Posted on 09/30/2001 7:47:39 PM PDT by t-shirt
US official warns of new terror strikes
October 1, 2001
AP
WASHINGTON: Attorney General John Ashcroft warned on Sunday that the "very serious threat" of new terrorism against Americans is likely to increase if the United States retaliates for the Sept.11 attacks.
The White House, meanwhile, said it wasn't interested in negotiating with the Taliban over the fate of suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. "We believe that there is the likelihood of additional terrorist activity," Ashcroft said on CBS "Face The Nation."
"And it is our job to do whatever we can to interrupt it, to disrupt it. "We believe there are others who may be in the country who would have plans," Ashcroft said when asked about the ongoing hunt for those behind the strikes against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Also on Sunday, a Taliban envoy acknowledged for the first time that Osama bin Laden is in Afghanistan and under the control of the ruling government there. He said negotiations might be possible if Washington offered evidence linking bin Laden to the attacks. "He's in a place which cannot be located by anyone," Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef told a journalists in Islamabad.
Zaeef said the Taliban, who have rejected a series of appeals to hand over bin Laden and avert a military confrontation, were willing to talk. "We are thinking of negotiation," he said, adding that if direct evidence against bin Laden were produced, "it might change things." White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card responded: "The president has said we're not negotiating."
Card said the Taliban government has been told what to do. "They've got to turn not only Osama bin Laden over but all the operatives of the al-Qaida organization. They've got to stop being a haven where terrorists can train," he said on "Fox News Sunday." Bin Laden must "be purged from Afghanistan and the Taliban knows that," Card said.
"The United States is very patient, but we want to see justice done and we want to see it done quickly." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was skeptical of the Taliban claim. "It was just a few days ago that they said they didn't know where he was, so I have no reason to believe anything a Taliban representative has said," Rumsfeld said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
The continuing threat against Americans was cited by Ashcroft as he argued for legislation he said would help confront those plotting terrorism. He called on Congress to meet President George W. Bush's deadline of Friday for approval of the administration's plan. "We think that there is a very serious threat of additional problems now. And frankly, as the United States responds, that threat may escalate," Ashcroft said. "Very frankly, we need to do everything we can here at home," the attorney general said, repeating his claim that his department needs increased powers for surveillance, the ability to use information gathered by foreign governments and the ability to detain terrorist suspects for longer periods of time.
"Talk will not prevent terrorism. We need to have action by the Congress. We need the tools to prevent terrorism," Ashcroft said. Congress has appeared cool toward the Bush administration's anti-terrorism package. Some lawmakers have questioned whether some of the provisions infringe on civil liberties. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said headway is being made, but offered no timetable for passage. "I think everybody knows that we're going to have to make sure that we have some kind of a check-and-balance in there," he said on "Face the Nation." We don't want to be like countries that we criticize all the time when if an American goes there, they can hold them without even telling them what they are holding them for."
Over the weekend, Bush and his top security and intelligence advisers were at Camp David working on their strategy while White House aides worked on a plan to boost the nation's economy and provide more help to people left jobless by the attacks. Asked about the military's role in the war on terrorism, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned that the effort will not be the conventional warfare seen in recent years in the Gulf region or the Balkans. "This will require a sustained campaign. This will not be a conventional war.
It will not be a war in which you can show large formations of tanks or artillery or whatever," said Gen. Henry H. Shelton, whose retirement took effect at midnight Sunday. The four-star Army general declined to discuss the operations currently being undertaken by the more than 20,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines currently arrayed in the southwest Asian region.
The operation will rely on more than military force alone, and the cooperation of more than 100 nations, Shelton said on ABC's "This Week." "It'll not be not only America, and America's political, diplomatic, economic, military power that'll be applied," Shelton said. "It'll be an international effort that will also bring in the great capabilities of our partners, our allies, and our friends around the world."
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Terrorists may have biological warfare capability: US
AFP
WASHINGTON: Terrorist organisations are likely to have developed the ability to use biological and chemical warfare, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said Sunday.
