MONDO WASHINGTON: Al Qaeda Training for Small-Arms Massacre

The Village Voice ^ | June 25 2002 | James Ridgeway

[Senator Pardek]

As July 4 approaches, people are hunkering down, waiting for the terrorists to strike, whether with nerve gas in the subways, fuel trucks plowing into synagogues, bombs carried in kayaks, or assaults by fighters swimming to their targets in scuba suits. "They could hit us any day," Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, tells the nation.

According to various recent reports, over the past two months perhaps as many as 25 terrorists have slipped into the U.S. as stowaways. Osama bin Laden himself was reportedly last seen in April in northeastern Afghanistan, and is expected to release another of his tapes before the holiday. There have been numerous warnings about dirty bombs and weapons of mass destruction.

But the damage could come in the form of a much more conventional attack. An e-mail recently making the rounds of military and law enforcement circles describes a captured Al Qaeda training tape said to reveal the group's expertise in small arms and close commando situations in urban settings like New York, Washington, and Chicago. The people seen training are skilled at handling rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, and at making quick attacks and retreats. The footage may be fake, although the people sending the tape around are military veterans with extensive combat experience.

One scenario involves ambushing cops. An apparently disabled vehicle is parked just before a freeway ramp, with shooters hidden inside. When the police officer pulls up, someone inside blows the horn and the shooters burst out firing. Then there's the residential assassination, where someone knocks on the door of a home, then empties his gun into whoever answers. There's also the golf-course assassination, where an RPG-type rocket is lobbed onto a golf green, taking out the security vehicle and leaving the golfers to be mowed down by rifle fire.

In other scenarios, terrorists rappel down the side of a building from the roof, move through tunnels or sewers, carry out drive-by kidnappings, and blow up guard houses to get into the main building lying behind. Drive-by killings can be executed on motorcycles, with the shooter standing on rear pegs with arms extended over the driver, firing as the bike races down the street.

For bigger raids, terrorists carry concealed weapons into a building, say a school or a financial institution, then in a swift show of violence take over the room, marching people up to the roof. TV reporters and photojournalists are allowed in. The kidnappers then begin to execute prisoners one by one in front of the cameras. The tape suggests planning several simultaneous raids to gain maximum exposure. The key point is that absolutely no one is left alive—men, women, children, all are killed.

In advice to law enforcement, one analyst of this training tape urges cops to begin shooting as soon as they recognize what's going on, and not to wait for any SWAT team or other support. Complying at any point is useless, since everyone will be ritually executed on the roof.

[mc5cents]

Hey, great news - we finally get to shoot back! Oh, that might be a bit of a problem for the lucky residents of the "enlightened" cities in mention, where you can't do that, but for the rest of us it'll be open season on the turban boys. Woohoo!

That's way you can be sure that if an attack of this sort takes place it will be in one of the cities with the strictest "gun control" laws. Wash. D.C. comes to mind. NY city ain't bad either. Boston? Any liberal city that has been "enlightened" of their right to self defence.

[Wolfstar]

Is it just me, or have others noticed just what a camera-hogging jerk Shelby has been since the terrorist attacks?

[Southack]

"So far the war on terrorism has one distinct characteristic: More restrictions on citizens, and more government power. If an incident like the hypothetical one in the article happened, the response would be the exact opposite from your idea: It would be the 9-11 of gun control. PATRIOT Act powers, and other war powers (which they'll make up as they go) will be used to disarm all Americans."

There was once a society that frowned on gun ownership by civilians. A maniac came to power in a nation nearby, however, and threatened their very island with conquest. The public feared that storm-troopers would parachute out of the sky and shoot up schools and administrative buildings.

In response, every available firearm was issued to civilians (they didn't have enough to go around, however).

That nation was Great Britain. The time was World War Two.

Now, if you think that the British won't issue guns when attacks are imminent, just what do you think will happen in the U.S.?!

