LAT: Plot Disclosure's Timing Questioned

[rumpel]

By Peter Wallsten and Josh Meyer
Bush gives details of foiled scheme but anti-terrorism sources say attack wasn't close to happening.
http://www.latimes.com/

Note: Front Page title and actual article link title differ:

Bush Gives New Details About Old Report of L.A. Terror Plot
By Peter Wallsten and Josh Meyer, Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON — With pressure mounting on the White House to more fully explain its anti-terrorism strategy, President Bush offered new details Thursday of a reported plot against downtown Los Angeles as evidence of success in foiling attacks.

Federal officials had revealed two years ago that they believed Al Qaeda operatives, in a West Coast follow-up to the Sept. 11 attacks, had planned to hijack an airliner and crash it into what was then called the Library Tower.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bush10feb10,0,5959471.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Mythsaje]

1. And I have no doubt

that this is more of the cretin-in-chief's disinformation regarding the way they're handling the War On Terror.

I guess I should be glad the terrorists aren't smart enough to realize they can use the gaping holes in our port security to smuggle in just about anything they want.

[radfringe]

2. so an old plot is revealed?

why wait so long to tell us about it?

It's not like the terrorists didn't know that the plot was thwarted - or are they sitting around at this moment, slapping their foreheads and saying "Golly gee, our old plan was thwarted..."

wouldn't surprise me in the least if in the next couple of days there will be "leaks" that tie this to Iran

[tirechewer]

3. The Timing is Diversionary....

The timing is also very suspect. Bush and his policies took two whackings in the last two days. Bush was forced to sit and hear what people actually thought of him at Mrs. King's funeral. Even though Bushavision edited out the clapping when he was being lambasted, it still got airplay over the radio and people know. That was awkward for Bush.

Then came the revelation that he had tried to sneak his lame duck Social Security Destruction plan into the Budget Bill and got caught, and Grassley's public announcement that it was going nowhere.

So what do we need? A diversionary tactic. Let's whip out that old terrorist threat. Starting with the fake "nerve gas" attack on the Senate, and ending with this very old, very stale "threat" to Los Angeles. Does anyone else notice how every time there are incidents that are embarrassing to Bush we have another designer "terrorist" threat.

At least Frist got trapped in the Senate garage during the response to the faux nerve gas attack. Maybe there's some justice after all.

[MagickMuffin]

4. Crying Wolf Again

I decided to make this issue my Com•Log•ic blog entry for today. Check it out.

It's amazing to me that the Bush Regime wouldn't inform the Mayor of an impending attack on his city!

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he was stunned that Bush revealed details of the reported terrorist plot without first relaying the information to city officials. Villaraigosa said local authorities had heard some of the new information Wednesday from California domestic security officials, but not the specifics mentioned by Bush in his address, which was carried nationally on cable television.

"I would have expected a direct call from the White House," said Villaraigosa, a Democrat, during a City Hall news conference. "We should have been aware of all the details much before today. We did not know all of the facts."

"It didn't go," said one U.S. official familiar with the operational aspects of the war on terrorism. "It didn't happen."

:shrug::eyes:

[radfringe]

6. didn't go...didn't happen

so no need to alert anyone?

This was supposedly going on within a few weeks after 9/11 when we were getting a terra-lert of the week based on non-specific, undisclosed "chatter". When stores were running out of ductape and plastic wrap, army surplus stores had a run on gas masks, the anthrax mailer, WMD's and terrorists hiding under everyone's bed. FBI requesting suspicious activity be reported, airports tightening security, daily reports/warnings about cropdusters, trucks stuffed with bombs, scuba-diving terrorists looking to blow up bridges - but the bushies are silent on shoe-icide bombers hijacking planes?

so we get our fear factor ramped up to high based on "crap" -meanwhile a "HUGE" plot is in the works and we hear nothing about it? No warning, no alert, no special precautions....????

this load of bush*t stinks

[MagickMuffin]

7. What's that I smell?

Maybe it's the Bullshit on the bottom of the Shoe Bombers Shoes!:rofl:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

5. My goodness.

Give the LA Times an award for stating the obvious.

[unschooler]

8. Gee. And if the NSA had gone to the FISA judge for a warrant, LA would

be in cinders now, right? :puke:

[Warren Stupidity]

10. As the entire 'plot' was overseas

no 'us persons' were involved and therefore FISA rules did not apply. NSA monitoring systems in place for over ten years could have been used without any need for warrants at all. Not only was this 'plot' bullshit, it doesn't even manage to justify their illegal activities. Vile incompetent corrupt morons. Tyranny of the terminally stupid.

[leftchick]

9. Yahoo:LA skyscraper plot never got beyond talk: analysts

LA skyscraper plot never got beyond talk: analysts Fri Feb 10, 3:04 AM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060210/ts_alt_afp/usattacksbushthwart_060210080140

SINGAPORE (AFP) - An alleged Al-Qaeda plot to crash an airplane into a Los Angeles skyscraper but foiled with the help of Asian nations never got beyond the discussion stage, security analysts said.


President George W. Bush and other US officials could have revealed new details of the plot Thursday in an effort to forge tighter international cooperation in the so-called "war against terror", the analysts said.

Bush said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed planned to have operatives hijack an airplane, use shoe bombs to breach the cockpit doors and fly the jet into Los Angeles' tallest building, the 310-metre (1,017-foot) US Bank Tower, also known as Library Tower.

Bush said that instead of using Arab hijackers, as in the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the plot called for "young men from Southeast Asia whom he believed would not arouse as much suspicion."

"I think he is gilding the lily a little," said Clive Williams, adjunct professor at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre of the Australian National University.

[NoEvilTony]

11. Shoe Bomb?

I am still fixated on the whole shoe bomb idea.

So, was the "terrorist" expecting to take off his shoes, somehow get them to the cockpit door, run to the back of the plane, detonate them, run to the front of the plane and enter the cockpit?

Or was he just going to detonate them on his feet? And I'm no pilot, but don't you need feet to fly a plane?

This is among the weirdest things I have ever heard.

And people are BUYING it!!

Crazy, man, crazy...

[uppityperson]

12. Blow off their feet? IF real, was 4 yrs ago, found by other country

what does this have to do with with "we need to spy on you to keep you safe"? It was 4 yrs ago. Other people found out about it (assuming here that any of this is real, which it might be, but might not). What does this have to do with what is going on now? Or is it that they didn't keep us safe on 9-11 (assuming that that was real, as they say), but a few months later they did, so now they can do anything they want because it worked years ago?

[twaddler01]

13. I wondered

if the timing ever would be questioned. Geez!