PRIOR KNOWLEDGE of TERRORISM
TABLE of CONTENTS
In considering the effectiveness of security measures I urge people to think "out of
the box" of previous incidents and established procedures. Standard procedures, even intensified as at present, will not stop the clever dedicated people behind the attacks on the WTC - just as they did not stop them on September 11. Yet some people want more of the same as a solution.
I conclude that in hindsight the security authorities failed to integrate what was already known, and act on it. The list of that knowledge is long:
(This list reinforces that the sources of terrorism and their ability to act was well known. The simple combination of acts that had been proven to be possible with the more dedicated and organized terrorist perpetrators caused the disaster of September 11, 2001 in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia USA.
The greater failure is governments failing to attack the terrorism at its source instead of relying on limited defenses such as security screening, and reducing liberty in doing so.)
(In chronological order.)
First, I'll begin with a quote about the looming threat from Imperial Shinto Japan prior to "World War II":
"I fear that we shall crawl out on a limb to reap the odium and practical disadvantages of our course, from which all countries will then hasten to profit. Such is internationalism today. Why, oh why do we disregard the experience and facts of history which stare us in the face?"
—Joseph C. Grew, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, 1937
as quoted in "No Victory, No Peace", and probably in "No Victory, No Peace" by Angelo M. Codevilla .
- Kimikaze pilots in WWII used airplanes as bombs.
That is, airplanes used as bombs by fanatical warriors.
- review of the history and sources of suicide terrorism included this 1986 summary:
Suicide Terrorism: The New
Scourge (DanielPipes.org, SE86)
That is, suicidal terrorism and its sources were well known.
- in 1987 a disgruntled former airline employee broke into the cockpit of another airline's flight and shot both pilots. (PSA flight 1771 over San Luis Obispo CA. Perpetrator David Burke had been fired for theft, shot the manager who was commuting on the flight, then the pilots.)
That is, real-world demonstration that a motivated person could enter a cockpit and eliminate the pilots. (Showing possibility but not probability, including impact of security screening for guns.)
- in 1988 agents of the government of Libya bombed an American airliner over Scotland. (Pan Am flight 103, downed by one pound of plastic explosive despite enhanced security as a result of a telephone warning earlier - apparently enhanced security directives were not handled clearly and baggage screeners were not trained to recognize the type of explosive). Baggage of a passenger turned away at the last minute was not removed from the airplane per policy, but the bomb was in an unaccompanied bag transferred twice (from a Malta flight through Frankfurt to London where it was placed on Pan Am 103).
(The same method was used by Sikh terrorists in Canada against Air India 747s, also using consumer electronics as a case to hold the bomb. I do not know if the explosion was intended to occur over water as the Air India cases were, Pan Am 103 was less than 25 minutes late departing. In the Air India cases, also preceding September 11, 2001, a bomb exploded on the ramp in Tokyo outside the target airliner as it was delayed but the other airplane was over the Atlantic when the bomb destroyed it. (Dynamite was used in those bombs, the consumer electronics case was traced to the store that sold it then connected to the person who made the bombs.)
A US Presidential Commission investigated after the primary investigations, and concluded: "National will and the moral courage to exercise it are the ultimate means of defeating terrorism. The Commission recommends a more vigorous policy that not only pursues and punishes terrorists, but also makes state sponsors of terrorism pay a price for their actions." (President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism (PCAST) report submitted May 15, 1990.
That is, a reminder that governments will sponsor terrorism against airliners (Libya had long supported terrorism against the U.S.), and a formal recommendation to the President of the US to act against state sponsors of terrorism.
- circa 1988, Muammar Ghadaffi of Libya arranged the hijacking of an American airliner in Pakistan, which his operatives planned to explode over Tel Aviv. Fortunately between the flight crew and Pakistani authorities the airplane was freed before it left Pakistan. According to the Sunday Times from Britain, March 26, 2008 issue, reporting on the conviction of one of the hijackers in the US after spending 15 years in prison in Pakistan, Gadaffi's involvement was not widely known until 2004.
That is, core security authorities knew that state-sponsored terrorism aimed at the US and Israel included plans to use airliners as bombs to kill people in cities.
