Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[marketmaven]

Terrorists attempt fresh wave of US hijackings
Scotsman ^ / July 23, 2004 / JAMES HALL

Key points • Terrorists thought to have targeted at least two US flights in dry-run attacks • 9/11 Commission warns attack worse than Twin Towers 'probable' • Cameras caught 9/11 terrorists setting off security alarms prior to hijacking

Key quote "Every expert with whom we spoke told us an attack of even greater magnitude is now possible and even probable. We do not have the luxury of time" - Tom Kean, chairman 9/11 commission

DEVASTATING new evidence has emerged that terrorists are preparing another attack on the United States, with air marshals and flight crews reporting a series of dry runs for attacks on aircraft in mid-air. At least two flights are thought to have been targeted so far by groups of Middle Eastern men who appear to be forcing a plan of attack. On one flight an air marshal reportedly broke into an onboard toilet to find that a mirror had been removed and that a Middle Eastern man was trying to break through a wall to the cockpit. One air marshal told the Washington Times newspaper yesterday: "No doubt these are dry runs for a terrorist attack." The revelation came on the day a major US report into the 11 September attacks warned that another attack was likely. The commission recommended an overhaul of the country’s intelligence services to prevent al-Qaeda launching more deadly plots against America.

Warning that an attack "of even greater magnitude" than the one that killed almost 3,000 people in 2001 was "probable", the commission accused the Clinton and Bush administrations of failing to have sufficient imagination to have envisaged al-Qaeda’s lethal plot. Tom Kean, the chairman of the commission, said: "Every expert with whom we spoke told us an attack of even greater magnitude is now possible and even probable. We do not have the luxury of time. "We must prepare and we must act. The al-Qaeda network and its affiliates are sophisticated, patient, disciplined and lethal." Airline staff and passengers have catalogued repeated incidents that suggest new attacks are in preparation. "It’s happening and it’s a sad state of affairs," one pilot said.

On one flight last month, 14 Syrian men on a flight between Detroit and Los Angeles boarded the flight, sitting apart. They pretended to be strangers, according to those on board, but once airborne they started filing in and out of the plane’s toilets. When the plane was about to land, the men shot up to different toilets, arousing the suspicions of air crew, passengers and air marshals. However, air marshals who monitored the incident said there was no "legal basis on which to take enforcement action". In another incident, the Washington Times revealed, a flight attendant reported a passenger using a long lens to take photographs of the cockpit door. Earlier this year, it was revealed that Islamic militants had found a new way to circumvent security systems at airports. Instead of trying to take bombs onto aircraft, they would place the components on board, which they can then assemble in mid-flight. Security sources told newspapers that the tactic had already been tried out, again in dry-run form, on flights between the Middle East, North Africa and western Europe.

As early as November, the FBI was warning that "terrorists are considering the use of improvised explosive devices assembled on board to hijack an aircraft". Security agencies around the globe are now trying to track down the militants that have been trained to carry out such attacks. The activities are a terrifying echo of the meticulous planning of the hijackers involved in the 11 September plot, which was comprehensively detailed in yesterday’s report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States The 567-page final report issued by the ten-member commission pointed to "deep institutional failings" and missed opportunities to thwart the hijackings carried out by al-Qaeda operatives.