AL-Qaeda again..i thought this world was now safer?

[reeds]

Seriously, I am not trying to start another pissing match, but all you who say the world is now a safer place because we have launched this "war on terror" are INCORRECT..or am I just imagining this all these new cases of terror????

Terrorists plan "spectacular attack" in Saudi Arabia: report


LONDON (AFP) - Intelligence agencies fear that the Islamic terrorists behind the deadly kidnappings in Saudi Arabia over the weekend are planning a "spectacular attack" in the country, The Times of London reported.

Twenty-two people were killed in the Saudi terrorist operation by gunmen who slit the throats of several foreigners, before commandos stormed a housing complex to rescue dozens of hostages on Sunday.

Key oil installations, or the causeway linking Saudi Arabia to Bahrain are among the possible targets of a future attack, according to the British newspaper's intelligence sources.

Final preparations for such an attack are being made by Al-Qaeda sympathisers, The Times said.

The Saudi interior ministry on Sunday listed the dead from the hostage-taking and related violence as: eight Indians, three Filipinos, three Saudis, two Sri Lankans, one American, one Briton, an Italian, a Swede, a South African and an Egyptian.

Another 25 people from various countries were wounded in the attacks which were launched Saturday on the offices of several oil companies and only ended 24 hours later when Saudi forces stormed the upmarket Oasis housing compound where the gunmen had taken the hostages, it said in a statement.

The ministry said three of the gunmen managed to escape after seizing a car at gunpoint after the commandos stormed the sprawling compound. A fourth, their alleged leader, was wounded and captured, it said. He was identified only as one of the kingdom's "most wanted."

The attacks were purportedly claimed by the Al-Qaeda terror group in a statement posted on an Islamist website and which could not be verified.

A second statement later vowed to "cleanse the Arabian Peninsula of infidels"

[dude1394]

The unfortunate thing that you don't realise reeds is that terrorism has been going on for many years and was planned no matter what we did. However there are two countries (afghanistan and iraq) where the governments do not support terrorism. To think that doesn't make us safer from terrorism is naive.

Except in the case where someone believes that by sticking their head in the sand, they will be safe.

[FullBurst41]

What you do not realise, Dude, is that we (Th West) are largely responsible for what we get on our plates today. Call it an inheritence of the 20th century and its many twists and turns, fi you will.

But, then again, terrorism has been around since hte invention of the wheel, so what does it matter.

[Usually Lurkin]

Originally posted by: FullBurst41
What you do not realise, Dude, is that we (Th West) are largely responsible for what we get on our plates today. Call it an inheritence of the 20th century and its many twists and turns, fi you will.

But, then again, terrorism has been around since hte invention of the wheel, so what does it matter.

do not justify mass murder, FullBurst41. Blowing up innocent women and children is a choice. Those individuals and organizations that willfully perform such acts as deliberate means to a selfish end have turned down other avenues of influence. There are enough examples of individuals and organizations that have chosen not to perform such horrific deeds that you cannot possibly argue a deterministic link of causation between anything American or western civilization has done and the genocidal desires of terrorism.

It does not matter how oppressed they may think they are, or how encouraged they feel thay have been. The murder of innocent people is a choice made only by the murderer, and the responsibility lies solely with that individual.

[Murphy3]

As a member of the left, I must say that it is ok for terrorists to blow up women and children 'IF' they claim that it is in response to something done by the U.S. regardless of any other logic or reason involved in the situation.

[madape]

Anyone who thinks terrorists are justified in their actions because of the evils of America needs to have their head examined.

or their ass kicked

[LRB]

Originally posted by: FullBurst41
What you do not realise, Dude, is that we (Th West) are largely responsible for what we get on our plates today. Call it an inheritence of the 20th century and its many twists and turns, fi you will.

But, then again, terrorism has been around since hte invention of the wheel, so what does it matter.

It's hard to believe that you would be barbaric enough to justify the mass murder of innocents simply to make a policitcal point or to demonstrate some injustice that was done to your ancestors . Even if the injustice was done directly to you are your family, it is still inconcievably barbaric to think that it would justify killing innocents.

Using the same logic, if someone were to rape my sister, then I would be free to go rape their sister. That is totally sick and twisted. But it is always nice to know that there are millions of liberal Europeans always at the ready to support and defend murders.

[u2sarajevo]

I am Savovic after reading FullBursts response.

And also reeds, just because Al-Qaeda plans an attack doesn't mean we aren't safer. Chicken S terrorists can plan all they want, attack all they want.... doesn't hurt my resolve.