- in 1993 authorities foiled an Iraqi-Muslim plot to assasinate US President Bush during a
visit to Kuwait.
Refer to the list of terrorist acts and plans at the end of:
Terrorism and Its Appeasement. (Richard Salsman, Intermarket Forecasting, 2001; page 14)
and to the US State Department summary
Overview of State-Sponsored Terrorism
That is, a plot by Islamic terrorists to kill the President of the US.
- in 1993 a terrorist truck bomb severely damaged one of the World Trade Center buildings.
(According to www.sunspot.net of September 27, the book Study of Revenge by Laurie
MyIroie states that the bomber intended to topple one tower into the other.)
That is, the WTC was a known target for destruction by Islamic terrorists.
(And that was known by some in the US government - for example:
Testimony of Walter Cadman of INS (Senate Judiciary Cte, FE24/98)
[After investigation showed that one participant had overstayed his student visa, a tracking system was tested but pressure and lack of funds meant it was dropped. Reference “Staff Statement No. 1” to the 9/11 commission, "Entry of the 9/11 Hijackers into the United States".]
- in 1994 Islamic terrorists hijackers planned to explode an airliner over Paris or crash
it into the Eiffel tower.
Fortunately French commandos killed the hijackers on the ground.
GIGN at Marseilles Airport, December 1994
(www.specialoperations.com referencing Twilight Warriors by Martin C. Arotegui, St. Martin's Press)
International
Security in the Early 21st Century
(International Security Information Service Briefing Paper No. 76, January 2000, by Paul Rogers
and personal sources from the FAA saying the information on plans to use the airliner as a
bomb came from French authorities (article The Terrorist Tracker described below says the hijackers were overheard talking about exploding over Paris, and they demanded far more fuel than needed to reach Paris - though more fuel would give them flexibility to go elsewhere).
Additional information is in the Seattle Times, June 23-July7, 2002 (series on Islamic terrorist Ahmed Ressam, segment 5 "The Terrorist Tracker" (French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière)
That story indicates that the responsible organization had drawings of the Eiffel Tower exploding,
and a related organization with ties to al Qaeda had contacts in North American.
That is, suicidal Islamic terrorists tried to use an airliner as a bomb
- exactly what was done to the WTC towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
- In 1994 a terrorism expert tried to warn US authorities of the probability of an airplane attack on Washington DC (pointing to the 1994 hijacking of a French airliner and the 1994 crashing of a small airplane on White House grounds) but they insisted he not put that in a report.
Early Warnings (ABCNews.com, February 18, 2002)
That is, US authorities knew of a possible method but tried to hide the knowledge. (Why the evasion? Was it the "Neville Chamberlain" syndrome again?)
- In 1995 authorities in the Phillipines uncovered a plot to bomb eleven US airliners over the
Pacific and simultaneously crash another plane into CIA headquarters in northern Virginia. One source claims they uncovered evidence of a plan to recruit hijackers to crash airplanes into government and commercial buildings in the US (CIA HQ, and commercial towers in San Francisco, Chicago and NY). Already they had successfully tested their method of bombing the airliners, on a Phillipine Airlines flight to Japan, killing the passenger whose seat the device was under). They had specific plans to crash a small airplane into CIA headquarters in Virginia as a suicide mission, and less well formed plans to use airliners against other buildings. Investigators made significant connections to bin Laden, and one of the people arrested in the Phillipines was later convicted of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
(According to www.sunspot.net of September 27, referring to the book Study of Revenge by Laurie MyIroie, www.cnn.com of September 22,
2001 by Maria Ressa in Manila, and www.cnn.com of September 18, 2001 by Maria Ressa.) and
Agonized hindsight over earlier terror plot (Seattle Times January 06, 2001 which extensively quotes Phillipine policewoman Aida Fariscal who investigated an apartment containing evidence - Probable origin Washington Post).
That is, US airlines as targets, simultaneous action, US government buildings as targets of airplanes used as bombs by suicidal pilots, and the probability of exactly what happened in the US six years later.
- Tom Clancy's 1994 novel Debt of Honor ends with a bitter nationalist crashing a 747 into the US Congress building.
That is, the possibility of airplanes being used as bombs was pointed out by a popular author in the US.
