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Photograph of police in the subway station for the 2006 No Pants Ride by icopythat on Flickr
Want some possible terror plot with your turkey? The AP reports, "Federal authorities are warning law enforcement personnel of a possible terror plot against the New York City subway system during the holiday season." This is based on an internal memo the AP got a hold of:
The FBI has received a "plausible but unsubstantiated" report that al-Qaida terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system.Related: There was an alleged subway terror threat in October 2005--which some pointed out diverted attention from the 2005 mayoral debate Mayor Bloomberg declined to attend.Anti-terror agencies say they have no specific details to confirm the plot has moved "beyond aspirational planning," but are issuing the alert out of concern that an attack could come during the holiday season," warns the memo, which is dated Tuesday.
While federal agencies often issue all sorts of advisory warnings, the language of this one is particularly forceful.
Update: ABC News reports the FBI calls the threat "plausible but unsubstantiated," which makes ABC News analyst--and former CIA intelligence officer--John Kiriakou think the information came from a walk-in to an embassy, "That's the kind of language we use when we can't back it up but we can't knock it down either."
The Department of Homeland Security says, "However, transit passengers in larger metropolitan areas like New York may see an increased security presence in the coming days. This includes uniformed and plain clothed behavior detection officers, federal air marshals, canine teams, and security inspectors."
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Not many people recall but back in 1998 the NYPD ESU guys stopped a pair of Palestinian terrorists in Brooklyn who were just hours away from exploding several pipe bombs on the B train. They targetted the B train because they figured it had a lot of Jews riding on it.
Yet another reason to buy a bike
"The FBI has received a "plausible but unsubstantiated" report that al-Qaida terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system."
(sigh)
Sadly, It's hardly a news flash. it makes sense that some a__holes would plot to attack the Subway, regardless of the season.
I heard the terrorists were going to increase the fares to almost double and cut back on services over 30% in addition to increasing our income taxes to 15% and raising property taxes! Oh wait, that's the MTA and the Mayors office doing that. Same thing.
Why waste their time destroying the subways...the MTA is already doing a fine job of that
I sure hope Bush didn't listen in on any terrorist phone calls to acquire this information...
#2 I couldn't agree more! - more bikes will surely thwart terrorist attacks. When is the last time you heard of terrorists plotting to blow up a bicycle path? That's right - NEVER! Hello?!
This is just like the holidays in Bedford Falls. Quaint, peaceful.
How can this possibly be? Citizen of the world Obama promised us the international community would love America again if he got elected?
Apparently Al-Qaeda also doesn't understand that much of liberal blue-state NY and wants to reach out to them in the spirit of kumbaya and understand their rage. Must be a Karl Rove plot.
Maybe that's why I saw more cops than usual this morning, huddling together and chatting and checking out the female commuters.
#2
And how isn't this "threat" just another reason to drive?
I jest, but to #7's point. You can bet they would IED the bike path if everyone was on them. The targets are concentrations of people and infrastructure we rely on.
#5 -
Too true!!
sadly, if these "freedom fighters" want something to happen, they make it happen.
#13 You don't like the message so attack the messenger, right? I'm no Harvard business school grad but I do believe getting page views is what you're supposed to do when you run a commercial website.
@13--Check out the links from 2005 at the bottom -- this isn't the first time nor the last we'll post about reported terror threats.
if you see something say something. Meaning, if you see some shifty arab looking guy in a keffiyah doing some throat yelling please alert the authorities, it don't matter if it's probably some dumb hipster, he deserves his ass kicked too.
I did notice a much larger police presence on the subway during my evening commute yesterday. They were especially polite, but I'm a middle-aged white guy in a suit, so it doesn't tell us anything about how the behavior detection officers would react to some of my otherwise-complexioned colleagues. Behavior detection officers? Golly, that sounds ominous and Orwellian.
I definitely sound like an asshole for saying this, but why don't they target areas that actually voted for the administration that invaded the middle east? Especially when places like Wyoming get more "anti-terrorist" homeland security funds per-capita than we do.
"If you see something, say something" ---- unless, of course, it involves a muslim, in which case CAIR and the ACLU will accuse you of islamophobia and try to have you charged with a hate crime. (Flying Imams ring a bell?)
I heard the terrorists were going to increase the fares to almost double and cut back on services over 30% in addition to increasing our income taxes to 15% and raising property taxes! Oh wait, that's the MTA and the Mayors office doing that. Same thing.
