"100% chance of an attack should the United States strike Afghanistan"

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U.S. intelligence officials have told members of Congress there is a high probability that terrorists associated with Osama bin Laden will try to launch another major attack on American targets here or abroad in the near future.

Based on what officials described as credible new information, the FBI and the CIA have assessed the chances of a second attempt to attack the United States as very high, sources said yesterday.

At a briefing Tuesday, in response to a senator's question about the gravity of the threat, one intelligence official said there is a "100 percent" chance of an attack should the United States strike Afghanistan, according to sources familiar with the briefing.

One senior official said some of the new intelligence is "very real." But the official cautioned that some of it may be braggadocio or even disinformation designed to discourage the United States from retaliating for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The new information is worrisome enough that officials at the White House, the Justice Department and the State Department have huddled in recent days to figure out the best way to communicate their concern to the public, a source with knowledge of those discussions said.

The concern about another attack is based on intelligence from sources in England, Germany, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to a source familiar with what congressional intelligence committees have been told. Egyptian, Somali and Pakistani elements of bin Laden's network are thought to be involved.

Members of the intelligence committees declined to comment on the briefings they have received, which are classified. But their public comments, and remarks by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft on Sunday, highlight the danger the country continues to face.

"We have to believe there will be another attempt by a terrorist group to hit us again," Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), ranking Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, said yesterday. "You can just about bet on it. That's just something you have to believe will happen."

Shelby declined to discuss specific intelligence information on the plans of bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network that were provided in a classified briefing Tuesday by counterterrorism officials from the FBI, CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Ashcroft warned earlier this week that there is a "likelihood of additional terrorist activity," and that the "risks go up" once the United States responds with military action. "We think that there is a very serious threat of additional problems now," Ashcroft said. "And frankly, as the United States responds, that threat may escalate."

The Justice Department sought to play down that warning slightly Monday, after Ashcroft's words received more media attention than officials had expected.

"Ashcroft's and [Secretary of State Colin L.] Powell's people and the White House are working on how to word their warnings," a source familiar with multiagency discussions said. "The government doesn't want to panic people." But, he added, "The government is definitely preparing for a counterstrike by bin Laden."

Officials at the White House declined to comment yesterday.

Government officials are fearful of attacks at any of hundreds or thousands of locations, including symbols of American power and culture, such as government buildings in Washington and centers of entertainment. They are concerned about truck bomb and car bomb explosions that could be detonated near natural gas lines, power plants and other sites that one source decribed as "exposed infrastructure."

The FBI has taken a particular interest in crop-dusting airplanes for fear they could be used in a chemical or biological weapons attack. Mohamed Atta, one of the suspected leaders of the Sept. 11 attack, expressed a keen interest in the planes. Zacarias Moussaoui, a French-Moroccan man in custody as a material witness, reportedly had materials about crop dusting in his possession when he was detained in August.

The overriding goal, a senior official said, is to make the United States a "hard target" for terrorists.

But U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies do not have specific information on the nature of future attacks. The Coast Guard is boarding and searching ships in New York, Boston and other harbors, and security has been stepped up around nuclear power plants, oil pipelines, refineries and other potential targets.

The FBI has found no links between any of the 19 alleged hijackers or their possible accomplices and any of the 1,000 to 2,000 suspected terrorist sympathizers in this country, including known Al Qaeda supporters, lawmakers were told. The group that conducted the Sept. 11 attacks and anyone who might have helped it operated as a closed unit and there may be other such cells as yet undetected by law enforcement, some members of Congress were told.

"The investigative case has to take a back seat to preventing the next terrorist act," a senior law enforcement official said. "That comes right from the top, from the president of the United States on down."

In preparation, the FBI has a plan in place to go "full tilt" for 72 hours whenever the president decides to make a move against bin Laden, al Qaeda or Afghanistan's ruling Taliban government, the official said. At the investigation's command center in FBI headquarters, a team of analysts and agents has been working around the clock sifting through reports of potential threats since Sept. 11.

U.S. officials acknowledge it is difficult to understand the motivation behind some of the threats they have learned about.

