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If this story is correct then a couple of things need to happen.
1. Federal agents should be on reserve like us at times. If the flight has a number of suspicious people on it then add an extra agent or so just for precaution.
2. NW should have made a landing at the closest airport and there are many between DET and LAX. What were they thinking.
3. The captain could have created some terbulance and asked that everyone sit down, this apparently didn't happen if everyone was going to the restrooms. The f/a could have locked the front restroom and said it wasn't working forcing people in first to use the one in back. Just a couple of simple things.
This makes me suspicious as well now. I'm sure these thugs are doing more than I know to create havic. I will agree that 9/11 happened because of 19 Aribic men from Saudi Arabia and Kuait, because of that I am a little predjudice. Time may heal wounds but this will take a long time for me.
1. Federal agents should be on reserve like us at times. If the flight has a number of suspicious people on it then add an extra agent or so just for precaution.
2. NW should have made a landing at the closest airport and there are many between DET and LAX. What were they thinking.
3. The captain could have created some terbulance and asked that everyone sit down, this apparently didn't happen if everyone was going to the restrooms. The f/a could have locked the front restroom and said it wasn't working forcing people in first to use the one in back. Just a couple of simple things.
This makes me suspicious as well now. I'm sure these thugs are doing more than I know to create havic. I will agree that 9/11 happened because of 19 Aribic men from Saudi Arabia and Kuait, because of that I am a little predjudice. Time may heal wounds but this will take a long time for me.
For what it's worth, AMT, I can tell you where I was. 
I had concluded that, in general, the level of risk was relatively low compared to the costs that would be necessary to raise them. I think the x-ray techs should have been doing a better job, but other than that it really didn't bother me much.
And it still doesn't. That's not to say that I don't think there are groups who want to reprise the "glory" of September 11. Rather, I remain convinced that the social cost of stopping it at the departure gate will be much higher than it's worth.
I had concluded that, in general, the level of risk was relatively low compared to the costs that would be necessary to raise them. I think the x-ray techs should have been doing a better job, but other than that it really didn't bother me much.
And it still doesn't. That's not to say that I don't think there are groups who want to reprise the "glory" of September 11. Rather, I remain convinced that the social cost of stopping it at the departure gate will be much higher than it's worth.
mweiss said:For what it's worth, AMT, I can tell you where I was.
I had concluded that, in general, the level of risk was relatively low compared to the costs that would be necessary to raise them. I think the x-ray techs should have been doing a better job, but other than that it really didn't bother me much.
And it still doesn't. That's not to say that I don't think there are groups who want to reprise the "glory" of September 11. Rather, I remain convinced that the social cost of stopping it at the departure gate will be much higher than it's worth.
[post="167767"][/post]
That's how most people felt about it at the time. In the late 90's the security screeners at the airport where I worked started really scrutinizing their x-ray screens after failing several FAA tests. The lines were huge, the passengers irate and the media critical. The fact was that the security infrastructure at the time was unable to accomplish both missions, speed and security, at once. This is the real 'failure of imagination' the terrorists exploited; we didn't expend the effort because the outcome we imagined did not warrant it.
In the mid-1980s the European countries were forced to tighten security after several high profile hijackings, which led to huge lines at the security checkpoints. The terrorists adapted: in Rome and Athens they attacked the crowded security checkpoints with hand grenades and automatic weapons. After that they started placing bombs on board in luggage, like Pan Am 103, rather than trying to hijack the aircraft or take hostages.
The sad truth is that there is no perfect defense and pretending that there is could be the worst mistake of all.
Security is a different animal now. Now you have self proclaimed right wing Islamic's that will die. This is a completely different type of security as compared to the 80's and 90's. Those people, in the 80's and 90's wanted something, these cowards now think they are doing it for there faith and are not affraid to die.
They have no requard for human life, why should we have to reguard them?
They have no requard for human life, why should we have to reguard them?
Exactly. And, as you pointed, out, they adapt. We do such a good job of fighting the last war that we're never prepared to fight the next one.NWA/AMT said:
uafa21, the problem is identifying them. They don't all look the same, nor do they all have arabic passports, nor do they all speak English with heavy accents. How do you find them?