- Knowledge of effective bio-chemical warfare agents developed by the USSR for quantity production.
The head of the USSR's Biopreparat labs, Kanatjan Alibekov, now known as Ken Alibek, defected in 1992. In 1999 his book Biohazard was published by Random House Inc.
(Reference Vancouver Sun of October 13, 2001, which also detailed an abandoned contaminated
test site, in Uzbekistan adjacent to Kazakhstan, that is now readily accessible due to
shrinking of the Aral Sea. Some organisms like anthrax stay dormant in the soil, others live
on by reproducing in small animals on the site. (Biological threats were identified in the still-secret 1994 US defence report "Terror 2000: The Future Terrorism". (However, Russian president Putin claims USSR anthrax is not available. Interview with Barbara Walters (ABC News Nov 07/01)
That is, the USSR developed bio-chemical warfare agents and ability to deploy them,
US authorities knew the details, and the agents are now readily available to others.
- In 1995 authorities in the Phillipines uncovered a plot by Islamic terrorists to
assasinate the Catholic Pope during a visit to the area. Source is the news stories covering the discovery of the plot to bomb US airliners over the Pacific.
Agonized hindsight over earlier terror plot (Seattle Times January 06, 2001 - probable origin Washington Post)
That is, a plot by Islamic terrorists to kill the spiritual leader of another large religion.
- the book Terrorism by John Pynchon Holmes claims that FBI infiltrated a plot to blow up the UN building in New York, and arrested the participants before they could carry out the mission. Circa 1996.
That is, a reminder of the 1993 bombing of the WTC in New York.
- the CIA was tracking bin laden.
For 4 years, CIA tracked bin laden (Seattle Times DE23/01).
That is, the US government beleived he was a threat.
(I do note that the US government was seriously discussing stronger action. Unfortunately, it was too little too late.)
- The US White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security said in its final report:
"People and places in the United States have joined the list of targets. It is becoming more
common to find terrorists working alone or in ad hoc groups, some of whom are not afraid to
die in carrying out their designs."
FAA, airlines held back major security upgrades (Seattle Times OC07/01)
That is, a high-profile aviation-specific committee of Congress noted that attacks could occur on US soil, that terrorists would be difficult to spot in the US, and that they were suicidal. Precisely the factors that came together on September 11, 2001.
- in 1998 US intelligence authorities received reports that bin Laden operatives in the US
planned attacks including assasination of the Secretary of State and chemical attack on a Washington Redskins football game. In 1998 Iraqi chemical warfare experts worked with bin Laden's experts. During the UN inspections of Iraq it was determined that Iraq had anthrax missile warheads and spray nozzles.
Reference the Times Colonist, October 21, 2001, using author Yossef Bodansky (bin laden: The
Man who Declared War on America) and David Kelly (who led many UN inspections in Iraq) as sources. The article by Joe Laura claims that Attorney General Janet Reno organized meetings between FBI and city police but the effort was dropped after agencies engaged in turf battles and finger pointing.
In addition, the US State Department noted the possibility in their report:
Overview of State-Sponsored Terrorism
"At the dawn of a new millennium, the possibility of a terrorist attack involving weapons of
mass destruction (WMD)--chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN), or large explosive weapons--remained real."
"A few groups, notably those driven by distorted religious and cultural ideologies, showed
signs they were willing to cause large numbers of casualties."
That is, US authorities knew that bin Laden probably had operatives in the US, probably had anthrax weapons capability, and planned assasinations and chemical attacks in the US - but failed to take reasonable action.
- In 1998 Osama bin laden declared a fatwa against the United States.
(Reference the Seattle Weekly, November 15, 2001, the list of fatwas given in the US
indictment against Zacaris Moussaoui at
Indictment (ABC News; US District Court, Eastern VA) and
License to Kill by Bernard Lewis in the November/December 1998 issue of Foreign Affairs from the Council on Foreign Relations:
License to Kill,
referring to
"Declaration of the World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders", Al-Quds-al-Arabi newspaper in London UK on February 23, 1998.
That is, a further declaration of war against the US by a known effective terrorist.
(And he made major strikes, such as bombing the American embassies in Nairobi and in Dar es-Sala’am in August, 1998.)
