Osama bin Laden 'vetoed' killer tractor attack....The Guardian

[Ichingcarpenter]

Osama bin Laden vetoed a plan to fit rotating blades to a tractor to use it as a weapon, according to a US official. Photograph: AP
Osama bin Laden angrily vetoed a plot to fit rotating blades to a tractor and use it to "mow down the enemies of Allah", on the grounds that it would cause "indiscriminate slaughter", according to a US official familiar with material seized in the raid on the al-Qaida chief's hideout.

The hoard of documents and computer discs taken by US special forces consisted more of "strategic musings" than concrete terror plots, the official told ProPublica, the US non-profitmaking investigative news organisation.

Though a fierce advocate of mass-casualty attacks in the west – elsewhere, Bin Laden attempts to calculate the number of Americans who would have to be killed to force the US to withdraw from the Arab world – he appeared angry at a suggestion by the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula that a tractor or farm vehicle could, suitably adapted, be used in an attack.

The official told ProPublica: "Bin Laden said this is something he did not endorse. He seems taken aback. He complains that this tactical proposal promotes indiscriminate slaughter. He says he rejects this and it is not something that reflects what al-Qaida does."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/12/osama-bin-laden-killer-tractor


I thought it was THE ONION when I first saw the headline.

[dkf]

1. What is the difference in discrimination between this and airplanes or the WTC?

Maybe the optics were just too gory?

[Wilms]

3. The FBI did not want OBL in connection with 9/11.

Have to wonder why that was the case. But it WAS the case.

Most of what people think they know they got off the TeeVee.

[Ohio Joe]

15. It is not that hard of a question

From wiki:

Although bin Laden later appeared on the first publicly released FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list on October 10, 2001, he was listed there for his alleged role in the 1998 embassy attack, and not for his alleged role in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, because the most wanted lists name fugitives charged with a crime by a prosecutor or under indictment by a grand jury. Bin Laden was named as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in, for instance, the federal indictment against convicted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, but has not been formally indicted for his alleged role in the September 11, 2001, attacks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI_Ten_Most_Wanted_Fugitives

So, you see since he had not been formally charged by a prosicuter, it could not be listed as a reason on the top ten page.

[Poll_Blind]

13. OBL was not wanted by the FBI for the 9/11 attacks.

Just embassy attacks and some other attacks in Africa. He could have been tried in absentia many times over but that never happened.

PB

[Brickbat]

2. I'm guessing his anger stemmed from the fact that this idea would make them all look like a BUNCH OF

COMPLETE AND UTTER DUMBASSES. Just a thought.

[Mz Pip]

5. That's my guess, too

It wasn't dramatic enough and wouldn't come anywhere near the scale of 9/11.

[IDemo]

14. I wonder if "Hey y'all, watch this!" simply had no translation

[petronius]

17. But I'll bet Robert Rodriguez is taking notes: a tractor with giant blades,

a couple thousand zombies, a few erotic dancers, a weird reptile or three - it may not work for Al Qaeda, but I think we've got a movie...

[Brickbat]

19. Been done.

Caligula.

[petronius]

21. Oh. There are just no good ideas left anymore, are there?

;)

[Brickbat]

23. Heh.

:hi:

[GKirk]

4. "Walk away quickly!...

...We're being attacked by a tractor!"

[City of Mills]

6. He also vetoed sharks with frickin laser beams

on their heads.

[buddysmellgood]

7. Why don't they call ACME?

[Brickbat]

8. Next on the list: Dogs with bees in their mouths, and when they bark they shoot bees at you.

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. The Military's new $700 billion budget has a plan to stop that

He didn't turn down the idea cause it was stupid just not Al quida enough.

Geez.... this is what we need to spend $700 billion dollars to fight?

[Brickbat]

10. The military has a plan for a robot Richard Simmons?

FTMFW!

[Ichingcarpenter]

11. And Now they discover Porn at his compound

Killer Tractors and Porn...... these guys are smart.

[Poll_Blind]

12. I'm going to be thinking about that image for weeks, at least.

:rofl:

PB

[Ichingcarpenter]

16. Mutant Terrorist Zombie Apocalypse now with killer Tractors & Porn

[truebrit71]

18. Countdown 'til Chuck Schumer wants a "No Tractor Driving" list drawn up...

..to go along with his "No Train Travel" list starts in 5....4.....3....

[Withywindle]

20. I thought it was the Onion too!

It sounds like something the rednecks back home would rig up to protect their pot patch.

[alfredo]

22. Here's the tractor in action

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBjlSJf4274&feature=related