FBI chief warns of impending terrorist attacks
Old Trooper sends us this link to ABC who reports that the FBI’s contends that terrorism, or the threat of terrorism, is on the rise in America today;
The good news is that it’s finally al Qaeda and not our returning veterans, I suppose.
“Groups affiliated with al Qaeda are now actively targeting the United States and looking to use Americans or Westerners who are able to remain undetected by heightened security measures,” Mueller said. “It appears domestic extremism and radicalization appears to have become more pronounced based on the number of disruptions and incidents.”
Of course, with the elections approaching, it probably an attempt to highlight the fact that the Democrat administration was able to use the tools left in place by the Bush Administration successfully and have been able to keep us safe thus far. But then we had the President telling Bob Woodward that we’re able to absorb a terrorist attack. I guess he’s willing to sacrifice a relatively few Americans for the greater good.
“During the past year our nation has dealt with the most significant developments in the terrorist threat to the Homeland since 9/11,” [National Counterterrorism Chief Michael] Leiter told the committee. “The attack threats are now more complex, and the diverse array of threats tests our ability to respond, and makes it difficult to predict where the next attack may come.
Yeah, we can’t always count on wet matches to confound a terrorist plot as they’ve done in the past. Someday, terrorists are going to learn how to use Bic lighters.
Category: Terror War
I’ve been racking my brain and can’t think of a single time this administration has actualy stopped anything. Every one that I can remember failing was due to stupidity and a whole lot of luck….
It’s significant that the Administration officially recognizes the Ft. Hood shooting as a terrorist event rather than some individual act of crime.
I have a question to ask, because I’m curious to know what the folks who post here think about this.
When 9/11 occurred, we gathered our forces and hurled them at the Middle East as a response. Our forces are still there, and still fighting the enemy there; but what is going to be our reaction to the next attack here? How do we respond to the next bombing? Where do we turn? How and who do we fight then?
I can’t answer what I think your asking, only state what I’d like to see happen.
If we suffer another major attack here on our home soil I’d like to see huge swaths of the Afghan / Pakistani border turned into glass encrusted, radio active wastelands. They can’t hide where they cant survive, and hell, if we’re going to be castigated by the world over for being the biggest bully on the ‘block’, we might as well earn the title…..
There’s always Iran.
maybe a glow in the dark version Mecca and Medina would get our point across…..
“sorry, but the Haj excursion has been canceled for the next 10,000 years, please call back later.”
That works to Jonn, and it’s wayyyy over due.
Hmmmm. A hot zone on a border? Let ’em scurry back and forth through THAT for awhile, while they wage war on our troops?
Ya know something, Jacobite?
I like the way you think.
PintoNag,
You seem like a thoughtful person, and you were almost on to something. Like the majority of the people who post here, you’re like a general gearing up to fight the last war, only you have a inkling that something is not quite right. You’re right on the verge of realizing we never were fighting a nation, or nations, we were fighting an idea, a meme. By going into Iraq, especially, the way we have, we’ve confirmed the worst fears of people in the middle east and created a fertile environment for that meme to thrive, propagate and mutate. We lost the PR war, and we’re a long way towards losing the fight against that meme. And this after having most of the world on our side on Sept. 12th 2001. Boy, how we’ve managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Meanwhile the strategic geniuses who post here suggest we do something like cut a starfish up into 1,000 pieces to kill it, and then wonder why there are star fish crawling out of the woodwork. It doesn’t take a nation or elaborate infrastructure to become a jihadi, it takes a basement with some ammonium nitrate or propane – and this easily (thanks to us) transmittable meme. Who else are you gonna bomb to eradicate that meme? Please tell me, I’m dying to know.
Joe: “Boy, how we’ve managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”
What victory are you talking about? You wouldn’t know what victory was if it jumped up and dick slapped you.
“And this after having most of the world on our side on Sept. 12th 2001.”
Really? What were they doing on our side? What was being accomplished? Or, are you, once again, celebrating a victim mentality? “Look, the world feels sorry for us, let’s not waste such good will!!” Bullshit, Joe, that isn’t how it’s done. You’ll find the word sympathy in the dictionary between shit and syphilus.
“And this after having most of the world on our side on Sept. 12th 2001.”