- Subsequently successful al Qaida senior operative Wahdi al-Hage was arrested in Texas. The presence in the US of the head of the cell that laid the groundwork for the bombings in Kenya and Tanzania should have rang alarm bells. (Refer to Bin Ladin vs. the West: Round Two by Yoram Schweitzer on http://www.ict.org.il, The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzilya Israel.)
- In 1998 John Miller of ABC News interviewed Bin laden. Afterward, commenters said:
"The principal danger presented by the phenomenon of "sub-state" supporters of terror like bin laden is the combination of tremendous financial resources coupled with an extremist ideology backed, in his view, by heavenly decree; an ideology which advocates the wholesale slaughter of its perceived enemies, whether soldiers or civilians, children or adults. Bin laden's worldview sees the entire world as the battlefield.
The alliance of such an individual with a group of trained and experienced fighters, steeped in Islamic indoctrination, is potentially deadly. All the more so when the fighters are veterans of a long, and for their part, victorious war for the sake of religion. Such a combination is a recipe for acts of political violence and mass destruction.
One cannot rule out the possibility of an organization espousing such a doctrine employing non-conventional methods.
In the estimation of many security analysts, this combination of wealth and extremism gives the Afghan Veteran's Association a place among the most dangerous organizations on the stage of international terrorism today."
Osama Bin laden:
Wealth plus Extremism Equals Terrorism (The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzilya Israel, JL27/98) or Defense Journal October 1998
That is, the capability, nature and strength of the enemy was defined 3 years before September 11, 2001.
Date and author to be verified.
- In July 1999 a mental patient eluded guards, entered the cockpit and killed one pilot with a knife. Fortunately he was overcome.
- source: Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine, May 10, 2004, page 46, at the end of the story Determined Invader (the story is about a lone person getting into an airport on April 28, 2004 - the cockpit entry was on an ANA 747 flight).
- At the end of 1999 one Ahmed Ressam was detained in Port Angeles WA after getting off the ferry boat from Victoria BC. The trunk of his car contained explosives. Investigation linked him to Algerian Islamic terrorists living in Montreal Quebec, then Ressam claimed to have been trained by bin Laden's operation in Afghanistan. Initially it was believed the target was Seattle's Space Needle during New Year's Eve festivities, but subsequently it was determined the probable target was LA airport terminal using a suitcase bomb.
(Reference Seattle Times series on the Ressam case, June 23-July7, 2002.
It is likely that Ressam was caught because he and colleagues incorrectly assumed that a single person would attract less scrutiny than two people.)
That is, authorities knew that Islamic terrorists were probably targeting landmarks and aviation facilities in the US, intending to harm large numbers of civilians.
- In October 2000, suicidal persons rammed a small boat loaded with explosives against the US
warship Cole at dock in Saana, Yemen, killing 17 US sailors.
That is, another reminder of the suicidal nature of terrorists from many Islamic countries, and use of another delivery method - a different mode of transportation (which demonstrated their flexibility and ingenuity).
(In that case, using a common transportation vehicle to deliver a bomb.)
- This bunfight may reveal lack of action by the FAA:
'One of the FAA's own has accused the agency of covering up information about security lapses at the nation's airports prior to 9/11, according to a report in USA Today on Monday. Bogdan Dzakovic, an FAA special agent for 14 years, said the agency ignored repeated warnings about security loopholes from its own agents. In addition, Dzakovic alleged that the agency announced in advance it was going to test security checkpoints, and supervisors acted to bury the information if breaches were discovered. The federal Office of Special Counsel, which handles whistleblower complaints, has ordered the Transportation Department to investigate. "My entire office files are replete with incident after incident of us documenting major problems in aviation security," Dzakovic wrote in his letter to the special counsel, USA Today reported. "There is not one single instance that I am aware of in which action was taken to correct these security loopholes."