HAHA that's about right - good call :)
"This includes uniformed and plain clothed behavior detection officers..."
better act as "normal" american apple pie as you can this holiday season.
"This is just like the holidays in Bedford Falls. Quaint, peaceful."
merry christmas you old building & loan!
Maybe we need to control more iraqi oil refineries so we can prevent all this.
holy shit, i am going to be hella pissed if someone blows up the train while i am on it. i am going to find the motherfucker who did it, and ass-rape the virgins he got for being a martyr.
^ Stop it with "hella". We're on the east coast.
On another note, apparently the FBI didn't get the memo that the elections are over and the GOP lost, so no need for false alarm scare tactics anymore.
Ohhh yes, AL-CIADA the government's boogeyman is back in style!
Just know that Brezinsky (Obama's puppeteer) had close ties with Al-Qaeda back in the late 70's and early 80's.
GOOGLE: FALSE FLAG TERRORISM
don't be hella hating, #26.
#19- We *would* be seriously fucked if they were able to successfully hit our crops, as unlikely as it sounds.
I agree with papercutninja about the FBI and the word "hella".
East Coast we say "mad" or "od"
get with the program G.
Crops? Wyoming? That state is hardly the breadbasket of America.
#2 and #7 the reason they don't attack bikers is because very few people of worth actually use those jerk off bike lanes that have spread like a cancer over New York City streets since 9/11. To the terrorists, it's kind of like watching mold grow on cheese.
@#29 - our crops? really? i'm going to have to strongly disagree with you there. we're already running massive food surpluses, and are mostly growing barely edible corn for biofuel and livestock feed anyway. Plus crops are fungible - we can import if something ever threatened ours. There's really no comparison between a bomb in a NY subway and a bomb in a Nebraska cornfield.
#32- You really don't think hitting--and not with a nuke but something more long-term--our agriculture wouldn't affect us in a big way?
And it's not just about what we can or can't eat, but it's also about like you said -- we'd have to import.
From whom would we do that from?
Note that I'm not being snarky here...
Hmmmm funny how this message comes a couple of days before the biggest shopping day of the year.
Scare tactic. They don't have to do anything at all now but speak and it causes the US problems. Get your asses out there and buy something this weekend—take the subway!
:]
No worries-neither of us being snarky - this is actually an interesting issue, especially since urban centers like NYC get less of the anti-terror funding pie than I think they deserve.
Hitting us with a nuke would have very long term effects - the land would have toxic radiation levels for decades.
But again - that doesn't change anything. Compare hitting Manhattan with a nuke or bio attack to hitting a cornfield in Nebraska with the same attack. Again - there is simply no comparison. Assuming a massive attack on our crops - yes we'd have to import crops but could do so from any of the hundreds of countries we already import from. South America provides a huge amount of food already. And I think you're missing the point on fungible goods - it really doesn't matter where we get them from. Prices will go up, but what else do you think will occur? Compare that to a massive attack on NYC. Thousands killed immediately, major city devastated, trillions in business and capital lost. No comparison.
fear not, if manhattan is nuked, everyone on the island will turn to dust in like 2 seconds. that means that millions will die instantly, and we won't feel it. now, peeps in jersey, brooklyn and the bronx will get burnt horribly and will die from that or intense dehydration in a few hours. and then the outer radius people would just have horrible effects from the radiation that could last for years.
hiroshima and nagasaki is the only proof we have of this happening, and that was long ago with lesser technology. if a nuke were dropped today, manhattan would be wiped off the map and radiation would seep to the other parts of the east coast in no time.
my question is -- when this happens (i think it's a matter of "when" not "if"), will the US just nuke Afghanistan and Pakistan and Syria and Iran?
Nebraska? Forget Nebraska. We were talking about Wyoming. Do you realize how devastating a nuclear attack would be on the economy of Wyoming? How many people would lose their deposits on their ski vacations? How many canceled visits to the The Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody Wyoming which includes the Whitney Gallery of Western Art, the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Plains Indian Museum, the Cody Firearms Museum and the Draper Museum of Natural History. We are talking hundreds of dollars a month here.
Step back and think about before you say that Homeland Security money is going to waste out there.
You realize that both parties authorized power to Bush to fight two wars in Arab nations, right? You do know that Obama is buddy buddy with AIPAC and both parties will always side with Israel?
Don't give me that bullshit that the liberal, Democrats' foreign policy is gospel. It's, in fact, more of the same, which is what the Messiah, Obama, will continue to follow.