Realy??? I vividly remember most of the world cheering the attacks…
As to what would be next? I have always been for going after the nations that fund these not-so-smart bombs.
I say if Iran wants nukes so bad we should give them a few.
Joe?
“Boy, how we’ve managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”
Really? Where is the defeat?
“By going into Iraq, especially, the way we have, we’ve confirmed the worst fears of people in the middle east and created a fertile environment for that meme to thrive, propagate and mutate. We lost the PR war, and we’re a long way towards losing the fight against that meme.”
Really? An irrational ideology propagated by a totalitarian regime in a culturally stagnant environment required external confirmation and motivation? Where did you go to school, I want to make sure my kids don’t waste their money there.
Joe, are you seriously pimping out a “PR war” waged by the liberal media?
Oh, that’s been far from a war and closer to treason.
Nice gobbledy-gook Jacobite. So you tell me, if our startegy ahs been so terrific, why are jihadis coming out of the woodwork?
What would you have done differently, Joe? Have us all huddle in the corner and wait for the next attack? Focused on bin Laden and chase shadows for ten years? Subscribed to Joe Bite-Me’s plan for using robot ninja zombies? Paid off al Qaeda to leave us alone? Build roads and schools in Afghanistan which the locals would have been forbidden by the Taliban to use? What, Joe? What?
For starters, I would have finished the job in Afghanistan instead of diverting most of the resources into a poorly thought out, illegal war of choice in Iraq. That would have been priority #1. Then, by every means possible, I would have worked to disprove the jihadi meme by showing the world our best side, our generous side, the side of us that used to make us the envy of the world, instead of the laughing stock. Instead we’e turned into a dark, psychotic, paranoid, brutal, secretive, fearful, impotent, laughable buffoon of a country, your chest thumping notwithstanding. We’ve reenforced their worst beliefs and fears about us, and we’ve become the other sides best recruiting tool against us. In the words of John Le Carre, the US has gone mad!
Joe:
I try to be thoughtful, but the right for anyone to swing their fist stops where my nose begins. I’ll discuss and hash out solutions with all the patience in the world, but the second someone puts their hands on me, we’re done talking.
As far as I can tell, any ability to talk with the jihadists went down the road a long time back.
Joe…get a clue cuz Haji has one. He knows that violence solves issues (sad but true). He is willing to do unto you, me, and anyone else that stands in his way. You can wishful think yourself all the way to Hell if you realy believe that the Haj-meister will sit down and talk to you about your feelings and his. He will slit your throat and put it on youtube.
Sadly it is now kill them or they kill us. Grow up.
I would have finished the job in Afghanistan instead of diverting most of the resources into a poorly thought out, illegal war of choice in Iraq
Really? How would you have finished the job in Afghanistan? What part of the war in Iraq was poorly thought out? What part of the war in Iraq was illegal?
Then, by every means possible, I would have worked to disprove the jihadi meme by showing the world our best side, our generous side, the side of us that used to make us the envy of the world, instead of the laughing stock. Instead we’e turned into a dark, psychotic, paranoid, brutal, secretive, fearful, impotent, laughable buffoon of a country, your chest thumping notwithstanding.
When did the jihadi “meme” (I really fucking hate that word – it’s mostly used by pretentious little peckerheads) begin? And when, in your opinion, did we ever have a “good” and “generous” side? Don’t you think that the left in America had anything to do with perception that we’re all of those things you say we are?
In the words of John Le Carre, the US has gone mad!
John LeCarre went mad a long time ago, so how could he tell? And why do you think that quoting an author of ‘B’ spy novels would impress me? Find me a similar quote from the genre’s greats like Forsythe, for example.
gobbledegook
gob•ble•de•gook
“language characterized by circumlocution and jargon, usually hard to understand”
It’s one word Joe, not two. And there was nothing especially difficult to understand about my post, unless you’re, well, you. 😉
“So you tell me, if our startegy ahs been so terrific, why are jihadis coming out of the woodwork”
They are? Please point me to a reliable study that points to an increasing number of ‘jihadis’ in the world.
Joe,
Were we showing them our good side when they bombed the towers the 1st time? When they bombed the barracks in Beirut? Blew a plane up over Lockerbie?
Maybe we should attempt to keep the words at 5 letters or less for comprehension’s sake.