I've got news for you, disarming civilians would become the third rail of politics in America if terrorists shot up any serious targets. Just wait until that first country-boy deer hunter puts paid to a terrorist. There will be parades for him so large that Lindbergh would blush.

The ghetto-gangster that snipes the next subway shooting terrorist will get a full Presidential pardon for all of his sins, a book deal, and a whirlwind media tour.

[mc5cents]

We must make the price of these kinds of attacks clear to the Muslim barbarians. For every attack, there will be an overwhelming retaliation. A cop ambushed = a daisy cutter over a city. Escalate from there.

"One of them pulls a knife, you pull a gun. They put one of yours in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue."
--Sean Connery in "The Untouchables"

[Thumper1960]

At which point, damn any "law" that prohibits civilians owning and carrying firearms. Such an incident would be a watershed event. America would become an armed camp and anyone who remotely resembles an Arab would do well to take shelter or leave the country. The implications are staggering. One one hand, it would pull the country together and force Liberals into the sewers. One the other hand, it would rip apart this nation's reputation as a free and open society.

Wreck havoc? Sure! Just what the Islamist vermin want.

[Centurion2000]

Of course, if this happens then you can expect total retaliation against muslims in this country that will make Kristalnacht look like a weekend barbeque.

Every American will arm themselves and every gun control law will become meaningless.

[alaskanfan]

That does it. I'm shaving my beard off tonight.

[exnavy]

One of these style attacks and the gun control loonies are history for some time to come.

[lgjhn]

B.S. Neither Russia nor China would do any thing except squawk mildly should Mecca be reduced to an ash pit. What the hell do they care?

I agree with you...they'll do nothing. Both Russia and China hate any religion. Russia has a "score to settle" with the moose-limbs already...China could care less....
However, nuking them is to good for them. We need to wait till ramadandam, or whatever they call it, when millions of these zombies are marching around the stone or whatever that piece os $h_t is over there, and then drop a few daisy cutters followed by good crop dusting of pig grease and fecal matter...a much slower death that is much deserved...and with no chance to meet their little moon good of peace: allah and his virgins since they're soaked in pig grease....
They wanna play nasty, so can we.

[freeeee]

I hope nothing like this happens. And if it does, I hope you're right about the response. But -

what do you think will happen in the U.S.?!

Well, I could sit here and speculate, or I could look at what happened in the past.

After Columbine, there was no serious political momentum to arm teachers, or put armed guards in schools. But there was a HUGE push for gun control.

Even after 9-11, despite popular support, pilots (much less passengers) were not armed. Instead, travelers are denied even fingernail cutters, and instead of issuing pilots a service weapon, they are shaken down by airport security (which is federalized and now has soldiers), because you see, a pilot could pull a gun on himself and take control of the airplane he's already flying. Sure, the only terrorists stopped on 9-11 were stopped by citizens. But that doesn't matter. Much better to send up a F-16 to shoot the plane from the sky. The authorities don't want anyone killing the bad guy but them. And they really don't care if civilians are killed along the way. It shows how ruthless, and in control they are, and that's the way they like it.

Seeing a pattern here? You give a rational, logical response to being attacked, but how logical have real life policies been? The modern response to attacks is not to empower citizens to defend themselves. Far, far from it. The response is always the same: much, much more 'security', disarmament, searches, surveillence.

Watch for the usual suspects to scream about the "gun show loophole" where terrorists got their weapons. I think you can imagine what the liberal press will do with all this. Overnight, all civilians with guns will be seen in the same light as some Jihad nut taking flying lessons. In the end, it will be ordinary Americans whose rights are denied, as usual.

Citizens protecting themselves is an alien concept to those in Washington. And attacks aren't going to change that.

[ellery]

Their version of "immoral" = anyone who doesn't worship Allah, women who don't cover their bodies, secular government, free speech...

Their talk of immorality can't be reconciled with the various things people here think immoral...

