|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Bush Claims 10 Al-Qaeda Attacks Foiled
The White House said yesterday that the United States and its allies have stopped 10 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks in the years since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, Sept. 22). The Library Tower in Los Angeles, ships in international waters and foreign tourist spot were all targeted. Three of the plots targeted sites within the United States. Five al-Qaeda attempts to survey targets and place operatives in the country were also stopped, according to the White House. This is the first time the Bush administration has publicly compiled a list of foiled attacks. However, it provided little detail beyond the location and general date of each plot, raising questions about the seriousness of the threats and the government’s role in stopping them, according to the Post. “While the killers choose their victims indiscriminately, their attacks serve a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs and goals that are evil but not insane,” President George W. Bush said. He said the foiled attacks mean “the enemy is wounded but the enemy is still capable of global operations.” Of the plots targeting U.S. soil, one was the alleged effort by Jose Padilla to detonate a radiological “dirty bomb” in the country (see GSN, Sept. 12). The other two involved plans to hijack and crash plans on the West Coast in 2002 and the East Coast in 2003, the Post reported. A source said that the West Coast hijacking targeted the Library Tower — now called the U.S. Bank Tower — and involved Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohamed and Malaysian militants. The foreign plots included using hijacked plans against London’s Heathrow Airport, attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf and the Straits of Hormuz, attacks on Westerners in Pakistan and a multitarget bomb strike in the United Kingdom. The “casings and infiltrations” included the capture of Iyman Faris, who was accused of plotting to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge. Another apparently involved Majid Khan, who was sent to the United States to scout gas stations. In his speech yesterday, Bush denied that “extremism” has been “strengthened” by the war in Iraq. A former White House counterterrorism official disagreed. “To say Iraq has not contributed to the rise of global Sunni extremism movement is delusional,” said Roger Cressey. “We should have an honest discussion about what these unintended consequences of the Iraq war are and what do we do to counter them” (Baker/Glasser, Washington Post, Oct. 7).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
