Posted on 07/22/2004 10:47:47 PM PDT by FairOpinion
Key points • Terrorists thought to have targeted at least two US flights in dry-run attacks • 9/11 Commission warns attack worse than Twin Towers 'probable' • Cameras caught 9/11 terrorists setting off security alarms prior to hijacking
Key quote "Every expert with whom we spoke told us an attack of even greater magnitude is now possible and even probable. We do not have the luxury of time" - Tom Kean, chairman 9/11 commission
Story in full DEVASTATING new evidence has emerged that terrorists are preparing another attack on the United States, with air marshals and flight crews reporting a series of dry runs for attacks on aircraft in mid-air.
At least two flights are thought to have been targeted so far by groups of Middle Eastern men who appear to be forming a plan of attack.
On one flight an air marshal reportedly broke into an onboard toilet to find that a mirror had been removed and that a Middle Eastern man was trying to break through a wall to the cockpit.
One air marshal told the Washington Times newspaper yesterday: "No doubt these are dry runs for a terrorist attack."
The revelation came on the day a major US report into the 11 September attacks warned that another attack was likely.
The commission recommended an overhaul of the country’s intelligence services to prevent al-Qaeda launching more deadly plots against America.
Warning that an attack "of even greater magnitude" than the one that killed almost 3,000 people in 2001 was "probable", the commission accused the Clinton and Bush administrations of failing to have sufficient imagination to have envisaged al-Qaeda’s lethal plot.
Tom Kean, the chairman of the commission, said: "Every expert with whom we spoke told us an attack of even greater magnitude is now possible and even probable. We do not have the luxury of time.
"We must prepare and we must act. The al-Qaeda network and its affiliates are sophisticated, patient, disciplined and lethal."
Airline staff and passengers have catalogued repeated incidents that suggest new attacks are in preparation.
"It’s happening and it’s a sad state of affairs," one pilot said.
On one flight last month, 14 Syrian men on a flight between Detroit and Los Angeles boarded the flight, sitting apart. They pretended to be strangers, according to those on board, but once airborne they started filing in and out of the plane’s toilets. When the plane was about to land, the men shot up to different toilets, arousing the suspicions of air crew, passengers and air marshals.
However, air marshals who monitored the incident said there was no "legal basis on which to take enforcement action".
In another incident, the Washington Times revealed, a flight attendant reported a passenger using a long lens to take photographs of the cockpit door.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that Islamic militants had found a new way to circumvent security systems at airports. Instead of trying to take bombs onto aircraft, they would place the components on board, which they can then assemble in mid-flight.
Security sources told newspapers that the tactic had already been tried out, again in dry-run form, on flights between the Middle East, North Africa and western Europe.
As early as November, the FBI was warning that "terrorists are considering the use of improvised explosive devices assembled on board to hijack an aircraft".
Security agencies around the globe are now trying to track down the militants that have been trained to carry out such attacks.
The activities are a terrifying echo of the meticulous planning of the hijackers involved in the 11 September plot, which was comprehensively detailed in yesterday’s report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
The 567-page final report issued by the ten-member commission pointed to "deep institutional failings" and missed opportunities to thwart the hijackings carried out by al-Qaeda operatives.
"Terrorism was not the overriding national-security concern for the US government under either the Clinton or the pre-9/11 Bush administrations," the report said.
It said that on at least nine occasions, chances were missed that might have led to the uncovering of the plot.
Overnight, US television networks broadcast a newly released surveillance video from Washington’s Dulles International Airport on the morning of the attacks that investigators view as one of the missed opportunities.
The video shows five hijackers passing through security checkpoints. Four of them repeatedly set off alarms but were quickly cleared to board the flight that later crashed into the Pentagon. It was not clear what set the alarms off.
The commission was sweeping in its recommendations for change.
It proposed the appointment of a national intelligence director and the creation of a national counter-terrorism centre to better co-ordinate and share information about future terrorist threats.
"The national intelligence director should oversee national intelligence centres to provide all-source analysis and plan intelligence operations for the whole government on major problems," the report said.
The commission also said the US government must do more domestically to guard against future terrorist attacks, including measures such as setting national standards for issuing drivers’ licences and other identification, improving "no-fly" and other terrorist-watch lists and using more biometric identifiers to screen travellers at ports and borders.
Other recommendations included declassifying intelligence spending, upgrading the computer technology used by US intelligence and reorganising congressional oversight.
Given new warnings about al-Qaeda’s desire to strike again on a mass scale, James Thompson, commission member, said all US leaders would be wise to take the commission’s findings to heart.
"If it happens and we haven’t moved, then the American people are entitled to make very fundamental judgments about that," he said.
The commission’s vice-chairman, Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman, appealed for political unity at the heights of America’s power. A "shift in mindset and organisation" within the US intelligence apparatus and a smoother transition between presidencies were also necessary, he said, to ensure "that this nation does not lower its guard every four or eight years".
"The US government has access to vast amounts of information but it has a weak process, a weak system of processing and using that information," Mr Hamilton said. "Need to share must replace need to know."
However, it will be months if not years before such recommendations can be implemented. Yet many terrorism experts fear that al-Qaeda is planning a terrorist attack in the next four months, in the run-up to the November presidential elections.
