Nine schools were sent these threatening postcards.
Investigators released the postcards with the threatening drawings on them Monday in hopes of generating leads in the case. Officials said that the postcards are made up of various and traditional themes, and each one has a distinctive hand-drawn cartoon on it. Several of the threats arrived on postcards featuring Walt Disney World. Detectives said the threat-maker crossed his or her No. 7s and attached a suffix to the address. Six of the nine postcards spell the word “Jihad” correctly, while the others are incorrect.
The U.S. Postal Service said that the postcards were all mailed to the schools from the Ocala-Gainesville mailing district before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A $10,000 reward has been issued to anyone who provides information which leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for using the postal service to mail the threatening postcards to schools.
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Update: Our friends at Global Incident Map have pointed out that although the postcards were sent out prior to the 9/11 anniversary, on each postcard TWO DATES “9-11 ? 10-10” appear in the upper corner.
Threatening innocent civilians with a terrorist attack is sickening enough but to threaten completely innocent children is the most cowardly act yet.
Terrorism:
n. The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.
Make no mistake, this is an act of terrorism and anyone that denies that is ignorant or willfully blind.
Other postcards that were sent:
All mailed from Gainesville, Florida. All sent to Florida schools. All have "9-11? 10-10" in the left hand upper corner.
We have spoken before about threats to our children, we pointed you to an American Thinker article on April1, 2007.
More recently we showed how at least 17 school buses have been stolen from a variety of student transportation concerns, including private companies, charter schools and businesses, in Texas.
Why do we believe that threats to our schools are serious and worth focusing on?
In that same article we showed you how in 2004,the U.S. military has found information in Iraq pertaining to U.S. schools, and in September 2004 the FBI notified school districts in six states that photographs, diagrams, and emergency plans had been found in the possession of unidentified individuals.
Furthermore we also showed that videos obtained and shot in Afghanistan showed "rehearsals" of shooting school children and taking hostages.
In 2003, Worldnet.daily as well as multiple other news organizations brought us news of videos obtained and shot in Afghanistan of rehearsals of shooting school children and taking hostages.
Videos depicting a mock al-Qaida siege of schools and golf course assassinations are now being reported by other news agencies, confirming an exclusive report by WorldNetDaily last year.
The New York Post says the al-Qaida tapes include the rehearsed shooting of schoolchildren and the taking of hostages.
The training exercise reportedly took place under the guidance of al-Qaida operations chief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks who is now in U.S. custody.
The location was an abandoned school in Mir Bach Kot, Afghanistan, north of Kabul, a hotbed of al-Qaida activity before the U.S. and allied forces ousted the Taliban.
Former Green Beret Keith "Jack" Idema discovered the tapes in an abandoned house while serving as an adviser to the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.
He says the video shows bullet-ridden blackboards and cut-out targets in classrooms, apparently representing students and teachers.
"Knowing al-Qaida trained to take out a presidential motorcade or an office building is scary, but nothing is more frightening than their training to take over a school," Idema told the Post. "In a classroom in a camp near Jalalabad, we found little desks with bullet holes in them and the backs of the chairs each had seven or eight bullet holes in them. They were definitely aiming to hit critical mass."
Portions of the tapes viewed by the newspaper showed a hostage-taking exercise and three scenarios where masked men, armed with AK-47s, pistols and hand grenades, storm a school-like brick building. In one assault, two gunmen rappel from the roof onto a ledge and wait for the go-ahead via two-way radio.
The Post recounts the school assault in detail:"Two of the kidnappers are sitting in the cafeteria," a narrator says in Arabic.
At the command "move!" a janitor sweeping a hallway inside drops his broom and pulls out a gun. Others burst into rooms, fire automatic weapons and bark English commands at a group of children and adults, apparently locals and other camp residents co-opted for the exercise.
"Sit," a hooded terrorist yells to the children, who shriek in horror. "Don't move, don't move," he says. The children are made to kneel and place their hands on the walls while adults stand with hands raised and are frisked.
The armed thugs then herd their captives down the hallways as they shout in English, "Go in here!" and "Don't move!" Some hostages are then ordered to the roof.
"I don't want to go," one sham victim pleads in Arabic.
"Go before I kill you," a rifle-toting thug barks back.
The camera then zooms in on a terrorist, who stomps on a child.
On the rooftop, a lookout announces the arrival of police. A terrorist then drags a "hostage" to the ledge for display.
The Post says other training exercises include an attack at a mock golf outing, as men dressed as caddies drop their bags, pull out guns and open fire.
Doctor Bulldog & Ronin linked that piece of mine and in his comment section, one of his commenters said:
i was on a trip home from kansas city, mo on hwy 71 just around dequee ak, and there where 6 school busses all in a row in front of us all the school busses had the counties covered over with black spray paint. the busses would stay in pairs of three with a gap in between so noone could pass them. finally when the road came to a 2 way we passed them all and none of the drivers were american ! i was pretty spooked ! i’m not sure if they where terrorists but its really strange that there where 6 busses with no children and the counties spray painted away ! we called and gave info to the fbi i really hope that nothing bad happens and that it was nothing ! but these days you have to worry about strange things !
Now there is no way of verifying this persons comment, but, if true, they did the correct thing, they noticed, the contacted the FBI and they left it for the authorities to follow up on.
There might very well have been an innocent explanation, buses no longer used and sold, but that is not the point here, the point is, the difference between a successful attack and a foiled terror plot might very well be some concerned citizen noticing something suspicious and reporting it.
I see many people wave away terror threats like these postcards, but we know and have seen evidence that terrorists do have plans to use our children to attack us and to completely ignore such threats is worse than overreacting.
Every threat must be taken seriously.
We need not let fear dictate our actions or cower, but we do need to be alert, report suspicious activity and protect our children as well as ourselves.
Simple common sense.
Local 6.com:
Detectives said the threat-maker crossed his or her No. 7s and attached a suffix to the address. Six of the nine postcards spell the word "Jihad" correctly, while the others are incorrect.
Whether this threat is from a terrorist or meant as some sick joke, it is a terrorist threat and those responsible need to be caught and prosecuted as a terrorist.
OPEN TRACKBACKS
OTHERS:
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson's Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Rosemary's Thoughts, Mark My Words, DeMediacratic Nation, Big Dog's Weblog, Right Truth, DragonLady's World, Webloggin, Leaning Straight Up, Conservative Cat, Adeline and Hazel, third world county, Pirate's Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, and High Desert Wanderer, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
Tracked back by:
Jihad-Boom, school terror on 10-10-07? from Right Truth...
I finally did it. I bought a site! from Rosemary's Thoughts...
Barry's Balls from 123beta...
Muslim Terrorists are Thankful for the Help of Cin from Blue Star Chronicles...
Iran's Ahmadinejad is Coming to the United Nations from Blue Star Chronicles...
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