Posted on 01/05/2004 8:27:00 PM PST by Stop AQ (aka Spirit of Truth)
From - http://www.spiritoftruth.org/luxor.htm
"The al Qaeda network has long considered Las Vegas
to be one of its top targets for a strike because it sees
the city as a citadel of Western licentiousness, U.S. officials said.
Government officials said they have known for some
time that al Qaeda is interested in striking at Las Vegas."
- Washington Post, 12/26/03
CANCELLATION OF CHRISTMAS DAY AIR FRANCE FLIGHTS
On Christmas Day, U.S. authorities forced Air France to cancel flights between Paris and Los Angeles out of concern that of a 9/11-style plot to hijack airliners and crash them into American targets. The Washington Post reported at the time that Las Vegas, the only major city along the flight path of the cancelled flights, may have been a crash target for at least one of six cancelled Air France flights. Could it be that Las Vegas is a new primary target for an al Qaeda attack? If so, there is reason to suspect that a specific target there will be the Luxor Hotel.
EGYPT AND AL QAEDA LEADERSHIP
"Al Qaeda" is popularly thought to be headed by Osama bin Laden and comprised of Afghan rebels, but the truth is that the organizational leadership is mainly derived from Egypt and daily operations are handled by bin Laden's right-hand man, an Egyptian doctor named Ayman al-Zawahiri:
| "In June of 2001, two terrorist organizations, Al Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad, formally merged into one. The name of the new entity—Qaeda al-Jihad—reflects the long and interdependent history of these two groups. Although Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al Qaeda, has become the public face of Islamic terrorism, the members of Islamic Jihad and its guiding figure, Ayman al-Zawahiri, have provided the backbone of the larger organization's leadership. According to officials in the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., Zawahiri has been responsible for much of the planning of the terrorist operations against the United States, from the assault on American soldiers in Somalia in 1993, and the bombings of the American embassies in East Africa in 1998 and of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen in 2000, to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11th". - From "The Man Behind Bin Laden", The New Yorker, 9/9/02 |
Ayman Zawahiri has had a huge impact on bin Laden’s thinking, turning the terror war essentially into a religious war: the fundamental Islamic militants versus the world, with the United States, Saudi Arabia and Egypt being the prime targets. He has convinced bin Laden that the principal target for disruption is the United States because of its interference in the Middle East—particularly in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Both Zawahiri and bin Laden want to bring about a world dominated by their brand of Islam.
In the September 11th attacks, al Qaeda selected targets representing American economic, military and political power, i.e., the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the White House (presumably the target of Flight 93), respectively. There is reason to believe that in a future 9/11-style attack, which U.S. intelligence clearly believes is impending, al Qaeda will select a target that symbolizes the religious war the group believes it is waging with the West.
Given Ayman Zawahiri's central role in al Qaeda terrorist planning and his Egyptian background and interests, clearly anything that he and his associates deem to be a desecration of Egypt and Islam would at the top of their target list. This, I believe, makes Las Vegas and the Luxor Hotel in particularly, an especially attractive target for al Qaeda.
THE LUXOR HOTEL IN LAS VEGAS
That Las Vegas would be a top target for al Qaeda is fairly obvious given that this is America's "Sin City" and therefore a focal point of what al Qaeda despises about this country. But if the terror network were to attempt to strike there, presumably with hijacked airliners as on 9/11, what specific target in Vegas would best symbolize al Qaeda's purported mission to counter Western occupation and descration of Arab lands? How about the Luxor Hotel?
The Luxor Hotel, which lies at the end of the Vegas Strip, is a thirty story replica of the ancient Egyptian pyramid of Khafre at Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the World and probably the greatest symbol of Egypt's history and culture.
Completed on October 15, 1993, the Luxor Hotel is a huge building contains 2,526 rooms, seven restaurants, and a casino. It seeks to mimic ancient Egypt with Vegas-style glamour. The inside is lavishly decorated with many reproductions of Egyptian artifacts and paintings and outside the pyramid is a full size replica of the Great Sphinx with green lasers shooting out from its eyes. To top off the glitz, the Luxor includes a 1600 foot "River Nile" that meanders throughout the building.
