Iraqi Drones May Target U.S. Cities

(6/18/02) FBI searches L.A. coast for al Qaeda crew, cache
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/focus/news/701711/posts

(2/16/03 )FBI Seeking possible terrorists driving 'Real Transport' 18-wheeler Quebec Canada License RS7-116
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/844430/posts

(2/21/03) US Navy boards ships in hunt for Iraqi arms
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/847998/posts

There is absolutely zero chance of this type of attack against an American city

I live in SE Michigan, Canada is across the river and would be an ideal launching pad for an attack on 4 million people.

Limited payload + wind currents + dilution in air + inactivation by sunlight, etc. + factors necessary for initiation and progression of infection/poisoning = not as big a deal as commonly believed......

You know what? Drudge sucks. Consider the difference between this ...

U.S OFFICIALS: IRAQI DRONES USING GPS TO TARGET U.S. CITIES

... and this ...

"Iraqi Drones May Target..." "Iraq could be planning..." "there is no proof ..."

The first is Drudge's headline. The second is the content of the actual story. A little less titillating, eh?

Drudge sucks.

No, if we're attacked they'll immediately start the outcry that the Bush administration failed to protect us, and the loony left will say he sanctioned the attacks to keep his numbers up. But on the other hand, when he tries to protect us against attack, he gets the following:
-Bush administration seeks to protect us via offense (making war on terrorists and their supporters) = blood for oil, warmongering fascist, etc.
-Bush administration seeks to protect us via defense = police state, end of civil liberties, etc.

They think this is some kind of game.

Is this what the liberals are waiting for?!

I heard the nit wits that went over to Iraq are upset because Saddam is stationing them at military installations and not at schools.

Well, the bright side of this is that the liberal bastions supporting the obstructionist tactics on Iraq are the targets.

Not necessarily, arcording to this article anyway...

...the UAVs likely would not succeed in a large-city attack. It's the smaller cities and towns that would be more vulnerable.

Those smaller cities and towns might be populated by conservatives. (And of course, even cities like NYC and San Francisco have a few decent people in them, e.g. the staff of National Review, and Michael Savage, respectively. I realize you're being jocular --you are, right?)

True, I'd say. Problem all around, is the back ground. There would be a whole lotta lead hitting the ground beyond the target. I do not think a rocket would have enough to lock onto, so a gatling(sp?) gun would be the way.

SR

LINKS OF INTEREST>

***FOX NEWS.com: "IRAQI DRONES MAY TARGET U.S. CITIES" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "WASHINGTON -- Iraq could be planning a chemical or biological attack on American cities through the use of remote-controlled "drone" planes equipped with GPS tracking maps, according to U.S. intelligence. The information about Iraq's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program has caused a "real concern" among defense personnel, senior U.S. officials tell Fox News. They're worried that these vehicles have already been, or could be, transported inside the United States to be used in an attack, although there is no proof that this has happened. Secretary of State Colin Powell showed a picture of a small drone plane during his presentation to the U.N. Security Council earlier this month.") (February 24, 2003)

NEW IND PRESS.com - A South India News Site (PTI): "ISI TO REPLICATE 9-11 IN KASHMIR" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "NEW DELHI: In order to have a 'mini replica' of September 11 attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan's ISI has directed militants, especially of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), to use toy planes to target Army posts and VVIPs. Quoting an interrogation report of a LeT militant arrested in the state, informed sources said that the ISI had handed over a "fleet" of four dozen such planes, capable of carrying 10-15 kg of RDX, to LeT for carrying out an attack on Army posts or helicopter gunships of the Indian Air Force.The sources said that two such planes were recovered recently from Rajouri district of Jammu region. The toy planes, which can be operated by remote control, take a set trajectory and hit a target within a range of 300 metres.The arrested militant said that the plane was displayed at a Lashkar congregation in Pakistan. The militant was unable to give any further information about the toy plane but told his interrogators that the plane had flown out of his sight during its trial, the sources said.The militant had said that the ISI wanted to repeat the September 11 bombing of the World Trade Centre towers in the US by carrying out similar attacks, though using these toy planes, the sources said. The arrested militant revealed that the ISI was also planning to destroy some of the forward Indian positions at the Line of Control and international border using these toy planes. The sources said that this way, the ISI could use the plane from across the border and try to hit a forward Indian post, though such a strike might lack precision, the sources said. The toy plane could be folded inside a small briefcase and smuggled into the Valley, the sources said and added that the two seized planes in Rajouri were meant for transporting to Jammu for carrying out attacks at important installations and VVIPs. The planes were being assembled in the Lashkar-dominated area of Muridkee in Pakistan, the sources said.") (February 3, 2003)

