I dunno, this just seems like a convenient disclosure which I feel is just a big old lie or obfuscation of the truth: the White House is now saying that they disrupted a terrorist attack in 2002 similar to the September 11 hijackings. Let me say right up front that, like the boy who cried wolf, I don’t believe him.
President Bush said Thursday a 2002 al-Qaida plot against the tallest building on the West Coast was foiled by U.S. counter terrorism efforts.
Speaking at the National Guard Memorial Building in Washington, the president said plotters planned to use hijacked commercial airplanes to strike the Library Tower in Los Angeles, now known as the US Bank Tower.
Bush has referred to the plot before, but White House officials had said would provide more specifics in a speech Thursday.
In an address last October, Bush said the United States and its allies had foiled at least 10 serious plots by the al-Qaida terror network in the last four years, including plans for Sept. 11-like attacks on both U.S. coasts.
The White House initially would not give details of the plots but later released a fact sheet with a brief, and vague, description of each.
Three targets cited were in the United States, including plans to use hijacked airplanes to attack the West Coast in mid-2002 and the East Coast in mid-2003. The White House said at least one planner of the West Coast attack was a key figure behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
Okay. First off, I find it very hard to believe that al Qaeda would try to pull off the same type of attack not twice, but three times. Second, what does it say about Bush’s WAR ON TERROR that the same guy was planning an attack in the same way, and we hadn’t caught him yet? Thirdly, by telling us this, isn’t he disclosing important information that could aid the terrorists??!
I think it is a safe bet to say that by the end of today, he’ll have insinuated (or perhaps, outright said) that the illegal wiretaps are what enabled his heroic, crack anti-terror squad to defeat the evil doers and keep us safe, fat, and happy.
Update, 3:50pm: So, as expected he gave a few details… he said that terrorists were planning on hijacking planes using shoe bombs and then flying them into a building in Los Angeles. Question: don’t shoe bombs blow up the plane, rather than hijack it?
On a related note, I recommend that you take a look at the movie, “Why We Fight.” I think that it is a well done analysis of our war on terror and wars, post WWII, in general.
The Bay Area, being a little bit backwater, gets movies like this a little late — like two weeks after places like Santa Ana, which is pretty sad.
Here’s a link to scheduled show times:
http://movies.aol.com/movie/main.adp?mid=21086