This Would NOT Be Good

[Annie]

Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/ID/3775771/

Authorities raised the terrorist threat assessment over the weekend after new intelligence indicated that operatives of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network, possibly trained and licensed to fly passenger jets, may now be pilots for some foreign airlines, ideally positioning them to carry out suicide attacks, U.S. officials told NBC News on Monday.

Reinforced cockpit doors intended to thwart hijackers after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks would now protect any terrorist pilot at the controls, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

 

[janeeng]

Just what we need, a foreign plane coming in for a landing with one of Bin Laden's finest flying!

Did anyone else hear about this woman that is in NY that they are looking for who supposed to be another of Bin Laden's chronie's????? something to do with bombing.

 

[Annie]

Yeah, that was last week. Seems there was a warning about a female suicide bomber, one of the reporters asked about it a Ridge's press conference Sunday. I think they proved it false.
I am going shopping in a bit, won't let the terror reports keep me from buying the last of it, though from what I'm seeing they really are concerned.

 

[Annie]

Here janeeng, I found this:

http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?id=8051&siteSection=1

Fears of Woman Bomber in New York City

............
BRIAN BLOMQUIST, NILES LATHEM and MURRAY WEISS
Courtesy of New York Post

December 20, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating a report that a female homicide bomber is targeting New York City, it was revealed last night.

The female-bomber report - officials cautioned that it is unconfirmed - is part of an alarming surge in terrorist threats to New York City, Washington and other U.S. cities that have been picked up by U.S. intelligence agencies in recent days pointing to a possible holiday terrorist offensive by al Qaeda.

The White House is so concerned about the recent information coming from electronic intercepts, interrogations and chatter on al Qaeda Web sites that it has scheduled a meeting for Monday to discuss whether to raise the nation's alert status to Code Orange, administration officials said.

"We have remained concerned about the volume of reporting of threats, and that is why the Department of Homeland Security has sent out several bulletins over the past few weeks to homeland-security officials and law-enforcement personnel, urging all to continue to be on heightened state of alert, especially as we enter the busy holiday season," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday.

The NYPD issued a statement saying they have received no specific warnings about a possible female homicide bomber targeting the city.

The FBI New York office said it was "not aware of any imminent threat."

But an intelligence official in Washington confirmed that agencies have received such a report and are "still trying to determine its reliability."

Although the intelligence information is vague and does not point to specific targets, sources told The Post there has been a big increase in suspected reconnaissance of possible targets in recent weeks, including cars passing by and people videotaping key U.S. installations overseas.

There were other signs last night that al Qaeda is gearing up for something.

The Arabic TV channel al-Jazeera aired a new audiotaped rant purportedly by Osama bin Laden's No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in which he issues new threats.

"With God's help, we are still chasing Americans and their allies everywhere, including their homeland," al-Zawahiri is quoted as saying.

 

[janeeng]

Thanks Kathianne - I know my Dad was saying he too heard about this, and I was curious to know a little more. I know what you mean about not stopping from going out and shopping and allowing them to get to any of us. That's what they want, fear and hide. I think that so far Homeland Security has done a great job and hope it stays that way. It's just a shame that to some people, hearing the news of going up to high alert does get to them and fear going out their front doors.

 

[Annie]

I concur. Then on the other side of the coin, are those that are deriding the administration for its color coded warnings. I thought this was good commentary on that bunch:

http://www.deanesmay.com/archives/005794.html#005794

Security
The Homeland Security alert level has been raised to 'High'. I wasn't going to mention it here, because I assumed most people had heard it. But I've gone to many different web sites today from people who are making snarky comments about it, and it's starting to get on my nerves. They're saying things to imply that the information is worthless, is stupid, doesn't do them any good or even, in a few cases, implying that it's just an attempt to frighten us.

I'm sorry, some of you are my friends, but a lot of you folks need to grow up.

Our government is not all-knowing, and it is not all powerful. It is made up of men and women who are doing their best with limited information. They have more information than us, by necessity. But if you know anything about how these people do their jobs, you'll know they have to go through far more information than is humanly possible. Many of them give their whole lives over to studying information like this, and still cannot look through even 1% of all the information that is available.

These "threat levels" are guidelines, meant primarily for government agencies. But they let the public know too, in order to keep us in the loop.

If you don't like that, then I ask you to imagine the alternative: that the government keeps an alert system in place to let state, local, and federal agencies know how generally worried they are about security at the moment, but they don't tell the public about it. How would you like that? Would that make you feel better?

Now imagine the rumors floating around the internet and elsewhere like crazy about what the secret alert-level threat was, people denying that there was any such thing as security alert systems, other people saying it existed but it was overrated.... Madness, in other words. So instead they let us in on it, and they expect us to act sensibly to the information: don't flip out, don't dig your way into a bomb shelter or found a survivalist commune. But be aware that there may be a problem, and think about common sense things you might be able to do if you should, by an incredible stroke of luck (and it's very unlikely, but possible) stumble upon some piece of information that might help. Or what you would do if you found yourself in a position to help yourself and others out if the worst were to happen. By the way, the government maintains suggestions for the latter right here on the ready.gov web site. You can also check in regularly with the Homeland Security web site, which will probably have more reliable info much of the time than the press does.

Otherwise, folks, grow the hell up. The government is pretty worried, and they want us to know it. They know more than we do and they are worried. But they do not know everything, and some of what they do know they can't tell us just yet, by necessity. But they're trying to let us know what's going on and keep us in the loop as best they can.

So can we stop with the juvenile responses, please? Some of you sound like 13 year olds saying, "Oh, what EVER, mom! Fine, I promise not to let the boy feel me up, and I promise not to do drugs! Can I go now please?!?"

Cut it out. This is serious.