School Warning (info discovered in Iraq)

School Plans, Security Information Gathered by Suspected Iraq Insurgent Focus Concern on Schools in Six States

Oct. 7, 2004 — Schools in six states in particular are being watched closely based on information uncovered by the U.S. military in Baghdad this summer, law enforcement and education officials told ABC News.

This is my first time posting on FR as well...just couldn't help but respond to this one.

I live quite close to the Michigan town listed in this article. You hear about this stuff all the time in other places (recently, Russia...) but it sure hits home when you think about it happening only a few miles away. Eek.

Additionally, I just graduated from high school in '03 from another school district in this area and am currently studying to be a teacher... is this the kind of thing I'm going to have to deal with in a few years? ::sigh::

Hopefully we'll (continue to) have a president who won't be "sensitive" about going after terrorists.

I can NOT even fathom what those parents in Russia are going through. I cannot fathom what the parents of soldiers go through. I imagine a mom, who carried, diapered, fed, played, nutured and loved their son or daughter and then losing them to violence. It makes me want to cry just thinking about it.

Welcom to you and G -I love this neighborhood.

Here is an advisory issued today by Dept. of Education Secty Hickok:

Federal law enforcement officials also have encouraged local police to stay in contact with school officials and have encouraged reporting of suspicious activities, the letter says.

In particular, schools were told to watch for activities that may be legitimate on their own — but may suggest a heightened terrorist threat if many of them occur.

Among those activities:
_ Interest in obtaining site plans for schools, bus routes and attendance lists;
_ Prolonged "static surveillance" by people disguised as panhandlers, shoe shiners, newspaper or flower vendors or street sweepers not previously seen in the area;
_ Observations of security drills;
_ People staring at or quickly looking away from employees or vehicles as they enter or leave parking areas;
_ Foot surveillance of campuses involving individuals working together.

The effort is the latest by the Education Department and other federal agencies to encourage school officials to maintain and practice a plan for responding to emergencies.

The article lists the states targeted as:
Georgia, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon and California.

I looked up polls at http://www.surveyusa.com/currentelectionpolls.html

ALL of these states have Kerry winning or are swing states, with the exception of Georgia.

Would there be a political reason for terrorists to choose these states?

We also have to remember that we know how far candidates will go to win elections - could this have been planted in an effort to scare people in those states back to supporting Bush?

Having seen the media used so many times for such things, it is something that needs consideration. Hate to say it, but i hope I am right in this thinking, because the alternative - that terrorists are targeting our schools - is much worse.

FReepers vs MSM and again FReepers win.

I saw this story last week:
S.D. school crisis plan is found on disk in Iraq San Diego Union Trib ^ | September 30, 2004 | By Kelly Thornton

What concerned me most about this article is the fact that the terrorist was found in June in Iraq and we were just hearing about it in September. Little did I know that "we" would be among the very few that were hearing about it.

Yesterday, I was listening to Rush and heard a caller talking to Roger Hedgcock (standing in for Rush), and recognized the story. My thought then was, "hmmmm, I saw this a week ago on FRee Republic and didn't hear anything about it in the MSM, wonder if it will get play time now?"

Woke up this morning, and surprise, surprise, it was TOP story on every single station.

Now my question is, why did CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN and even FOX fail to do anything with this information? Why were all the NEWS(?) networks scooped by a caller to a conservative talk show? The original story was AP report and not a single mention by the MSM.

When I tell people that my primary news source is FRee Republic, they think I am kidding. My logic is sound. Here, I choose what I want to read, what catches my eye, what stays bounced to the top, I have fact checkers and checkers of the fact checkers, I have thousands of eyes and ears, who notice, and report things of interest to themselves, or things that might be interesting to others.

I don't know if Roger's caller yesterday was a FReeper, I would not be surprised to find out that he was, but I am confident that we would not be hearing this story from the MSM had he not called Rush's Show.

New Media wins again!

^{(cross posting to related threads)}

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