Dubya didn't say whether or not the Terrorist Surveillance Program played a role, but it does go to show that this administration is working hard to protect Americans, and is using every tool in its arsenal including key assistance from nations across the globe.
He said that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks who was captured in 2003, had already begun planning the West Coast operation in October, just after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. One of Mohammed's key planners was Hambali, the alleged operations chief of the al-Qaida related terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah. Instead of recruiting Arab hijackers, Hambali found Southeast Asian men who would be less likely to arouse suspicion and who were sent to meet with Osama bin Laden, Bush said. |
Khalid Sheik Mohammed was captured in March 2003 in a joint US-Pakistan effort. He was captured in his home and along with his arrest, US forces seized what possibly proved to be a treasure trove of information including computers, disks, cell phones, and documents. I wonder if any names gleaned from this evidence led to any wiretaps...
Under the plot, the hijackers were to use shoe bombs to blow open the cockpit door of a commercial jetliner, take control of the plane and crash it into the Library Tower in Los Angeles, since renamed the US Bank Tower, Bush said. In his remarks, Bush inadvertantly referred to the site as "Liberty Tower," and immediately afterward, the White House corrected him. |
Shoe bombs... I wonder where we've heard that before... Yet his dad still wants us to forgive his son. No thanks, I'll pass.
[...] "It took the combined efforts of several countries to break up this plot," the president said. "By working together, we took dangerous terrorists off the streets. By working together, we stopped a catastrophic attack on our homeland." |
Key countries like Pakistan and Sudan along with numerous Asian countries have done much to help us, information and tactical support for missions. Most of it of course goes completely unnoticed by the MSM.
Bush's speech in October [where he first mentioned the planned LA attack] cited two other attacks inside the United States that were foiled, including one to use hijacked planes to attack the East Coast in mid-2003.
The third was the case of Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang member who converted to Islam and allegedly plotted with top al-Qaida commanders to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a U.S. city. Padilla, whose plot never materialized, now is being held without bail in civilian custody on charges that he was part of a secret network that supported Muslim terrorists. He was arrested in May 2002 and had been held as an enemy combatant without criminal charge at a Navy brig in South Carolina until last month. |
Padilla was part of a dirty bomb plot and people are complaining he was mistreated and should be released. Unbelievable.
Dubya, keep giving us the real information based on our intelligence agencies' hard work as it becomes declassified or no longer relevant to ongoing investigations. This is the sort of info the public needs to here to combat the hysteria of the Sheehan left. |