Tanker
As Uncle Jimbo might say, “Joe is a wanker.” I cannot fathom that people think diplomacy and the “good side” will stop those who want the infidels dead!! When have we *not* shown our good side, FFS!!?
And Joe, don’t bother trying to answer that because you bore me with the same old tripe.
Should there be another 9/11 type attack on our soil, it would do my heart good to see a lot of dead muslims within our own borders. Getting to be time to clean house.
How much time do you have to listen to my answers? Would it change your mind anyway? Oh what the hell… “How would you have finished the job in Afghanistan?” Ever hear the term “two front war”? Ask Hitler about how that worked out for him. I would have kept the resources focused on Afghanistan and not have clandestinely shifted them towards a war that hadn’t even begun, and never should have happened. Can you imagine if we had devoted all our financial and military resources in Afghanistan? As it turned out, they got a fraction of what they really needed, that war was put on the back burner, and the Taliban made a big comeback. Even if we hadn’t gone into Iraq, we might still be in Afghanistan, but at least we’d have the upper hand instead fo trying to play catch up. “What part of the war in Iraq was poorly thought out?” You must be kidding. There is not enough space… The mistakes and mistruths pertaining to Rumsfelds privatized war on the cheap are well documented. “What part of the war in Iraq was illegal?” You mean aside from all the lies and mistruths that tried to justify it? I feel that Bush\Cheney and company wanted to invade from the day they were sworn in, and they trumped up the whole thing, thinking it would be a cake walk. But come on, with all the evidence that has come to light here and in Great Britian, you gotta know the fix was in. “When did the jihadi “meme” (I really fucking hate that word – it’s mostly used by pretentious little peckerheads) begin?” Yeah, I’m not crazy about the word Richard Dawkins coined, but it serves its purpose until a better one comes along. Memes obey rules of selection not unlike genes. I don’t know its exact origin (A cave in Afghanistan? A madrasa in Pakistan? A luxury suite in Saudi Arabia?) but it had infected precious few people until after Sept. 11th 2001. Most sane people, and most muslims, were appalled by what they witnessed that… Read more »
Hey Joe; check your history. We fought a two front war at the very same time, or have you forgotten? Seems it worked out for us; right?
Keep flipping through your CPUSA leaflets until you find better talking points.
Back in my youth in the aftermath of WWII. We weren’t perfect, but we were the envy of the world.
You do know how we dealt with insurgents (deadenders) right? We hauled them out in the town square and shot them in front of everybody in town…is that how we deal with insurgents now? THAT was our goog side? We have spent 100’s of millions on roads, schools, etc… in both Afghanistan and Iraq just like we did in WWII, why hasn’t it worked this time?
Well, when you’re ready to answer those questions, you be sure to let me know, OK? Those were poorly thought out answers, or completely wrong, so I’ll give you another shot.
Funny how you always stir up some stupid shit in the middle of the afternoon then you have to “go to work”. What are you? A stripper?
Joe, as far as I can tell, you’ve never run into the end of an arguement. That is, you’ve never seen the problem that talking wouldn’t fix, or at least, wouldn’t start to fix.
I used the “hornets in the attic” analogy in one of our conversations, and you told me it was a bad analogy — that humans aren’t hornets. But you see, I know that humans can ACT like hornets: mindless, vicious, and if not stopped, deadly. Just like hornets, they don’t CARE how you feel about anything.
I wish more people in the world were like you in this respect: you will discuss things, and you generally do seem to at least consider other viewpoints, even if you don’t agree with them. But you have to understand that there are people in the world who are just basically two-legged hornets. THAT is what I was asking about earlier.
Jonn,
To support the idea that the invasion of Iraq was a done deal despite the lack of evidence of Al Qaeda connections or nukes, just came across this:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/bush-team-focused-war-iraq/
One line, written in 2001 by UK state dept. analysts, stands out in regards to the terrorist meme in question:
Backing the US war “could bring a radicalization of British Muslims, the great majority of whom opposed the September 11 attacks but are increasingly restive about what they see as an anti-Islamic campaign,” the memo states.
That’s how we gave the meme fertile ground for propagation, by making our efforts look like “an anti-islamic campaign”. I bet we pushed a bunch of those “opposed to the Sepetember 11 attacks” into the opposing camp. I bet if you had been born a muslim in England, you’d be in the opposing camp.
