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Terror expert: Qaida WMD attack on US likely soon
THE JERUSALEM POST ^ | 10-29-04 | Etgar Lefkovits

Posted on 11/29/2004 9:56:28 AM PST by Snapple

An al-Qaida attack on the US with non-conventional weapons is virtually "inevitable..."All of the warnings we have today indicate that a major strike – something more horrible than anything we've seen before – is all but inevitable," [Bodansky] said.

(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alqaeda; bodansky; wmd
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Full story posted below
1 posted on 11/29/2004 9:56:30 AM PST by Snapple
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To: Snapple

Terror expert: Qaida WMD attack on US likely soon

Etgar Lefkovits, THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 29, 2004

An al-Qaida attack on the US with non-conventional weapons is virtually "inevitable," and the organization is likely "tying up the knots" for such an attack, Yossef Bodansky, former director of the US Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

"All of the warnings we have today indicate that a major strike – something more horrible than anything we've seen before – is all but inevitable," he said.

Bodansky, here for the second annual Jerusalem Summit, an international gathering of conservative thinkers, added that "the primary option" for the next al-Qaida attack on US soil would be one that would use weapons of mass destruction.

"I do not have a crystal ball, but this is what all the available evidence tells us, we will have a bang," Bodansky said.

He said that al-Qaida has not carried out a second major attack on the US until now for internal psychological and ideological reasons, but after the reelection of President George W. Bush, it has gotten "the green light" to do so from leading Islamic religious luminaries, as well as from "the elites of the Arab world."

According to Bodansky's reading of Osama bin Laden's mind-set, after the elaborate attacks of 9/11 there was no need for the "bin Ladens of the world" to carry out a second major attack in the US, both because the target audience of the attacks – the Arab and Islamic world – had gotten the message that America could be penetrated, and because a second attack would necessarily have to be more grandiose.

Following the attacks and the US-led war on terror, a debate started within the operational arm of the organization over the potential use of weapons of mass destruction, Bodansky said.

If, in pre-9/11 days, the theme used by bin Laden was that perpetual confrontation and jihad against the US was the only way to protect Islam, the argument now used is the ability to punish American society, Bodansky said.

"Just as the West was challenging the quintessence of Islam by means of the globalization era, there was a parallel need by Islamic extremists to strike at – and hurt – the core of American society, this time with weapons of mass destruction," Bodansky said.

A subsequent theological debate emerged within the organization, and its supporters in the Arab world, he said, over whether the mass killing of innocents is permissible.

While bin Laden and his associates argued that by virtue of their participation in US democracy, US citizens were enabling their rulers to fight, other Islamic luminaries contended that this does not permit such massive attacks, Bodansky said. The reelection of Bush in November, he said, was viewed by bin Laden and his cohorts as a decisive answer to this deliberation, with Americans now "choosing" to be the enemies of Islam. In bin Laden's mind-set, he said, the stage was set for a non-conventional attack.

Bodansky said that while there may still be some vestiges of debate and doubt within Islamic circles, he believes that planing for such an attack is finished. "They got the kosher stamp from the Islamic world to use nuclear weapons," he said.

Moreover, Bodansky said that America is losing the war against terrorism, noting the number of recruits bin Laden is able to count on, as his call to arms gains widespread support throughout the Muslim world.

In the pre-9/11 world, Bodansky said, jihadists could count on 250,000 individuals trained and willing to die, and 2.5 million–5 million people willing to help them in one way or another. He cited intelligence estimates from this summer that suggest that as many as 500,000-750,000 people are willing and trained to die, 10 million are willing to actively support them, short of killing, while another 50 million are willing to support such a movement financially.


2 posted on 11/29/2004 9:57:36 AM PST by Snapple
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To: Snapple

Is the alert system still operating? Orange, yellow, where are we?


3 posted on 11/29/2004 9:57:59 AM PST by RightWhale (Destroy the dark; restore the light)
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To: Snapple

Bodansky is, unfortunately in this case, reliable and solid.


4 posted on 11/29/2004 9:58:48 AM PST by tallhappy (Juntos Podemos!)
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To: RightWhale

Turn on FOX NEWS. It is always there. Washington and DC are a notch higher.


