Congratulations to law enforcement officials for arresting three suspects who were allegedly plotting to blow up fuel storage tanks and pipelines at Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Well done. But there is grumbling that the authorities overstated the scope and abilities of the alleged terrorists to make the arrests seems more significant. In announcing the charges, U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf described a plot that "could have resulted in unfathomable damage, deaths and destruction." But court filings portray the arrested men as not having much operational capability to actually carry out their scheme, the New York Times reported. Other experts also have dismissed the claim that the planned attack could have resulted in the catastrophic chain reaction, the Times reported. That said, one lesson of Sept. 11 is that law enforcement has to treat terrorism plots with deadly seriousness. Even small-time terrorist wannabes can do great harm.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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19 Comments
Fox news talked about this ALL DAY LONG the other day. And I wondered as I was cleaning my grandparent’s house…if they weren’t excited that this could happen again and making more out of it than they were.
Now to be fair, I wasn’t able to watch the other news station reports- so I don’t know if they hammered on this there as well.
I do know that after that Arkansas RNC chair said that he hopes for another attack to make us appreciate Bush (or better yet, give the republicans a chance at winning something again)..he was just saying what some republicans are thinking anyway. You’ve gotta wonder if that guy is a Pat Robertson supporter as well.
“Even small-time terrorist wannabes can do great harm.”Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Duh! Remember the Uni-bomber and Timothy McVeigh?
Another example of how terrorist, and wanna be terrorist are in the realm of police work, and informants. Not federal spying on citizens, fighting in Iraq, etc.,etc.
Just a bumper sticker slogan.
They’ve got it all wrong. There was only a single terrorist, despite claims of another on the grassy knoll….oops, wrong conspiracy case
You think reaction to the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 was overstated too?
It’s only a matter of time before it happens. Thanks to Bush&Co, we have more enemies than ever.
And we also have killed more enemies than ever.
We didn’t shit to them in the 90’s. While they bomb our buildings, embassies and Navy ships.
Sorry Joe, we can’t kill them as fast as we’re makin’ em.I heard that Al-Quaida has run out of applications.That’s what happens when you bomb Middle Eastern people who had nothing to do with the terror attack on our country, based on the premise that if we don’t kill them on their soil, they will try to kill us on ours.I can’t believe there are those that still believe the Bush rhetoric!Did you know that he’s been planning a permanent US base in Iraq even before we invaded?
We aren’t making terrorist. Terrorist are making terrorist.
Hey tell you what Joe. How about I come into your home, uninvited…start taking your money, telling you what to do, kill your family…but I did it on accident I tell you …when I was practicing firing my gun in your home. Are you happy I’m there? Or do you now wanna kill me too?
Did I just create someone who wanted to kill me where you didn’t want to before?
Yup
See, this is part of why O’Lielly’s argument was so completely insane. He said secular progressives only think about themselves.
But yet, all the right wing neocons are pro giving all the money to the rich, against doing anything for the poor, and can’t figure out why someone might not like them when we bomb their hometown.
So much for that ‘do unto others’ tenet there huh, O’Lielly?
Political Mom,
There is a big difference in causing someone grief and their turning into a terrorist who kills innocent people.
If what you said happened to me, I would be upset at those who had done it, not blowing up bombs in a crowded market killing my fellow countrymen.
You completely take the situation out of context.
It is tragic what happens in time of war. Innocent people do get killed and bad things do happen.
However, it is a far stretch to simple conclude that someone who had something tragic happen to them all of a sudden will throw all out the window to become a terrorist.
It seems to me that terrorists are to the middle east as gangs are to the U.S.
“Sorry Joe, we can’t kill them as fast as we’re makin’ em.”
Once again, America’s fault.
You people are nothing if not consistant. If only Bill Clinton was in the White House.He’d stop ‘em.
Can’t let you get away with that one, “fleettwood.”
It’s not America’s fault it’s George WMD Bush’s fault.
Or haven’t you been listening to radical-liberal-commie-symp John McCain? How ’bout that pinko Ron Paul?
Just how do you “Cause” a terrorist?
Do you make them with a mold?
America is CAUSING terroism. Please explain to me how we make these terrorists strap bombs to their children, then make them go into crowded public areas or schools or mosques, and blow them selves and other civilians up.
Just what basis are you using to form this hypothesis?
Perhaps there are Johns Hopkins or CDC federally funded studies that have taken place over the years, and I missed the reports of their results?
Or do y’all make this crap up?
I think it would be easier to convert some of you from irrational to irrational, then it would be to make someone blow themselves to smitherenes.
Freudian slip, my fingers KNEW that none of the irrational here could be converted to rational, thus the typo above.
My fingers, especially the middle one, apologizes to you irrational folks here.
Maybe we don’t MAKE terrorists, Max, but it is a fundamental religiously mandated reaction to OUR actions that were totally inappropriate and misguided by our present administration…we’ve stirred up the crazy hornet’s nest and our invasion of their territory has given them cause for retaliation..which is exactly what we would do if someone invaded us. I’d be an insurgent too if my house got blown up and my kids killed….I just might strap a bomb to my myself and blow the motherf***ers up if given the chance….you can’t say how you’d react unless it happens to you. It’s so easy to be self rightous or detached if it isn’t happening in you back yard.We started this war with Iraq, even though it had nothing to do with 9/11…Bin Laden is still alive and well and planning the next attack.How do you suggest we get rid of the terrorists, they’ll all over the world now and madder than hell…the whole world is madder than hell at us..and for good reason. We went off track to take advantage of an opportunity to put a permanet base in the Middle East and get control of the oil in Iraq…with the facade of “spreading democracy”..I guess Bush thought everyone else in the world is as stupid as he is and would buy it..guess again.The damage will never be repaired in my or my children’s lifetime