"I'm not trying to be alarmist, but we know these terrorist organisations ... have probably found the means to use biological and chemical warfare," Card told Fox News on Sunday.
"Americans should be diligent," he advised, adding that the government is working "to see that we have ongoing stockpiles of appropriate medication and immunisation products."
"And we're going to work hard to make sure that those inventories grow."
US Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said on the same programme that the war on terrorism had to have a much higher priority.
"The biological, chemical threats ... are real. We ought to put our resources there," he said.
"We've got to put resources where the threats really are, which are the terrorist threats, delivering them by means such as trucks and suitcases and now airplanes," he added.
( AFP )
http://www.timesofindia.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=1669160130
And call the White House and Congress and demand all illegal immigrants be deported immediately and anyone linked to Middle Eastern Terrorist Organizations be arrested or deported now. We don't need to give up our rights to stop terrorism. The only solution at is to deport and/or arrest would-be terrorists now before the commit more atrocities in America.
October 1, 2001
WASHINGTON: US President George W. Bush plans to name a retired Army general to a new post as anti-terrorism czar, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing unnamed officials.
The daily said Bush asked retired army general Wayne Downing, a counterterrorism expert, to join the staff of his National Security Council as national director for combating terrorism.
Downing had already warned in 1996 that the US administration should stop regarding terrorism as an intermittent threat, but should view it as an "undeclared war against the United States," the Post said. It said Downing wrote the comment after a bomb killed 19 US military personnel in Saudi Arabia in June 1996.
( AFP )
( AFP )
LONDON:The United States and Britain plan to attack bases controlled by Osama Bin Laden, prime suspect of the terrorist assaults on New York and Washington, within 48 hours, newspapers reported here Sunday.
The Observer, quoting unidentified US and British sources, said the attack was designed to kill Bin Laden and would be carried out alongside strikes against air and ground forces of Afghanistan's Taliban regime.
According to the weekly, sources said that air and missile strikes could begin as early as Sunday and that US and British special forces would offer support in the attack. The Mail on Sunday tabloid meanwhile quoted the military leader of Afghanistan's opposition Northern Alliance as saying that his men would launch a new offensive against the Taliban within two days and with the support of the US.
"We hope and believe our offensive, in a number of places throughout the country, will be backed by America attacking from the air," Soleh Muhammad Registani was quoted as saying. The Observer also said that it had obtained crucial evidence linking Bin Laden to the September 11 strikes on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
It said it had seen a secret intelligence dossier compiled by an Arab state with a long-standing interest in Bin Laden, which revealed that at least one of the 19 hijackers involved in the terrorist attacks was trained by the Saudi-born militant's network, al-Qaeda.
US Special Forces 'Held In Afghanistan'(Pray For Them), Russians: You Must Know the Terrain
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3bb7794e4ca2.htm
Germans Tie Terror Groups to Pre-attack Stock Trading http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3bae4bdd5bb7.htm
(US)DOJ brewing expansive anti-terror proposal, Blunkett(Britain) warming to (National)ID cards http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3bae38b7420d.htm
Biological Attack Threat Real, but Small http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba7ea3f3d61.htm
Bin Laden Surrender Probably Not Enough..Rumsfeld (Why Remove Afgans' Incentive To Hand Him Over??) http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba7dceb2427.htm
New Powers To Track Terror (& Powell Wants New CIA Rules, Assasinations,etc) http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba5119f0b50.htm
Terrorist Moved Freely Across USA Using Real Name,On State Dept, INS &FBI Watch List-mytitle3stories http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba4fe966559.htm
How Did We Miss Enemies In Our Midst? http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba4812b2ba1.htm
FAA Attack Alert Failed to Reach Pentagon http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba44b1f0c9a.htm
Seven Pilots Were Among 19 Hijackers (Evidence Terrorist Operation Planned Attacks For 5 Years!) http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba40c011fee.htm