And until our resolve is diminished, they haven't won a thing.

[MavKikiNYC]

Seriously, I am not trying to start another pissing match, but all you who say the world is now a safer place because we have launched this "war on terror" are INCORRECT..or am I just imagining this all these new cases of terror????

you do not realise, Dude, is that we (Th West) are largely responsible for what we get on our plates today. Call it an inheritence of the 20th century and its many twists and turns, fi you will.

But, then again, terrorism has been around since hte invention of the wheel, so what does it matter.

Safer if not universally more intelligent.

[MavKikiNYC]

I feel safer with these phuckwads in jail, and with the carcasses of some of those who were bankrolling and assisting him scattered across some rocks in Afghanistan.

Padilla Targeted Apartment Houses, U.S. Report Says (Update2)

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Jose Padilla, one of two U.S. citizens being held as ``enemy combatants'' in the war on terrorism, trained with an explosives expert in Afghanistan and was assigned to blow up U.S. apartment buildings with natural gas, U.S. officials said.

In response to a request from Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, the Justice Department summarized Padilla's activities with al-Qaeda, including his written application to join the group. The seven-page report described his basic training during a trip to Afghanistan, a second trip when he allegedly trained to blow up apartment buildings and a meeting with the chief planner of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The material ``enables us for the first time to tell the full story of Jose Padilla,'' Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Comey said at a news conference in Washington. ``It will allow the American people to understand the threat he posed'' as ``a highly trained soldier of our enemy.''

A lawyer for Padilla said the government should put Padilla on trial, where he would have a chance to respond.

Comey defended the two-year detention of Padilla, who was arrested in Chicago in June 2002 and accused of plotting to explode a radioactive ``dirty bomb'' in the U.S. Padilla hasn't been formally charged with a crime.

The Bush administration is defending the detention of Padilla and another U.S. citizen, Yaser Esam Hamdi, who was captured with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. The Supreme Court is due to rule by July on the lawfulness of the detentions. Today's announcement also follows last week's news conference in which Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller warned the U.S. public that al-Qaeda intends to attack the U.S. in the coming months.

Padilla's Admissions

Today's summary is based in part on admissions by Padilla since his arrest on a material witness warrant. Padilla admitted that, during a meeting in Kandahar in July or August of 2001, he was assigned an operation ``to blow up apartment buildings in the United States with natural gas,'' the statement says.

As part of his training, Padilla and another al-Qaeda operative, Adnan El Shukrijumah, also known as ``Jafar,'' worked with an explosives expert at the Kandahar airport on switches, circuits and timers, the government report says.

They ``also spent time learning how to prepare and seal an apartment in order to obtain the highest explosive yield,'' it says. That mission was apparently abandoned, according to the report, when Padilla and El Shukrijumah couldn't get along.

Comey noted that El Shukrijumah was among seven suspected terrorists being hunted by the U.S. who were named last week by Ashcroft and Mueller. He is ``one of the seven we want so bad to find,'' Comey said.

Dirty Bomb

Padilla then turned his attention to a plot in which he would detonate a ``dirty bomb,'' or explosives wrapped in uranium or other radiological material.

Abu Zubaydah, a lieutenant to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, sent Padilla and an accomplice to present their plan to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the chief planner of Sept. 11, the report says. Mohammed was skeptical and urged them to pursue the original plan by entering the U.S., locating up to three high-rise apartment buildings that had natural gas, rent two apartments in each building, seal the openings, turn on the gas and set timers to detonate explosives.

Mohammed ``wanted Padilla to hit targets in New York City, although Florida and Washington, D.C., were discussed as well,'' the report says. ``Padilla now admits that he accepted the mission.''

Arriving in Chicago

He entered the U.S. at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on May 8, 2002. He lied to FBI agents about having been to Afghanistan, about the source of the more than $10,000 he had on him, and the purpose of his return to the U.S., the report says. The agents arrested him.

After being designated an enemy combatant, Padilla was placed in the custody of the Defense Department. He has been held without charges in a Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina.

Padilla's case was the subject of a hearing in the U.S. Supreme Court on April 28. Justices questioned whether the Bush administration has the right to detain American citizens indefinitely as part of the war on terrorism by labeling them as ``enemy combatants.''

The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled for Padilla in December, saying the military couldn't hold him as an enemy combatant without congressional authorization. The appeals court said Padilla must be charged with a crime, held as a material witness or released. The court put its ruling on hold pending the Supreme Court appeal.

Right Call

Comey said the Padilla story shows that President George W. Bush made the right call in naming him an enemy combatant and depriving him of the rights and access to court granted to U.S. criminal defendants.

