Air Force Attack Attempt Discovered

June 12 — Terrorists in Saudi Arabia made a systematic attempt to shoot down U.S. Air Force planes operating from one of several bases there, U.S. officials told ABCNEWS.

A month ago, U.S. security first stumbled upon what was left of a portable anti-aircraft missile after it had apparently been fired at the main U.S. operating hub in Saudi Arabia, the Prince Sultan Air Base. The missile tube was found just outside the fence line. Sources told ABCNEWS the terrorist who fired the weapon has been captured, is in custody in Sudan and is talking.

The sources said the suspect, who was trained by al Qaeda, was the head of a cell operating in Saudi Arabia. They said he and others cased U.S. air bases and one night easily evaded Saudi security forces while attempting to shoot down an American plane.

The suspect says he fired one missile, but it failed to lock onto its target, according to the sources. He then became frightened, buried a second missile nearby and ran away.

The fact that anyone was able to get that close to the U.S. operating base has raised grave concerns about the safety of American pilots and new worries about just how serious the Saudis are about protecting U.S. military forces in their country.

In Morocco, three Saudi men were arrested Monday. They are accused of plotting to blow up U.S. and British warships using the same kind of small boats loaded with explosives that nearly sank the USS Cole 20 months ago.

Hundreds of U.S. ships pass through the Strait of Gibraltar every year, and many warships visit the Spanish ports of Malaga and Cartagena, where they are considered prime targets of this group.

Most U.S. ships now sail through the Strait of Gibraltar under cover of darkness — to make any potential attack that much harder.

It is also another sign of how persistent al Qaeda cells can be.

It's also a sign about how incompetent Arabs are at war. All these plans and efforts and not that much success. Worse, for much of the time they were attacking the Clinton administration -- who pretty much ignored the attacks. Nothing like waging war on an opponent that doesn't even notice you for a decade.

1. Car bombs in Africa -- not exactly high security at the time. Killed mostly Africans on the street -- gotta love that solidarity with the 3rd World. No embassies destroyed since then. Even corrupt African regimes are protecting US embassies.

2. Claimed to have helped shoot down the Blackhawk in Mogadishu. Surrounded and out-gunned Americans proceeded to kill 50 for every American lost. US pulls out, leaving Somalia divided, without an economy or much aid. Pyrrhic victory.

3. Crippled small USN warship. Failed to sink it. It's back in service. For the US govt., hundreds of millions to repair it were a mere blip in US tax revenue, so govt. not exactly out of funds. Now USN is highly conscious of security against small boats. And as seen in Morocco, local authorities are paying attention for similar efforts.

4. First attempt to blow up the towers failed. Worse, they got caught because they tried to get back their deposit on the blown-up rental van. First attempt also led to drastic improvements in evacuation plans and stairway lighting, not to mention an serious attitude towards disasters and terror attacks by both P.A. officials and long-term workers in the Towers. Thus, casualties were greatly reduced in the second attack.

5. Anthrax -- I think the FBI is barking up the wrong tree. Yet, despite a high quality biological weapon -- only a handful of people are infected and few die, mostly elderly. Authorities across American are now better trained, equiped and experienced to handle future attacks. Even the Post Office has added machines in certain critical facilities to sterilize mail.

6. Biggest success was the 9-11 attacks. Yet, Al Qaeda never planned for two basic counter-defenses. One, the grounding of all flights. Suspicions are strong that other attacks were nipped in the bud by this obvious decision that Al Qaeda never considered. Two, satellite phones on planes. The hijackers made no attempts to hinder passengers from talking to people on the ground. It helped authorities to figure out what was happening. Worse for Al Qaeda, it warned passengers of their fate. As we saw in Pennsylvania, in less than two hours the hijacking jets and crashing them tactic was effectively countered. Just ask the shoe bomber.

7. Worse, Al Qaeda's 9-11 attacks led to the destruction of their puppet govt., the Taliban and a loss of their biggest safe haven. Still, learning nothing from this, they're doing their best to destroy the Pakistani govt. by provoking India into an alliance with the US. If they succeed, they'll find their Kashmir safe havens under Indian ground attack, the Islamic world's only nukes destroyed, and US air power and special forces unleashed on their safe havens along the Afghan border. They might even get some major Pakistani cities nuked -- which would be a brillian way to take away their high birth rate advantage.

8. They've also, with the aid of Arafat's typical genius for war, pushed the US and Israel very close to a real military alliance, and not just a friendly relationship. The historic pro-Arab bias of the State Dept. is close to becoming irrelevant.

9. Oh yeah, Russia's taken away the Saudi ability to control oil markets and is working with the US.

All in all, the ability of Arabs to destroy themselves when they engage in war is breathtaking. Even incompetent bureaucrats afraid of profiling can't save them.

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