Pintonag,
I agree, there are two-legged hornets, or hyenas, or jackals out there, but the numbers are small. We have done a lousy job of using the power of the bully pulpit to present our side to the world, and to demonstrate the many virtues of our country, to christians and muslims alike (even though I think they are all highly irrational philosphies). Instead we’ve tried to play the tough guy, my way or the highway. But what are you left with when force and intimidation don’t work (see one of the last scenes in “Training Day”)? Make no mistake, we should seek out and kill the really bad guys, but we should (or should have) tried to “sell” the fence-sitters. If that didn’t work, we could still try to blow them up. And there were precious few, if any, Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq in 2003, so that whole thing was a unnecessary, bloody fiasco.
“Backing the US war “could bring a radicalization of British Muslims, the great majority of whom opposed the September 11 attacks but are increasingly restive about what they see as an anti-Islamic campaign,”” Well I wonder what genius came up with that? Radical Muslims had been at work in the UK both personally and through surrogates (IRA, INLA, etc.) for decades before 9/11 or our response. Just a couple events carried out by Islamists personally; April 30th 1980: The Iranian Embassy Siege December 21st 1988: The Pan Am flight 103 bombing. And an ‘almost’; November 17th 2000: Moinul Abedin arrested before being able to carry out an extensive bombing campaign and thus exposing a growing Islamist network in the UK. Add to that literally hundreds of terrorist acts perpetrated by Irish terrorists over the last 40 years, with the assistance of Islamist training and materials. The idea that British support for the WOT would radicalize Britain’s Muslims is ridiculous. The ones open to being radicalized already were. What you’re missing Joe is that their ‘meme’, as you’re so fond of calling it, doesn’t require any fertile ground, it is as it has been for 100’s of years. As for the war in Iraq, I see it as the final, and late, delivery on a promise we made the Iraqi Southern Shiites in 1991. It’s a crying shame so many of them had to die before we carried through like we promised we would. In addition, there is plenty of evidence concerning WMDs shipped to Syria immediately prior to our arrival in 2003. This was widely disclosed immediately prior to the invasion to, and just as quickly hushed up when the global political ramifications were realized. Russia was a major player in that, and there are good reasons why it wasn’t pursued. I’ll top it off with the fact that I personally saw plenty of things while on the ground there that convince me the war was totally justified. Nothing I have to say can convince you since to you it’s BS, and nothing you have to say about it interests… Read more »
“Can you imagine if we had devoted all our financial and military resources in Afghanistan? As it turned out, they got a fraction of what they really needed, that war was put on the back burner, and the Taliban made a big comeback. Even if we hadn’t gone into Iraq, we might still be in Afghanistan, but at least we’d have the upper hand instead fo trying to play catch up.”
You mean like the men actually fighting this war requested and sweet little O dicked around on?
” Back in my youth in the aftermath of WWII.”
So, you were of age to fight during Vietnam?
ROS
I’m sure he’ll call that an illegal war…
Joe,
In regards to your quote from UK analysts, where exactly was it that a radical islamic terrorist put a bomb on Pan Am 103? You could see radicalism coming to a boil in the UK loooong before 9/11. You keep trying to imply that radicalism has gotten worse because of George Bush when in fact it has been building at a steady pace for DECADES going back to their cheerleading Hitler for the “Jewish solution” If we show them our “good side” does that mean giving in to all of their demands? It seems to me if you don’t give in for EVERY instance it becomes a throat slitting grievance. And if we did give into EVERY grievance they would simply come up with more…unless of coarse, we all become muslim and adopt sharia law completing the caliphate.
#33 above was me, cleaned up all the internet cache files, cookies, and such off the computer tonight…
I noticed Joe doesn’t want to admit that we won a 2 front war. I noticed that he also says some really stupid shit about how after WWII we were the envy of the world, without him admitting that we had attained VICTORY in the form of unconditional surrender from our enemies, yet he says we were the envy of the world. You must have forgotten about that thing called the Berlin Airlift, too. Or the cold war. Yeah, Joe, we showed our best, but that didn’t mean we were going to roll over for any 2 bit tyrant, either. You must have lost a whole lot of braincells to dope, back in the 60’s, because your memory sure isn’t as good as the history books (no, not the Zinn revisionist history, either, but rather the truth).