CIA Reportedly Warned FBI About One Suspect (6 Stories of Prior Knowledge By FBI & Government) http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba3756f074a.htm
FBI 'Ignored Leads' http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba232131410.htm
Iranian Man in Germany Warned of Attack (WasAllowed to Ring WhiteHouse &CIA,Wasn't TakenSerious) http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba1c69709c5.htm
U.S. Gets Promise of Pakistani Cooperation http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba1c3340837.htm
How the World Trade Center Fell (Deadly Mistakes Made "I Would Have Given Order To Get Out!"Expert) http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba1b16f79fa.htm
Ashcroft: 18 Hijackers Involved in Attack (How Could So Many CarryOut Plot Undetected?ClintonHelp?) http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba141a25556.htm
(5)Suspects Caught Crashes on Camera (They Watched Crashes & Celebrated, Also Some Suspects Abroad) http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba0e1b83f28.htm
FBI Looks at bin Laden's Strong Ties to Boston (Why Didn't They Look & Act Before?!!) http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba02db8669d.htm
48 Iraqi & MidEasterns Caugh At Tightened Mexican Border Following U.S. Terrorist Attacks! http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba00b391f72.htm
ABC NEWS REPORTS 12 Plane HighJackers/Suspects Identified (Dead) & Arrest Warrants Issued For Others http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b9f8fbd7b5f.htm
Already Weak Airlines Stand to Lose Billions http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b9f18ae602c.htm
FBI Seizes 911 Tape (He Heard Some Sort of Explosion, Was It Shot Down Before Reaching Camp David?) http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b9ee9762979.htm
B-25&767 Hit WTC,3 Planes Hit Pentagon, Bomb Near WhiteHouse,PittsBHit,Who Coordinated?,10000Die (This thread has over 50 different news stories on it.) http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b9e390647f1.htm
Breaking: US Congress Subpoena Orders Ashcroft To Release Clinton Evidence on Sept. 11, 2001 http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b99d9b10b76.htm
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3 follow-up threads to US Congress Subpoena Orders Ashcroft To Release Clinton Evidence on Sept. 11, 2001:
Breaking: US Congress Subpoena Orders Ashcroft To Release Clinton Evidence on Sept. 11, 2001 – Thread 2 http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b9a84661c0d.htm
Will Ashcroft Obey House Subpoena Commanding Evidence by11th or KeepProtecting Clinton?Thread 2 1/2 http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b9bd4a06221.htm
US Congress Subpoena Orders Ashcroft To Release Clinton Evidence on Sept. 11, 2001 - Re-Post http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ba0411b092f.htm
(20 Arrested) ‘DIRECTLY INVOLVED' (It's Time To Deport/Arrest All Illegal Or TerrorTied People NOW!)
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3bae9b2b4deb.htm
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3af86f6b440c.htm
Ah...suitcases....he just had to throw that one in there didn't he?
Personally, the one that freaks me out is the bio possibility. It is the most scarry for me AND it the cheapest for them to develop...plus, with the right disease, WE will be the ones that might do most of the spreading.
What a crock. We've got maybe 7 million doses of smallpox vaccine in Pennsylvania rotting on pallets.
This is a ramp up to plausible deniabilty.
We can be very diligent but without a plan and resources we're screwed. Buy stock in Tyvek and HEPA filters.
Cheney To Lead Look At Terrorist Threats To U.S.
New FEMA Division Will Respond To Any Attacks
Some Senators Say America Not Prepared At Present
WASHINGTON, May 8, 2001
AP
In addition to floods and hurricanes, FEMA will now prepare for a chemical weapon attack.
(CBS) Federal officials Tuesday presented a new plan to deal with major terrorist attacks, reports CBS News Correspondent Howard Arenstein.
Vice President Dick Cheney said in an interview with CNN television that President George W. Bush is creating an office within the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate the government's response to any biological, chemical or nuclear attack.
"The threat to the continental United States and our infrastructure is changing and evolving and we need to look at this whole area oftentimes referred to as homeland defense,"said the vice president.
He will lead a new task force on these new threats, which he described as "a hand-carried nuclear weapon, or biological or chemical agent."
Together with FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh, Cheney's task force will "figure out how we best respond to that kind of disaster of major proportions that in effect would be manmade or man-caused," Cheney said.
