TIME Exclusive: Cropduster Manual Discovered in Suspected Terrorist Hideout

Time.com ^ | September.22,2001 | MASSIMO CALABRESI AND SALLY DONNELLY

[Reagan Man]

Sources tell TIME that U.S. officials suspect that bin Laden conspirators may have been planning to disperse biological or chemical agents from cropdusting planes

Saturday, Sep. 22, 2001

New York -- U.S. law enforcement officials have found a manual on the operation of cropdusting equipment while searching suspected terrorist hideouts, government sources tell TIME magazine in an issue out on Monday, Sept. 24th.

The discovery has added to concerns among government counterterrorism experts that the bin Laden conspirators may have been planning — or may still be planning —to disperse biological or chemical agents from a cropdusting plane normally used for agricultural purposes.

Among the belongings of suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, sources tell TIME, were manuals showing how to operate cropdusting equipment that could be used to spray fast-killing toxins into the air.

The discovery resulted in the grounding of all cropdusters nationwide on Sunday Sept. 16th. The dusters have been allowed back up, but are not allowed to take off or land from what traffic controllers refer to as Class B airspace, or the skies around major cities.

One senior official cautions that because corroborative evidence is lacking the FBI does not place "high credibility" in the notion that the hijackers were in fact exploring the idea of stealing or renting cropdusters. However, the FBI is advising members of a crop-dusters' group to report any suspicious buys of dangerous chemicals in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks.

Last week, the National Agricultural Aviation Association, a crop dusters trade group, posted a message from the FBI to its membership: "Members should be vigilant to any suspicious activity relative to the use, training in or acquisition of dangerous chemicals or airborne application of same including threats, unusual purchases, suspicious behavior by employees or customers, and unusual contacts with the public. Members should report any suspicious circumstances or information to local FBI offices."

[poweqi]

John Gibson is talking about it RIGHT NOW! On FOX.

[Dog Gone]

So far, the suggestions to prevent this don't particularly impress me.

One group suggests deporting all arab nationals. That's great. You'll deport all the law-abiding ones and leave the others to blend in while enflaming the situation.

Having our cropdusters be watchful and carry a firearm is fine if we think they could overpower a large group intent on taking the plane anyway. I guess we're also assuming that Bob the cropduster eats, sleeps, and does his grocery shopping in the plane.

Additionally, cropdusters aren't the only way to do this. Any light aircraft will do, and it can be done less effectively in a thousand other ways by anyone sympathetic to their cause, regardless of their citizenship.

I don't think there's any defense once it's gotten to the point where a decision has been made to do it.

The only defense that makes sense to me is to strike those who we know intend to do this.

That means Iraq.

It also means striking bin Laden and all other terrorist groups by whatever means it takes.

If the vials of biological warfare are already in this country with orders to use them, then it will happen. You can't wear a gas mask 24 hours a day.

[deport]

Yes they do and we've been having a lot of rain so they are plentiful right now. Interestly, I was just east of Houston on Thursday and one passed over me on I-10. Startled me as the shadow came across my car then I heard the engine. They are back up spraying the skeeters in our area, usually in the early morning at daybreak.

[riri]

Maybe we should keep a tab on where the Bush twins are..as a meter to how emminent one of these attacks are! God knows they aren´t going to let us know until the first small pox boils start popping up....

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

To italicize a quote use <i> in front of the quote and </i> behind the quote.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Sorry. spunkets beat me to it.

[riri]

It would only take one lone lunatic to infect himself with small pox..show up to work before the rash appears, infect coworkers...you get the picture.

[Linda]

Thank you. you are a sweetie.

[Anonymous2]

now, contemplate this. world communists have been using islamic nut cases similarly to the usa for probably longer. what better way to dismantle the usa than for a chinese provacateur or cell to scatter throughout america and use the chemical/bio warfare that *we know* some communist nations have. if you thought the nation was almost paralyzed a week ago, when a 1/4 or a million or 5 or 10 million americans are killed or injured, the nation is reeling, and the muslims get the blame and take the nuclear glow, while the chinese finish us off. now, tell me that making our statement *LOUD AND CLEAR NOW* is not paramount to our nation's survival. as it stands now, i am advising the younger parents of our clan to find another *non-targeted* nation to take up residence and raise their children in, and lose the us citizenship. it's a dog with fleas around the world, more than ever.

[poweqi]

When you figure out how to italicsize(sp) someone's post .....let ME know!

[mommadooo3]

Here's a poser. HOW would one be able to tell there was a cropduster that was up to no good? And if one suspects that it IS up to no good, what should be done...call dial-a-prayer? Or play 'citizen soldier'?

Remember those phony scenarios they had kids do?...'if you were in the middle of an ocean, and the boat was sinking, your father/your husband can't swim, you CAN but you can only save ONE of them, who would you choose'??? The above questions go along those same lines. What WOULD 'you' do???