The american public is not willing to pay for El Al security, nor are they interested in this kind of invasive scrutiny.
NWA, along with a couple of other airlines, are currently being sued, for assisting the TSA with security measures, more specifically, for releasing passenger information. The very same information that passengers routinely leave in the seat back pocket.
NWA is not the only airline, who has had or continue to have evil doers sniffing around. The TSA, and the FAM, is well aware of this.
However, the same can be said for Amtraks Acela trains, Chemical plants and Nuclear powerplants etc. Due to the very elusive character of these people, it is very difficult to find them.
As a country, we must refuse to live in fear, if we do that, they will have won, however, we must continue to be vigilant.
NWA, along with a couple of other airlines, are currently being sued, for assisting the TSA with security measures, more specifically, for releasing passenger information. The very same information that passengers routinely leave in the seat back pocket.
NWA is not the only airline, who has had or continue to have evil doers sniffing around. The TSA, and the FAM, is well aware of this.
However, the same can be said for Amtraks Acela trains, Chemical plants and Nuclear powerplants etc. Due to the very elusive character of these people, it is very difficult to find them.
As a country, we must refuse to live in fear, if we do that, they will have won, however, we must continue to be vigilant.
North by Northwest
Veteran
Trip Confirmed...
You have CONFIRMED what I had suspected...you are on a very bad TRIP and are in need of immediate medication.
You have CONFIRMED what I had suspected...you are on a very bad TRIP and are in need of immediate medication.
mweiss said:
An excellent point. Al Qaeda extremists represent far less than one percent of the followers of Islam, so how are we to identify them? By race? The nation with the highest percentage of the total number of Muslims is Indonesia, whose people can hardly be described as Arabic.
One of the finest men I have worked with in this industry was a arabic Muslim gentleman who had immigrated to this country from Iran in the 1960s. In addition to being a devout muslim he was also a Vietnam veteran who was twice decorated for valor, a fact I only found out after having known him for years. Are we to exclude him from our aircraft or even, as some have suggested, deport him after he has given so much for his country?
If, in our search for our real enemies, we cast too wide a net, we risk destroying much of what is great about this country and becoming too much like those who have attacked us.
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Pilots concerned about terrorists
By JON HILKEVITCH
Chicago Tribune
8/26/2004
WASHINGTON - The head of the nation's largest pilots group raised the possibility Wednesday that terrorists posing as passengers could be openly rehearsing for more attacks on American planes.
His testimony came at a hearing where experts and lawmakers said the government agencies responsible for safeguarding the flying public are using outdated methods and are woefully unprepared to prevent the next assault.
Too much emphasis is being placed on scanning airline customers' bare feet with metal detectors or confiscating their household items at security checkpoints, while most travelers and cargo loaded onto passenger planes are not screened for explosives, authorities testified at the first congressional hearing on aviation security since the Sept. 11 commission issued its recommendations.
"If we continue to wait for the next tragedy to implement new ideas, we will have more bodies," said Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn.
Bombs smuggled onto aircraft and surface-to-air missiles aimed at low-flying planes are considered among the biggest threats against commercial aviation, in part because other security weaknesses were tightened after the Sept. 11 attacks, members of the House Aviation Subcommittee were told.
The Airlines Pilots Association, meanwhile, warned that suspicious individuals - like robbers casing a bank before a heist - appear to be riding on airliners regularly to test for flaws in the security system by challenging flight attendants and trying to identify undercover federal air marshals on flights.
"We know of instances of passengers feigning illness, which has the appearance of an attempt to determine how cabin crews and law enforcement on the airplane will react," said Capt. Duane Woerth, president of the pilots group.
Woerth said there have been reports of individuals running toward the flight deck door, possibly to draw out any air marshals onboard or to determine if pilots on certain routes are carrying guns as part of a new program to arm flight crews.
Federal security officials say there is no evidence of such a plot by terrorists to test the system. But the pilots said that the government doesn't have a well-managed intelligence effort that uses flight attendants and other employees to report suspicious activity.
Lawmakers showed little patience about the slow pace in closing the security loopholes since the Sept. 11 attacks. Even quick fixes, including a registered traveler program aimed at reducing the number of passengers who require higher levels of security screening, are only getting started at a handful of airports.
