‘Imminent Attack’ on U.S. Prompted Strikes on Khorasan Group

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

By David Lerman and Nicole Gaouette Sep 23, 2014 10:58 AM ET

Airstrikes in Syria against the extremist Khorasan group were prompted by planning for an “imminent” terror attack on U.S. soil, the Pentagon said.

“We believe the individuals plotting and planning it were eliminated” in the eight U.S. airstrikes overnight, Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said today in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” program.

Amid attention on the threat from Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Khorasan has emerged in recent weeks as a more immediate peril in the view of the U.S. intelligence community because it’s more focused on attacking America and Europe.

The militant group is made up of a “network of seasoned al-Qaeda veterans” preparing to attack “United States and Western interests,” the Defense Department said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-23/-imminent-attack-in-u-s-prompted-airstrikes-on-khorasan.html

[candelista]

1. New bogeyman. nt

[Schema Thing]

2. because no one would ever attack the USA

[candelista]

3. Because someone is always "attacking" the USA.

[L0oniX]

5. The MIC agrees.

[warrant46]

29. USA USA !!

USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA
USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA
USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA
USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA
USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA
USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA

[L0oniX]

4. Islamic texting drivers will get you!

[flamingdem]

6. Link to article with more about this group:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016103144

[candelista]

7. Thin reed.

From your link:

"According to the Associated Press, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri dispatched the group to recruit those Western fighters, who have a better chance of escaping scrutiny at airports and could place bombs on planes."

How does the AP know this? From some unnamed intelligence official?

[flamingdem]

8. Good question. As this news is just coming to the fore today

one hopes will be more detail upcoming.

[flamingdem]

10. Here's another article, I think the answer is Clapper and assorted experts

http://rt.com/usa/189448-khorasan-terrorist-qaeda-isis-syria/

-- snip after Clapper mention

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri at one point ordered the former ISIS to fight only in Iraq, but cut all ties with it when it disobeyed and branched out. The result was that the Nusra Front became Al-Qaeda’s official branch in Syria. It’s said that Khorasan is to Al Nusra Front what the latter was to Al-Qaeda.

When The Daily Signal spoke to James Phillips, a Middle East expert at The Heritage Foundation, he outlined some American intelligence views on the group: they see their mission in “[recruiting] European and American Muslim militants who have traveled to Syria to fight alongside Islamist extremist groups that form part of the rebel coalition fighting Syria’s Assad regime.”

“The Khorasan group hopes to train and deploy these recruits, who hold American and European passports, for attacks against Western targets,” he said.

He believes Khorasan to be Al-Qaeda’s new arm in attacking America, its “far enemy.” While they are Al Nusra’s allies in Syria, their role is believed to be to carry out terrorist attacks outside the country.

The group reportedly uses the services of a very prominent Al-Qaeda bomb maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, whose devices previously ended up on three US-bound planes. He is known to be a true pioneer of hard-to-detect bombs.

Phillips believes that the next step is taking those bombs and pairing them with US-born and other foreign jihadists returning home.

[Aerows]

25. Provided Clapper

is providing the least untruthful information.

[Sunlei]

9. Not many 'seasoned al-qaeda veterans' left by now. Must have watched them for a longtime

To know what they had planned must be why a President turns greyer so fast.

[flamingdem]

11. I agree. Meanwhile Congress is on vacation

Obama is calling all the shots since they would impede and I believe some would hope for an attack on US soil.

[Sunlei]

17. imagine the stress on the President with this kind of intelligence to deal with.

Congress on vacation, Boehner out partying/drinking, that bonehead is 3rd in line for the Presidents seat.

It's sickening, Congress cares so little for "the people" of America, they won't even _in person_, support the President at this critical time.

[flamingdem]

19. Thinking of Bonehead in charge has truly terrorized me!

I can't think of anything much more frightening than that.

You're right that congress should be at least very vocal in their support. They should chime in from their relaxing vacations with words of support at a minimum.

[Louisiana1976]

27. Agree wholeheartedly. That's scary.

[BobbyBoring]

20. As sick as that may sound...

I'm sure they would like to see an attack here as long as they aren't the targets. If they were, I might want to see one too.

[flamingdem]

21. Boner is the real Jihadi John

I'm kidding I'm kidding

[postulater]

12. "We believe the individuals plotting and planning it were eliminated”

So we got a bunch of Number 2s?

[bullwinkle428]

13. Well, we're sure being fed plenty of "Number 2"!

OH YES!!

[Myrina]

16. +2

(Using a 1 didn't seem appropriate).

