Posted on 01/26/2010 5:52:01 AM PST by marshmallow
Huge attack is top strategic goal, not ‘empty rhetoric,’ ex-CIA official says
When al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called off a planned chemical attack on New York's subway system in 2003, he offered a chilling explanation: The plot to unleash poison gas on New Yorkers was being dropped for "something better," Zawahiri said in a message intercepted by U.S. eavesdroppers.
The meaning of Zawahiri's cryptic threat remains unclear more than six years later, but a new report warns that al-Qaeda has not abandoned its goal of attacking the United States with a chemical, biological or even nuclear weapon.
The report, by a former senior CIA official who led the agency's hunt for weapons of mass destruction, portrays al-Qaeda's leaders as determined and patient, willing to wait for years to acquire the kind of weapons that could inflict widespread casualties.
The former official, Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, draws on his knowledge of classified case files to argue that al-Qaeda has been far more sophisticated in its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction than is commonly believed, pursuing parallel paths to acquiring weapons and forging alliances with groups that can offer resources and expertise.
"If Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants had been interested in . . . small-scale attacks, there is little doubt they could have done so now," Mowatt-Larssen writes in a report released Monday by the Harvard Kennedy School of Government's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
Deadly strains of anthrax
The report comes as a panel on weapons of mass destruction appointed by Congress prepares to release a new assessment of the federal government's preparedness for such an attack. The review by the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism is particularly critical of the Obama administration's actions so far in hardening the..................
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Mohammedanism must be eradicated.
A good start would be to destroy the stupid black rock in Mecca with a surgical strike, accompanied by a warning to evaportate the entire city if the Mohammedan mayhem does not stop.
Bring it on you muzzie cowards...even the FUBO President wouldn’t hesitate to obliterate you...I hope...
Do we Mirandize them now or wait untilthey do something horrific?
PING
If they have to hit somewhere to wake this country up, a place with a bunch of Hollywood elites would probably be the least damaging to the country.
But not before reading them their rights and supplying them with the finest lawyers money can buy.
Boy thats a shocker! Who knew?
During the SOTU speech would send a message.
"...and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him..."
Terrorism = keep us in terror
Regardless of whether Saudi Arabia is directly involved or not.
EXACTLY, IVE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR YEARS.....
Obama better get busy with some really, really sincere preemptive apologies.
Well those child rapist worshipping filth better get us all at once because I would most definitely not want to be a follower of Islam if something like that popped off.
Oh, he’d hesitate alright. He’d probably term the incident a “tragedy”. And lob a token missile at an aspirin factory somewhere.
My policies would be too radical for the average American. We should be torturing these Gitmo nuts and then shooting them. We should be tracking down all of the top leaders families and killing them after torturing them for info.
When we want to get serious about erasing these people we win.
Instead we read them there rights...When they set a nuke off in St Louis then my suggestions will seem to be more reasonable.
Why wait? It’s going to happen eventually.
Threats to destroy Meca or a religious site in Mecca may feel good. First, all evidence suggests Muslims become more violent and radicalized when a mosque is attacked. Second, there is zero chance the US is going to launch a religion based war. Third, it would be counterproductive to enrage every Muslim country that is fighting with us or is neutral (Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Pakistan, ....it’s a long list). Fourth, strong repression of a religion can lead to its spread (Christianity).
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