"It's time to put things in place now. They may not all be perfect yet, but it's time," said Rep. Sue Kelly, R-N.Y.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., raised concerns, based on intelligence reports, about terrorists testing explosives-laden "suicide belts" that would be undetected by current screening technology at airport security checkpoints.
"Suicide belts are one of the most extraordinary points of vulnerability. Can you find a suicide belt with a (metal-detecting) wand? No. Can you find most explosives with the primitive X-ray devices given to the screeners? No," said DeFazio.
Homeland Security officials have cautioned repeatedly that commercial aviation remains a prime target of terrorists because attacks on planes would likely cripple the U.S. economy and create widespread fear. That's why the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, spends about 90 percent of its resources on aviation security, leaving little funding for scrutinizing cargo entering the United States on ships, or for ground transportation ranging from trucking and passenger rail to mass-transit buses.
David Stone, administrator of the TSA, said he is pursuing a multipronged approach to security. He told lawmakers specific plans for each transportation sector will be ready by year's end.
Stone said top agency officials spend several hours every morning analyzing "events, trends and risks from the past 24 hours" at airports nationwide and figuring out how to respond.
A member of the Sept. 11 panel said the agency has failed to develop an integrated strategic plan to respond to the terrorism threat.
"Without such plans, neither the public nor Congress can be assured we are identifying the highest priority dangers and allocating resources to the most effective security measures," John Lehman, also a former secretary of the Navy, told the subcommittee.
The Pilots Association said that unlike the airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration, which have ways to flag safety issues, the TSA lacks an incident-reporting system to "connect the dots on security."
Terrorist watch lists and mandatory no-fly rolls, while expanded from only about 100 names before the Sept. 11 attacks, are not nearly complete enough to keep even all known terrorists off airplanes, Lehman said.
By JON HILKEVITCH
Chicago Tribune
8/26/2004
WASHINGTON - The head of the nation's largest pilots group raised the possibility Wednesday that terrorists posing as passengers could be openly rehearsing for more attacks on American planes.
His testimony came at a hearing where experts and lawmakers said the government agencies responsible for safeguarding the flying public are using outdated methods and are woefully unprepared to prevent the next assault.
Too much emphasis is being placed on scanning airline customers' bare feet with metal detectors or confiscating their household items at security checkpoints, while most travelers and cargo loaded onto passenger planes are not screened for explosives, authorities testified at the first congressional hearing on aviation security since the Sept. 11 commission issued its recommendations.
"If we continue to wait for the next tragedy to implement new ideas, we will have more bodies," said Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn.
Bombs smuggled onto aircraft and surface-to-air missiles aimed at low-flying planes are considered among the biggest threats against commercial aviation, in part because other security weaknesses were tightened after the Sept. 11 attacks, members of the House Aviation Subcommittee were told.
The Airlines Pilots Association, meanwhile, warned that suspicious individuals - like robbers casing a bank before a heist - appear to be riding on airliners regularly to test for flaws in the security system by challenging flight attendants and trying to identify undercover federal air marshals on flights.
"We know of instances of passengers feigning illness, which has the appearance of an attempt to determine how cabin crews and law enforcement on the airplane will react," said Capt. Duane Woerth, president of the pilots group.
Woerth said there have been reports of individuals running toward the flight deck door, possibly to draw out any air marshals onboard or to determine if pilots on certain routes are carrying guns as part of a new program to arm flight crews.
Federal security officials say there is no evidence of such a plot by terrorists to test the system. But the pilots said that the government doesn't have a well-managed intelligence effort that uses flight attendants and other employees to report suspicious activity.
Lawmakers showed little patience about the slow pace in closing the security loopholes since the Sept. 11 attacks. Even quick fixes, including a registered traveler program aimed at reducing the number of passengers who require higher levels of security screening, are only getting started at a handful of airports.
"It's time to put things in place now. They may not all be perfect yet, but it's time," said Rep. Sue Kelly, R-N.Y.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., raised concerns, based on intelligence reports, about terrorists testing explosives-laden "suicide belts" that would be undetected by current screening technology at airport security checkpoints.