[Quackers]

30. Ha!

[postulater]

37. It is a smelly situation.

[Historic NY]

15. Or a good portion of the 100 or so abroad...

that left the US to fight. Their passports were stamped cancled.

[gwheezie]

14. They've attacked us here already

I clearly remembered reading dozens if articles after the boston bombing about a connection to khorason. I don't think proof was ever established but perhaps Obama does know more than we do.

[morningfog]

18. “United States and Western interests,” is so broad as to be meaningless.

This is just another attempt to legalize the illegal strikes in Syria. Trying to cover their ass.

[humbled_opinion]

22. TERRA TERRA TERRA.....

At this point the Obama Administration wreaks of hypocrisy and is giving peace loving Democrats a bad rep.

[FrodosPet]

34. Is former President Carter a hypocrite as well?

How about Sen Warren?

Warren: Destroying ISIS should be 'No. 1 priority'

http://thehill.com/policy/international/216559-warren-destroying-isis-should-be-our-no-1-priority

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Wednesday said that the Obama administration should make defeating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) its top priority.

"ISIS is growing in strength. It has money, it has organization, it has the capacity to inflict real damage. So when we think about a response we have to think about how to destroy that," Warren told Yahoo's Katie Couric.

~ snip ~

Asked about the dozens of Americans who have reportedly joined ISIS, Warren noted that the U.S. should be "stepping up our efforts to track where people go when they leave the United States."

"The terrorists have moved, and we have to move in response," she said, adding part of that "means we're going to have to change in fundamental ways how we monitor our citizens when they go abroad."

~ snip ~

Surely a progressive socialist like Senator Sanders is against this madness

At least Dennis Kucinich is against bombing

[WhoWoodaKnew]

40. Interesting

[lsewpershad]

23. I wonder

what we would have thought if Khorasan felt that they were under imminent attack form US?... Just wondering if that would have given them the right for preventive action?

[candelista]

24. +1

Rare objectivity.

[edgineered]

26. Great, now that it has been taken care of, time to come home.

[Louisiana1976]

28. Right on!

[edgineered]

32. It is nice to see another who enjoys simple solutions

even if seeing things that way isn't the norm.

[yurbud]

31. there getting lazy. I think they got this enemy from the first season of STAR TREK VOYAKER

[Earth_First]

33. "Or Western Interests..."

Yahtzee!

[daleo]

35. Oh, and one other thing

There's this group we forgot to mention earlier, but they also a threat to our survival, mkay. And there might be others we think of later too. You can never have enough enemies to blow up.

[dipsydoodle]

36. Tooth paste bomb maybe ?

Plot to 'blow up airliners with toothpaste bombs' was being planned by unknown 'Khorosan' terror group that was hit alongside ISIS in US strikes on Syria

The United States bombed a Syrian terror group that was in the final stages of a plot to blow up American airliners with toothpaste tube bombs last night, the Pentagon has claimed.

Alongside its strikes on the ISIS heartland, officials said US warplanes hit a previously unknown group of Al-Qaeda militants known as the Khorosan Group.

The group of seasoned terrorists planned to 'imminently' attack a US airliner or other target using a bomb without any metal parts, toothpaste tubes and clothes dipped in explosives, an unnamed US official told CNN.

President Barack Obama ordered the strikes after intelligence reports discovered the plot this week, officials claimed

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2766906/Al-Qaeda-allies-final-stages-plans-attack-American-homeland-terrorist-safe-haven-Syria-US-airstrikes-hit.html#ixzz3EC4vZPTr

Airstrikes to avert another 9/11: U.S. deploys its awesome arsenal - including the new F-22 Raptor stealth fighter - over fears Jihadis were about to launch attacks on passenger planes

Fears of an imminent terror atrocity to rival 9/11 prompted a wave of missile strikes in Syria yesterday.

The target was an Al Qaeda-linked group apparently nearing ‘the execution phase’ of a plot against airports and passenger planes in the West.

The American attack on the little-known Khorasan group was separate from airstrikes on 14 Islamic State targets in Syria carried out by the US and five Arab nations.

In the early hours of yesterday Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched against hideouts, training camps and a bomb-making factory used by Khorasan and Islamic State.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2767283/This-beginning-Pentagon-reveal-dozens-smart-bombs-blitzed-ISIS-Syria-tell-terror-group-missiles-way.html#ixzz3ECBnkswf

[mrdmk]

39. Not only do I need to give up my toothbrush, I need to give up my toothpaste?

The tooth-fairy is going to have a field-day at the expense of my bite.

This is terra, terra, terrible

[Alkene]

38. Time to buy more duct tape!

http://vimeo.com/13130704