U.S. Warns of Threat to Financial Icons

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
U.S. Warns of Threat to Financial Icons
39
Mon, 08-02-2004 - 9:06am
Do you take these threats seriously? Are you getting blasé about these threats?

 

U.S. Warns of Terrorist Threat Against Financial Institutions in New York, D.C. and New Jersey.

Federal authorities warned of potential al-Qaida bombing attacks on prominent financial institutions in New York, Washington and Newark, N.J., prompting increased security and concern from the unusually detailed information unearthed on the plot.


"The quality of this intelligence based on multiple reporting streams, in multiple locations is rarely seen, and it is alarming in both the amount and specificity of the information," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said at a hastily arranged news conference Sunday.




A cache of recently obtained information including photos, drawings and written documents indicates that al-Qaida operatives have undertaken a meticulous preparations to case five specific buildings: The Citigroup Center building and the New York Stock Exchange in New York, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington and Prudential Financial Inc.'s headquarters in Newark.


Ridge raised the terror threat level for financial institutions in the three cities to orange, or high alert, the second highest level on the government's five-point spectrum. Elsewhere, he said, the alert would remain at yellow, or elevated.


"Iconic economic targets are at the heart of (the terrorists') interest," Ridge said.


The fresh intelligence did not give crucial details about when, where or how terrorists may strike, Ridge said, but government analysis indicates terrorists may prefer to use car or truck bombs or other means to physically destroy targets.


Briefing reporters in New York, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that starting Monday, trucks would be banned from the Manhattan-bound side of the Williamsburg Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and lower Manhattan. Commercial vehicles also were banned from the inbound of the Holland Tunnel from New Jersey, among other measures.


In Newark, police set up metal fences surrounding the Prudential Plaza building, blocked off two city streets and toted assault rifles.


And in Washington, Mayor Anthony Williams put the entire city on an orange alert, although the Homeland Security Department has not officially raised the threat level outside financial-sector buildings. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said teams of bomb-sniffing dogs would sweep areas around the World Bank and IMF headquarters, and officers will conduct more traffic stops of large vehicles in the area.


More..............


http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040802_74.html

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 11:47am
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IMO, the information is years old and the administration has had it for a month, why the terror alert now?

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The terrorist don't care whose president, so yes it would have happened under Gore. Does it matter who was president when the information was collected? Collecting information isn't illegal. Terrorism is a problem for our times. Contrary to what Bush says, that the terrorist attack up because we have freedom and a good life-stale, the terrorist attack us because of our intrusive foreign policy which supports repressive regimes.


iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 12:02pm
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Your correct, I'm not there and people all over are paranoid. My comments to to the paranoia--what good does it do; and how does it prevent rational thinking. I guess my thinking is more disciplined than most: fear Fear alerts one to danger; if there is something you can do to lessen the danger, then take precautions otherwise dismiss the fear. As libraone said in a previous post, people make the best of a bad situation. If I understood your posts this is the same thing your saying.

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The media reports what the administration puts out. They of course don't have to examine it ad nauseum, but then that's what they do. The alerts can't be ignored. People need to learn how to evaluate the information given.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 12:07pm
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This is an excellent article.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-01-2004
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 12:24pm
So what did we do to "tick them off" if America is so bad why are you still calling it your home? This is not the time to run our country to the ground! There are some people in the world that are just crazy they don't need a reason to hate us. It wouldn't matter if we did everything they wanted us to. They would still find something to hate us for.
Asha
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 12:38pm
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They are all crazy and don't need a reason to hate--hmm. Isn't this an excuse so we don't have to find the reason. By the way bin Laden has said many times why they hate us, but he doesn't count because he's crazy.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-01-2004
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 12:59pm
I don't think Bin Laden is crazy he knows what he wants. The question is what? To turn the rest of the world into someone just like him? That is what makes America so great, you can be who you want to be I can be who I want to be. We tolerate each other even if we can't understand one another. The "crazy people" I was refering to can't stand for the way we accept each other here. They need every one to worship and be just like them they have no tolerance for any one different. I know that America is not perfect and that we have done things that I would shudder over if I really knew about. But the fact is this is my home and I love it even with all it's faults it is still the best place in the world to live, if it wasn't there wouldn't be so many people who want to live here.
Asha
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-03-2004
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 1:28pm
Trying to rationalize why Bin Laden is doing this and why so many people are willing to do it with him is an exercise in futility..... Do you want to know why Hitler or Stalin or any other world renowned psycho did what they did??????? Even if you do it wouldn't change the outcomes thus far.... I firmly believe that there is no reason in the world that could justify this type of hatred and destruction.

"Founded" or not the hatred is real and deeply imbedded....If not Bin Laden, then someone else to take on his "cause" whatever the heck that might be.......