"They [the 11 September hijackers] penetrated the defences of the most powerful nation in the world," Mr Kean said. "They inflicted unbearable trauma on our people, and at the same time they turned international order upsidedown."
Mr Kean said the US was "faced with one of the greatest security challenges in our long history".
"Arafat was a dentist."
And Al Zawahiri, BIn Laden's No. 2 a doctor, I think he was actually a surgeon.
Assad, President of Syria was an optometrist.
Atta was an architect.
Several other terrorists were college educated.
They were/are terrorists nevertheless. Which was your point as well.
TSA probably just doesn't want people to fall asleep at the airport and miss their flights, so they try to keep them alert and doing something -- that's the only reason for the warning, I am sure. (/sarcasm)
You know, this is getting a bit tiresome, but I'll try to get through to you one more time.
But I have a job and can't spend hours on this stuff.
James Woods saw something on a flight and made a report to the airline and to the FBI.
I suspect that similar reports are filed by the dozens every day.
Will you tell me hbow you would discern between the ones that will turn out in hindsight to have bee crucially important and the ones that will not? And not by after the fact analysis.
You can't, because it is impossible. And to say that the FBI should have or even could have prevented 9/11 on the bsis on James Wood's report is utterly juvenile.
Now, on to the other issue, that somehow I think that passengers should try to simulate sheep on the way to slaughter. No, never. Look at my post 17, addressed to YOU. You must never have read it. I said if err we must, we must err on the side of survival. Do you comprenhend that this means that we report suspcious behavior even if it later turns out to have been innocent?
That's it for me on this thread. Let the insanity rage on with out me.
Nor do they want to allow airport workers to lose their vigilance in being alert, proactive, and communicative in their concerns as seen. /No Sarcasm ; )
Oy again. The FBI took Woods' initial report, like they should have done. But did they take it seriously? Did they do any followup? We don't know, but obviously it wasn't enough, whatever it was. They only contacted Woods to go over the information again AFTER 9-11 had happened.
And if the 4 hijackers Woods had reported were given a thorough police check upon touchdown, THEY would have been cleared also, because it was a DRY RUN. They weren't carrying any weapons, and likely they had clean backgrounds and weren't on any terrorist watch lists (because our pre 9-11 watch lists were minimal).
So just because the 14 Syrian "musicians" were cleared after the police checks, doesn't mean it wasn't a DRY RUN and that they're not terrorists.
Do you remember the term "lilly whites"? That means they were recruiting people who have NO criminal background, and NO terrorist ties, and NO way to trace them as being suspicious. ALL 14 of the Syrian "musicians" were cleared with NO criminal backgrounds?? THAT, in itself, is suspicious to me! What are the chances we could get any 14 Freepers together and have ALL 14 completely clear of any criminal activity or police reports? I wouldn't bet a nickle on it.
And who's to say their passports and IDs weren't ALL false, which is why they had NO record of police interaction on ANY of the 14. A band of musicians? Yep, sounds pretty lilly white to me.
what are the odds of seeing 14 ME men on an airplane, all sitting in different parts. checkin in and out of the toilets. i'm not a racist or paranoid person but if i were to see 14 ME men scouting around, that kinda makes ya think...
The article only says that the pilot and the flight attendant reported Wood's observations to the FAA, but there was no info about whether the FAA did anything with that info.
Per you last post.
I agree with every single thing you say. I hope that's not disappointing to you.
G-d help us if the american people think Kerry, in concert with France and Germany, will be better able to protect this country.
Just one other point again.
What do you think the FBI could have done beyond what they did do?
And in answering this question it's no fair for you to use the knowledge you now have thest these guys turned out to be supremely dangerous.
And keep in mind that Wood's alert is undoubtedly not the ONLY similar report reaching the FBI on any given day.
Here is the bands website
http://hometown.aol.com/musicaxis/mehana.htm
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/000252.htm
more info at link above
Imagine that, a group of middle easterners getting on a plane in Detroit.
The hyping and the hysteria surrounding this story was so over the top!!!!
I didn't read your exact article; I'd read earlier versions wherein it was stated that Woods reported it to the FBI. Thus, the FBI being in his driveway after 9-11.
Finally, it would be helpful if you read MY posts to find out what I think instead of relying on FairOpinion's recycled version.
LOL... nope, it's thrilling!
Now if we can just get the 200-million or so uninformed Americans on our wavelength, we might be getting somewhere. ;-)
And your point is a good one, re what do we do with these reports? I guess my only suggestion would be to NOT cover them up, to disseminate this info to the public, so that John Q. American will finally "get it" that we need to be vigilant. The more this stuff is shoved under the rug, the more we're vulnerable. IMHO.
Do you have any idea what it cost for 14 people to fly round trip across this country? And just so they can do a show at a bottom shelf, San Diego dive?
Does Bush have to put up with strange diaperheads wandering around Airforce One at 30,000 feet? Why should he expect any of us to put up with this bull sh*t?
Maybe where you live, but in Detroit, you probably could only think that you must be at a street corner. Or the airport.
See my #97.
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