Reports That Led to Terror Alert Were Years Old, Officials Say

[Aunt Anti-bush]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/03/politics/03intel.html

By DOUGLAS JEHL and DAVID JOHNSTON

Published: August 3, 2004

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 -Much of the information that led the authorities to raise the terror alert at several large financial institutions in the New York City and Washington areas was three or four years old, intelligence and law enforcement officials said on Monday. They reported that they had not yet found concrete evidence that a terror plot or preparatory surveillance operations were still under way.

(snip)

[MichiganVote]

1. Just what we need in this country

Cops and robbers wandering around NY with body and assault weapons.
Jesus H. what is wrong with these people. How soon before someones gets shot?

And to think the Bobbys in England get by with sticks.

[Jacobin]

2. Three cheers for Dr. Dean

Oh, and NO, the world is NOT safer with Saddam captured, Holy Joe's protestations notwithstanding.

[Mz Pip]

3. Front page news

or it should be. Wonder how much play this will get.

MzPip
:dem:

[Aunt Anti-bush]

4. I certainly hope it gets a lot of play in the media.

But, so far nothing on any television news shows.

[54anickel]

5. CNN already countering

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/08/02/terror.targets/index.html

Officials: 'Treasure trove' followed al Qaeda arrest
Capture of suspect in Pakistan led to terror alerts

(CNN) -- The recent arrest in Pakistan of a computer expert with suspected ties to al Qaeda turned up evidence that the terror network has kept key U.S. financial buildings under surveillance, possibly for years, U.S. officials said Monday.

One U.S. intelligence official said the arrest yielded a "treasure trove" of information.

"Recent credible and specific intelligence reporting indicates terrorist operatives have done extensive research and reconnaissance activity," says an FBI bulletin sent Sunday to 18,000 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

A senior military official said a computer seized from the suspect in Pakistan contained hundreds of images, including photographs, drawings and layouts of potential U.S. targets.

Some of the photos were years old, while others had been taken as recently as the past few months, he said. Some images showed underground garages, leading to the conclusion that those areas had been under surveillance.

more...

[LiberalFighter]

7. Who is saying only months old?

How do we know they are telling us the truth?

Were most of the material from before 9/11?

[LiberalFighter]

8. This is years old... and they decided that it called for an orange alert??

TODAY??????

[drscm]

6. Ah, but don't tell the freepers.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1183824/posts

[Aunt Anti-bush]

9. They're nuts.

That's the first time I ever read anything from their site. Further on down one writes:

The Sheeple never go past the HEADLINES! They never dig deeper into the NYSLIMES articles.

Funny, that's why I know all about Margie Shoedinger and have the court documents to prove it. That's why I've got the entire 9-11 Commission's hearings AND the report. That's why I spent an entire week researching the Taguba Report.

I would tell him that, but he'd probably say, "Taguba what?"

:)

[Webster Green]

10. They're just trying to cover their asses!

If anything does go down, they will blame the Clenis.

[randr]

11. How many other dirty tricks do the rovians have in their

dirty little bag of political/terror diversions?
They are earning the title "FRIGHTWING PARTY".

[Seabiscuit]

19. Love it!

The "FRIGHTWING PARTY" and the "SUPERDUPER HATRIOTS"

vs. The Democratic Party and the New England Patriots.

[Katarina]

12. I posted this in GD

but I think it bears repeating here as well....

<snip>
A number of other buildings were mentioned in the seized computer files, but only in vague references, so officials decided not to issue alerts about them, an intelligence official said. They included the Bank of America building in San Francisco; the Nasdaq and American Stock Exchange buildings in New York, as well as two other sites in that city; and an undisclosed building in Washington and another in New Jersey.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35466-2004Aug2.html

What could these undisclosed buildings be?

[Voltaire99]

13. The "data's too old to matter" argument is a straw dog

The age of the info is irrelevant--given, obviously, the amount of time that appears to have gone into planning and preparation for 9/11. Dismissing this so-called "treasure trove" for that reason isn't much of a case.

No, the real crisis of confidence over this claim is its provenance: can the Bush administration be trusted? Is there a reason to believe anything it says? Has its record of lying and distortion left us any grounds to trust it with our lives?

I see the Washington Post and the Times, predictably, don't have much trouble swallowing what they're told. Did they learn nothing from their role in broadcasting the lies that took us to Iraq?

[BiggJawn]

16. No it's not a dog, straw or otherwise.

If they put Hawaii on orange alert because of "Really Incredible" data that someone was going to attack military installations on Oahu, and after everybody shits themselves it comes out that the info was so old that the "terra-ist group" in question was Yamamoto's Imperial Japanese Navy....


This isn't about keeping us "safe", it's all about "Karl! Kerry's KILLING Junior in the polls! What to do? What to DO?????"

[progressivebydesign]

14. Oh.. you mean intelligence that would have SAVED 3,000 lives??

THAT intelligence? You mean, if Bush had actually taken his job SERIOUSLY and made the Hart/Rudman Report part of his priorities, then we could have saved people on 9/11? That intelligence? this is a major fuck up for the Bush folks.

[rocktivity]

15. But but but the 8/1 New York Times says

the info is supposed no more than a few weeks old--extracted from an Al Qeada operative captured in Pakistan! Now they're going to print something completely different? Or do they mean that that the operative confirmed their 42-month old information is good?

:headbang:
rocknation

[shraby]

17. Actually, how much planning and

studying does it take to drive a truck up in front of a building and get out of it and detonate it? Sheesh.

[moondust]

18. Yes but

the Dem convention and Kerry bounce were just last week. Weapons of Mass Distraction must be used in a timely manner.

[Moderator]

20. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=724161