5 posted on 11/29/2004 9:59:24 AM PST by Snapple
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To: tallhappy
Bodansky hasn't gotten a single thing right in his numerous "predictions" about al Qaeda attacks.

He and Mansoor Ijaz are cut from the same cloth: hyperbole.

6 posted on 11/29/2004 10:00:15 AM PST by sinkspur ("It is a great day to be alive. I appreciate your gratitude." God Himself.)
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To: Snapple
Washington AND DC? Or is it Washington, DC and New York?
7 posted on 11/29/2004 10:01:04 AM PST by Hatteras
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To: sinkspur

Haven't seen Ijaz on FOX lately. Is he still there?


8 posted on 11/29/2004 10:01:17 AM PST by bonfire
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To: sinkspur

btw, I always thought MI's role was DIS-information.


9 posted on 11/29/2004 10:02:03 AM PST by bonfire
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To: Snapple

these kind of warnings and little or nothing is done on the border. i saw asa hutchinson on tv talking about new drones that fly over the border to film people crossing. oh good, take pictures of them. did they wave back to the camera.

what kind of idiots do we have running this security. put the army on the border and tell anyone coming across to march right back where they came from.

they actually catch people and have them sign a promise they will show up for deportation hearing.

is anyone here so dumb that they would make a policy like this? asa hutchinson has to be the biggesst idiot in government


10 posted on 11/29/2004 10:02:24 AM PST by MissBaby
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To: sinkspur

Shouldn't he be checking with other "terror experts" such as John Kerry, Al Gore, and Richard Clarke?


11 posted on 11/29/2004 10:02:27 AM PST by bigbob (2)
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To: Snapple

Think about this the next time you're tempted to criticize the patriot act.


12 posted on 11/29/2004 10:02:39 AM PST by samtheman
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To: RightWhale
Bodansky penned a book on UBL that did very well after 9/11. He's also appeared on Fox several times. His facts always sound reasonable. However, his predictive conclusions NEVER pan out. I've yet to see any of Bodansky's projections materialize. Whether his predictions are acted upon by the feds or he's perpetually incorrect, I'll never know. He just seems a bit off his rocker.
13 posted on 11/29/2004 10:02:41 AM PST by psyop_man (If the enemy is within range, so are you.)
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To: RightWhale

Yellow.

We're vulnerable - always have been. All open societies are.

I'm no doomsday thinker, but all they need is a time and place. Once they decide to go with it, we can't really stop them.


14 posted on 11/29/2004 10:02:44 AM PST by Don Simmons (Annoy a liberal: Work hard; Prosper; Be Happy.)
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To: Snapple

"... leading Islamic religious luminaries, as well as from the elites of the Arab world..."

We need to identify these subhumans and send them to hell, where they belong.


15 posted on 11/29/2004 10:03:24 AM PST by 7.62 x 51mm (• veni • vidi • vino • visa • "I came, I saw, I drank wine, I shopped")
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To: Hatteras

I thought Osama promised to hit a "red" state.


16 posted on 11/29/2004 10:03:24 AM PST by My2Cents ("Well...there you go again.")
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To: Snapple

It's a fight for the survival of western civilization, but let's hope it's not too late before everyone knows the truth.


17 posted on 11/29/2004 10:03:45 AM PST by conservativecorner
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To: sinkspur
Mansoor Ijaz

This guy is maybe slightly more credible than the Weekly World News. Maybe.

18 posted on 11/29/2004 10:04:15 AM PST by Huck (The day will come when liberals will complain that chess is too violent .)
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To: sinkspur
Bodansky hasn't gotten a single thing right in his numerous "predictions" about al Qaeda attacks.

Here's what he wrote in November 2000.

Taken together, these trends lead to a grim conclusion: International terrorism, led by the Islamists, is on the rise. The intensity of operations in the West -- Europe and the US -- will increase, to include not only spectacular strikes (particularly in the US and against US targets) but also "grassroots intifadahs" among the Muslims of Western Europe.

Sounds right.

19 posted on 11/29/2004 10:05:38 AM PST by tallhappy (Juntos Podemos!)
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To: Huck

See 19


20 posted on 11/29/2004 10:06:17 AM PST by tallhappy (Juntos Podemos!)
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