Gun Shy!

[firstsgtmike]

The committee investigating the events of 9/11 will soon announce its findings. Leaks to the press have indicated that President Bush and the Administration had advance warnings and indications and thus could have prevented 9/11.

I would challenge the investigating committee to name ONE man-made event, that, in retrospect, could NOT have been prevented.

The Committee's supposed "findings" have already had "gunshy" effects.

Condition Orange over the holiday season, hightened security at airports, bridges, and tunnels. Six cancelled international flights due to "intelligience reports".

For the foreseeable future, intelligence agencies throughout the world will "upgrade" their warnings, governments will take heed, and flights, airports, tunnels, bridges, etc. will be temporarily shut down.

After a while, the governments and their populations will grow tired of "over" reacting to every reported potential threat.

Then, one threat will prove to have been true, a committee will determine that the government is responsible for not preventing the terrorist act, and the gunshy, knee-jerk reaction to EVERY perceived possibility and reported threat will start again.

And without a shot being fired, or a bomb exploding, the terrorists will once again have achieved their goal, to terrorize and disrupt.

Committees that are so quick to assign blame should remember that when you point your finger, three fingers are pointing back at YOU.

[firstsgtmike]

FBI urges police to watch for people carrying almanacs
TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer
Monday, December 29, 2003
©2003 Associated Press


The FBI is warning police nationwide to be alert for people carrying almanacs, cautioning that the popular reference books covering everything from abbreviations to weather trends could be used for terrorist planning.

In a bulletin sent Christmas Eve to about 18,000 police organizations, the FBI said terrorists may use almanacs "to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning."

It urged officers to watch during searches, traffic stops and other investigations for anyone carrying almanacs, especially if the books are annotated in suspicious ways.

"The practice of researching potential targets is consistent with known methods of al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations that seek to maximize the likelihood of operational success through careful planning," the FBI wrote.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the bulletin this week and verified its authenticity.

"For local law enforcement, it's just to help give them one more piece of information to raise their suspicions," said David Heyman, a terrorism expert for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It helps make sure one more bad guy doesn't get away from a traffic stop, maybe gives police a little bit more reason to follow up on this."

The FBI noted that use of almanacs or maps may be innocent, "the product of legitimate recreational or commercial activities." But it warned that when combined with suspicious behavior -- such as apparent surveillance -- a person with an almanac "may point to possible terrorist planning."

The publisher for The Old Farmers Almanac said Monday terrorists would probably find statistical reference books more useful than the collections of Americana in his famous publication of weather predictions and witticisms.

"While we doubt that our editorial content would be of particular interest to people who would wish to do us harm, we will certainly cooperate to the fullest with national authorities at any level they deem appropriate," publisher John Pierce said.

The FBI said information typically found in almanacs that could be useful for terrorists includes profiles of cities and states and information about waterways, bridges, dams, reservoirs, tunnels, buildings and landmarks. It said this information is often accompanied by photographs and maps.

The FBI urged police to report such discoveries to the local U.S. Joint Terrorism Task Force.

©2003 Associated Press

[firstsgtmike]

New York City Prepares for New Year's Eve

From the news article:

As part of the measures, low-flying planes and helicopters will be banned from the area, manhole covers will be welded shut, and garbage cans, newspaper vending machines and mailboxes will be removed from street corners, a police official said. Snipers will be posted on rooftops, heavily armed groups of officers known as Hercules Teams will patrol the area along with thousands of uniformed officers, and hundreds of plainclothes officers will mix with the crowd.

The police will draw a tight perimeter around the city, with increased truck checkpoints and stepped-up Harbor Unit patrols on waterways. In addition to the Homeland Security air patrols, the Police Department's eight helicopters will be in the air, including a sophisticated new one with a powerful video camera that can give commanders on the ground an eye in the sky.

The police will use Sanitation Department sand trucks and other vehicles to block off side streets around Times Square. And a special National Guard civil support team, trained to respond to attacks by chemical, biological and radiological weapons, will be in the area.
========================

I wonder what the precautions are for New Year's Eve in Baghdad.

[firstsgtmike]

And so it begins. (But how long will it last?)

==================

January 1, 2004
Flight Sent Back on Terror Fear, U.S. Officials Say
By ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 — The American authorities in the last week directed a United States-bound flight from Mexico to turn around in midair and imposed extraordinary security measures on at least six other incoming flights because of terrorist concerns, federal officials said Wednesday.

Officials were so concerned about possible attacks on at least five foreign flights that landed in the United States, including one on Wednesday night at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, that they moved the planes away from the main terminals and rescreened the passengers.

The security moves, along with the cancellation of several flights on Dec. 24 by Air France to Los Angeles, reflect an aggressive new approach toward guarding United States airspace because of concerns that terrorists may seek to hijack an international flight. The strategy is an outgrowth of the "high risk" alert status initiated 11 days ago.

This week, Tom Ridge, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, put foreign airlines on notice that they would be denied entry to American airspace if they refused to put armed air marshals on any incoming flights of concern.

The officials said that in the last week they also had "significantly increased" inspection of air cargo on foreign flights, a source of widespread concern as a potential mode of attack for terrorists.

Military F-16 fighter jets have also shadowed some foreign flights from Air France and other airlines arriving at major American cities, including Los Angeles, an administration official said.

As one official related the exchanged that followed, American transportation officials told the airline, "You said there were procedures in place for that flight that weren't there. Turn it around."

At Dulles airport, the police surrounded a British Airways flight from London that landed at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday and directed it to a remote site, a security official involved in the operation said.

In five or six flights coming to the United States from England, Mexico and elsewhere, officials said, there were concerns about lapses in security in the city of origin, intelligence about possible terrorist activity, and sometimes both. Officials said several suspect flights landed at the Los Angeles International Airport and another at Dulles, but they declined to provide details on the routes.

In each case, officials said, security officials met the planes and did "reverse screenings" like the one in Dulles, interviewing passengers and searching them for explosives, weapons and other contraband.

In another instance several days ago, a flight headed for the United States from Latin America was grounded on the runway for several hours after United States officials told the air carrier they were not satisfied that passengers had been adequately screened.

David O'Connor, director of the United States operations for the International Air Transport Association, a trade group that represents most international carriers, said one critical challenge facing the United States in seeking to strengthen air security was that safety standards vary so widely around the world.

"Some airports and airlines are very secure," he said. "The British, for example, have been concerned about terrorist attacks long before 9/11, and they screen passengers and baggage extensively. And in Germany, the same."

But he added, "when you're talking about developing nations in Latin America and elsewhere, many haven't until recently initiated any real screening procedures, and that's where you have problems."