The National Security Council will review his final report.
At a Senate hearing Tuesday, administration officials told Congress that combating terrorism has grown more difficult because of new technology and growing economic connections between nations.
"Terrorism is a part of the dark side of globalization," Secretary of State Colin Powell said. "It is a part of doing business in the world, business we as Americans are not going to stop doing."
Spaaaaaace General
Donald Rumsfeld plans to create a new four-star general slot with broad responsibilities for organizing, training and equipping the U.S. space defense program.
Powell and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill were the leadoff witnesses as the Senate began three days of hearings into how well the federal government was coordinating its efforts to battle terrorism. Allbaugh was scheduled to testify later Tuesday.
"Just fertilizer with the rights mixtures and things that are available on the Internet can create havoc in our country," O'Neill said.
Several senators expressed unhappiness that not enough is being done in the face of growing threats.
"There must be better organization at the federal, state and local level," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. "It is critical that we address issues of civil liberties, agency jurisdiction, public education, industry privacy concerns and community medical capabilities."
Concerns in Congress were raised last year when a training exercise to gauge capabilities to respond to a terrorist detonation of a weapon of mass destruction found that Cincinnati's hospitals, police and other services were woefully unprepared for such an attack.
Powell told the joint hearing of members of the Senate Armed Services, Appropriations and Intelligence committees that the State Department was seeking increased money to boost security at U.S. embassies but that the United States should never give in to terrorism.
"If we adopted this hunkered-down attitude, behind our concrete and our barbed wire, the terrorists would have achieved a kind of victory," Powell said. "At the end of the day, what America is to the world is not only what we say or do, it is who we are. And we are not helmeted giants huddling in our bunkers awaiting the enemy."
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Wed, 09 May 2001, 7:41am EST Bush Announces Plan to Coordinate Response to Terrorism in U.S.
By Paul Basken
Washington, May 8 (2001)(Bloomberg) --- The U.S. agency that rushes aid to victims of hurricanes and earthquakes will begin coordinating the U.S. response to incidents of domestic terrorism, President George W. Bush announced today.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will create an Office of National Preparedness to ``coordinate all federal programs dealing with weapons of mass destruction consequence management,'' Bush said.
Vice President Dick Cheney also will oversee a the development ``of a coordinated national effort so that we may do the very best possible job of protecting our people from catastrophic harm,'' Bush said.
The threat of chemical biological or nuclear attack on the U.S. ``while not immediate -- is very real,'' Bush said.
``Should our efforts to reduce the threat to our country from weapons of mass destruction be less than fully successful, prudence dictates that the United States be fully prepared to deal effectively with the consequences of such a weapon being used here on our soil,'' Bush said.
Bush's announcement comes amid heightened attention to terrorism because of the scheduled execution next week of Timothy McVeigh for the deadliest act of terrorism in U.S. history -- the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people.
Congressional Hearings
The new preparedness office will ensure the planning, training, and equipment needs of state and local governments are addressed, Bush said.
``FEMA will also work closely with the Department of Justice, in its lead role for crisis management, to ensure that all facets of our response to the threat from weapons of mass destruction are coordinated and cohesive,'' Bush said.
Bush administration officials described the new coordination plan today during the first of three days of congressional hearings on U.S. preparedness for terrorism.
Congressional Democrats immediately questioned whether FEMA was the correct agency to handle the government's response to terrorism.
Giving the agency prime responsibility could hamper investigative work by such agencies as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department, said Senator Ernest Hollings of South Carolina.
``Rather than coordinating, we're dis-coordinating the effort being made in the prevention of terrorism,'' Hollings said. Prosecutions in the bombings of the World Trade Center in New York City and a federal building in Oklahoma City showed the importance of allowing trained investigators immediate access to the sites, Hollings said.
Senator Pat Roberts, a Republican of Kansas, said final decisions haven't been made about the administration's domestic terrorism policy, and that the Justice Department will retain a leading role among the 46 different federal agencies that split responsibility for guarding against attacks.
