From William Webb:
It is time to shut down the political carnival that is the 9/11 commission and return to focusing on the next big strikes aimed at the United States. Al-Qaida communiqués and warnings from intelligence heads around the world that you don’t need a top-secret security clearance to understand have been in the public domain for nearly two years now. As before 9/11, the “chatter” is starting up again–and the noise is not a pleasant one.
This is the chosen year. From bus and train bombings, to setting wildfires, to a mass casualty situation that an al-Qaida spokesman predicted would kill at least 100,000–the global jihad continues while the 9/11 political carnival attempts to place blame for the past.Sunday, Condoleezza Rice warned of possible terror attacks on Fox news. The opportunity for terrorists to try to influence the election, as was the case last month in Spain, appears to be an opportunity that would “be too good to pass up for them,” she said.
“I think that we do have to take very seriously the thought that the terrorists might have learned, we hope, the wrong lesson from Spain. I think we also have to take seriously that they might try during the cycle leading up to the election to do something,” she said.
ABS news reported yesterday that an intelligence source suggests an imminent attack may be planned. “The intelligence, received a week ago but secret until now, is from known Muslim extremists who suggested an attack — possibly in the U.S. — was imminent, and that operatives were already “in place.”
To savvy readers of Jihad Watch, Front Page, debka files, Worldnet Daily, The Foundation For The Defense of Democracies, Williamwebb.org and a host of other fine websites and blogs, Ms. Rice’s words and the ABC News report come as no surprise.The Islamist’s stated purpose is to kill as many non-Muslims as possible and Americans are at the top of the target list. Bin-Laden in particular has been quite specific in outlining his plans.
We have been lulled into a false sense of security because we haven’t been hit within the United States since 9/11. The fact is, there have been a long list of potential events that have been thwarted–from publicized events like shoe-bomber Richard Reed, to the Semtex found in the bus station in Philadelphia–to the reasons behind the much-maligned terror warnings issued by the Department of Homeland security.
The 9/11 commission seems unable or unwilling to consider that we are fighting a global religious insurgency, a jihad from radical and not-so-radical Islamists that is gaining momentum throughout the Muslim world. To the Islamists, it is a RELIGIOUS WAR, an obligation commanded by their God. It is a sad and potentially lethal practice of cynical politics preventing our elected officials to continue to speak otherwise.
When you mix a religious war that one side fails to acknowledge due to a cancer called political correctness, a war on terrorism that is fought with politicians on both sides of the aisle continuing to oppose common-sense domestic intelligence and counter-terrorism policies, and then throw in weapons of mass destruction–you have a prescription for a horror much greater than 9/11.
Just in case you’ve missed it, al-Qaida has possessed chemical and biological capabilities for sometime now and have not been shy about expressing their plans for using them on American and other western cities.
There have also been reports that al-Qaida has managed to acquire at least one nuclear weapon–the latest coming from Ayman Al-Zawahiri last month in an interview of Zawahiri biographer, Haymid Mir, for an Australian television station.
In conducting research for my upcoming book, I have asked several world intelligence and political leaders whether they could unequivocally state that al-Qaida has NOT acquired WMDs. Not one has been able to reassure me that militant Islamists haven’t been able to acquire one.
Instead, the directors of MI-5, CIA, FBI and other top intelligence agencies have issued continued warnings during the past three years concerning militant Islamists attempting to acquire and use WMDs.
MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, has chronicled the disturbing warnings for some time now. A particularly telling article appeared in January.
In Special Dispatch 650 published on January 27, 2004 Louis Attiya Allah, an alias for one of the leading al-Qaida ideologues in Saudi Arabia, analyzes bin-Laden’s most recent speech. One of bin-Ladens statements was, “We continue on our path and in our Jihad against America. We continue to strike at America and we expect that our next blow will cause the collapse of the situation [in Saudi Arabia] due to the vengeful response, the first result of which will be the direct occupation of the oil sources and America’s entrance [into Saudi Arabia] with the aim of changing the situation from its foundations.”Mr. Allah goes on to help explain the significance and writes, “It will be a surprising blow, that is, one that is completely unexpected. They cannot conceive or imagine the way in which it will be carried out… It is a great blow. That is, the losses that will be caused to America and the Western world in its wake will be very great. Due to its magnitude, the blow will change the international balances of powers…”
Now I am the first to admit there is a tendency in some middle eastern cultures for verbal hyperbole and wildly outlandish conspiracy theories, but you must ask yourself: Why would bin-Laden try to reach out to government leaders who banished him from Saudi Arabia and warn them of a coming “blow?”
What destruction would have to occur that would elicit a response that Mr. Allah predicts, “America will take a mighty blow, will go berserk, and will decide to punish the extremists deep in the Arabian Peninsula, by means of direct occupation.”It may not be a WMD, but I would contend that the next attack, or series of attacks are not going to be tactical strikes. And as many have warned, may people are going to have to die this time to get the politicians and the rest of the American public to finally wake up.
In July 2003, radical Saudi Sheik Nasser bin Hamd al-Fahad issued a fatwa, or religious edict, granting legal religious authority to the use of weapons of mass destruction against both the United States and Great Britain and their civilian populations. The article and analysis by Yoni Fighel and Moshe Marzouk can be found at International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism.
Again, you can view this as rabid exaggeration, or a pious Muslim leader taking care to get religious blessing before using WMDs. Why did bin-Laden seek out the fatwa?
For anyone familiar with the operations of Al-Qaida, this fatwa should serve as a grim, horrific warning to read, listen to, and most importantly, understand. Osama bin Laden has cloaked his next planned major mass murder in religious legitimacy by obtaining these rulings prior to the strikes
There are literally hundreds of other articles and reports in which bin-Laden, al-Zawahiri or others promise mortal blows against the United States with casualties ranging from 100,000 to 10 million. Do you think it is prudent to ignore them as the 9/11 commission’s findings have proven were the case pre 9/11?
What can you do? Write your elected officials now and demand they pay attention and take necessary action today. Demand the end to the politicization of homeland defense. Write media outlets and demand they drop their biases and start asking the questions and demanding REAL solutions to homeland security, intelligence and defense.
Prepare yourself for the worst–and start thinking of the protections you will demand from the politicians if the big blow happens.