From the perspective Ayman Zawahiri and al Qaeda's Egyptian-drawn leadership, the Luxor Hotel most symbolizes one of the greatest American insults of their land, culture and history. To make a casino out of one of the Great Pyramids with all the dressings including a actual size replica of the Great Sphinx is probably more than al Qaeda's Arab extreme pride can bear. Hence, the Luxor seems to be a target as obvious, if not more obvious, than the World Trade Center was prior to 9/11. (Indeed, it may be too alluring a target for al Qaeda to resist and this could be used toward their undoing.)
EASE OF STRIKING THE LUXOR
What is even more disturbing is that the Luxor Hotel is situated right beside McCarran International airport. While hijacking an Air France airliner on its way to Los Angeles from Paris is one possible way for al Qaeda to strike the Luxor, another way would be to hijack, or otherwise redirect, a plane arriving or departing from McCarran into the structure.
THE 1997 LUXOR MASSACRE
Interestingly, the Luxor Hotel apparently drew its name from Luxor, Egypt, not Giza where the Great Pyramids and Sphinx are actually located. Luxor, Egypt is the home of other ancient Egyptian sites like the Amen Temple and, more disturbingly, it was the site of a 1997 massacre of Western tourists by al Qaeda terrorists. Four Egyptians and 58 tourists - 35 of them Swiss nationals - were killed in an attack by Muslim militants in Luxor, Egypt, on a bloody day in November of 1997. The "Luxor Massacre" was apparently carried out to drive away Western tourists, whom Muslim extremists deem to be infidels, from sacred Arab lands like the ancient Egyptian sites.
Clearly, that the Luxor Hotel draws its name from the site of an earlier al Qaeda terrorist attack, an attack geared to counter Western desecration of ancient Egyptian sites, seems somewhat foreboding.
SHARM EL SHEIKH CRASH
It is worth noting that the Januaury 3rd crash of an Egyptian charter plane into the Red Sea may be a harbinger of things to come. The "Flash" Airlines charter plane was carrying 148 people, mostly French, leaving the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh where Tony Blair and his family were on holiday. The disaster happened just hours before Blair's wife and four children were due to fly home to London using the airport from which the crashed plane departed. While Egyptian authorities were quick to rule the crash an accident, the fact that communication was lost to the plane before the crash, and the fact that it was declared an accident before this could be reasonably ascertained, suggests terrorism may very well have been involved but this is being covered up.
Sharm el Sheik is a hub of Western tourism in Egypt. Thus, if, in fact, al Qaeda terrorism was involved in this recent crash that cost 130+ French lives, then this is likely a new attack against Western tourists visiting Egypt and may have been an attempt on, or at least threat against, the life of the British Prime Minister and his family. In this respect, the crash could be a potential lead on the direction al Qaeda terrorism is about to take.
THE MYSTERIOUS EOM & "AHLAM HU AKHBAR!"
Finally, there is the mysterious case of "EOM", the handle of an individual who recently started posting threatening messages, purportedly for al Qaeda, on a U.S. message board called Current News and Views (CNV). While I consider it a remote possibility that EOM is, in fact, a genuine member of the al Qaeda terrorist network, I'll present what information I have accumulated to present and you, and hopefully the FBI, can judge for yourselves.
"Jeannie", the handle of a long-time participant on the CNV board, claims that EOM started to post messages a few months ago after a two year absence. She remembered him because the last time he was posting was just before 9/11, which EOM purportedly predicted, or more so threatened, at the time. Curious about this, I posed a set of questions to Jeannie which she graciously answered as follows:
ME: How accurate was EOM's bulletin board forewarning(s) of 9/11 and how soon before the attacks was it made? Were giving details provided?
JEANNIE: At least the entire weekend before, then he stopped if I remember correctly.
ME: How many posters here were aware of EOM's predictive posts? Is it possible someone aware of the possible 'genuine' nature of his warnings would have used his handle to engage in a hoax?