"Suicide belts are one of the most extraordinary points of vulnerability. Can you find a suicide belt with a (metal-detecting) wand? No. Can you find most explosives with the primitive X-ray devices given to the screeners? No," said DeFazio.
Homeland Security officials have cautioned repeatedly that commercial aviation remains a prime target of terrorists because attacks on planes would likely cripple the U.S. economy and create widespread fear. That's why the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, spends about 90 percent of its resources on aviation security, leaving little funding for scrutinizing cargo entering the United States on ships, or for ground transportation ranging from trucking and passenger rail to mass-transit buses.
David Stone, administrator of the TSA, said he is pursuing a multipronged approach to security. He told lawmakers specific plans for each transportation sector will be ready by year's end.
Stone said top agency officials spend several hours every morning analyzing "events, trends and risks from the past 24 hours" at airports nationwide and figuring out how to respond.
A member of the Sept. 11 panel said the agency has failed to develop an integrated strategic plan to respond to the terrorism threat.
"Without such plans, neither the public nor Congress can be assured we are identifying the highest priority dangers and allocating resources to the most effective security measures," John Lehman, also a former secretary of the Navy, told the subcommittee.
The Pilots Association said that unlike the airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration, which have ways to flag safety issues, the TSA lacks an incident-reporting system to "connect the dots on security."
Terrorist watch lists and mandatory no-fly rolls, while expanded from only about 100 names before the Sept. 11 attacks, are not nearly complete enough to keep even all known terrorists off airplanes, Lehman said.
VA hospitals may be target, advisory warns
But FBI, Homeland Security sees no specific terror threat
From Kelli Arena and Jeanne Meserve
CNN Washington Bureau
Friday, August 27, 2004 Posted: 1:04 PM EDT (1704 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are advising state and local agencies to be aware that terrorists could target Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals.
In their weekly bulletin to law enforcement, the two agencies note that there have been reports of suspicious activity concerning U.S. military medical facilities, including ones in 2004 of possible reconnaissance activities in Bethesda, Maryland, and Aurora, Colorado.
The bulletin says, "Although investigations of these incidents have revealed no links to terrorist activity, law enforcement and security personnel should be alert to indicators of similar surveillance activities of VA hospitals and other facilities."
In conclusion, the bulletin says, "The DHS and FBI stress they are currently unaware of any credible information indicating a specific terrorist threat to VA hospitals in the United States."
Officials emphasize the advisory has been in draft form for some time and is not based on any new information. They note there are no recommendations for protective measures. They also stress there are many reports that come in daily about "suspicious activity."
But FBI, Homeland Security sees no specific terror threat
From Kelli Arena and Jeanne Meserve
CNN Washington Bureau
Friday, August 27, 2004 Posted: 1:04 PM EDT (1704 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are advising state and local agencies to be aware that terrorists could target Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals.
In their weekly bulletin to law enforcement, the two agencies note that there have been reports of suspicious activity concerning U.S. military medical facilities, including ones in 2004 of possible reconnaissance activities in Bethesda, Maryland, and Aurora, Colorado.
The bulletin says, "Although investigations of these incidents have revealed no links to terrorist activity, law enforcement and security personnel should be alert to indicators of similar surveillance activities of VA hospitals and other facilities."
In conclusion, the bulletin says, "The DHS and FBI stress they are currently unaware of any credible information indicating a specific terrorist threat to VA hospitals in the United States."
Officials emphasize the advisory has been in draft form for some time and is not based on any new information. They note there are no recommendations for protective measures. They also stress there are many reports that come in daily about "suspicious activity."
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Safety in the Skies Series
Russian Airliners Were Likely Exploded From Their Toilets
This is Part VI of the ongoing series entitled "Terror in the Skies, Again?"
By Annie Jacobsen
8/30/2004
Over the weekend, it was widely reported that the two airliners which went down almost simultaneously last week in Russia, killing 89 people on board, were the deadly result of terrorists' bombs.
What hasn't been widely reported is that Russian investigators now believe the two commercial aircraft were exploded from their toilets.