In response to threats from bin Laden's network that were detected in June and July, for example, officials made decisions to abandon some U.S. embassies and to move Navy ships in foreign ports out to sea. Now, officials have concluded, the threats may have been disinformation designed to occupy officials' attention, or to allow bin Laden operatives to observe American counterterror lockdown methods, a knowledgeable source said.

Shelby said law enforcement agencies believe terrorists will do something unexpected, and thus the agencies are trying to think "out of the box" in anticipating what might be ahead. However, he noted, bin Laden has been known to return to the same targets repeatedly, such as the World Trade Center, which terrorists with possible ties to bin Laden's group bombed in 1993.

In 1999, a terrorist cell linked to bin Laden was thwarted in what one participant later testified was a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport.

A senior government official said yesterday that if al Qaeda follows its normal pattern, "other attacks are in various stages of planning." The U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which were bombed in 1998, were first surveilled as targets in 1994, according to court testimony earlier this year.

The government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said bin Laden's terrorist organization "likes to mix tactics and targets." Under that theory, more airplane hijackings seem less likely, because security has been increased. Ground-based operations, he said, seem more probable.



-- told you so (brains@not.brawn), October 05, 2001

Answers

Well Dubya? What's it gonna be?

Still want to prove to the world what a "tough cowboy" you are, or are you gonna use your brain for once in your life?

Just remember, if more Americans die, this time YOU are DIRECTLY responsible.

-- (impeach Dubya @ crimes. against humanity), October 05, 2001.


Well Dubya? What's it gonna be? Still want to prove to the world what a "tough cowboy" you are, or are you gonna use your brain for once in your life? Just remember, if more Americans die, this time YOU are DIRECTLY responsible. -- (impeach Dubya @ crimes. against humanity), October 05, 2001 :::thud::::: So, we are just suppose to sit here and cower in our own country while these attacks continue?? Are you really so stupid as to believe IF nothing is done, the attcks would just go away???

IF more Americans die it is because of cowardly bastards like you are giving the terrorist the idea that they are winning the war!

Bush has to fight back, and fight back HARD!! If not, the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were only the calling card. Those 19 terrorist rolled the dice for all of us whether we were ready for it or not. I am sadden to see your courage has fled along with your heart, but the OVERWHELMING majority of Americans understand what is at stake here.

Too bad we can't impeach stupidity such as yours!

-- Gary (gcphelps@yahoo.com), October 05, 2001.


Well Dubya? What's it gonna be? Still want to prove to the world what a "tough cowboy" you are, or are you gonna use your brain for once in your life? Just remember, if more Americans die, this time YOU are DIRECTLY responsible. -- (impeach Dubya @ crimes. against humanity), October 05, 2001

:::thud::::: So, we are just suppose to sit here and cower in our own country while these attacks continue?? Are you really so stupid as to believe IF nothing is done, the attcks would just go away???

IF more Americans die it is because of cowardly bastards like you are giving the terrorist the idea that they are winning the war!

Bush has to fight back, and fight back HARD!! If not, the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were only the calling card. Those 19 terrorist rolled the dice for all of us whether we were ready for it or not. I am sadden to see your courage has fled along with your heart, but the OVERWHELMING majority of Americans understand what is at stake here.

Too bad we can't impeach stupidity such as yours! -- Gary (gcphelps@yahoo.com), October 05, 2001.

-- Gary (gcphelps@yahoo.com), October 05, 2001.


1) How come the 'intelligence' officials are so all-knowingly definite now, when they were totally ignorant three weeks ago?

2) If they are so all-knowingly definite now, why don't they simply stop it?

3) How do 'intelligence' agencies benefit when fear, uncertainty, and doubt are raised by them?

-- HuhHowComeHuh (ThreeLittle@Questions.com), October 05, 2001.


"Well Dubya? What's it gonna be? Still want to prove to the world what a "tough cowboy" you are, or are you gonna use your brain for once in your life?

Just remember, if more Americans die, this time YOU are DIRECTLY responsible."

That was written by the most brain-dead dumbfuck ever. What kind of fucked-up thought process led this jerk to write that trash?? So Clinton should not have lobbed missiles into Afghanistan because it cause Bin Laden to dream up this nastiness??!! Let's just be impotent eh dipshit??

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), October 05, 2001.