DEBKA.com - DEBKA FILE: "ARAFAT'S NEW TERROR WEAPON: EXPLODING TOY PLANES" (January 14, 2003)

NY POST.com: "IRAQ'S ROBO-THREAT" by Vincent Morris (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "WASHINGTON - Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is experimenting with unmanned aerial drones to attack the United States or its allies with deadly chemical or biological weapons, Secretary of State Colin Powell charged yesterday. Powell said Saddam "has been working hard" at using drones to drop deadly toxins on people from far off.") (090902)*NOTE: The url for this news article has expired.

ANANOVA.com: "COLUMBIAN ARMY SEIZES TOY AIRPLANE 'BOMBERS'" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Colombian troops have seized nine toy airplanes that rebels were planning to use to launch remote control attacks, the army says. The model airplanes were found during an early morning raid on two camps used by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.") (082702)

stepping back in time...An Interesting Discussion on FREEREPUBLIC.com regarding a HINDUSTAN TIMES Article: "PAKISTAN ISI MILITANTS PLAN TO USE EXPLOSIVE LADEN 'TOY PLANE' TO HIT VIPS" (November 4, 2001)

Well, that little difference by having that little word "may" in there. Drudge sensationalized the title. I actually saw the article at FoxNews.

At the same time, this "concern" is based on real intelligence info, as the article details it.

"But some experts say the threat is very real and should be taken seriously."

I don't know why anyone would think this impossible. As I picked up my daughter today from Kindergarten, I watched a small plane doing some kind of practice run over an empty field within one hundred feet of the school. He was flying so low to the ground, at times, I thought for sure he would crash. He must have made the same run 25 times that I saw and no one even acknowledged that he was there.

Ofcourse, the first thing I thought of was this guy could be syraying the school with something and no one wold ever know. This was before I read the article.

The Soviet Smallpox Accident
ew information about an apparent accident in the former Soviet biological weapons testing program three decades ago has raised some troubling questions about our own nation's ability to protect its citizens against a potential terrorist attack. The open-air test of a Soviet smallpox weapon in 1971 caused a small outbreak of the disease in a port on the Aral Sea, in what is now Kazakhstan, even among people who had been vaccinated.

Although Moscow has never acknowledged either the outbreak or the open-air test, researchers at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, with the help of Kazakh officials, have prepared a report on the incident. They conclude that two infants and a young woman, none of whom had been vaccinated, died from a rare hemorrhagic form of smallpox. Seven survivors who had been vaccinated contracted mild to serious cases of the disease. The outbreak was contained by quarantining hundreds of people and vaccinating almost 50,000 residents within two weeks, a demonstration that public health responses can be effective.

The report infers from circumstantial evidence that the outbreak was triggered by airborne viruses from a germ warfare test on an island in the Aral Sea. The viruses infected a crew member on a research vessel that is said to have come within nine miles of the island, and she in turn spread the virus to others in the city of Aralsk. Although some experts think the Aralsk outbreak may have had natural causes, a former general in the Soviet germ warfare program told a Moscow newspaper it had been caused by field-testing of germs.

If that is true, it raises the worrisome possibility that a smallpox attack might be carried out with plumes of germs that could infect large numbers of people simultaneously. The incident also raises the possibility that the Soviet virus was unusually potent and thus able to overcome at least partially the protective effects of vaccination. This makes it imperative that the Bush administration press Russia for full details on what smallpox strain was tested and how it was disseminated. Such knowledge is vital to determine whether new vaccines or drugs might be needed to protect against that strain's falling into the hands of terrorists.