According to the Russian newspaper Gazeta, At first, the experts on explosives were puzzled as they saw no traces of explosions in the passenger salons or noses of the planes. However, when the tail part of the TU-154 was examined, in the area where the toilet is, a piece of the edging with the illuminator had been torn away.
Pravda.Ru, one of Russia's leading sources for news online, ran the following headline: TU-134 and TU-154 Were Exploded From Their Toilets.
Further supporting this theory, Voice of America (an international broadcasting service with a weekly audience of 96 million people) reported from Moscow on August 28, 2004, The body parts of one woman were scattered widely on the ground. Officials said parts of her legs were found in the toilet section of one plane, leading to speculation that she might have detonated some kind of explosive from there.
The Russian government is focusing their investigation on two female passengers with purported links to Chechen terrorists. Meanwhile, a radical Islamic group called The Islambouli Brigades of al-Qaeda has come forward to claim responsibility for both crashes. The Islamic group claims it had five people, or mujahadeen, on board each aircraft. So, are the dual tragedies the work of Chechen terrorists, or the work of the terrorists we Americans are now very familiar with -- fundamental Islamic extremists?
The answer could be both. What many don't realize is that there is a direct link between the Chechen fighters and the Islamic extremists. Chechens are a largely Muslim ethnic group who have lived for centuries in the mountainous Caucasus region, located south of Moscow and north of Iran. The area has been ravaged by conflict since 1994 with at least 100,000 civilians and 10,000 Russian troops killed in the fighting. Support for the Chechen cause is widespread throughout the Arab world and the Arab news network Al-Jazeera frequently broadcasts reports of Russian abuses against Muslims there.
Arab commanders are leading the majority of rebel forces in Chechnya -- fighting in the name of Jihad, or holy war. What began a decade ago as largely hit-and-miss attacks against the Russian army (Chechnya wants autonomy from Russia) has progressed to the widespread use of terror.
------------------------
Whether or not The Islambouli Brigades of al-Qaeda is directly linked to Osama Bin Ladin is not yet clear. But the terrorists' affiliation with Bin Ladin's al-Qaeda cannot be overlooked. The group's late, eponymous leader, Lt. Khaled Islambouli, killed Egyptian President Anwar Sadat during a military parade in Cario in 1981. He was executed for the crime a year later. Islambouli, a member of the terrorist organization Egyptian Islamic Jihad, was inspired to kill Sadat by the preachings of the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman, presently serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison for his connection to the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Egyptian Islamic Jihad (the precursor to The Islambouli Brigades of al-Qaeda) merged their organization with Bin Ladin's al-Qaeda in the late 1990's.
Female suicide bombers (also called black widows) with links to Islamic fundamentalists are on the rise. In 2002, a crowded Moscow theatre was overtaken by 50 Chechen rebels -- 18 of them women dressed in black and strapped with explosive belts. The Muslim fighter Shamil Basayev (also known as the Most Wanted Man in Russia) claimed responsibility for planning the raid and, specifically, training the women for Jihad.
Russian news source Pravda ran this headline on December 11, 2001: Arab Mercenaries Prepare Female Kamikazes in Chechnya. This from the article:
Arab Mercenaries are training female suicide bombers in Chechnya, an informed source in Russian secret services reported on Tuesday. According to [the source], not less than 30 women, most of them wives or relatives of Chechen rebels and even field commanders are currently being prepared in training camps located, primarily, in the mountainous regions of Chechnya. They are being prepared by Arab instructors from Khattab's gang.
Khattab is the late Chechen warlord who, in 2002, appeared in a videotape with Osama Bin Ladin. According to The St. Petersburg Times, the videotape, made in 2000, shows inter-cut scenes of terrorist activities in al-Qaeda training camps (in Afghanistan) and on the Chechen battlefields. Also on the tape, alongside Khattab, is Shamil Basayev The Most Wanted Man in Russia. It is purported to be a fund-raising tape for potential donors. The videotape was purchased by the newspaper Newsday from a landlord in Kabul who claimed his tenants, al-Qaeda members, fled during the U.S. bombing and left the tape behind.