Yesterday, The New York Times reported that Dzakovic said, in a statement released through his lawyers, that "The terrorist attacks on September 11 could and should have been completely avoided. ... The manner in which the Federal Aviation Administration failed to execute its mission to protect the flying public made it inevitable that terrorists could attack in this particularly heinous manner." An FAA spokeswoman told the Times the agency had always acted aggressively on the findings of its security-team investigators. The Transportation Department declined to comment for USA Today.'
missing date
Dzakovic testimony
Whistle-blower thinks the state of U.S. aviation security invites another attack re Dzakovic and Bill Katovsky's book "Patriots Act: Voices of Dissent and the Risk of Speaking Out,"
- On 29 December 2000 a paranoid person entered the cockpit of a 747 flying from London to
Kenya, and grabbed the control wheel. Only one pilot was in the cockpit at the time and the
intruder fell across him. The aircraft stalled and rolled to knife edge attitude. The other
pilots returned to the cockpit and wrestled the intruder away from the controls, enough for
the seated pilot to see the instruments and recover the flight. A very close call.
That is, someone got into the cockpit and tried to maneuver the airliner, almost causing it to crash.
That is, the possibility of someone entering an airliner cockpit and causing a crash was again demonstrated.
- in 2000 and 2001 several suspicious persons, in some cases known persons, were identified as probably having entered the US or as being in the US. Bureaucracy and lack of coordination hampered the search. This link provides an article about two known terrorists spotted in Malyasia and believed to have entered the US:
Someday someone will die: how two terrorists slipped by. (Seattle Times, September 21, 2002)
Given the information on suspected persons, would it have taken much more/smarter effort to catch a few of them and either stall or uncover the plot?
And more discussion in the media about bin Laden activities, including people in the US helping him and cells established in US cities: Warning signals
(article by Daniel Pipes, in The Jerusalem Post of June 20, 2001 - with reference to an article by Daniel Pipes and Steven Emerson in The Wall St. Journal of May 13, 2001; (some of the court evidence about the phone is here:
transcript of Day 37 of the trial, May 1, 2001 (US District Court, Southern District of NY, USA vs Usama bin laden et al)
That is, more reminders of the terrorist activities and presence in the US.
- ongoing activities of various governments, some noted in the US State Department's review at
Overview of State-Sponsored Terrorism
That is, ongoing terrorist efforts known to the US government.
- An assessment by the House and Senate intelligence committees, unveiled in 2002 an assessment of intelligence failures. It indicates that at least a dozen intelligence reports going back to 1994 indicated that radical Islamic terrorist groups planned to use airplanes as weapons. (Article in National Post of September 19, 2002. Source Cox News Service. Chief investigator for the committees' inquiry was Eleanor Hill.
That is, probable terrorist methods were known well before September 11, 2001.
- And we know that transferrence of anger to innocent people is commonly facilitated by
beliefs.
For example French farmers' organized destruction of a McDonald's restaurant as a way
to bring attention to their problem with US import restrictions arising from an inter-government trade spat. They deliberately hurt someone's property to further a cause not related to the victim, because they saw the target as "the most conspicuous symbol of American-dominated globalization".
(From the Canadian socialist publication The Briarpatch, which praised the farmers'
actions in a 2001 issue.)
That is, furthering a cause by destroying high-profile property chosen for
symbolism to perpetrators' thinking - what happened on September 11, 2001.
And, I comment, the farmers - one convicted and jailed for years - talk the lingo of violent 'antifa' persons who harmed persons and destroyed property in cities like Porland OR and Seattle WA: Maxism. They tried to burn police up by blockading one door to an office and setting fire to the other side of the building.
Also, refer to John David Lewis' list of prior terrorist acts, especially hijacking of aircraft by Islamic terrorists.
The foregoing list shows that terrorist identity, motivation, targets and methods were well known prior to September 11, 2001. It also shows that a single individual could enter a cockpit and kill the crew. Security authorities failed to see and prevent the obvious threat.
Security people have cracked down to the extent of taking pens away from pilots because
pens have sharp points. Many people urge national identity cards, elimination of many civil
liberties, and invasions of privacy, to combat the Islamic terrorists. But will these bureaucratic
methods work? I doubt it. The terrorists are dedicated and persistent. Bureaucratic methods
did not work before September 11, 2001, they will not work in future.
