White House Warns of Possible Holiday Terror Attack

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: ABC News

Just days before Christmas, the White House asked Americans to be vigilant this holiday season, warning of a possible -- though unspecified -- terror threat from Al Qaeda. The caution echoed a weeks' worth of warnings from law enforcement authorities.

A spate of bombs found today in foreign embassies in Rome, Italy has again ratcheted up concern, with authorities calling on people to be on the lookout.

"We remain vigilant to attempts by Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations to carry out cowardly attacks against innocent men, women, and children, and we are working very closely with other governments to share all threat information immediately and to coordinate closely our counterterrorism and security activities," said John Brennan, the White House counterterrorism chief, said Wednesday in a statement.

This week, Brennan convened a meeting of senior law enforcement and intelligence officials to discuss "the latest threat reporting and to coordinate security and counterterrorism plans that will be in place during the holiday season."

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-warns-holiday-terror-attack/story?id=12467637

[NightWatcher]

1. Ctrl-C Ctrl-V.....

Every year, cut paste.

[Freddie Stubbs]

9. There was an attempted terrorist attack last Christmas:

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

[smiley]

14. the authorities were warned about a possible attack....

by the man now known as the underwear bomber. Yet they still allowed him to board the plane.

security theatre - that's all it is.

[high density]

18. That person boarded a plane in Amsterdam

I'm not sure how the White House can prevent that, even though we are now strip searching and/or groping many people who want to fly.

[smiley]

19. I didn't say the WH could prevent that

His father warned authorities about his son ahead of time and yet he was still allowed to board the plane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UguilDrFNUE

[pnwmom]

24. Stupid mistakes are made. That doesn't mean it's "security theater."

It means that any system is subject to human error.

[Kelvin Mace]

29. It is PURE theatre

I can name a dozen ways to circumvent the pathetic security we have, which would allow terrorist to kill scores of people, possible thousands.

Meanwhile, American corporations continue to poison, maim and kill citizens by the tens of thousands every year, make money of it, and with judicious use of tax shelters, shift all the burden for their victims off on us.

[freshwest]

39. Correct

This is just the media version.

[boppers]

55. If you can name a dozen, please write it up, and disseminate widely.

You might want to learn how to do it without "leaving fingerprints", though.

[Kelvin Mace]

58. Most of the ways have actually been done before

by terrorist groups.

There is so much emphasis on protecting the planes from passengers, yet the grounds crews (this would include people with complete access to hundreds of thousands of gallons of highly volatile aviation fuel) are mostly ignored.

Security theatre creates massive lines of hundreds of people at security check points, which has been exploited by suicide bombers in the past. NOTHING stops one of these people from getting right besides one of these check points.

It is PRETEND security. The truth is, NOTHING can be done to stop a determined foe from killing massive numbers of people. Terrorism can be stopped in only one of two ways:

1) Either you exterminate every single members of the group, and every one of their family, friends and supporters. This, by the way, is called genocide.

2) You negotiate with them and address their grievances.

Anything else is just jerking off while people die.

[boppers]

59. A short list:

1. Thermite is basically rust, and aluminum. Both are easy to bring on planes (as powders, think "makeup"), and thermite will eat through solid steel. It's hard to light, so you need something like magnesium... but that's also easy to bring on.
2. Body cavities aren't checked. Great place to hide C-4, a container of VX, whatever.
3. While computers *are* checked, a simple timing/detonation controller looks like, well, a laptop, a cell phone, a printer toner cartridge, etc.
4. Ceramic blades don't trigger metal detectors....
5. ..and neither do plastic parts of guns, bombs, knives...
6. Of course, razor sharp metal that looks like a knife edge might trigger a detector.... unless it's distributed over a wide area. (See: the Mythbusters guy who carried two 18 inch razor edges through security, because they were thin enough to look like wires).
7. Blasting caps, as commercially produced, have a uniform appearance. Custom produced, however, they can look quite different.
8. While people are checked for short term, immediate, risks, nobody is checked for biological threats. A single smallpox carrier on a plane (hypothetical of course, because it "doesn't exist anymore") can spread to thousands.
9. While a 3 inch knife is cause for alarm, a 5 inch, glass screen, cell phone is not. Ever had a glass cut?
10. As you mentioned, ground crew security, and perimeter security, is laughable. I live near an airport, and the sheer amount of "grassy knoll" points is mind boggling.

I may get a visit in a few days. Maybe they'll hire me.... (uh, doubtful)

[sabrina 1]

54. Someone escorted a guy who was on the terror watch list

onto a plane headed for the U.S. without a passport. That wasn't a 'stupid mistake'. That was deliberate. After six years of not being able to overcome civil liberties challenges to the installation of Naked Scanners in this country, someone escorts a radical terror suspect onto a plane without a passport and the next thing you know, Chertoff is all over TV telling us 'we need these scanners'. Two months later, the money begins to roll into Chertoff's and his MIC buddies bank accounts.