------------
Even before the video tape surfaced, Russian President Vladimir Putin maintained that al-Qaeda funneled millions of dollars to Chechen rebels through Khattab. With the videotape, the government had little trouble substantiating these claims. On a historical note, Osama Bin Ladin and Khattab fought side-by-side against the Soviet Union as mujahadeen in Afghanistan throughout the 1980's.
Two months after the tape surfaced, Russian military forces killed Khattab. Another Muslim fighter, Abu Walid (also an Afghani mujahadeen from the 80's) stepped forward to take Khattab's place on the Chechen battlefield. Abu Walid married a Chechen woman and commanded local rebel forces throughout the region until he was killed on April 18, 2004 by the Russian army. It is unclear who has taken his place.
While Muslim jihadis are lining up to die, it also seems that where they go, and which conflicts they enter into doesn't necessarily matter to them. Or, as stated in the 9/11 Report, it's decided for them. Mohammad Atta, the ringleader of the 9/11 hijacking plot, initially planned to join the fight in Chechnya. Bin Laden, however, had a different assignment for Atta. Zacarias Moussaoui, currently in U.S. custody and charged with being the 20th hijacker, was reported by the Wall Street Journal to have been a recruiter for al-Qaeda-backed rebels in Chechnya -- before he took up flight training in America.
It may all seem a bit confusing, but the bottom line seems to be that these Islamic fundamentalist groups, including the Chechens, look at themselves as part of a greater cause: the holy war, or Jihad.
In his Letter to America, Bin Ladin writes: Do not await anything from us but Jihad, resistance and revenge. So what are we waiting for?
Let me link back to my first article in this series, Terror in the Skies, Again? In that article, I detailed suspicious activity by 14 Syrian men which included long stays in the bathrooms, congregating in groups around the bathrooms, and bringing items into the bathrooms that don't normally belong there -- namely large McDonald's bags, cell phones, and cameras. Based on subsequent research, I was shocked to learn that the FBI had already issued a specific warning to flight crews that Islamic Militants were planning to build bombs in aircraft lavatories (by bringing individual components in to bathrooms separately) and that none of the crew on flight 327 intervened.
-----
In Part Five of this series, I interviewed fellow flight 327 passenger Billie Jo Rodriguez. Rodriguez gave me the startling news that one of the Syrian men spent about 10 minutes in the lavatory and then came out of the lavatory reeking of toilet chemicals. As I have previously stated, multiple government agencies (including FBI, JTTF, FAMS and LAPD) met the plane in Los Angeles to question the men. But because the men didn't immediately match up against names on the government's no-fly lists, they were let go.
Here is another detail that I have only recently discovered. I now know that the 14 Syrians aboard my flight 327 were questioned by the FBI for between 20 and 30 minutes after landing. (Initially, I was told they were held and questioned for approximately two hours.) How can our agencies possibly gather intelligence on 14 men in only 20 minutes? Even if they had done some of the legwork before the plane landed, they couldn't possibly conduct a thorough investigation in such short time. And again, I'll ask why none of the other passengers were questioned? Had the FBI ascertained Billie Jo Rodriguez' information about one of the Syrian men emerging from a bathroom smelling like toilet chemicals (after nearly knocking another passenger over so as to get inside first) -- those men may not have been out the door and on their way to their musical gig after just 20 minutes.
As of press time, no one from the FBI, the JTTF or the DHS or any other government agency has contacted me, Billie Jo Rodriguez or any of the other passengers on flight 327. Maybe the Russians will. The war on terrorism is a global war. It knows no boundaries. Whether you're on a Russian TU-134 or a Boeing 757, the enemy is the same.
Russian Airliners Were Likely Exploded From Their Toilets
This is Part VI of the ongoing series entitled "Terror in the Skies, Again?"
By Annie Jacobsen
8/30/2004
Over the weekend, it was widely reported that the two airliners which went down almost simultaneously last week in Russia, killing 89 people on board, were the deadly result of terrorists' bombs.
What hasn't been widely reported is that Russian investigators now believe the two commercial aircraft were exploded from their toilets.
According to the Russian newspaper Gazeta, At first, the experts on explosives were puzzled as they saw no traces of explosions in the passenger salons or noses of the planes. However, when the tail part of the TU-154 was examined, in the area where the toilet is, a piece of the edging with the illuminator had been torn away.
