CIA director Michael Hayden warned Friday that Al-Qaeda was plotting fresh attacks on the United States aimed at sowing death and destruction on a massive scale.
His comments came just days ahead of the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks and as the US government said it was analyzing a copy of the latest video message said to have been made by elusive Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
"Our analysts assess with high confidence that Al-Qaeda's central leadership is planning high impact plots against the American homeland," Hayden told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
"Al-Qaeda is focusing on targets that would produce mass casualties, dramatic destruction and significant economic aftershocks," he added.
The Bin Laden video, first reported Thursday by US officials monitoring militant websites, would be the first such appearance by the militant leader since October 2004, when he threatened new attacks on the United States.
Hot Air has portions of the bin Laden video up at their site, if you want to see them, head over there.
Now about the "planned" attack that CIA director Michael Hayden is warning us about. It is no surprise that al-Qaeda is planning an attack against the U.S. and U.S. interests elsewhere, we were warned of a spectacular summer fun, months ago, we also have seen terror plots foiled over the last two weeks, one in Denmark and one in Germany... hopefully anything he has planned for the U.S. is put together with the same incompetence and lack of organizational skills as those were.
My analysis from the other day:
In December of 2006 Newsweek reported that bin Laden’s representatives gave bad news to the Taliban: Qaeda fighters are shifting to a new front: IRAQ.
Dec. 15 issue - During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, three senior Qaeda representatives allegedly held a secret meeting in Afghanistan with two top Taliban commanders.
The confab took place in mid-November in the remote, Taliban-controlled mountains of Khowst province near the Pakistan border, a region where Al Qaeda has found it easy to operate—frequently even using satellite phones despite U.S. surveillance.
At that meeting, according to Taliban sources, Osama bin Laden’s men officially broke some bad news to emissaries from Mullah Mohammed Omar, the elusive leader of Afghanistan’s ousted fundamentalist regime. Their message: Al Qaeda would be diverting a large number of fighters from the anti-U.S. insurgency in Afghanistan to Iraq. Al Qaeda also planned to reduce by half its $3 million monthly contribution to Afghan jihadi outfits.
All this was on the orders of bin Laden himself, the sources said. Why? Because the terror chieftain and his top lieutenants see a great opportunity for killing Americans and their allies in Iraq and neighboring countries such as Turkey, according to Taliban sources who complain that their own movement will suffer.
We have seen, countless times, in the news that al-Qaeda had decided to make Iraq their "central battlefield" and have sent some of the best trained and organized fighters to Iraq.
As the news has been reporting, quite frequently these days, we are killing and capturing al-Qaeda in Iraq, they are not able to train their fighters as they once were able because of our military in Afghanistan and our attacks upon their training camps and they have resorted to internet guides to train wannabe terrorist online, bomb making guides online, guides on how to kidnap Americans, guides to create your own homegrown al-Qaeda cells and how to attack military installations.
They have been forced to start training people online, which could be one explanation of why these people are so inept nowadays, why their plots are being foiled and why many of their groups are being captured in Denmark, Germany, London and in the U.S..
Does this mean we cannot be attacked successfully? No, unfortunately it would only take one plot to slip through the cracks to cause us massive damage, which is why our intelligence agencies need whatever tools necessary to prevent a plot from seeing success, here at home or abroad.
People can piss and moan all they want about FISA and NSA, but the fact is, they are trying to kill us, as all these foiled plots prove without a doubt and it is up to our government, whoever is president, to protect us and hinder al-Qaeda's, or anybody that shares al-Qaeda's ideology, abilities to attack us.
To ignore the trend of unsuccessful plots or to wave them away because they were unsuccessful, without bothering to acknowledge the work and intelligence that went into making them unsuccessful, is to deny the reality of the world we live in today.
So, when you watch the news and see a plot that has been foiled, it is easy to look at it as "just one plot", but to ignore the big picture of the constant attempts that are being foiled, is idiocy, you have to understand that they will not stop trying and we must, as a country, as a nation and as an international community worldwide, protect ourselves and keep on the offensive.
Reacting after an attack in a defensive action and one that comes too late, after hundreds or thousands of people have died and that is unacceptable.
What I DO find amusing about the bin Laden video though, is that he makes it clear who is on his side and who isn't.
bin Laden Praises Chomsky/Left/Antiwar Voters!
Protein Wisdom states it well, regarding the Democrats:
Because let’s face it: having the world’s number 2 terrorist (just behind George Bush) come out and berate you for not following through with your promises to do his organization’s bidding — well, that can be a bit of a bummer, I imagine.
You can catch the buzz on these stories over at memeorandum.
Others discussing this:
MSNBC, AFP, Political Radar, The Blotter.
For the record, the tape is still being analyzed for authenticity.
[Update]NBC has the full transcript up, PDF file.
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