[Dan Day]

I had another thought when I first heard of the Fed's interest in crop dusters. Fuel Air Explosives. FAEs are awesome weapons that work by using a gas in aerosol form and igniting it. A crop duster would be a low cost (albeit dangerous, but hey they don't care) way to produce an FAE type explosion. Imagine a crop duster swooping into a sports stadium, disbursing this gas, then igniting it by simply using a flare or something. Yikes.

Actually, that wouldn't work.

Not only do FAE bombs require a carefully calibrated mix of fuel and air to work properly (which would be impossible to achieve with a spray from a flying plane), but simply setting them off with a "flare" wouldn't work either. In order to achieve the "big boom" effect, the fuel-air cloud needs to be ignited by a high explosive -- it's the self-propagating high-speed wave front that makes an FAE bomb so devastating. If you just light it off with a match, you'll get a big fire and the kind of "whoomp" you get from gasoline vapors when you toss a match into a puddle of gasoline, but not the truly explosiving, shattering explosion that results from a traveling wave front of ignition.

[Anonymous2]

um, it's time to start shooting people breaching our borders on sight. that will slow it down considerably. the nation of laws has become soft towards foreigners violating us.

[HiTech RedNeck]

while the chinese finish us off

If I was in the Chinese gummint, I would ask my buddies why in the h*ll they would want to smash our biggest source of dollars.

Now if this is a WILDCAT group, NOT associated with the Chinese gummint, then all bets are off.

[Nita Nupress]

And one more thing...

By pulling #159, you may keep someone from being able to prevent a "Delta Gas Corp." truck in Braintree, Ma from doing something suspicious. IMO, this kind of stuff should be shouted from the rooftops and reported on TV.

The politicians are trying to be PC about this, but they're gonna have to forget that idiocy. This is war and it's a war on our homefront. We need all the eyes and ears we can get to be monitoring what's happening in their neighborhood so they can help out the FBI by reporting suspicious activity.

Between that and Bob's .45, that may be the best way to prevent this type of stuff until it's under control.

LOL. I see Chris Matthews must agree with me. He's talking about the cropduster material and has a lady from Time on right now.

[Re-electNobody]

I think deporting all illegals is certainly in order, as is an immediate immigration moratorium for the next few months at least.

[mommadooo3]

Good point. But they'll probably have The Twins wrapped so tight, they won't be seen.

I heard that smallpox used to be avoided by getting chummy with a cow that had cowpox. That somehow, the cowpox was survivable, yet gave you immunity to smallpox.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Would seem easier just to drop a real FAE. How heavy are those things? How big a gun is needed to shoot one (or are they self-launching?)

[Anonymous2]

i speak 3 different chinese dialects and like to eat chinese food. every time i go in, i sit closest to the table where the owners are sitting and listen intently to pick up *anything* that perculates my curiosity, unbeknownst to them. i have *beyond a shadow of a doubt* identified 3 local chinese restaraunts owned by proud chinese communists, but each time i ask them, in english, what they think about the chinese central committee, they say *communism bad!*. we had better tighten up our policies regarding who gets in and why and start ejecting people for later invitation possibly or we are going to get it from several international directions, from within.

[Rockitz]

This is what I've been wondering and fretting about since 9/11. If I were a terrorist and wanted to bring an enemy to his knees, I would go after food and water. The only thing that may save us from this is the difficulty for the perpetrator to die in the process of delivering the agent of death and thus receive his "72 virgins."

[Burkeman1]

From my understanding of such attacks- a crop duster would be useless to spread biological agents. First- crop dusters are low altitude and effect small areas of fields. Second- if released at a high altitude it would have minimal effect. The Japanese tried such attacks with ballons that burst over american air space and they had no impact. The Japanese did however suceed in dropping "bubonic" bombs over the chinese countryside that did kill up to a million people over 20 years- well after the war. The chemical threat is minimal. Biological is minimal as well since the delivery apparatus are most likely beyond the reach of terrorist groups. What we should fear are highly radioactive elements or compounds being dumped into our water supplies- that would be devastating. Or a suicide bomber walking into a city with a tactical nuke stolen from Russia and setting it off.

[Dog Gone]

Will you please shut up with your Nuke Everything and Kill Everyone suggestions?

[Ciexyz]

I for one am going to sleep soundly tonight, feeling secure that our government is finally getting its shit together to protect us. Otherwise Bush will be looking for private industry employment in four years time.

[Linda]

refer to reply 193. I DID IT!!!!!!!!

[Rockitz]

The 9/11 acts by themselves merit nuking. The subject act would merit "a fused silica parking lot" for the whole region.

[Anonymous2]

well, um, would china be a richer nation possessing north america or poorer? with 1/4 of the world's population and having to butcher babies to, in their mind, *control* population growth, china desperately wants to *be* america, in a fascist, communist totalitarian communist way. china hates us, they say so, i believe it, and chinese expansion is the number *1* concern of russia. why isn't it one of ours? china controlling a fractured america might sound far fetched to you now, but i'm sure the concept used on 9-11 was to you as well, on 9-10. a major strike of millions killed would give us about a week to solve our problems or we as a nation would be finished. the world is getting sharper and the end game is coming into focus, my friend.

