Bush To Speak Of A Least One Thwarted Terror Attack

[Annie]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060209...j2e9DEGw_IE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

Bush to Detail 2002 Attack Plot in Speech

40 minutes ago

In a scheduled speech Thursday about the war on terror, President Bush will focus on a foiled attack in 2002 in which plotters planned to use hijacked commercial airplanes to strike the West Coast.

Bush has referred to the plot before, but White House officials said he planned to provide more specifics in a speech Thursday.

The president will speak this morning at 9:55 a.m. ET at the National Guard Memorial Building in Washington.

In an address last October, Bush said the United States and its allies had foiled at least 10 serious plots by the al-Qaida terror network in the last four years, including plans for Sept. 11-like attacks on both U.S. coasts.

The White House initially would not give details of the plots but later released a fact sheet with a brief, and vague, description of each.

Three targets cited were in the United States, including plans to use hijacked airplanes to attack the West Coast in mid-2002 and the East Coast in mid-2003. The White House said at least one planner of the West Coast attack was a key figure behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

The Washington Post has reported that the West Coast plot targeted the tallest building in Los Angeles, since renamed the US Bank Tower, and involved Malaysian militants and Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, who was captured in 2003.

The third was the case of Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang member who converted to Islam and allegedly plotted with top al-Qaida commanders to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a U.S. city.


Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was arrested May 8, 2002, at O'Hare International Airport on a material witness warrant and was designated an enemy combatant, held without criminal charge at a Navy brig in South Carolina.

Padilla was charged in November on terrorism charges and transfered to the federal court system before the Supreme Court had an opportunity to take up his case contesting his detention as an enemy combatant. He remains in federal custody in Miami awaiting trial.

 

[Cylinder]

The plot seems to have been portions of KSM's original planes operation that he pitched to OBL in the late 90s. The original plan called for two dozen hijacked aircraft. Most would have been detonated over the Pacific, along with the east coast attacks, attacks in southern California and Washington state. KSM envisioned himself as hijacking an airliner and landing it at an airport to issue demands. OBL, according to the 9-11 Commission, scaled the plan back - calling it "too ambitious."

 

[trobinett]

Seems the local politicos in LA are getting their collective backs up about getting left out of the "imformation loop".

These people are