister to voting him back into office with 2 incidents. The first was a Norwegian cargo ship named the Tampa rescueing a boatload of asylum seekers that were drowing. The PM sent the SAS onto the ship, seized the lot of placed all the asylum seekers on offshore Australian territories so they couldn't come under the Australian legal system (Camp X-Ray anyone? You guys learnt it from us). Support for the PM skyrocketted as he outlayed plans for large scale naval and aerial patrols that would "protect us" from these asylum seekers. The election campaign turned into "Who can protect us from these raveging hordes".
The PM was also in Washington on S-11. As he placed Australia firmly behind the US in Afghanistan, support again flooded in. He was elected in a landslide when in June he would have been hounded out of office if an election had been held.
Individual people are intelligant. The public is stupid. People are worse than sheep. Populations are easily swayed by lies, deceit and promises that are broken the minute the politician is in power. No, my faith in democracy is shaken every day. The fact that an illiterate who dodged military service and comes across as blatently stupid was elected President of the United States and is heading straight for reelection is only further proof. You gave this man control of 25,000 nuclear warheads when he can't even pronounce the word nuclear!