``If we buy into that assertion that the threat is real, which I do, then this nation has much work to do to prepare for such an event,'' he said.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta are among those to testify before the joint three-day hearing of three Senate committees.
``Preparedness to deal, to prevent and to respond to domestic terrorist attacks has got to be one of the highest priorities for our government,'' U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told today's hearing.
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I thought the anti-terrorism bill that they had so much trouble passing (until the Oklahoma bombing conveniently happened) was supposed to solve this massive domestic terror problem?
1 Posted on 05/08/2001 15:12:59 PDT by t-shirt
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Bush puts new FEMA office in charge of all federal efforts
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
WASHINGTON, May 8 — President Bush on Tuesday directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which deals with natural disasters, to oversee government efforts to combat domestic terrorism as well. The executive order, which includes creating a task force headed by Vice President Cheney, is designed to streamline efforts now shared by 46 government agencies.
‘We have seen major advancements in technology and rapid globalization, making our job of combating terrorism more difficult.’ — PAUL O'NEILL-- Treasury Secretary
FEMA DIRECTOR Joe Allbaugh made the announcement during testimony before a Senate hearing on how to better prepare for and prevent domestic terrorism.
The executive order, Allbaugh said, creates an Office of National Preparedness within FEMA to coordinate and implement “programs for dealing with the threat of weapons of mass destruction.”
FEMA will also make sure local and state agencies are prepared to respond to terrorism. “The thing we do best is coordinate and facilitate, we are not in the intelligence business,” Allbaugh said of the office, which was first reported by NBC News last week..
In a statement Tuesday, Bush ordered FEMA to establish the new office to coordinate a “seamlessly integrated, harmonious and comprehensive” response to biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.
“Prudence dictates that the United States be fully prepared to deal effectively with the consequences of such a weapon being used here on our soil,” said Bush.
In addition, Cheney will lead a domestic terrorism task force that works with FEMA and other agencies. The task force will “figure out how we best respond to that kind of disaster of major proportions that in effect would be manmade or man-caused,” said Cheney.
Cheney’s group is expected to report to Congress by Oct. 1, Allbaugh said, with the recommendations to be reviewed by the National Security Council.
O’NEILL CITES OBSTACLES
The Senate hearing is being jointly hosted by three committees, who over three days will hear testimony from 18 senior officials. First to testify Tuesday was Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, who cited new obstacles to combating terrorism. “We have seen major advancements in technology and rapid globalization, making our job of combating terrorism more difficult,” testified O’Neill, whose department oversees the Secret Service and Customs.
But O’Neill also told the committee that his agency has significantly upgraded its work in the wake of the bombings of the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993 and the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.
Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee responsible for oversight in this area, said he had become concerned after reading “numerous reports that detail the difficulty federal agencies face in determining what their responsibilities in dealing with terrorism are.”
Concerns in Congress were raised last year when a training exercise to gauge capabilities to respond to a terrorist detonation of a weapon of mass destruction found that Cincinnati’s hospitals, police and other services were woefully unprepared for such an attack.
“There must be better organization at the federal, state and local level,” said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. “It is critical that we address issues of civil liberties, agency jurisdiction, public education , industry privacy concerns and community medical capabilities.”
The hearings were scheduled against the backdrop of the White House saying that various arms of the U.S. government are working to better integrate the way they respond to extremist attacks in the United States.
POWELL, MINETA ALSO SPEAK
Secretary of State Colin Powell and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta also testified Tuesday.
“Terrorism is a part of the dark side of globalization,” Powell said, echoing O’Neill’s concerns. “It is a part of doing business in the world, business we as Americans are not going to stop doing.”
Powell said the State Department was seeking increased money to boost security at U.S. embassies but that the United States should never give in to terrorism.
Announced last week, the hearings are being held jointly by the Senate Appropriations, Armed Services and Intelligence committees.
Discussions have been under way for several months between Cheney, the National Security Council, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Departments of Justice, Defense and several other agencies to find ways to improve coordination.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
2 Posted on 05/08/2001 15:19:06 PDT by t-shirt
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