Please, no one believes these fairy tales anymore ... in fact more than half the country doesn't believe the 'official story' of 9/11 But the 'terror' game has made an awful lot of people very wealthy and it has begun the process of turning this country into a police state, where the people are complacent, kept in a constant state of fear and no threat to those in power.

It's like watching a giant ad. for naked scanners. Each holiday announce a terror threat then emphasize how much we need those scanners so people will stop suing over them and refusing to use them.

Geez, we never believed this stuff, the 'terror alerts' with the colored charts, the fear-mongering before each election, when Bush was president, and I don't believe them now either.

[truth2power]

43. And again I ask...who was that person who facilitated his passage through security

in Amsterdam? Hmmm?

Someone should send Pres. Obama a copy of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf". Eventually they're going to be right, in the same sense as a broken clock being right twice a day. But no one will listen because the constant barrage of fear! terra! has become annoying background noise.

FUD

[nadinbrzezinski]

46. If they were serious about this theater

no, not just the Obama administration, but starting in 2002 after 9.11 here are a few steps that should have been taken:

1.- REMOVE all those large USPS\UPS\FEDEX boxes... why? I can put a device in one of them.

2.- They would have EDUCATED the population as to WHAT to look for. Telling people to be alert for things is not good enough. I happen to know, but then again I got training.

3.- They would check all luggage going onto bellies of planes.

4- Christmas Bomber would have never ever made it to that plane, not after his dad WARNED our people with PLENTY OF TIME, and he WAS in the no flight list, which means NO FLIGHT in Amsterdam too.

Of course this is just the top four concerns. Terror has become background and nobody believes them anymore.

[True_Blue]

21. ROFL!

:rofl:

[Xenotime]

26. This is beginning to sound like the Bush Administration

[boppers]

53. Get a mac.

Different symbol. :)

[Roland99]

2. wooo! Christmas pat downs!

[nc4bo]

16. I know where to go if "Santa" doesn't do his job Xmas eve. Straight to the airport I'll go. nt

[hulka38]

3. Hang wreath,

put up lights, issue terror alert....

[valerief]

4. 10 to 1 it happens Jan. 5. nt

[Knight Hawk]

41. WHY?

[nadinbrzezinski]

First day Senate meets, good way to... distract

from events in DC.

[nadinbrzezinski]

47. First day Senate meets, good way to... distract

from events in DC.

[eleny]

5. Vigilant? People can barely keep their sanity on the roads

It's pretty tense out there. Unless it has a sale tag on it I doubt anybody will even notice a suspicious package.

[msongs]

6. 400,000 Americans die from tobacco every year but big tobacco gives $$ to politicians nt

[enough]

8. +1 (nt)

[northernlights]

28. +1,000,000 nt

[right2bfree]

48. Yeap, every box of tobbaco is a time bomb waiting to kill smokers and 2nd hand smokers. nt

[CreekDog]

7. extremely helpful

i realize they don't know when or where and if they did, they probably couldn't just *say* so.

but still..."be vigilant" to some unspecified, undetermined threat at some vague time?

does not do a damned thing to actually help people do anything, except perhaps ratchet up their anxiety when in fact, there's nothing they can do to respond other than common sense.

[hedgehog]

12. On the other hand - last May several people noticed something strange about

the car in Times Square, and informed authorities.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101005/ap_on_re_us/us_times_square_car_bomb

Now, I'll grant you that that bomb was a dud, but if the incident had been ignored, may be the guy would have tried again with a functioning bomb.

Some people are super anxious. I get pretty tired of people living in a suburb in the middle of no where being concerned about terrorism. I also get tired of people who purport to believe that there is no threat from terrorists. We can discuss whether our actions invite terrorists to attack us, and we can discuss the proper response to the threat of terrorism. However, to suggest that there are no terrorists and/or that every government warning about a possible strike is politically motivated is a case of ignoring reality, IMO.

[abq e streeter]

30. Thank you; and I agree with you completely

While it is a proven fact that the Bush junta raised "terror threat levels" whenever it served them politically to do so, that doesn't mean there aren't genuine dangers, and genuinely dangerous violent fanatics out there. We here at DU are rightfully furious with Bush for ignoring warnings about September 11th, 2001, yet it seems that many here simultaneously dismiss other warnings issued by those charged with trying to stop terrorist attacks from happening. Seems to me that those people want to have it both ways on this. If you dismiss out of hand every warning, how can you criticize Bush for doing the same?

[Amonester]

51. This administration should say something more in order to lower the anxiety

Something like, "although any of you have more chances to win the super lottery jackpot twice in any given year than to be harmed by any terra attack, please remember to report blah blah blah terra terra terra if you see something strange somewhere around" for example.