[Arioch7]

I agree. However, I think that if things escalate to an extremely hostile position between us it should be said aloud AS A THREAT.

If we nuke Mecca, that would put them on what Sun-Tsu calls "Death Ground", where thier only option is to fight like maniacs. I do think that the THREAT would carry great weight as they are so attached to this place.

To all of you Sun-Tsu purists out there, I know that it is not the usual interpretation of "Death Ground" but I am talking strategically, not tactically.

In other words, we use thier fanaticism against them. A lot can be said about how they believe that the Koran pre-ordains thier victory and Mecca is almost eternal. What I mean is that if we DID blow up Mecca, that would be a psychological blow as well. But, I will stick to my first point as that is what I think.

[Rebelbase]

The scenarios presented are nothing compared to the crap Hollywood has been producing for decades. A couple of 10 year old kids could come up with worse scenarios.

[white trash redneck]

For one thing, if it happens here in Texas, there will be some concealed carry guys taking a bunch of terrorists with them-- and those guys would immediately be American heroes. Aside from that, all the gun shops would be immediately sold out, long before anyone could pass a law.

Finally, any attempt to disarm Americans after an event like that would result in massive street demonstrations nation-wide-- and I'm willing to bet that both the cops and the military would be marching with us.

I sure hope you're right and I'm wrong, but I think...
The concealed carry guys would be portrayed by ABCNNBCBS and the news media as 1) dangerous crazed vigilantes whose deaths prove that the sheeple are much better calling 911 and waiting for the authorities, or 2) there would be no mention of them at all, just as the media have neglected mentioning the armed teacher who stopped the shooting in Pearl, MS, or the armed students who stopped the shooter at Appalachian Law School.

I wouldn't hold my breath on street demonstrations. Lots of people are pissed at how Norm Mineta is holding the general American traveling public hostage to his security goons by not authorizing common sense profiling, and lots of Americans think that authorizing pilots to shoot cockpit intruders makes a lot more sense than having the Air Force shoot that plane down when the hijackers take control, but, as much as I'd like to participate, I haven't seen any demos.
And I'd forget about the cops and military. Being allowed to carry weapons allows cops to believe themselves distinct from, and superior to the sheeple. With regard to the military, I recall reading that a student at one of the military War Colleges surveyed Marines at the base at Twentynine Palms in CA, and one of the questions had to do with their willingness to obey an order to shoot civilians to confiscate their firearms. About 2/3 would obey.

[Southack]

You haven't seen calls by the media and liberal politicians to shut down aviation training in the U.S., even though it was here that the terrorists learned to fly.

The aviation security bill that federalized workers also contained Senator Bob Smith's "Arm all pilots" provision, too. That provision is being stalled by Democrat-holdover Norm Mineta in the Department of Transportation, but the fact still remains that a gun-rights expansion passed into law AFTER 9/11.

So I have to disagree with you. Oh, liberals would love to employ the very tactics that you mention, no one would dispute that fact, but it would be political suicide to try to disarm America while civilians were being targeted by terrorists with firearms and bombs.

How popular was gun control in America after Pearl Harbor?

Also, notice that politicians universally PRAISED the civilian vigilantees who brought down the aircraft in Pennsylvania on 9/11.

Praising vigilantees is NOT how a liberal politician will go about disarming America.

Clearly the trend is in the OTHER direction from that...

[LonePalm]

Berkley?

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[LonePalm]

Over my, and his dead body!!!

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[StormEye]

"It shows how ruthless, and in control they are, and that's the way they like it."

In particular, it shows how much the Feds want to control us! -- the average American citizens. They love and covet power over Americans. The average American citizen desiring to own and carry an gun means the Feds have less power to coerce people. The "liberal", leftists Feds in society and in government then start feeling "insecure." They just can't stomach individual Americans who are not under the government boot.

[Mark17]

Well, I told you I hoped I was wrong about PC.

Regards.