...told you so (shit@for.brains)

One night while you and the family are comfortably huddled around the TV, a gang of three bad guys pulls a home invasion on you, rapes your wife and young daughter, slits the throat and kills your 8 year old son, and beats the living shit out of you for good measure.

As they are leaving the house with all of your ‘carry off’ valuables, the leader of this group leans down close to your fear-stricken face and tells you:

“We might come back for more sometime or we might go elsewhere. But if you try to do anything to us, I 100% guarantee we will come back and kill you all.”

So, what are you going to do? Hide in fear for the rest of your life, living with the fact that you don’t have the courage to protect your family? Having to see the scorn in their eyes for the pathetic coward that you are? Afraid to report this to the police for fear that they will come back because they ‘said’ they would?

Only you can answer to the truth as to what kind of person you are. I know how I hope I would react and I expect no less from my country.

-- So (cr@t.es), October 05, 2001.


But the official cautioned that some of it (the "intelligence") may be braggadocio or even disinformation designed to discourage the United States from retaliating for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Gee, do you think OBL and his tree-house pals would engage in baggadocio or disinformation? Isn't that against the Koran?

A clue: they will attack again if we do not retalaliate.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), October 05, 2001.


"Are you really so stupid as to believe IF nothing is done, the attcks would just go away???"

Are you really so stupid as to believe the attacks are going to go away if we attack Afghanistan, when the perpertrators are living in the United States?

LOL Dumbfuck!!

Did it ever occur to you that maybe we should find and eliminate the bastards that are living right HERE, since they are the ones who are trying to kill us?

Say whatever you want to illustrate your LOVE for Dumbya, but that doesn't change the fact that he is one DUMB motherfucker.

Let's say one of the terrorists within our country was holding Dumbya's daughter hostage with a knife to her throat, threatening to kill her if we attacked Afghanistan.

What would Dumbya think and do in that case?

All of a sudden, he would come up with an entirely different strategy! All of a sudden, he would find a way to eliminate the immediate threat, instead of running off to another country to put on a pyrotechnics display and boost his popularity ratings.

After all, his daughter is a human being! The American people? Well, heh, they're, uh, expendable, but HIS daughter is different!

-- (get@clue.dumbyalover), October 05, 2001.


anonymous coward,

What part of, "arresting and detaining people right here in the U.S. of A." don't you understand? Hundreds have already been apprehended. You act as if the Bush administration hasn't done a thing about the problem that is here on American soil, when that is far from the truth. In light of this fact, please explain your cowardly aversion to killing the cockroaches that are in Afghanistan.

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), October 05, 2001.

J,

I realize that those of you out in the country aren't too worried about what will happen, and that's very brave of you. But some of us are high on the target list and we have families and young children. We don't know what could happen, but wouldn't it be better if our FBI was confident that they had apprehended every possible terrorist in our country before they start bombing someplace else?

-- Living in LA (not feeling @ safe. yet), October 05, 2001.



Living,

Don't worry about what J says, he is an antisocial psycopath with no conscience. He just wants to see blood, he gets off on it, even if it is the blood of your children. The real danger right now that you should worry about is Dumbya. This clown is going to try to put on his hero show real soon, and it doesn't look like common sense will stop him. The best thing you can do is get as prepared as possible, and avoid large gatherings of people where terrorists would be likely to strike. God Bless.

-- anonymous coward (ignore J @ the. scumbag), October 05, 2001.


Living in LA,

I am sorry to hear that you live in Los Angeles. You are probably very high on the target list, indeed. Instead of dreaming for the impossibility of "apprehending every possible terrorist in our country", may I suggest that you consider moving to a safer locale?

By the way, your sarcastic jab about my residing in the country as being brave probably warranted an equally sarcastic jab about your residing in the big city as being intelligent, but under the circumstances, I chose to just give you some helpful advice instead.

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), October 05, 2001.

LMAO!!!

J's solution is for everyone who lives in a large city to move out to the woods to live in a shack like him and his inbreed brother Ted Kacsynski!

Hey J, did it ever occur to you that some people WORK for a living?? Not everyone gets a disability check from the gubmint for being a deformed inbreed degenerate like you! LOL!

-- ROTFL (J cracks @ me. up!), October 05, 2001.


Just remember, if more Americans die, this time YOU are DIRECTLY responsible.