There are always better ways to do anything.

It's their job to find them, not ours.

Why don't they? :shrug:

Why TEH stupid, ALWAYS teh stupid?

[Knight Hawk]

42. Right

I completely agree

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. I think I have figured out the where, and when.

Wal-Mart.
That's the target.
That's why Big Sis is putting up all those tv PSA things this time of year.

Remember...be vewy vewy fearful in Wal-Marts.


And airports.Don't forget the terra in flying OUT of airports.

[somone]

10. What color is it

I wanna color coordinate the plastic sheeting and duct tape

[slackmaster]

25. Code Brown

:hi:

[MineralMan]

11. Emergency! Everybody to get from street!

Arcane movie reference #163

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TszIJX-F4U&NR=1

[Citizen Worker]

13. Be afraid, very afraid but keep shopping.

[davidthegnome]

17. A holiday gift

Courtesy of the US "law enforcement authorities". Be concerned, be vigilant, there's nothing you can actually do, but we're going to raise the terror alert level and change the colors to something a bit more festive. We give you the gift of increased anxiety with no actual purpose, happy holidays America.

[Wilms]

20. More Terror-Bull news? n/t

[sarcasmo]

22. Look out for AL-CIA-DUH at the buffet.

[slackmaster]

23. Life Jackets Issued To All Americans For Some Reason

WASHINGTON, DC—Assuring the nation that "there is no need for alarm," the Office of Homeland Security issued all U.S. citizens life jackets for some unexplained reason Monday.



http://www.theonion.com/articles/life-jackets-issued-to-all-americans-for-some-reas,95/

[lillypaddle]

27. Jokes aside ...

Let's hope all stays well, for us in the US and everyone around the world.

[conspirator]

31. FUCK . I am not scared of terror anymore. I am scared of the fucking government

bring it on

[right2bfree]

49. No S###. The Congress terrifies me!! nt

[Ian David]

32. John McClane knows there's always a terrorist attack on Christmas.

[Scottybeamer70]

33. BOOGA BOOGA

........more "booga booga" to enlighten the holiday shoppers!!
Hmmmmm.........always "unspecified"............would think by
now they would be able tp pinpoint something.........anything!!
That's as bad as "un named sources".......keeps the perpetrators
from lawsuits, I guess.

[Taverner]

34. It's always a good time for a terror attack

Because that's the whole idea behind it, terror - not knowing when the next will strike

However, al Queda is going to have to get a lot smarter to scare me.

Every terror attempt since 9/11 have all been half-assed ideas.

[Little Star]

35. except for the anthrax one

[Taverner]

36. Ah but that was domestic terrorism, not al Queda

The Bush Admin tried to pass it off as al Queda, as did the terrorist - but the strain, the source of said strain and everything else about it pointed to a domestic (and probably White/Christian Supremacist) origin.

[patrick t. cakes]

37. thankfully malls are bomb shelters

or the one nearest to me is.

:eyes:

[woo me with science]

38. The line forms here for crotch groping.

It will make us all feel safer.

[L0oniX]

40. Fuck the fear.

[niyad]

44. geez, does this sound familiar? terror, terror, terror, fear, fear, fear. . . .

[ProgressIn2008]

45. The aristocracy loves to keep the peasants fearful, it would seem. nt

[skoalyman]

50. whatch out for fruit cake too that stuffs the bomb

well at least for a Christmas gift

[Imagevision]

52. Without fear how would government control the people...?

[panzerfaust]

56. Ah. Just like the good ole days: Get out your Duct Tape

And FEAR, make sure you FEAR.

Really, we need the president to tell us that the people we have pissed off might just use the densely packed crowds to hurt us? Shocking!

Ah - we must be VIGILANT. Watch our neighbors, fear, call The Authorities.

Land of the Brave, Home of the Free: RIP

[dflprincess]

61. And can a revival of "Duck & Cover" be far behind?

Thanks to growing up with Bert the Tertle and his constant fear mongering, I just can't take today's terra alerts real seriously.

[bedazzled]

57. next thing you know they'll be telling us to buy duct tape and plastic sheeting

remember that one?

it's really hard not to laugh sometimes

[Canuckistanian]

60. Ah, the traditional Christmas Terrorist Warning

Such memories, it brings a tear to your eyes.

Didn't Bing Crosby make a song about this?

[daleo]

62. The Earths's shadow SWALLOWED THE MOON

Who knows what when some shadow might SWALLOW ALL OF US AS WE SLEEP.

[katnapped]

63. Strip down - bend over- cough

Rinse and repeat

[and-justice-for-all]

64. I am currently in Berlin for holiday..

and I was rather surprised by the number of armed paramilitary polizei around the Reichstag, Bundes buildings and the surrounding area.

On another note, Al Qaeda does not exist.