One clear and moral way to protect ourselves is to forcibly eliminate terrorists and the
governments who aid and harbour them. They made war on our friends - war should be returned
to wipe many of them out and show that their killings will be met with the same but over-whelming force. We cannot appease them, as the allies did with Hitler leading to WWII and
apologists urge today - that would be suicide. (The apologists sound like British Prime
Minister Chamberlain in 1938: "It has always seemed to me that in dealing with foreign
countries we do not give ourselves a chance of success unless we try to understand their
mentality, which is not always the same as our own, and it really is astonishing to
contemplate how the identically same facts are regarded from two different angles.")
[Sure, freedom versus tyranny - apparently he could not tell the difference.]
Another is better intelligence, distributed well.
Israelis are claiming that they told US authorities of specific operatives connected to known
enemies (bin Laden, a known group in Lebanon, and Iraq) who were working together on a large
attack.
The CIA told the FBI of a few of the eventual hijackers - FBI claim they thought the
information flagged IMMEDIATE was routine (though they did look). Apparently it was not
distributed to airlines or FAA, yet they are on the front lines of spotting people who are
travelling. Now Congress is writing laws to make agencies share information! (Why does it
take laws to force bureaucrats to work together?)
Many resources could be freed immediately by ceasing the attempts to make Prohibition v2.x
work. While taking drugs is dumb because they are harmful to life, thus selling them wrong,
the war on drugs has not worked despite serious reductions of individual freedom and very
costly campaigns. While authorities were looking for drugs, an incredible evil crossed
borders - Islamic terrorist warriors.
Other resources could be freed by being sensible about immigration matters. Too much effort
is expended chasing every little case of someone who might produce work in the US. Meanwhile
destroyers cross borders.
There is some hope. US Attorney General Ashcroft has said:
"When terrorism threatens our future, we cannot afford to live in the past. We must focus
on our core mission and responsibilities, understanding that the department will not be
all things to all people. We cannot do everything we once did because lives now depend on
us doing a few things very well."
Ashcroft shifts Justice Department focus to anti-terrorism (Seattle Times NO09/01 (Washington Post)
However, the changes in resources seem small to me - 10% of budget to terrorism (up from
4%) and 10% of HQ personnel shifted to the field (there should be very few people in HQ). And it seems that border authorities are increasingly expected to cover everything instead of prioritizing.
Though the bureaucratic infighting and lack of cooperation continues:
Terorrism probe slowed by lack of collaboration
(Seattle Times NO11/01 (original source LATimes).
And the confusion and delays continue:
Staffing at U.S.-Canadian border cut despite concerns
(Ray Rivera, January 01, 2002, Seattle Times)
That is, how can we depend on people who promise forces but cannot give them orders in less than a month?
Security authorities must think broadly. It is difficult, and we know risk is never zero, but
we don't pay them just to use textbook bureaucratic methods that anyone could think of. We
employ them in our free countries to protect freedom, not to reduce freedoms. (This person seems to make sense but I'd need details:
Interview with Ronen Hakimi (Aviation Today, January 10, 2002; person with Israeli security experience - they've been living beside the threat for over 70 years.)
We are now seeing knee-jerk reactions by security personnel, such as taking pens away from
pilots. Hopefully just a temporary aberration by unskilled people in fear of losing their
jobs and companies because they let the terrorists onboard with knives on September 11.
However, security gaps continue:
Airport Security Tightened Report Finds Lapses Still Remain, Reforms Expected (ABC News OC11/01)
And why does it take the FAA, in time of an airline security crisis, 90 days to get baggage
x-ray machines out of storage and in operation?
Why does it take the Canadian government 8 months to introduce identification for permanent
residents who are not citizens? I have to assume that they don't plan to take strong action,
or that they are just putting on a show. Like typical bureaucrats.
And the procedures used. US and Canada authorities, especially INS, already have powers that
local police don't and have abused them. (For examples check the court rulings on seizure of
automobiles when someone in the vehicle was not admissible (a common occurrence which may be
for reasons that aren't especially serious) and on "expedited removal". Why did it take a long court effort to get border authorities to behave decently?) Border procedures assume guilt (the opposite of normal justice) and do not require the full process of normal law that protects individuals against errors and abuse. While law enforcement is a tough job, it is the job of those hired to do it and must be done properly and well. Due process is a fundamental requirement of free countries, in contrast with the misuse of power that the colonies revolted
against in forming the United States of America. At a time of hiring of entry level employees
(which the US INS' web site indicates it is doing) it is crucial that proper direction be given
to them. (Bureaucracies tend to be very spotty.) There are indications of ignorance (such as FBI agents not aware that government lists of flight schools could easily be obtained on the Internet) and seizure of perishable groceries from a store in the same building as a raided money transfer service (at the worst possible time for the store - just before a major feast period of its customers).