Aaakk! If terrorists kill people, it's not THEIR fault?? Why? Did they come from a dysfunctional family? Maybe we should start a 12- step program for them...Osama-anonymous?

-- Eggman (all in@one.basket), October 05, 2001.


The CIA has informed Dubya that more Americans will be killed if he attacks Afghanistan. If he proceeds, he is responsible for killing them, simple as that.

-- (If he proceeds @ he. should be executed for intentional manslaughter), October 05, 2001.


"Don't worry about what J says, he is an antisocial psycopath with no conscience. He just wants to see blood, he gets off on it, even if it is the blood of your children. The real danger right now that you should worry about is Dumbya. This clown is going to try to put on his hero show real soon, and it doesn't look like common sense will stop him. The best thing you can do is get as prepared as possible, and avoid large gatherings of people where terrorists would be likely to strike. God Bless."

So you would not attack Bin Laden in Afghanistan, huh? And your alternative is..............????????????????????????????????????

Don't have one?!!??!!

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), October 05, 2001.


So, let's say I'm pointing a loaded gun at your head, saying I'm going to kill you. A marksman shoots me in the brainpan, reflex action causes my gun to go off, and POOF...you are dead. It's the marksman's responsibility that you are dead...right?

-- Duh (I don't@get.it), October 05, 2001.

Yes. It's the marksman's fault! He should have done an aerial drop of food pouches first. One of them might hit you in the head and knock you out, then you couldn't shoot anyone.

-- (@...@......), October 05, 2001.

"So you would not attack Bin Laden in Afghanistan, huh?"

LOL!! If you think Bin Laden is in Afghanistan, you are even dumber than Dumbya!

-- sheeesh (repugs have @ shit. for brains), October 05, 2001.


LOL!! If you think Bin Laden is in Afghanistan,

I'd agree with that. There's no reason for him to stay there while the majority of the Taliban have already left.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), October 05, 2001.


Afghanistan or wherever, the point is what is your alternative to trying to take him out, with a lot of fireworks or little fireworks???????????????? It's about time you answer the question instead of dodge it.

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), October 05, 2001.

"And your alternative is..............???????????????????????????????????? "

DUUUUUUUUH!!!!

Still having trouble reading I see!

The alternative is for our inteeligence and law enforcement to get their SHIT TOGETHER and apprehend the terrorists that are LIVING RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSE!! They are the IMMEDIATE THREAT, DUMBASS!

-- (gaaawd@you.are.dense), October 05, 2001.


arresting and detaining people right here in the U.S. of A

These are only material witnesses that may have provided a false I.D. or arranged for a hazardous materials certification. It does NOT mean that they were directly involved with the terrorists or that they are part of the possible 1,000 "Sleeper" agents that remain at large. We need to clean up our own backyard before we start turning the rest of the world into rubble. To do otherwise would be to proceed with a serious Death Wish.

-- First (Things@First.com), October 05, 2001.


And the round-up of hundreds of suspects is not exactly that, DUMB- ASS????!!!!

Get your head out of your butt. When Bin Laden is found he will be taken out whether or not every single person of Middle Eastern origin is put into a detention camp or whatever else it is that you want done so you feel 100% safe.

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), October 05, 2001.


Look idiot, if the CIA has so much information that there will be more attacks, then why don't they TRACE that information to the potential perpetrators, arrest them, charge them, and jail them?

Pounding sand in Afghanistan ain't gonna do shit, except make a bunch of idiots like you happy so that you can call Dumbya your hero. If thousands more get killed, it's okay, as long as it isn't you right?

-- (get@clue.), October 05, 2001.


I guess it's all just a big scary CONSPIRACY that the CIA is not arresting anyone. Part of the big CONSPIRACY that kept Algore and Joe Lieberman out of the white house (in which case the Islamics would never have done this, ha ha ha ha) and made your life unbearable.

Maybe it's time you dragged out all of your Y2K provisions, you dumbshit doomer.

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), October 05, 2001.


Conspiracy or not, the point is that the enemy is right HERE on our own soil, and THEY are the immediate threat. If the public would speak up, maybe the government would get their ass in gear and take the most logical course of action to eliminate the threat.