[HiTech RedNeck]

warning nukes

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Please see #193 or #205. It's simple.

[HiTech RedNeck]

They'd have a hard time POSSESSING it. What do you think, we'd surrender???

[Norman Conquest]

Huge numbers of Hong Kong Chinese bailed out over the decade before Britain withdrew, most making their way here. There are hundreds of millions of ethnic Chinese spread across the world outside China -- Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Taiwan -- who see more opportunity here. Freer markets and travel in the mainland give a few people means and opportunity to leave, and it doesn't take a huge fraction of a billion people to make a splash here.

[Anonymous2]

i don't know. but, what if their *homeland* was had a warning nuke go off in their desert, with the next one incinerating the nation and making it uninhabitable within 24 hours if all terrorists and holy warriors aren't rounded up and executed with a terrorist supporting nation?

[HiTech RedNeck]

They'd have a hard time POSSESSING it. What do you think, we'd surrender???

P.S. unlike these terrorists, with China we'd have a single well defined target to nuke to a crisp.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Too many terrorists washed up on Florida shores. Our Fla. community recently celebrated the work of the "Moquito Control District" w/ the largest number of mosquito sprayer planes anywhere in the nation.

[Neophyte]

To your #7: I can easily imagine covered jihadists among the American Muslim population... but it's white haters of the Western values, the Leftist fellow-travellers of the terrorists who're of much bigger concern. They live in the community, they're not under serious suspicion, and they're eager to destroy the society they hate.

[Rockitz]

I openly defy all the 'tolerance' preachers and social utopians to go and spend five minutes in Kabul!!

...or to enlighten us as to what they pesonally would choose- 1) burn to death or 2) jump from a 110 story building!

[Miss Marple]

Thank you. I forgot about Hong Kong.

However, the people in the two restaurants I visit proudly told me Beijing and Shanghai. I am still curious.

[poweqi]

Sorry ya'll,But kewl! Just one question off the subject; why, when I make a post, I can't get to the latter post that everyone makes?

[Anonymous2]

well, dog bone, if i were advocating nuking everything and killing everyone, i would. you need to move to the heart of a top 10 american urban city and report what bio/chem warfare feels like for us. the people harboring terrorists will lie, deny, obfuscate and deceive america until we're completely paralyzed. the next attack linked to back to the nation state should be warned in a way in which the whole world shi*s it's pants and starts executing the murdering terrorists slinking around their nations.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Watch for the RAPTURE (all of a sudden millions of Christians disappear, no trace). That's when the bad juju really gets unleashed, when the Holy Spirit is taken out of the way... it does look like God has kept America from more trouble than it easily could have seen, even years and years ago.

[FITZ]

Of course on Sept 10, many people would have said it was ridiculous to think there would be 4 hijacked airplanes within minutes of each other and more than 6000 people killed and the Pentagon struck with major damage done and then our economy would be in shambles.

[poweqi]

Thanks,I did.Now only an oppurtinuty awaits.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Not sure what you mean. If you mean you want to quote somebody's post, you have to copy the text before you hit Post, or else open the Post link in a new window (and when you've pasted the text, added the italics, added your own text, then finished, hit Refresh on the browser window showing the thread).

[mommadooo3]

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of the family ties that are IN this country with them. While they are dreaming of their impending suicide death, they must find GREAT comfort knowing that their loved ones left behind, will have a 'decent' life in this land of 'plenty'.

[FITZ]

um, it's time to start shooting people breaching our borders on sight.

I think it'd be better to put the military on the borders but not shoot every hungry Mexican trying to come across. They are not the terrorists and shouldn't be put into the same category as Middle Easterners trying to come through the border. I wouldn't want to kill a Mexican for what the Arabs have done.

[poweqi]

O.K. Thanks. BUTTTTTTTT, I'm kind of 'puter impaired so I guess I need a manual!I mean WOW. Maybe I don't NEED to quote anybody after all.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Of course on Sept 10, many people would have said it was ridiculous to think there would be 4 hijacked airplanes within minutes of each other and more than 6000 people killed and the Pentagon struck with major damage done and then our economy would be in shambles.

We do need to think this through with logic, not panic. The hijack scheme was amazingly easy to do, no resources required other than knives and plane steering. But to project that because this was unexpected, they could, e.g., somehow hit a button and make the entirety of America go boom, is beyond the pale (to use a ridiculous example). These people are exceedingly wicked but they don't have the magic of Satan (yet).

[Anonymous2]

no, the ones who survive the 1,000 simultaneous bio/chem attacks won't. they'll all be rural folks who own guns and will fight tooth and nail to the end. assuming the wells and crops all survive.

[SuzanneC]

Heads up.

[Neophyte]

...go talk to 1,000 Muslim Americans or Arab Americans and ask them why they live in this country. Cheap trick, mate. No need to ask them, 'cause the answer is known beforehand. The real question is how you can believe them?