``The president's decision was to hold him to protect the American people and find out what he knows,'' Comey said. ``What we have learned confirms that the president of the United States made the right call, and that call saved lives.''

Had Padilla been treated as a typical defendant, he probably would have followed a lawyer's advice ``and said nothing,'' Comey said. ``He would likely have ended up a free man, with our only hope being to try to follow him, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and hope, pray really, that we didn't lose him.''

Criminal Charges

One of Padilla's lawyers, Andrew G. Patel, said he would characterize Comey's presentation as ``an opening statement in a trial that's not happening.''

He added, ``This is a trial in the court of public opinion and not a court of law.''

Asked about that at the press conference, Comey said he isn't ruling out a criminal trial ``some day.'' In a trial, prosecutors wouldn't be able to use the statements Padilla has made while in military custody, Comey said.

Comey also denied that the report's release is related to the Supreme Court's considerations of Padilla's status.

Hatch, who requested the report, said it ``confirms the very real and dangerous threat'' that Padilla posed.



To contact the reporter on this story:
Laurence Arnold in Washington larnold4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Glenn Hall at ghall@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 1, 2004 14:53 EDT

[Murphy3]

Originally posted by: madape
Anyone who thinks terrorists are justified in their actions because of the evils of America needs to have their head examined.

or their ass kicked

As a member of the left, I believe that it's the right of each person that thinks that terrorists acts are justified because of the evils of America should have the choice not to have their heads examined if and only if it pisses off the right.

[FishForLunch]

The Left will find a way to blame the dead themselves, a job at which they are surpassingly brilliant.

[FishForLunch]

Terrorist behind September 11 strike was trained by Saddam
By Con Coughlin
(Filed: 14/12/2003)


Iraq's coalition government claims that it has uncovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the US, was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist.



Details of Atta's visit to the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2001, just weeks before he launched the most devastating terrorist attack in US history, are contained in a top secret memo written to Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

The handwritten memo, a copy of which has been obtained exclusively by the Telegraph, is dated July 1, 2001 and provides a short resume of a three-day "work programme" Atta had undertaken at Abu Nidal's base in Baghdad.

In the memo, Habbush reports that Atta "displayed extraordinary effort" and demonstrated his ability to lead the team that would be "responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy".

The second part of the memo, which is headed "Niger Shipment", contains a report about an unspecified shipment - believed to be uranium - that it says has been transported to Iraq via Libya and Syria.

Although Iraqi officials refused to disclose how and where they had obtained the document, Dr Ayad Allawi, a member of Iraq's ruling seven-man Presidential Committee, said the document was genuine.

"We are uncovering evidence all the time of Saddam's involvement with al-Qaeda," he said. "But this is the most compelling piece of evidence that we have found so far. It shows that not only did Saddam have contacts with al-Qaeda, he had contact with those responsible for the September 11 attacks."

Although Atta is believed to have been resident in Florida in the summer of 2001, he is known to have used more than a dozen aliases, and intelligence experts believe he could easily have slipped out of the US to visit Iraq.

Abu Nidal, who was responsible for the failed assassination of the Israeli ambassador to London in 1982, was based in Baghdad for more than two decades.

[Mavdog]

The handwritten memo, a copy of which has been obtained exclusively by the Telegraph, is dated July 1, 2001 and provides a short resume of a three-day "work programme" Atta had undertaken at Abu Nidal's base in Baghdad

Odd that the FBI says that Atta was in Florida through July 9, 2001, when he flew to Spain for a 10 day visit. How Atta could be in Iraq at the same time he was in Florida is certainly not possible.

"The FBI said that Atta flew to Madrid's Barajas airport from Miami on 9 July. His first step on arrival was to pick up a rental car which he had previously reserved over the internet"

Atta article from the Guardian

[madape]

I'm taking this peice of information with a giant grain of salt. It sounds like bullshit to me, but what do I know.

[LRB]

Originally posted by: Mavdog

Odd that the FBI says that Atta was in Florida through July 9, 2001, when he flew to Spain for a 10 day visit. How Atta could be in Iraq at the same time he was in Florida is certainly not possible.

"The FBI said that Atta flew to Madrid's Barajas airport from Miami on 9 July. His first step on arrival was to pick up a rental car which he had previously reserved over the internet"

Atta article from the Guardian

How could Atta have been in Iraq July 1, 2001?

Although Atta is believed to have been resident in Florida in the summer of 2001, he is known to have used more than a dozen aliases, and intelligence experts believe he could easily have slipped out of the US to visit Iraq.