Pravda.Ru, one of Russia's leading sources for news online, ran the following headline: TU-134 and TU-154 Were Exploded From Their Toilets.
Further supporting this theory, Voice of America (an international broadcasting service with a weekly audience of 96 million people) reported from Moscow on August 28, 2004, The body parts of one woman were scattered widely on the ground. Officials said parts of her legs were found in the toilet section of one plane, leading to speculation that she might have detonated some kind of explosive from there.
The Russian government is focusing their investigation on two female passengers with purported links to Chechen terrorists. Meanwhile, a radical Islamic group called The Islambouli Brigades of al-Qaeda has come forward to claim responsibility for both crashes. The Islamic group claims it had five people, or mujahadeen, on board each aircraft. So, are the dual tragedies the work of Chechen terrorists, or the work of the terrorists we Americans are now very familiar with -- fundamental Islamic extremists?
The answer could be both. What many don't realize is that there is a direct link between the Chechen fighters and the Islamic extremists. Chechens are a largely Muslim ethnic group who have lived for centuries in the mountainous Caucasus region, located south of Moscow and north of Iran. The area has been ravaged by conflict since 1994 with at least 100,000 civilians and 10,000 Russian troops killed in the fighting. Support for the Chechen cause is widespread throughout the Arab world and the Arab news network Al-Jazeera frequently broadcasts reports of Russian abuses against Muslims there.
Arab commanders are leading the majority of rebel forces in Chechnya -- fighting in the name of Jihad, or holy war. What began a decade ago as largely hit-and-miss attacks against the Russian army (Chechnya wants autonomy from Russia) has progressed to the widespread use of terror.
------------------------
Whether or not The Islambouli Brigades of al-Qaeda is directly linked to Osama Bin Ladin is not yet clear. But the terrorists' affiliation with Bin Ladin's al-Qaeda cannot be overlooked. The group's late, eponymous leader, Lt. Khaled Islambouli, killed Egyptian President Anwar Sadat during a military parade in Cario in 1981. He was executed for the crime a year later. Islambouli, a member of the terrorist organization Egyptian Islamic Jihad, was inspired to kill Sadat by the preachings of the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman, presently serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison for his connection to the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Egyptian Islamic Jihad (the precursor to The Islambouli Brigades of al-Qaeda) merged their organization with Bin Ladin's al-Qaeda in the late 1990's.
Female suicide bombers (also called black widows) with links to Islamic fundamentalists are on the rise. In 2002, a crowded Moscow theatre was overtaken by 50 Chechen rebels -- 18 of them women dressed in black and strapped with explosive belts. The Muslim fighter Shamil Basayev (also known as the Most Wanted Man in Russia) claimed responsibility for planning the raid and, specifically, training the women for Jihad.
Russian news source Pravda ran this headline on December 11, 2001: Arab Mercenaries Prepare Female Kamikazes in Chechnya. This from the article:
Arab Mercenaries are training female suicide bombers in Chechnya, an informed source in Russian secret services reported on Tuesday. According to [the source], not less than 30 women, most of them wives or relatives of Chechen rebels and even field commanders are currently being prepared in training camps located, primarily, in the mountainous regions of Chechnya. They are being prepared by Arab instructors from Khattab's gang.
Khattab is the late Chechen warlord who, in 2002, appeared in a videotape with Osama Bin Ladin. According to The St. Petersburg Times, the videotape, made in 2000, shows inter-cut scenes of terrorist activities in al-Qaeda training camps (in Afghanistan) and on the Chechen battlefields. Also on the tape, alongside Khattab, is Shamil Basayev The Most Wanted Man in Russia. It is purported to be a fund-raising tape for potential donors. The videotape was purchased by the newspaper Newsday from a landlord in Kabul who claimed his tenants, al-Qaeda members, fled during the U.S. bombing and left the tape behind.
------------
Even before the video tape surfaced, Russian President Vladimir Putin maintained that al-Qaeda funneled millions of dollars to Chechen rebels through Khattab. With the videotape, the government had little trouble substantiating these claims. On a historical note, Osama Bin Ladin and Khattab fought side-by-side against the Soviet Union as mujahadeen in Afghanistan throughout the 1980's.