JEANNIE: He didn't post on the old MSNBC Current News bb, he posted on the old MSNBC Interntional bb. Someone posted a list a few days ago here (might have been NAB) of all the posters on the old Currents. EOM wasn't listed. I was. Not many people used to drift over the the Int'l bb from Currents back then, so I doubt it. Further, if EOM wasn't real, what possible reason would anyone else have to post to me here on an obscure little bb that a few months ago could go days at a time without a post. EOM's first post to me here was, I believe: "Hello, Miss Jeannie, do you remember me?" and I think I said back with horror and shock "Yes, I remember you, what do you want now?" As I said, it's probably still here. There is NO WAY anyone but the real EOM would remember those few communications on a frazzled insane board from two years ago until now, to my way of thinking.
ME: How recently did EOM reappear in postings to you and how long ago did he disappear?
JEANNIE: I already told you.
ME: Do the IPs match from the postings pre-9/11 and from present?
JEANNIE: I told you I never keep track of that stuff and he uses proxies anyway.
Regarding the IP addresses associated with EOM's postings, I did an IP lookup and trace that indicated the posts were eminating from Germany, where Mohammad Atta and other 9/11 al Qaeda hijackers plotted their attacks. This, however, may mean very little since EOM uses proxies to mask his true location. Even so, what is rather interesting is that, according to a trace of a different IP associated with EOM's postings for three days in early December, the messages were temporarily coming from Djibouti, a small nation in Africa off the coast of Yemen - an al Qaeda stronghold and the nation from which Osama bin Laden's family originated. If there is some reason EOM could not temporarily mask his location for postings while in Africa, then this suggests the individual took a quick trip to a country where he could have met with other al Qaeda operatives.
Regardless of the seeming predictive posts of 9/11 by EOM and indications he took a suspicious December trip in the vicinity Yemen, the seemingly childish nature of his rants and terrorist threats suggest he is not the real article. What's more, why would an al Qaeda operative post on an English discussion board used mainly by American 'infidels'? And even if a member of al Qaeda opted to use an obscure American bulletin board to post threats, why would they be so continuous and recklessly informative such that terrorist operations are potentially compromised?
Given such obvious doubts, one should consider EOM's mysterious postings with a prudent degree of skepticism. Nevertheless, in recent days the posts have become increasingly disturbing and seemingly predictive of a terrorist attack on Las Vegas and the Luxor Hotel in particularly.
On January 2nd, there were multiple postings by EOM with the heading,"Alhaam hu Akhbar - Alhaam hu Akhbar - Alhaam hu Akhbar!", that contained the following message:
|
Fri Jan 2 2004 12:44:57 am The final blows in the crucial battles at hand. If God wills it the the end of Amerikkka is near. Alhaam hu Akhbar!!! Alhaam hu Akhbar!!! Alhaam hu Akhbar!!! EOM |
The phrase "Alhaam hu Akhbar" is apparently some sort of call to Jihad for Muslim militants. Notably, repeating such a religious phrase three times is customary for Muslims. What's more, the "Islamic Bayan Movement" signature is the same one used in a November warning from al Qaeda for Muslims to flee New York City, Washington DC and Los Angeles in anticipation of new terrorist strikes.
Sean Osborne, from the Northeast Intelligence Network, has been monitoring OEM's posts on the CNV bulletin board for some time and noticed the ominous message. Curious, he did a Google search on "Alhaam hu Akhbar". There was only one seemingly irrelevant search result, but Google prompted him with "Did you mean: Ahlam Hu Akhbar?", which Sean clicked on generating more substantial results. One of the results led him to a web site at twexus.com that generates images for words and phrases entered. Curious, he entered the phrase, "Ahlam hu Akhbar", and three startling images appeared.
If you enter the phrase now, you should see the following set of images:
The Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas
A Boeing 747
The Las Vegas Strip
Notably, the third image for "Akhbar" changed on January 2nd from a blurred image of the front of Staples Stadium in Los Angeles to a nighttime shot of the Las Vegas Strip. (I'm guessing by the webmaster's doing out of ill-humor. When Sean first saw the image results from typing "Ahlam hu Akhbar" into the twexus.com web site, he was concerned that he could have uncovered some sort of al Qaeda signal for a 9/11-style terror plot, so he immediately posted his findings on Free Republic after which a flurry of analysis occurred pinpointing what the images were of. As the webmaster of the twexus.com was notified of the discovery, I think he decided to have some fun with the conspiracy theory, which he completely dismissed, by replacing the image of the Staples Center with a shot of the Vegas Strip....to bolster the seeming connection. This, at least, is my current guess for why the image change occurred.)