One consequence of the end of the U.S. offensive bioweap-ons program in 1969, as a result of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, was the loss of technical understanding of these weapons. Many scientists believe that such weapons don't work: they are uncontrollable, liable to infect their users, or impractical. A handful of influential scientists also held pas-sionately to the view that the Soviet Union was not violating the Conven-tion-despite intelligence reports that Biopreparat was set up in 1973, the year after the USSR signed the agreement.

Ken Alibek, deputy chief of research and production for Biopreparat before his defection, responded to this view about bioweapons: ``You test them to find out. You learn how to make them work,'' he told Richard Preston. ``I had a meeting yesterday at a defense agency. They knew absolutely nothing about biological weapons. They want to develop protection against them, but all their expertise is in nuclear weapons. I can say I don't believe in nuclear weapons work. Nuclear weapons destroy everything. Biological weapons are more .. beneficial... They don't destroy buildings, they only destroy vital activity.... People'' (New Yorker 3/9/98). The ultimate capitalist weapon?

From the first defector from Biopreparat, Vladimir Pasech-nik, Western intelligence learned that the U.S. was a ``deep target''-far enough away so that the Soviet Union wouldn't be contaminated. Inspectors found the same problem there as in Iraq: denials, evasions, large rooms stripped of equipment. ``These people just sat there and lied to us, and lied, and lied.''

William Patrick, one of a handful of living American scientists with a hands-on understanding of bioweapons, had doubts about whether bioweapons work-until the summer of 1968. At that time, a long series of open-air tests was conducted downwind from Johnston Atoll, as elaborate as the first tests of the hydrogen bomb, involving enough ships to constitute the world's fifth largest navy. The method: a line-source laydown. A Marine Phantom jet flew low, releasing dust from a single pod under its wing.

U.N. inspectors found a videotape of an Iraqi Phantom jet doing a line-source laydown over the desert.

Though the agent used was susceptible to antibiotics, Dr. Patrick pointed out that to treat 30,000 infections in, say, Frederick, MD, would require more than 2 tons of antibiotics, delivered overnight. ``There isn't that much antibiotic stored anywhere in the United States'' (Preston, ibid.).

Then there's the problem of bioengineered smallpox or other agents, also discussed in Preston's article (available at http:// cryptome.org/bioweap.htm).

"They think this is some kind of game."

-----

Unfortunately, I think you are right. Liberals don't believe that there is a real threat.

"But some experts say the threat is very real and should be taken seriously."

What I find amazing, is that even after September 11th, even after all the bad news trickles out about the state of the world at this time-Americans are still stuck in this "nothing really bad could ever happen to me on American soil" mindset.

Yes, Drudge mischaracterized and sensationalized the content of the story. That's why I said he sucks. Misrepresenting important info is irresponsible and actually kind of despicable.

http://www.sltrib.com/2002/mar/03262002/utah/722731.htm

He was one of about 41,000 Iraqis who, according to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, immigrated to the United States between 1991 and 2000.

but I believe the best weapon system against a UAV is an attack helicopter.

.. or, secure borders. What a novel idea, huh?

Then raining, windy winter is the time to strike! Let's get on with it and kill the bastards.

I read that Iraqi's had to make numerous, numerous passes when they gassed the Kurds cause chemical weapons are very good.

I don't put much stock in the Iraqi's being able to do this.

Severe bullshit alert!!!!!!

Please put your hip waders on now and watch out for the brown trout, folks. The sky is falling!!!!!!!

No such thing as "WAR ON TERRORISM" until El Presedente' Jorge Bush gets a handle on the out of control border issue.

Secure borders cannot be achieved. MORE secure borders can be, but fully penetration proof borders can't.

Even if you assume some magical secure borders, there are plenty of Johnny Walker and Padilla types, not to mention idiots like Ritter, and liberals, who are US citizens and could travel to Iraq, bring back the blueprints, get instructions, who is going to find a few vials on them, or in a small package ( or several small packages, etc.)

We should be doing more about our borderes, but "secure borders" are not a panacea by themselves.

The only thing that really works, is eliminating state sponsorship, which can provide the terrorists with weapons of mass murder, which is why we are going into Iraq.