Both me and my husband have survived both World Trade Center attacks. We are truly blessed for being so lucky. 9 of our co-workers and friends were not. My husband still works right there in the newly mentioned, not so important target...(American Stock Exchange) Since the attacks we have had a son and I am fearful of another attack daily. I try not to think about all that we saw that day and I try not to hear the sounds when it's quiet outside.... I can't hear a plane flying overhead without waiting for it to hit something and the minute he is even a little late from work, there's a moment, however brief, that I think something might be wrong....I never used to be this type of person.... I lived my life freely and openly and maybe even a bit carefree.... Some of the changes come with being a new parent, but most are directly attributed to the attacks.... It's changed everyone I know that ran for their lives that day forever....

I like to try and find the good in every situation though...I now value my friends and family much more and my ethics have been re-inforced. I know for sure the type of person not to be or to raise my son to be. Those are valuable lessons at a very high price....

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 1:36pm
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As some read the Koran, it urges believers to eliminate the infidels that occupy Islam. Most arab countries are ruled by a dictator who is repressive. Some of the subjects want to replace the governments, but this is made impossible because the US support the regimes. OBL was fighting against the Saudi family when he was kicked out of the country. After the first Gulf War the US kept its base in Saudi Arabia;this was a violation of the dictates of the Koran (according to OBL), so the US became a enemy. What I am saying is that the middle east would have had a civil war years ago, if the US hadn't supported the governments. Check the history of Iran, that is just one example of many. So to say that these people don't have a reason to hate the US avoids the recognition of our dirty deeds.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 1:40pm
Politics as usual. Here's a report from the Asian Times online that explains what's going on with these high-value targets. Take not of the last sentence. *** indicates paragraphs missing. the article can be found at: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FH04Df03.html

KARACHI - When US Central Command commander General John Abizaid visited Islamabad last week, his first priority was not Pakistan sending troops to Iraq, but the arrest of high-value al-Qaeda targets.

Almost magically, just days later, a Tanzanian al-Qaeda operative, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, was arrested in the Punjab provincial city of Gujrat. He is wanted in the United States in connection with the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. He was one of the United States' 22 most-wanted terrorists, and had a US$5 million bounty on his head.

Security experts close to the corridors of power in Pakistan tell Asia Times Online that as the November presidential elections in the US draw closer, more such dramatic - and timely - arrests can be expected. The announcement of Ghailani's arrest coincided with the Democratic Party's convention in Boston during which John Kerry was confirmed as challenger to President George W Bush.

According to the experts, Abizaid met with all top Pakistani officials and discussed plans to broaden the net for the arrest of foreigners in Pakistan from South Waziristan to all of the other six tribal agencies, as well as to the southwestern province of Balochistan.

The Pakistan army has launched two major offensives in South Waziristan this year in an attempt to capture foreign militants, managing only to stir resentment from the local tribespeople.

Already, though, under intense pressure from the US, Pakistan has handed over as many as 350 suspected al-Qaeda operators into US custody. Most have been low-ranking, but some important names are, according to Asia Times Online contacts, being held in Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) safe houses to be presented at the right moment.

The contacts say that Pakistan's strategic circles see the high-value al-Qaeda operators as "bargaining chips" to ensure continued US support for President General Pervez Musharraf's de facto military rule in Pakistan. Had Pakistan handed over top targets such as Osama bin Laden, his deputy Dr Aiman al-Zawahir, Tahir Yuldash (leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan) and others - assuming it was in a position to do so - the military rulers would have lost their usefulness to the US in its "war on terror".

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As one observer in Karachi commented, "Every second jihadi I know has a computer and is always busy checking information on buildings in the US - their height and width and their possible vulnerable areas - and it is their routine practice to make plans with computer graphics to bring down US buildings to the ground."

Nevertheless, in response to the perceived threat, US authorities have launched a huge search for terrorist operatives who might have helped conduct surveillance of the five main financial institutions in New York City, Newark, and Washington - Citigroup, the New York Stock Exchange, Prudential, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

According to news reports, tens of thousands of delivery records to the buildings in question will be scrutinized. Investigators also will question those who have had access to the architectural plans of the institutions' largest buildings, and former employees.

*********

The next 'target'?

Dr Aafia Siddiqui, in her mid-30s, has a PhD in neurological sciences from the US. She is believed to have Pakistani and US nationality. She is wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as an "al-Qaeda operative and facilitator" and in connection with "possible terrorist threats" in the US. September 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (caught in Pakistan) is believed to have told authorities about Aafia.

She disappeared, with her three children, a few months ago in Pakistan. Asia Times Online sources claim that she is in the custody of the ISI. All calls by her family and humanitarian groups for her to be produced in court have been ignored.

Acquaintances of Aafia say she was an ISI contact and played an active role as a "relief worker" in Chechnya and Bosnia - a role the government now does not want to reveal. She has also been connected with different Arab non-governmental organizations in the US, through which she also helped to supply aid and funds to Chechens.

However Aafia's case turns out, doubtless a number of al-Qaeda operators are already in detention in Pakistan to be produced when and as necessary.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-01-2004
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 1:53pm
It dosen't matter what there REASON is it does not give them a right to murder thousands of our people! They did not attack our military. They hurt our heart the ones we love .
Asha