Sean Osborne has provided an brief synopsis of his suspicious discovery online at the Northeast Intelligencec Network web site. However, is this a direct unravelling of a plot by al Qaeda operatives to hijack and slam jetliners into the Luxor Hotel, the Vegas Strip and/or the Los Angeles Staples Center? Is EOM really with al Qaeda and sending cryptic messages over the internet to direct attacks from the obscure terrorist network?
Not likely....but not impossible.
Today another truly cryptic message was posted by EOM on the CNV discussion board. In fact, it was literally a PGP encrypted message. Recently PGP encryption was cracked (in public), so one of the discussion board members, "Rhain", was apparently able to decrypt EOM's 'dispatch', although it may simply be Rhain's personal opinion of what the message might be. EOM's post purportedly reads as follows:
|
Rhain Logen Airport Forget Alabama Date of attack 07/08/05 Virginia Possiblity Uraguay Origin of Attack 4X Hijack planned to hit power grids Possible message to halt attack plans Flight 356 from Mozambique a possible target. Senegal? Possible sea based attack on Los Angeles Possible hijacking of flight from Florida to Las Vegas hitting Luxor Hotels and Strip clubs. |
Obviously the last sentence is what might raise an eyebrow since it matches the images generated at twexus.com for "Ahlam hu Akhbar" that imply striking the Lexor Hotel and Vegas Strip with an airliner.
Of course, if EOM is really some sort of al Qaeda operative, you would think he would realize that PGP encryption is unreliable for sending secret transmissions. Also, if he was somehow utilizing the twexus.com imaging site to commuunicate with other members of the terrorist network, you think he would realize that his mode of transmission was uncovered by Sean Osborne and the plot to hit the Luxor Hotel exposed. Given that, why would EOM return to the CNV discussion board and post a weakly encrypted message directly mentioning such a plot? Probably to further pull the chain of conspiracy theorists focused upon his attention-seeking, bogus terrorist rantings and ravings.
CONCLUSION
I can't discern for certain whether the mysterious EOM is really a member of al Qaeda signalling impending terrorist attacks over the internet or whether he is some sort of attention-starved hoaxer with nothing better to do with his time than unnerve naive participants in an obscure news discussion board. But what is clear is the type of terrorist attack he has implied, wittingly or not, makes sense for al Qaeda either way. The Luxor Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip may be a top target in the minds of Ayman al-Zawahiri and the mainly Egyptian leadership of al Qaeda because it is symbolizes American greed, immorality and disrespect for Islam and the Arab world. Hence, an al Qaeda terrorist attack directed at the Luxor Hotel would represent al Qaeda's religious war against the West. Hopefully the FBI and Department of Homeland Security recognize as such and are taking whatever measures necessary. Indeed, there's even a slim chance EOM is what he makes himself out to be....in which case he needs to be tracked down in short order by U.S. law enforcement.
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"All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
"It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope.
We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth,
and listen to the song of that siren
till she transforms us into beasts.
Is this the part of wise men,
engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty?
Are we disposed to be the number of those
who, having eyes, see not,
and having ears, hear not,
the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?
For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost,
I am willing to know the whole truth;
to know the worst, and to provide for it."
- Patrick Henry
Welcome to FR... Tomorrow.
| Drudge - cancelled flight believed headed to attack Las Vegas |
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| Posted by Ex-Dem to NYC GOP Chick On News/Activism 12/25/2003 7:07:47 PM PST #142 of 352 In all seriousness, what is there in Vegas that a plane can purposely hit? Maybe that big glass pyramid casino (I think it's the Luxor). They could potentially see it as a desecration of Arab culture. |
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What are the odds...?
Always preview....
He's got that formatting down pretty good for a newbie too
Is there?
Are you here to stay?
Jeepers....usually the FR Gestapo would have censored such a post by now.
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