Somalian shop owners return with merchandise seized in raid, By Florangela Davila
Somali's seized $40,500. returned
(Seattle Times November 29, 2001)
(Actions of US government agents seem incredibly petty and careless - for example, seizing shelving, throwing out food, and not delivering what they took back to the owner's location. Those agents are not people who are suitable to defend freedom. And there are allegations of, in my words, callous incompetence and obtuseness:
ABCNews.com, January 12, 2002
(Note information about extra power that INS has over non-citizens.)
Security people need to keep perspective. For example, suppose someone bought fertilizer for their large lawn, then rented a truck to help a poor friend move, then purchased a barrel of diesel fuel for the generator at their remote cabin. At that point they fit a terrorist profile (Timothy McVeigh's).
People need to think out of the box, think laterally.
A simple physical example is the case of a truck jammed under a road overpass that it was
too tall for. One's first thought is is to get a tow truck and pull it back. That would work,
once a large enough tow truck was obtained, but it might further damage the overpass. How else to extricate the truck? Well, how about letting air out of the tires to lower the truck, then moving it back several feet under its own power? Less damage, quicker, and less costly. Simple, but most people wouldn't think of that.
Another is the question that arises every month or two in Compuserve discussion forums:
"I want to use my laptop computer in my vehicle - will it run on an inverter?" (An inverter
would provide AC power, emulating a building wall outlet, from the vehicle's DC power, but
often does not produce power of the same quality as a wall outlet.) But before launching into
a detailed look at power quality out of the inverter and such factors, the simple question
is: "why don't you buy a DC power supply meant for using laptops in vehicles?"
"Oh, I didn't know they were available." IOW, people reinforce their mind's journey down an awkward path by not asking the more basic question "can I power my laptop computer from my vehicle?" because they assumed something (they assumed they had to use the normal wall plug cord, even though as a device that can run on internal batteries it probably uses DC power).
Lack of knowledge of alternatives is typical of those whose mindset is to think they can forecast everything and pre-ordain reality (bureaucrats, control freaks and statists).
An example in the war against terrorism is invasion of privacy to stop people from moving money through the banking system. Oh, there are networks outside the banking system? Well, make them illegal (as middle eastern countries are now doing - at the expense of workers sending money to their hungry families (good banking is not available in much of the world).
Uh-oh! - now we hear that bin Laden's people used diamonds to transfer purchasing power. Stop that and gold will be used, disguised as objects for personal use. And on and on, with more complicated laws and unintended consequences at each step.
(Oh, now you find that the Northern Alliance smuggled gems out of Afghanistan to finance their war effort which enabled removal of the Taliban from power? Hmmmm. Would you consider that it is the end action that must be judged, not the tools used?)
Another is intercepting communications.
Since the Internet is accessible and fairly quick now, bureaucrats want to spy on email. Oh, but it is easy to embed messages in pictures that look innocent? We'll have to forbid pictures (as in Iran?).
Oh, there is no record kept of instant messaging communications? Well, we'll have to forbid that.
Oh, there are simple radios that can communicate over long distances? We'll have to forbid them (never mind people depending on such radios, such as medical people and missionaries in the jungle - the simple HF radio (the low end of "short wave", with a range of thousands of miles).
Cassandra Szklarski, National Post, December 2, 2001
(Embedding messages is another example of a method that can be used to help people be free. When black people were escaping slavery in the southern US quilts were sewn with symbols that could be recognized by someone who knew what to look for. The quilts were hung on fences, as though to air out but in fact to guide people to escape routes and safe houses.)
My point is that the usual control-freak methods will not work against terrorism, yet will hurt people trying to live life honestly.
(And check this horror story:
An INS Horror Story - by Michelle Malkin (CapitalismMagazine.com NO 01)
A Recipe for Safer Skies? - by Michelle Malkin (CapitalismMagazine.com NO 01)
You expect those people to be fair? (Note that one of them was made the head of INS' National
Security Unit, which coordinates counter-terrorism efforts, in 1998.)
