Posted on 01/22/2007 12:16:37 PM PST by maquiladora
Edited on 01/22/2007 12:29:11 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
ABC NEWS: DOCS SEIZED IN IRAQ REVEAL INSURGENT PLAN FOR ATTACK IN U.S.
Suspects, Reportedly Tied to Al Qaeda in Iraq, Sought Student Visas
WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2007 — Mimicking the hijackers who executed the Sept. 11 attacks, insurgents reportedly tied to al Qaeda in Iraq considered using student visas to slip terrorists into the United States to orchestrate a new attack on American soil.
Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, recently testified that documents captured by coalition forces during a raid of a safe house believed to house Iraqi members of al Qaeda six months ago "revealed [AQI] was planning terrorist operations in the U.S."
At the time, Maples offered little additional insight into the possible terror plot. ABC News, however, has learned new details of what remains a classified incident that has been dealt with at the highest levels of government.
Watch the full report tonight on "World News with Charles Gibson."
Sources tell ABC News that the plot may have involved moving between 10 and 20 suspects believed to be affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq into the United States with student visas — the same method used by the 19 al Qaeda terrorists who struck American targets on Sept. 11.
U.S. officials now require universities to closely track foreign nationals who use student visas to study in the United States. University officials must report international students who fail to arrive on campus or miss class regularly.
In August, the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement alerted intelligence agencies and state and local law enforcement about 11 Egyptian students who had failed to report to their classes at Montana State University. The students were ultimately apprehended.
Still, despite the heightened precautions, some security analysts fear that skilled terrorists — handpicked because of their clean records and because they are carefully trained — could still slip through an academic setting.
The plot was discovered six months ago, roughly the same time that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed by coalition forces. Sources tell ABC News that the suspects involved in the effort to launch the U.S. attack were closely associated with Zarqawi.
The plan also came only months after Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's No. 2, had requested that Zarqawi attempt an attack inside the United States.
"This appears to be the first hard evidence al Qaeda in Iraq was trying to attack us here at home," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, former chief counterterrorism adviser on the U.S. National Security Council.
The plan was uncovered in its early stages, and sources say there is no indication that the suspects made it into the United States. Officials also emphasize that there is no evidence of an imminent attack.
The hunt for suspects continues, however, and some fear that al Qaeda recruits in Iraq could be easily redirected.
"Anyone willing to go to Iraq to fight American troops is probably willing to try to come to the United States," Clarke said.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2813235&page=1
Yeah, let's give up over there. We'd much rather fight them over here...or at least react AFTER an attack. Thanks liberals.
There was a lot of interesting stuff on Zarq's thumb drive that we got a hold of.
What attack plan? All we got were seized documents about some plan by the ragheads to attack the United States.
The left will have a field day with this and we just need to remind them of a couple of things:
a) we wouldn't have found out about this if we weren't in Iraq;
b) most of those insurgents are Iranians;
c) when the left tells us that there weren't AQ in Iraq before the war, you can look at this link:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1698371/posts
6 months ago......... ABC knew about this. Where they holding this info for the November elections.
This makes my blood boil. They want to hang Bush and give him no credit in order to get dims back into power. I for one do not even believe the dims won the last election fair and square.
Show us a document saying they're NOT hoping to attack us, then you have some real breaking news.
PING
LOL. I always get my whores mixed up. I wonder if I'm related to the Kennedys?
So we're relying on college employees to keep track of terrorists? Great.
GEe what a surprise -- news of a possible Terrorist Attack right before the SUPER BOWL. Good thing this hasn't happened in the past.
My only guess would be that ABC "News" is revealing this as a misdirection aid for the Insurgents. Be warned.
The question is, when have they NOT been planning an attack on U.S. soil? ABC is getting in a dither about some documents in Iraq, and behind the scenes, we've probably broken up more of these planned attacks here in the last few years than we probably care to know.
Eventually, some loose cannon is going to break away from the Al Qaeda apparatus, get a couple people, and do it on their own.
Oh please.
The natives on Fiji could plan an attack on the US. I suppose the Chicken Little types here would see that as a good reason to attack Fiji.
Mark my words: Now that the Democrats are back in power, they will be every bit as driven as the outgoing pubbies to plow under any vestiges of freedom in this country in the name of protecting us from outside threats. This is nothing more than ABC warming up the bullpen for them.
Are you kidding? Of course this will be their response. Haven't they always reasoned this, that we caused everyone in the world to be mad at us by our very existence!
BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!
This appears to be the first hard evidence al Qaeda in Iraq was trying to attack us here at home," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, former chief counterterrorism adviser on the U.S. National Security Council.
We will never know that considering Berger destroyed a bunch of documents
And they'll say it's his fault for getting all those nice terrorists in Iraq mad at us.
At this point, the cat was out of the bag. The article goes on to state that ABC dug deeper and had some anonymous sources. They're just as bad, in my opinion. But in this case, the word was already officially out, just not the details.
>>>So we're relying on college employees to keep track of terrorists? Great.
It's worse than you think - the ones actually doing it are probably work-study students... :)
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