Instead, we have a bunch of children like you and J and Dumbya who get their jollies by watching empty bunkers being exploded, just like a 6 year old kid who likes to blow up his toys with fireworks! The message is clear, all that is going to do is get more people killed. The only difference between men like you and boys is the size of your toys.

It's time to GROW UP and pull your brain out of your asshole, dumb fuck.

-- conservatives are worthless shits (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), October 05, 2001.


I used to really enjoy blowing up model tanks with M-80s. I guess that explains why I'm not a liberal. I knew there was a reason for it.

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), October 05, 2001.

"100 percent likely," eh?

Well, I know exactly what to do. At least, I know what the President has urged all patriots to do: Establish a beachhead at the local Mall; reach deeply into my pocket to load up the Visa or Mastercard. Then, with a deadly stare of firm resolve, shout, "CHARGE IT !"

-(Charles on Timebomb2000.com)

-- Debbie (dbspence@pobox.com), October 05, 2001.


CAWS, I’m interested in hearing about this ’logical course of action’ that our government should be taking to rid our country of the enemy within. How about putting everyone of Middle Eastern background into ‘camps’ until we have taken out the terrorists throughout the world. Oh, didn’t we try that before?

Just My Opinion

-- Just (my@2.cents), October 05, 2001.


If they supposedly have gathered conclusive evidence that there will definitely be another attack, why don't they arrest the people that are plotting the attack? Surely, they must know WHERE the information came from!

If I remember correctly, it is still against the law to threaten even one American citizen, let alone thousands.

Get the proper warrant, raid the place, and arrest them! I don't think our government has forgotten how to do that, have they?

-- (go to the source @ problem. solved), October 05, 2001.


"I used to really enjoy blowing up model tanks with M-80s. I guess that explains why I'm not a liberal."

So did I, then I grew up.

I think you just nailed it Unk, the problem with conservatives is they NEVER grow up! Dumbya is a classic example, he still likes to play with toys.

-- bwaaahahaaha (you@got.it!), October 05, 2001.


CAWS = Doc Paulie

-- (it's soooo obvious@your.keyhole), October 05, 2001.

“CAWS = Doc Paulie” Ya think? Same display of brain-dead reasoning, I’ll grant you that. Where does he suppose these ‘threats’ of 100% violence are coming from? Terrorist Lodge 34, 1254 Elm Street, Elkhart, IN?

Damn, lets send a swat team over there post haste.

-- Give (Doc@his.meds), October 05, 2001.


"Where does he suppose these ‘threats’ of 100% violence are coming from?"

That wasn't anything Doc said, it's in the original article if you aren't too stupid to read. I'd suggest you ask the CIA, though I doubt they'd tell you much.

-- (where are all these @ dumbfucks. coming from?), October 05, 2001.


There probably aren't many terrorists even worthy of the name still left in Afghanistan - they moved out weeks ago - wouldn't you? I sure would. The smartest priorities are already listed above, in the original posting. We need to cover our own asses here at home first - first - to uncover and prevent more attacks and more deaths here. And simultaneously we need to put all the terrorist networks of the world under the microscope. Sure, take 'em upon discovery if it appears they have immediate plans. If not, then study them intensely. Learn all you can about them. Why reinvent the wheel each time? Why kill a terrorist before you know everything he knows, everyone he knows, everything he plans? Map their networks and their methods in detail, then move against them, CIA-police-military, whatever it takes. This is going to take a long time, tens of thousands of hours of covert surveillance, millions of hours of investigation, a thousand little operations and battles, maybe a few thundering warnings to a few sick regimes and governments. What this is not going to be is another quick, flashy Desert Storm type operation, I don't think. That's just not in the cards.

-- Zzzzz (asleep@the.wheel), October 05, 2001.

Zzzzzz--

My impression that they are working on all of that. I hope so.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), October 06, 2001.


>> "I used to really enjoy blowing up model tanks with M-80s. I guess that explains why I'm not a liberal."

Well, this MOTR liberal-leaning sort likes to blow things up, once in a while, given the rare chance. I also like to hunt and be hunted in the woods with paintball guns, play the occasional wargame, etc.

So did I, then I grew up. (response to unc)

See, that might be my problem.... ;^)

-- Bemused (and_amazed@you.people), October 06, 2001.


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