The Islamic terrorist warriors will get through the defenses, because they will make many
clever attempts - they need only succeed a few times to exceed the damage of September 11,
2001.
Consider the hackers breaking into computer systems, and the frequent incidents at airports.
(For example, on June 17, 2004 a person already known to authorities in a nearby province
evaded airport security screening. Fortunately airline personnel called police when he tried
to board a flight without a ticket or boarding pass.
The infamous Maginot line was a large fortification built by France to stop invasion from
Germany. But the German army sped around the end of it.
Nevertheless, Israel tried a simlar barrier, but the Egyptian army quickly got around it in the 1973 war.
A US study agrees, saying that terrorists are "all but certain" to set off a radiological
weapon ("dirty bomb" in the US). (Associated Press story printed by the Calgary Herald in 2004.)
And the line continues to be leaky. Canwest Newspapers reported on April 11, 2009 that "The RCMP had also released a report last year that warned there were more than 60 employees with links to organized crime at the country's eight largest airports, and many organized gangs were found to be using the airports for some of their activities."
and that passes had been issued to people with criminal records. And a Canadian government official demonstrated to media that it was easy to get into restricted areas at Toronto International Airport. ("Minister lambastes airport security at Pearson" by Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service, April 2, 2009)
With its weakness exemplified by the ability of a lone individual to get well inside the White House, which is the President's residence, in September 2014. What if several armed people with a clear plan attacked? (That an alarm box had been disabled by officials and that a guard was out of position illustrate the risk of human failure, beyond whether or not the theoretical layers of security are adequate for a target of high PR value. Another example of human failure was the 2001 shooting incident, in which a supervisor told officers to stand down as the noise was only a vehicle backfiring - it was in fact rifle shots aimed at the President's residence location. One lesson from that was lack of surveillance cameras that might have helped see the assailant)
My point is that defensive lines will be penetrated, and it only takes a few cases to get enough people and supplies through to do major damage.
And let's rebut the notion that we should just hunt each Islamic terrorist warrior down. Look at how long it took to find one Unabomber. (Authorities "got lucky" when a relative recognized his style of writing and told authorities instead of protecting "family" as is more common in areas where al Qaeda hides.)
Look at how long it took to get to Osama bin Laden.
And at what cost to the military and intelligence agencies of free countries?
Somehow we have to get far better at spotting very troubled people. While some people claim after an event that there were no indications, often in fact there are - for example, the nut who shot the congress woman in AZ had a shrine with skull on top in his parent's back yard (weren't they concerned about that?).
It is clear that security authorities knew, or should have known as part of the job responsibilities they are paid for, of the targets and methods used by Islamic terrorists on September 11, 2001. Yet they failed to protect us.
PS:
The assasination of several staff of the trashy French magazine Charlie Hebdo and subsequent attacks on Jews in Europe was foretold by:
- attempts on the life of author Salmon Rushdie.
- assassination of Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh
- substantial anti-Semisim in Europe in recent years.
And now we are seeing mentally ill people jumping on Islamic Totalitarian urging, such as:
- the couple in SW BC who planned to copy bombing of the Boston Marathon run by exploding a pressure cooker filled with small pieces of metal, on Canada Day in front of the BC Legislature buildings in Victoria.
- murder of a guard in Ottawa Ontario in late 2014.
As well as organized plots to cause damage and injury in Canada.
And radicalized young men who go to Syria and Iraq where they get training and experience in war, then return to Canada.
Please go to my discussion of individual liberties in the context of combatting the Islamic terrorist warriors.
Better news is that on occasion someone has some sense though overlapping laws and rules make it increasingly difficult to exercise.
Intellectual property of Keith Sketchley - Page version 2021.09.23.
If any links no longer work please let me know - the Internet changes. (If in a hurry for the page try the archive search functions - ABCNews.com and SeattleTimes.com work well - or a good search engine like Google. Unfortunately the National Post only archives for 60 days and local newspapers in the Global chain do not archive well (their search functions do not work correctly), and the Seattle Times may now require registration to read archives.)