Two months after the tape surfaced, Russian military forces killed Khattab. Another Muslim fighter, Abu Walid (also an Afghani mujahadeen from the 80's) stepped forward to take Khattab's place on the Chechen battlefield. Abu Walid married a Chechen woman and commanded local rebel forces throughout the region until he was killed on April 18, 2004 by the Russian army. It is unclear who has taken his place.
While Muslim jihadis are lining up to die, it also seems that where they go, and which conflicts they enter into doesn't necessarily matter to them. Or, as stated in the 9/11 Report, it's decided for them. Mohammad Atta, the ringleader of the 9/11 hijacking plot, initially planned to join the fight in Chechnya. Bin Laden, however, had a different assignment for Atta. Zacarias Moussaoui, currently in U.S. custody and charged with being the 20th hijacker, was reported by the Wall Street Journal to have been a recruiter for al-Qaeda-backed rebels in Chechnya -- before he took up flight training in America.
It may all seem a bit confusing, but the bottom line seems to be that these Islamic fundamentalist groups, including the Chechens, look at themselves as part of a greater cause: the holy war, or Jihad.
In his Letter to America, Bin Ladin writes: Do not await anything from us but Jihad, resistance and revenge. So what are we waiting for?
Let me link back to my first article in this series, Terror in the Skies, Again? In that article, I detailed suspicious activity by 14 Syrian men which included long stays in the bathrooms, congregating in groups around the bathrooms, and bringing items into the bathrooms that don't normally belong there -- namely large McDonald's bags, cell phones, and cameras. Based on subsequent research, I was shocked to learn that the FBI had already issued a specific warning to flight crews that Islamic Militants were planning to build bombs in aircraft lavatories (by bringing individual components in to bathrooms separately) and that none of the crew on flight 327 intervened.
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In Part Five of this series, I interviewed fellow flight 327 passenger Billie Jo Rodriguez. Rodriguez gave me the startling news that one of the Syrian men spent about 10 minutes in the lavatory and then came out of the lavatory reeking of toilet chemicals. As I have previously stated, multiple government agencies (including FBI, JTTF, FAMS and LAPD) met the plane in Los Angeles to question the men. But because the men didn't immediately match up against names on the government's no-fly lists, they were let go.
Here is another detail that I have only recently discovered. I now know that the 14 Syrians aboard my flight 327 were questioned by the FBI for between 20 and 30 minutes after landing. (Initially, I was told they were held and questioned for approximately two hours.) How can our agencies possibly gather intelligence on 14 men in only 20 minutes? Even if they had done some of the legwork before the plane landed, they couldn't possibly conduct a thorough investigation in such short time. And again, I'll ask why none of the other passengers were questioned? Had the FBI ascertained Billie Jo Rodriguez' information about one of the Syrian men emerging from a bathroom smelling like toilet chemicals (after nearly knocking another passenger over so as to get inside first) -- those men may not have been out the door and on their way to their musical gig after just 20 minutes.
As of press time, no one from the FBI, the JTTF or the DHS or any other government agency has contacted me, Billie Jo Rodriguez or any of the other passengers on flight 327. Maybe the Russians will. The war on terrorism is a global war. It knows no boundaries. Whether you're on a Russian TU-134 or a Boeing 757, the enemy is the same.
North by Northwest
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You MUST be REPUBLICAN! Fear, FEAR ....and some more FEAR...we MUST all live in FEAR!Trip Confirmed said:
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Trip Confirmed
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- Dec 5, 2002
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North by Northwest said:
Trip Confirmed said:
How ridiculous! What airline was your imaginary friend flying, "1960s Air"? Was Dean Martin piloting the plane? Next you'll be telling us how the "swingin' stewardesses" were only interested in 'catchin' themselves a man'.
Because those who live with the issue daily are not as obsessed or trying to terrify everyone around them like you are, you believe they are 'unread or illiterate'.
North By Northwest is wrong about one thing, you're not a Republican, Trip Confirmed:
You are just another type of terrorist.
Except you just want to terrify people to make yourself feel important. Pathetic!
